Mortal Kombat: The Movie / YMMV

See also the franchise-wide pages for:

Adaptation Displacement:
- The theme song is one thing a lot of people know about the entire series, but it wouldn't be used in any game until Mortal Kombat 11, released more than two decades later, apparently due to licensing issues.
- The Sega CD version of the first game, released two years before the movie, had a version of the theme song in its opening. Both versions were available in a CD single sometime before the release of the movie. That's another layer of displacement.
- Even the famous title scream gets this. It actually first popped up in the Mortal Monday commercials for the console ports of MK1.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- When Kano describes the Sub-Zero vs. random mook not-fight, Goro utters a single word: "Disgusting." What is disgusting though? What Kano's describing? Shang Tsung sacrificing a servant for the sake of intimidation?^note Or maybe he means the way Kano eats.
- Was Shang Tsung really that determined to not concede to Liu Kang in the final round, or was he trying to avoid punishment for failure from Shao Kahn?
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The way the movie cuts to the fight between Johnny and Scorpion makes the whole scene feel like a very long cutaway gag that has no bearing on the plot.
- It's very obvious the fight against Reptile was added to the movie in the last minute. Without explanation, the CG critter Reptile fuses with a statue he was kicked inside to take an appearance similar as in the games, and has a long fight sequence with Liu Kang. It's never mentioned again. Supposedly, it's because test audiences wanted more fights, so they went back to do some reshooting. It's also why Johnny disappears during the course of the fight: Linden Ashby wasn't actually there for the additional filming. While the scene itself might seem out of place, the fight itself is praised by many fans as being the best in the film. There was also at least some foreshadowing for Reptile having a fight scene later on because early in the film, Shang Tsung is there to give Reptile orders to watch Kitana and keep her away from the main characters (Reptile being a last-minute addition might explain why he sucks at that job). Despite this, Liu Kang vs. Reptile is considered one of the best fight scenes in the movie and some even like it more than Liu Kang's battle against Shang Tsung in the climax.
Broken Base: The PG-13 rating. Many consider this the movie's biggest detriment since the source material's appeal was its extreme violence, but others defend this decision since most of the fans of the franchise at the time were kids and teenagers. All in all, though, the movie is still very well-liked among fans despite this, though the announcement of a new Mortal Kombat movie with a hard R rating got many excited.
Can't Un-Hear It:
- Trevor Goddard's portrayal of Kano was so well-received by the fans and creators alike, the character was later given a similar appearance and accent as Goddard's, and Kano's nationality was retconned from being Japanese-American to Australian to honor Goddard's memory.
- This film has the most popular depiction of Shang Tsung to date, likely helped by the fact that Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa adores the role for giving him the chance to be unrepentantly evil. He got to reprise his role in later adaptations, once in the Legacy web series and later in the games themselves come MK11, which modeled Shang Tsung's appearance on Tagawa in the film.
- This was the case with Linden Ashby's portrayal of Johnny Cage for many years. Ashby would later return to voice the character in MK11 via a film-based skin for Johnny.
Common Knowledge: This film is often cited as the origin of Liu Kang and Kitana's romance, with fans claiming the games integrated it due to the movie's popularity. In truth, Kitana and Liu Kang being in love goes all the way back to the development of the first Mortal Kombat game where Kitana was going to be Shang Tsung/Shang Lao's daughter who turned on him after falling in love with the main hero Kang/Liu Kang. Even ignoring that, Liu Kang's ending in Mortal Kombat 3, which was released before this film, has Kitana appearing to personally thank Liu Kang for saving both of their realms, hinting at their mutual attraction.
Complete Monster: Shang Tsung is an Evil Sorcerer who drains the souls of his victims and seeks to destroy Earthrealm for Shao Kahn, Emperor of Outworld. Starting the film by killing hero Liu Kang's younger brother and draining his soul, Shang Tsung manipulates the heroes into joining Mortal Kombat so he can see a victory for his side and finally see humanity destroyed. During his tenure as tournament grandmaster, Shang Tsung frequently drains the souls of defeated fighters, even still-living men from his own side, that he absorbs into himself, the souls suffering perpetual torment. When he realizes he may lose the tournament, Shang Tsung proves himself a dishonorable coward by doing everything he can to avoid fighting Liu Kang and trying to challenge weaker fighters in his place before relying on using Liu Kang's brother's form to try to break him mentally.
Critical Dissonance: Although it got mixed reviews from critics, the movie received praise from fans and casual moviegoers alike, and it is seen today as the best aversion of Video Game Movies Suck.^note The film was also a commercial hit, enjoying a three week run as the number one grossing movie at the box office and the soundtrack charted in the Top 10 of the Billboard album charts, going platinum in 10 days. Because of its success, elements of its story eventually became woven into the canon of the games. It helps too that the sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was not well received, which helped keep the reputation of this film higher in comparison.
