ComicsAlliance Reviews 'Mortal Kombat'

I think that's actually the best thing about doing these reviews. For those of you who aren't familiar with the original game, Mortal Kombat is basically just like Street Fighter, but made for people who have no taste.Specifically, people who prefer seeing spines being ripped out and digital people falling into pits over appealing graphics and smooth gameplay.The main appeal of Mortal Kombat, aside from the edgy decision to misspell half the title, This DIY Cabinet Door Knife Block Keeps Your Blades at the Ready.came from the fact that it had a ton of blood and gore, and brutally murderous "Fatality" finishing moves, all of which were too complex for me to pull off even once in the past 20 years. Because of that, I'm really surprised that when it came time for the movie, they went with a PG-13 cut. I mean, on one level that's not surprising at all, since they were targeting teens and a PG-13 movie tends to make about eighteen truckloads more money than an R, but when your project's defining feature is how gory and violent it is, it's a bad step right from the start.Apparently the original script was a hard-R, but the assumption was that kids who could walk into an arcade, know a few button presses and see a guy turn his opponent into ice and break him in half could not pay for a ticket to an R-rated movie.
I can see how it put the filmmakers and studio in kind of a tough spot.As much as I don't care for Mortal Kombat as a game, I still think a Mortal Kombat movie with just ridiculous Evil Dead 2 or Crank: High Voltage levels of blood and gore all the time would've been the perfect expression of the franchise. Instead, we have two hours of Christopher Lambert.Avid video game fan Christopher Lambert, who, you have to admit, does seem to be having fun. Along those lines, say what you will about director Paul W.S. Anderson -- and a lot of it is warranted -- this movie does try to adhere to the feel of the first two games (and I think we both have to admit Mortal Kombat II is infinitely more playable than the first) and throw in a lot of little Easter eggs for fans, even without the super-violence.