Simon McQuoid
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
The 1992 Midway Games property, which originally was designed as a fighting game modeled after Jean-Claude Van Damme (hence the posturing of the Johnny Cage character), and originally adapted for the screen in 1995 by Paul W.S. Anderson (who would move on to the much more prolific Resident Evil franchise), and then immediately laid to rest after the considerable failure of its 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat 2: Annihilation (helmed by the first film’s DP, John R. Leonetti).
The cheesy “Mortal Kombat” (1995), from the future “Resident Evil” director Paul W.S. Anderson, proved as much, and now there is “Mortal Kombat” (2021), directed by Simon McQuoid, a snazzier, marginally more coherent movie that features a less catchy version of the techno theme song.
Including 1995′s video-game adaptation Mortal Kombat, whose sole contribution to culture is popularizing the game’s untz-untz-untz theme song in which a dude yells out, “Mortal Kombat!” (I’m listening to the song on loop as I write.
However, compared to the 1995 “Mortal Kombat” movie, what hasn’t changed is the train wreck of stiff acting, embarrassingly bad dialogue and a stale plot.
Simon McQuoid makes his directorial debut with “Mortal Kombat,” which has basically been in production for a quarter-century given there was supposed to be a third film from the ‘90s series that launched Paul W.S. Anderson, but fell into development hell after the failure of 1997’s abysmal “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.”
It’s hard to imagine a more succinct illustration of how Hollywood’s relationship to “nerd shit” (for lack of a better umbrella term to describe comic book and video game-based intellectual property) has evolved over the last 25 years than a comparison between the opening scene of 1995’s “Mortal Kombat” and that of Warner Bros.’ inevitable new re-imagining of the gory arcade brawler.
The 1992 Midway Games property, which originally was designed as a fighting game modeled after Jean-Claude Van Damme (hence the posturing of the Johnny Cage character), and originally adapted for the screen in 1995 by Paul W.S. Anderson (who would move on to the much more prolific Resident Evil franchise), and then immediately laid to rest after the considerable failure of its 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat 2: Annihilation (helmed by the first film’s DP, John R. Leonetti).
The cheesy “Mortal Kombat” (1995), from the future “Resident Evil” director Paul W.S. Anderson, proved as much, and now there is “Mortal Kombat” (2021), directed by Simon McQuoid, a snazzier, marginally more coherent movie that features a less catchy version of the techno theme song.
Sure, there’s a certain campy pleasure to watching Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue leading battle in Street Fighter ; the Resident Evil films (especially the first) have their gory charm; and, whitewashing casting controversy aside, the sight of Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia is enough of an aesthetic appeal to forgive that film of its sins…but for every one of those, there’s a Double Dragon or a Super Mario Bros. to constantly remind you that the transferred medium is a tough ask.
A few differences in dramatis personae aside, the bare-bones mythology is more or less identical to that of the 1995 film “Mortal Kombat,” a campy hoot best remembered as a calling card for the director Paul W.S. Anderson (who would move on to a more sustained game-adaptation franchise with the “Resident Evil” series).
Directed by Paul WS Anderson ( Event Horizon , Resident Evil ), the effort was a slick but vapid affair that featured none of the iconic battle-splatter the game was renowned for.
Anderson may have later earned infamy for his dubious adaptations of the Resident Evil games, but this remains one of the more faithful video game movies of its era, in a time where Hollywood generally wasn’t interested in attempting to translate the experience of gameplay to the big screen in any tangible way.
Sure, there’s a certain campy pleasure to watching Jean Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue leading battle in Street Fighter ; the Resident Evil films (especially the first) have their gory charm; and, whitewashing casting controversy aside, the sight of Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia is enough of an aesthetic appeal to forgive that film of its sins…but for every one of those, there’s a Double Dragon or a Super Mario Bros. to constantly remind you that the transferred medium is a tough ask.
Popularized in the 90’s by bombastic adaptations like the original Mortal Kombat series, Super Mario Bros , Street Fighter , that all became known as notable misfires, it was clear that crafting a film that was faithful to the original product yet still worked on its own was a seemingly impossible task.
Compare that to Street Fighter , which came out around the same time and had a much higher level of talent (RIP Raul Julia), yet failed on its own terms because it wanted to tell a story for some reason.