Evil Is Cool: Shang Tsung is pure evil but Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa plays him with such style and gives him such strong charisma that he's compelling all the same, to the point that fans were delighted to see him reprise the part years later.
Fight Scene Failure: Sonya gets a reputation as a Faux Action Girl due to not getting the big action pieces as well as being easily restrained by Shang Tsung. Her one solo fight was against Kano, largely done in close-ups and was more of a CQC brawl than the acrobatic fights that Liu and Johnny got, and had a similar treatment during the group fight. This is largely explained in that Bridgette Wilson was a last minute replacement as Sonya for Cameron Diaz, who injured herself during training. They had to work around her not having the time for training or learning the fight choreography.
Franchise Original Sin:
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and other disliked adaptations have been criticized for including a bunch of familiar faces from the games and doing nothing with them other than killing them off in fight scenes to pad out time. The roots of this issue can be seen in this movie where Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile and Kano are little more than Shang Tsung's minions who get killed off by the heroes, with only Kano displaying any real personality. However, at least some of the fights had some narrative weight such as Liu Kang's defeat of Sub-Zero being payoff for Kitana's cryptic advice, Sonya and Kano already being established as enemies and Scorpion being the first test of Johnny's skill as a fighter before he goes up against Goro. Other adaptations on the other hand just have the villains be generic minions thrown at the heroes with no plot significance or character development. A good example is Sonya killing Mileena in Annihilation, despite the latter having an established enmity with Kitana in the games, and Kitana and Mileena not even sharing screen time in that movie.
- This film is the first adaptation to depict Scorpion as a as a full-on villain as opposed to the morally complicated Wild Card in the games with potential for heroism. However, this movie does at least give the excuse of Scorpion being a mind controlled slave who is not serving Shang Tsung of his own free will while many other adaptations and even some of the games downplay or ignore Scorpion's more sympathetic traits.
- The same can be said of his rival Bi-Han, who instead of serving Shang Tsung, was actually an anti-hero hired to kill him in the first game and fought for Earthrealm's side in the tournament. Future adaptions and installments would instead follow this movie's lead and make him evil from the outset, despite keeping his backstory from Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and his corruption into Noob Saibot, the latter originally being a tragic fate that his younger brother spent his final moments before the battle of Armageddon in the original timeline trying to undo.
Genius Bonus: Two in the final battle:
- Before the fight, Liu Kang does the traditional Kung Fu salute — palm over fist (well, it's palm against fist, but the palm overshadows), which represents Peace over Power. Shang Tsung's odd bow, with fist on top of palm, is meant to represent Power over Peace, reflecting the opposing philosophies of the two characters.
- Due to some dramatic pauses in the action, the fight can be seen as having three rounds. In this interpretation, round 1 ends when Liu defeats the last revived warrior, round 2 ends after Shang gives Liu a brief beatdown and, obviously, round 3 ends when Liu pushes Shang out of the platform with a fireball. Since Liu is never hit in the supposed third round, this actually fixes a hole in the script by giving sense to his claim of Flawless Victory when Shang dies.^note
Ham and Cheese: Christopher Lambert and Linden Ashby seemed to know exactly what kind of film they signed on for and spent the entire time tossing the comedy ball back and forth. It helped that both Paul W.S. Anderson and producer Lawrence Kasanoff pushed them to ad-lib whenever they had a good dialogue idea for their characters.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- This film features two scenes which seem darkly ironic due to Liu Kang's fate in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat 9, two games which in which he is killed and has his soul enslaved by an evil sorcerer:
  - The opening scene of the movie is a nightmare Liu Kang has of Shang Tsung killing his brother Chan and telling him that he will be next.
  - In the climactic battle, there is this exchange:
Shang Tsung: I can see into your soul. You. Will Die.
Liu Kang: You can look into my soul, but you don't own it.
- In lieu of the movie's character portrayals becoming the basis of a skin pack in Mortal Kombat 11, many lamented that Trevor Goddard passed away long before its announcement, as his performance as Kano was so well received it re-shaped Kano's character in-game. Had Goddard lived long enough to see the game evolving to that point, a Kano skin based of his performance would've existed.
Heartwarming in Hindsight:
- This is the movie that introduced the Ship Tease between Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. Nineteen real life years later, this tease not only became canon in the main games, but it also gave birth to Cassie Cage.
- Liu Kang and Johnny Cage becoming Fire-Forged Friends over the course of the movie, since Robin Shou and Linden Ashby have remained good friends ever since.
Memetic Mutation:
- Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo! Doo-doo-doo-do-do-doo! Doo-doo-do-do-doo-doo! MOR-TAL KOMBAAAAT!
- Johnny's fight with Goro comes to mind, especially the last scenes:
"Those were $500 sunglasses, asshole!"
"This is where you fall down."
- Virtually anything that came out of Kano's mouth was meme worthy:
"Yeah well, I'm kinda a big underworld boss myself!" (Goro gives him a Death Glare) "I mean, back there..."
