Mortal Kombat has a less-than-favourable track record, particularly when it comes to movie adaptations and having longstanding support for the video game series.
It’s hard to be a fan of the series in this era, with NetherRealm Studios cutting support for Mortal Kombat 1 not even two years after its launch, and the 2021 movie not being received well by fans.
However, the sequel to the film is set to release later this year, and it could be the redemption that fans have been looking for in a live-action adaptation of the series. Mortal Kombat II aims to make things right, but it has to avenge a glaring flaw present in the first movie.
There can be no Mortal Kombat without a tournament
Imagine a Mortal Kombat movie without the tournament. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, that’s exactly what the 2021 live-action movie did, and it didn’t sit right with the fans because, of course, it didn’t.
The first film did have its brutal moments with glorious fatalities, spot-on castings, and iconic characters faithfully resembling their video game counterparts, but it wasn’t enough to mask the deviation from the source material narrative-wise.
The entire movie felt like a spin-off rather than a mainline Mortal Kombat title, specifically due to the lack of a tournament and its runtime spent on setting up the tournament rather than having it in the film itself.
Passionate fans of the series were understandably upset with it, and the movie faced major backlash due to this absurd change. However, it’s time to rejoice as Mortal Kombat II writer Jeremy Slater confirmed in an interview with ComicBook that the tournament will take the centre stage in the sequel’s narrative.
I was adamant that we had to have this tournament in the movie. We can’t make people wait another movie and then be like, ‘Come back for the finale.’ It was finding a structure to make the tournament as satisfying as you want it to be because this had years of build-up. It’s figuring out who the individual matches are going to be, which characters do you pair off for maximum emotional impact, but also for the most dynamic fights. Then, also, what is the larger story you are telling between the tournament?
It seems like they have taken in the criticisms from the first movie to make a better sequel that is closer to the source material. Yet, there remains another issue with the first movie that amplified the backlash and left veteran fans of the game with a sour taste.
Mortal Kombat II needs to give the spotlight to fan-favorites from the game
Another mistake that the 2021 film suffered from was making a completely original character, unrelated to any previous Mortal Kombat property, the protagonist of the movie.
Cole Young was a far cry from being a fan-favorite. If anything, fans were incredibly vocal about this character and their disappointment with how the actual fan-favorite characters were sidelined in the movie.
Making him the protagonist instead of a well-known kombatant like Scorpion or Liu Kang was a bold move, but not a good one. Fortunately, Mortal Kombat II promises more focus on iconic characters like Johnny Cage, Kitana, and Shao Kahn, despite Cole Young’s inclusion in it.
Karl Urban’s casting as Johnny Cage also created controversy around the movie. Fans received mixed reactions, with some calling him too old to play the Hembo movie star.
Sure, there were better options, but only time will tell if he can embody Mortal Kombat’s own Hollywood superstar faithfully. He certainly has the charm, and if his role as Billy Butcher in The Boys is anything to go off of, he might nail the personality too.
Mortal Kombat II brings the tournament to the big screens on October 24.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