When the original Mortal Kombat arcade game was released in 1992, it was meant as direct competition to and to raise the stakes against the then-popular Street Fighter series.
But that could also be that the lightning aspects just harkened back to Highlander for me.
Say what you will about the ’95 Mortal Kombat , but writer Kevin Droney ( Highlander TV series) understood that getting to know the karacters set up stakes so that the fights, ridiculous as they are, kontained weight.
But the garish lighting and focus on swordplay and hokum put it more in league with 90s cheapies like the Highlander TV series or, perhaps, the original Mortal Kombat films (I can’t say for sure as I’ve never seen them).
Digan lo que quieran sobre el Mortal Kombat del 95, pero el guionista Kevin Droney (la serie de televisión Highlander) entendía que conocer a los personajes ponía en juego lo necesario para que las peleas, por ridículas que fueran, tuvieran peso, en esta versión, las peleas son la pieza central, pero en su mayoría carecen de sentido, sobre todo por la forma en que la película establece los acontecimientos de la historia como el período previo al décimo torneo entre reinos.
“Double Dragon” was a simple story of two brothers taking on street gangs to rescue a lady, but the 1994 film added in mystical amulets, post-apocalyptic elements and more on top of that basic premise.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
Directed by Bryan Spicer
influenced Mortal Kombat (2021)
Visuals
Meanwhile, somewhere in the quarry-esque environs of Outworld, the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) is traipsing around with his armored minions, contributing to an overall “R-rated Power Rangers ” vibe.
• Minus a couple "Power Rangers" bloopers, the special effects — from Sub-Zero's homicidal-Elsa-from-"Frozen" theatrics to Raiden's Halle Berry-style lightning tantrums — practically make cash register noises.
Lin brings the same charm, power, and thoughtfulness that made him such a hit in Power Rangers .
Huang is a member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team, and Lin played the Black Ranger in the “Power Rangers” film.
As a workaround, Sonya, Jax and Cole eventually meet up with Liu Kang (Ludi Lin, Power Rangers ) and Kung Lao (Max Huang) — the warrior allies of Raiden (Asano Tadanobu, the Thor franchise ).
Popularized in the 90’s by bombastic adaptations like the original Mortal Kombat series, Super Mario Bros , Street Fighter , that all became known as notable misfires, it was clear that crafting a film that was faithful to the original product yet still worked on its own was a seemingly impossible task.
Initial chatter had led me to believe this could be the “one,” but “Mortal Kombat” is no different than several “Resident Evil” movies and “Super Mario Brothers.”
It isn’t needlessly overcomplicated like “Super Mario Bros.” or “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” but it still adds superfluous layers to make itself seem grander.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Directed by John R. Leonetti
influenced Mortal Kombat (2021)
Music Visuals Plot
In the 1997 franchise-killing flop “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” the thunder god Lord Raiden delivers an ominous warning: “What closes can also open again.”
1997 saw the grim dawn of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation , a bizarrely cheap-looking, strangely inert mess that missed the mark so hard the series went tits up for decades (although again, great soundtrack).
It can be said this is a better movie than another entry in the franchise, the infamously bad “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” from 1997, where the costumes look like leftovers from a high school play.
While not as solid as the surprisingly excellent 2020 animated film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge , this live-action Mortal Kombat is a giant step above 1997’s abysmal Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and the many lousy video game movies that followed.
The disastrous 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation , picks up after the tournament in Paul W.S. Anderson’s competent original, while the largely forgotten 1998 TV show Konquest , and the first season of the short-lived 2010s web series Legacy , are about events leading up to the tournament.
As a result, the movie tends to feel unnecessarily glum and weighty with McQuoid’s further attempt in translating Greg Russo and Dave Callaham’s equally heavy-handed screenplay into a modern superhero film-like vibe populated by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.
Before Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight became the first film of its kind to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, comic book movies were considered slightly smarter action films at best, and gaudy power fantasies at worst.
Despite being focused on one-on-one fights, it’s a universe surprisingly deep in lore: War for the universe, the tournament of champions, good guys led by Lord Raiden (the great Tadanobu Asano, looking disappointed in himself), bad guys gathered by Shang Tsung (The Dark Knight’s Chin Han in an embarrassingly bad wig).
