A Look at the 90’s Live Action “Mortal Kombat” Movies
- Matt Palmer
- 1 hour ago
- 5 min read
For the past couple weeks I have been revisiting the world of Mortal Kombat for my latest review slates. So, for this review, I checked out the 1995 fan favorite “Mortal Kombat” and its 1997 sequel that has been heavily panned “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” (and yes the 1997 sequel is that bad).
In the 1995 fan favorite “Mortal Kombat,” Lord Rayden handpicks three martial artists - federal agent Sonya Blade, Shaolin monk Liu Kang and action movie sensation Johnny Cage - and mentors them.
After intense training, Rayden transports the trio to Outworld, the site of an inter-dimensional fighting tournament. There, the three humans must defeat the demonic warriors of the evil Shang Tsung - or allow Tsung to take over the Earth.
The 1995 adaptation of “Mortal Kombat” is a highly entertaining, action-packed cult classic that became a decent box office success despite lukewarm reviews from traditional critics. While initial mainstream reviews labeled it as cheesy, fans of the video game franchise celebrated it for its loyalty to the source material.
The movie really captures the fun, campy spirit of the original video games while delivering great martial arts and an iconic, techno soundtrack. Despite a PG-13 rating that toned down the games explicit gore, the movie utilized legitimate martial artists doing their own stunts, The fast-paced, Hong Kong-style wire-work made battles like Johnny Cage vs. Scorpion and Liu Kang vs. Reptile truly unforgettable.
The visual effects of the 1995 movie is a highly mixed bag of then-groundbreaking puppetry and notoriously dated, early era computer graphics. The massive four-armed animatronic creature used for the character Goro is rather impressive and the physical presence gave the character a tangible weight that CGI struggles to capture. There’s also the rather cheesy-looking CGI that honestly sort of looks like what you see in a video game back in the way (like Playstation 1 or N64).
In the 1997 sequel “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” every generation, a portal opens up between the Outerworld and Earth. Emperor Shao Kahn, ruler of the mythical Outerworld, ounces the moment the portal reopens and slips through with his mighty warriors, intent on total domination and uniting the two worlds.
However, he has only seven days to complete his task. In the meantime, opposition grows and warriors Sonya Blade, Jax, Kitana and Liu Kang get ready for war.
Before checking this one out, I have seen online that “Annihilation” is a major let down and I completely agree. Not only is “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” one of the worst video game adaptations ever, it’s also one of the worst sequels ever. However, over time, it has developed a cult following as a “so bad it’s good” movie.
While some of the effects in the previous movie aren’t exactly the best, the production team did what they could to make them decent. For the sequel, it seems like the production team just didn’t really care about the visual effects and they looked really abysmal and actually looked like they were unfinished. Throughout most of the movie, the green screen backgrounds are incredibly noticeable.
Honestly, “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” is almost like an unintentional comedy in a way. While watching this movie, you can laugh at all the terrible green screen shots, terrible fight/action sequences and the really over the top acting.
The 1995 “Mortal Kombat” is regarded as a successful, campy cult classic that captures the game’s spirit, while the 1997 sequel “Annihilation” is widely panned for its poor CGI, acting and disjointed plot. While the original is considered to be one of the better video game to film adaptations, “Annihilation” is often dismissed as a “so bad it’s good” trainwreck.
You can stream the live action “Mortal Kombat” movies on HBO Max.
Bridgette Wilson-Sampras performed all her own stunts (refusing to use a double), including the fight scenes. She dislocated her shoulder during one scene, but they were able to fix it on set, without any recurrence.
The locations in Thailand were so remote they were only accessible by boat. Cast, crew and equipment had to be transported by long canoes. An outhouse was built in a secluded area near the set so that the crew didn't have to make constant trips to and from the mainland.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was the filmmakers' first and only choice for the role of Shang Tsung. He came to the audition in a costume, and read his lines while standing on a chair. Shang Tsung was depicted as relatively younger in the film in order to avoid the excessive makeup that would have been required to duplicate his aged appearance in the game.
Director Paul W.S. Anderson credits Christopher Lambert for smoothing over his first job on a big movie. Lambert, a veteran of several Hollywood blockbusters, never got overwhelmed by the large scale of the production, and his laid-back attitude positively influenced the other, less-experienced people on the set. Even Ed Boon, co-creator of the original video game, admitted that Lambert did a great job, despite not being Asian like the character's depiction in the game. Since Lambert was the most expensive actor on set, the production could only afford him for a few weeks of close-ups in an LA studio; a stand-in would be used for the wide shots filmed in Thailand. However, Lambert believed that the movie would be better if it was him all the time, so he came to Thailand for no extra charge (no doubt to the chagrin of his agent and managers). He even paid for the wrap party afterwards.
The character of Johnny Cage in the games was originally based on Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was asked to play Johnny in the movie but turned it down to do Street Fighter (1994).
The movie enjoyed a 3 week run at the top of the US box office.
The original screenplay for the film was more faithful to the game, in that it had graphic violence and strong language making it a R rated script. However, the deal that the producers had with New Line Cinema included that they deliver a PG-13 movie to keep the film accessible to the target audience (mostly teenagers). The later reboot, Mortal Kombat (2021), was given an R rating which allowed a more accurate adaptation of the source material.
A third Mortal Kombat film was going to be developed, called "Mortal Kombat: Devastation". Christopher Lambert was cast as Lord Rayden, Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage, Adoni Maropis as Quan Chi, Robin Shou as Liu Kang, Chris Casamassa as Scorpion, Keith Cooke as Sub-Zero, and Lynn 'Red' Williams as Jax. Talisa Soto and Sandra Hess were in talks to reprise their respective roles of Princess Kitana and Lt. Sonya Blade. The plans fell through, and the film rights went to Warner Bros., who released a reboot film on April 23, 2021.
In separate 2012 interviews, Mortal Kombat co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias revealed they hated the film so much, they considered it the absolute worst experience in all the years they'd spent working on the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Bridgette Wilson-Sampras was offered to reprise the role of Sonya Blade, but then turned it down for the role of Sarah Michelle Gellar's sister in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).
Paul W.S. Anderson was offered to return for this film, but he chose to work on Event Horizon (1997) instead. He later expressed his dislike for the film and regret that he chose not to be involved in it. It was one of the reasons that he remained involved in the making of the sequels to Resident Evil (2002), as a way of "stay[ing] with the franchise and shepherd it".
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