Well their existence is a bit of a joke. Friend moves were added to jab the media for Mortal Kombat being overly violent, and banalities were added because baby cries were found in the sound discs, and someone taught it'd be funny to include a baby finisher.
And don't get me started on animalities. Why out of all the finishing moves, this one had to be in Annihilation, I don't know. And this is the same series with a black robot shooting harpoons from his chest.

 

I dunno. They just went wild with ideas.

 

Pretty much my thoughts. It wasn't anything great as far as story or animation goes, but it was enjoyable and serviceable for the most part, with condensing the main plot points of MK into its runtime.

We (wife and I; she's a bigger MK fan than I am since I'm more of a Street Fighter guy) did have a laugh at Cage's antics plus how all the gore kinda lacked bones and internal organs, so it really did look like people were made of steaks or hamburger getting cut up.  

 

Saw this yesterday and it was mediocre.

 

I have a feeling that's going to be my reaction, too. I'm seeing a lot of wildly positive reviews, but they all read like they're from meatheads.

 

"Well i loved it"

 

To be fair, he was right a lot of the time.

 

So I have a question regarding the lore.

The Subzero that Scorpion kills in this movie, that’s Bi Han, who goes on to become Noob Saibot, yes?

 

From what I read on Wikipedia about the MK franchise, yes.

 

Yeah, the Sub-Zero from the first tournament that is killed by Scorpion is Bi-Han and he was later revealed to have been turned into Noob Saibot and in the service of Shinnok later. The Sub-Zero who shows up from MK II onward is Kuai Liang.

 

I watched this movie in full today. It’s a good movie. Good animation, good action, etc.

Not great, but good. Primarily because the art style and animation looked iffy in moments.

So I’m assuming this more or less adapts the events of the first game? If so what was tweaked?

I wonder if they plan to do more of these?

 

Several characters who weren't involved in the events of the first game appear, such as Quan Chi (but this is a consequence of the movie focusing on Scorpion's backstory). Liu Kang defeats Goro at the end and then battles Shang Tsung, no aid from Scorpion. Goro, Kano, and Reptile survive the events of the tournament in game canon and thus are recurring characters throughout the games.

 

This is kind of a tangent, but the reintroduction of Friendships into MK11 (as cool as they are) kind of has me worried we're going to return to all the silly, self-parodying excesses of MK3, which imo, led to the temporary downfall of the franchise. Kind of how the comic industry periodically forgets how damaging all the variant covers and gimmick comics can be to the health of their own business. Then they'll pull back for a while, things will stabilize, and then after some time has passed, someone will inevitably get the hare-brained idea to start the whole cycle over again.

 

MK has always had a sense of humor, and the developers are well aware of this. To me the true downfall of MK was the late 90's cause MK4 came out, and it seemed like the developers had no damn clue what they should do with the franchise. Which lead to John Tobias leaving, because he wanted to work on newer hardware and was frustrated of the development of Special Forces.
I think MK is doing better today, compared to the late 90's and late 2000's. Even if the 3D era was good and needs to make a comeback.

 

Yeah, I agree. But I think in MK3 they went way overboard with it. Instead of a serious game with some humor, it became a silly game with some violence. But I also agree with you that Tobias leaving was a huge setback for the franchise. 9-11 are freaking phenomenal, though. What a comeback. 9 perfectly captured everything that was great about the first 3 games while fully modernizing to what people expect from current era games. One thing I really admire about Boon and Midway/NetherRealm is that they didn't back away from progress and committed to going through the teething pains necessary to keeping current, even if they had to make some mediocre games to learn enough to get to the other side, while both Capcom and SNK kept chickening out, taking half steps and then backpedaling. SNK was always my favorite of the three, but they're still trying to catch up.

 

Yea, the Silliness of MK3 is what made me quit the franchise, that's for sure.

 

I still like MK3 for what it's worth being the last of the arcade era.

It still introduced interesting characters like Kabal, Cyrax and Sindel.

And some of the stages are my favourite ones like the Subway or the Soul Chamber.

 

Oh, I liked it too. But, by then, it had changed so much from what I liked about MK1 and 2, that I no longer was interested in the series. That is, after MK3.

 

The 3D era was still good, but I think MK didn't make a comeback until 2011, with MK9. I think it wasn't goofiness that killer the series, but instead over saturation and bad products. MK Trilogy is the best way to experience the classics.

 

Nah, the best way to experience the classics is to play the original cartridges. MK Trilogy is okay, but it sure doesn't beat MK2.