It’s going to take a massive alliance to withstand the challenge from Shang Tsung (Chin Han, The Dark Knight ) and his formidable array of fighters including the cold-hearted assassin Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim, The Raid: Redemption ).
It’s more akin to something like the non-game-based, and yet game- like , Freddy vs. Jason, which of course had a Hong Kong director, Ronny Yu.
We know he’s the comic relief from his references to Magic Mike, Gandalf and Harry Potter.
Cole (along with those unfamiliar with the video game) is introduced to former Special Officer Jackson “Jax” Briggs (Mehcad Brooks); Jax’s military partner Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), who runs her operation out of a ramshackle house in Gary, Indiana, and the wisecracking and cynical Kano (Josh Lawson), who makes pop-culture references (calling a shirtless fighter “Magic Mike”) and isn’t nearly as entertaining as he thinks he is.
But the increase in severity doesn’t fix issues with the dialogue, which is frequently generic or just plain silly (even the nonstop humor provided by Kano [Josh Lawson], funny as it may be, doesn’t always line up with the tone and styling of the surrounding elements – such as when he calls a shirtless Liu Kang [Ludi Lin] “Magic Mike”), or the picture’s ability to stand alone as an independent, sensible fantasy yarn.
Mortal Kombat should be an inspired version of Bloodsport meets Enter the Dragon .
Director Simon McQuoid makes a surprisingly adept directorial debut with a big budget remounting, which basically serves as a remake of the 1995 film (itself aping the plot of Enter the Dragon ), although with various notable shifts in character focus in the script from Greg Russo and David Callaham.
The good guys triumph over the bad guys who, regardless of how authentic they are to their side-scroller counterparts, have all the visual panache of rejected villain concepts from Cannon Films’ Masters of the Universe movie.
Already prominently released online, the first seven minutes timestamp a bitter feud between the family-supporting Hanzo Hasashi (The Last Samurai’s Hiroyuki Sanada) and the brutal insurgent Bi-Han (Joe Taslim of Fast & Furious 6) that will span centuries.
The lighting is idyllic, the set immaculate, and the actor playing feared swordsman turned family man Hanzo Hasashi is Hiroyuki Sanada, who’s brought a measure of steely grace to even the worst Japan-centric Hollywood movies since “The Last Samurai.”
Opening the story with Sanada, who is a critically acclaimed actor recognized for his amazing roles in The Last Samurai and Westworld , is just genius.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
influenced by Mortal Kombat (2021)
Visuals
…an end scene between Spidey and some ninjas made me think of “The Raid: Redemption,” “The Matrix,” and “Mortal Kombat” in tandem.
The premise, for what it's worth, involves the journey of self-discovery undertaken by failed MMA fighter Cole (Lewis Tan) after he learns that his dragon birthmark is more than a mere birthmark--that it is, in fact, his destiny, The Last Starfighter -like, to defend the earth from alien invaders.
The new movie, which was helmed by Simon McQuoid and counts James Wan (creator of the Saw and Conjuring franchises) among its producers, is a bit more moral, but no less violent.
The plot, while effective, is rather reedy and there’s nothing very deep on offer here but If a campy, testosterone-fueled “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” meets “Saw” sounds like your bag, you’ll have the time of your life here.
La película es producida por James Wan -el creador de la saga de Saw o El juego del miedo , y de El conjuro -, por lo que el suspenso y la sangre están garantizados.
In the present, Outworld’s ruthless leader Shang Tsung (Chin Han, “Skyscraper”) reveals that with one more victory in Mortal Kombat, he and his forces can rule Earth.
As video game adaptations go, this doesn’t measure up to the likes of Detective Pikachu and Silent Hill in terms of story.
Y aunque las películas basadas en videojuegos todavía cuentan con una mala fama, al menos hemos tenido una que otra producción decente, desde el “Prince of Persia” con Jake Gyllenhaal, hasta “Silent Hill”, y por supuesto, “Detective Pikachu” y “Sonic the Hedgehog”.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Directed by John Carpenter
influenced Mortal Kombat (2021)
Visuals
The evil, soul-sucking sorcerer, Shang Tsung (Chin Han, dressed for the gritty reboot of Big Trouble in Little China ), is plotting to assassinate Earth’s chosen warriors before the next Mortal Kombat tournament.