"'Ello Baby, did you miss me?"
"Give me a break!"
- Shang Tsung's "Your Soul Is Mine!!" is by far the most quoted line of the film.
Narm:
- The very first line, Shang Tsung saying "Your brother's soul is mine!" while pointing at the camera, is so over-the-top it can elicit laughter. Thankfully, the other instances of Your Soul Is Mine! work better.
- Sonya's reaction to Art Lean's death. She lets out a Big "NO!" as if one of her best friends is getting killed. However, she had one scene with Art where she didn't even talk to him. To see her screaming when her reaction to other deaths has been "meh", including one she caused, can be funny.
- If some fights are awesome, then the Liu Kang vs. Reptile fight scene is hilarious, especially when Liu Kang does the Bicycle Kick to finish Reptile, rotating him for 360 degrees in slow motion.
Narm Charm: Shang Tsung saying "Fatality!" after he takes the soul of the first opponent Liu Kang defeats. Is it an obviously shoehorned game reference? Sure. Actually pretty awesome? Also true.
One-Scene Wonder: Shao Kahn's appearance at the very end. It was clearly meant to set up the sequel, but considering how that turned out, guess which appearance is remembered more fondly by fans.
Signature Scene:
- Johnny's fight with Goro, particularly the Groin Attack and the "$500 sunglasses" one-liner. Also counts due to Frank Welker's amazing vocal effects.
- Liu's fight with Reptile.
- The climactic battle between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung.
Song Association: "Techno Syndrome (7'' Mix)" by The Immortals is widely considered to be the theme song of the entire franchise.
- “Control” by Traci Lords is better known as Reptile’s theme song.
Special Effect Failure:
- Instead of regular ninja-esque tabi, Scorpion can be seen wearing what look like hiking boots during his fight with Johnny Cage.
- In a bit of freeze frame failure, if you pause the movie while Reptile's doubled over from Liu Kang kicking him over a table, you can see "Otomix" written on the soles of his feet.^note
- Reptile's lizard form is a very obvious CG creature. Especially painful when compared with Goro. This was mostly due to Reptile being added at the last minute because test audiences felt like there weren't enough fight scenes. Ultimately, that paid off since Liu Kang's fight with Reptile was considered one of the best parts of the movie.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Scorpion and Sub-Zero, two of the game’s most iconic characters are reduced to mere mooks under the control of Shang Tsung. What’s worse is that their infamous rivalry is brought up by Shang Tsung, but is never acknowledged or brought up afterwards. They don’t even make it to the end of the movie and end up getting killed in rather ridiculous ways, with Scorpion blowing up and Sub-Zero getting impaled and frozen by an icicle he accidentally created.
- Art, one of the noncanon characters created for the film, was apparently rather beloved by the main trio given their despair at his death at the hands of Goro. We never really get to see Art in action before that point, but his very existence alludes to a massive number of fights that we the audience didn't even get to see with the other characters who aren't Liu Kang, Johnny or Sonya.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: While much of the cast knows what film they're in and hams it up or nods to the camera accordingly, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa plays Shang Tsung completely straight, practically oozing charisma and striking the perfect chord between sinister charm and sadistic intimidation and showing exactly why Shang Tsung is the most iconic villain of the entire series, becoming the default voice for the character for many. He even reprised the part fifteen years later for ''Mortal Kombat Legacy" much to fan delight.
Video Game Movies Suck: Generally seen as an aversion. It wasn't exactly a critical darling, but most fans of the series liked it enough to welcome it as a worthy adaptation for capturing the violent spirit in spite of the lack of gore, one of the games' source of appeal. It helps that it was based on a game that was based on one of the greatest martial arts movies ever, so by leaning into that they had a good framework to play with and the cast are all generally agreed to vary from good to near perfect as with Shang Tsung and the fight scenes are generally excellent, aided by most of the cast being skilled martial artists. While not seen as a masterpiece, it's praised for being a fun and well-made film that knows exactly what it wants to be and what fans want to see and sets out to provide it as best it can. The follow-up Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, unfortunately, hits this hard enough to leave a smoking crater.
Visual Effects of Awesome: While not as great as other effects spectacles, it does have some decent effects, especially compared to its sequel. Goro, especially for a practical effect, stands out as a very detailed and well-done animatronic; you can see the behind the scenes creation of the 120 lb. suit here.
- While the Reptile himself looks pretty ropey in the 2020s, the scene where the statue he possesses transforms into a human ninja has aged quite well.
Woolseyism: Since there isn't a word like "subterranean" in the Polish language to denote "underground," the translators went with literally saying the kingdom of Shokan was underground and had Kano ask during his dinner with Goro whether it meant it was something clandestine and illegal. Kano's obvious discomfort at being in Goro's presence additionally played into the whole thing nicely by making it seem like Kano was thinking about another underground place possibly waiting for him.

YMMV / Mortal Kombat: The Movie

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