We're getting closer and closer to the theatrical/ HBO Max release of Mortal Kombat, and suffice to say, that first trailer has got people PUMPED. I was lucky enough to participate in a virtual event this week where I got to see the first twelve minutes, which traces Scorpion's (played by Hiroyuki Sanada) origin and rivalry with Joe Tamslin's Sub-Zero in a brutal, violent fight. It's gritty and relatively grounded as far as video game adaptations go, and a far cry from maybe what we were expecting from a Mortal Kombat movie. You can get a taste of the action above, and speaking with producer Todd Garner and director Simon McQuoid last night and it's obvious that this was all by design. They had to raise the bar for action, especially compared to traditional, American martial arts movies, such as the original 1995 film.
"Once you see really good martial arts movies, you see American movies and go, wow I used to think that was good! It's just two actors throwing each other around, it's not martial arts at all. It's just stunt guys banging on each other and shooting guns and throwing each other out windows," said Garner.
He continues, "this quote has been attributed to me but it wasn't me, it was Simon (the director) who said 'we're gonna make the greatest fight movie ever filmed.' Thank God – that's his bar? God bless him. I didn't have to choreograph it, shoot it or be in it so I could watch and go, this is no joke. Even if you think back to The Matrix and you watch Keanu do five or six moves of good marital arts choreography and that's impressive. Quentin did it with Uma, five or six moves of sword fighting, and you go 'that's pretty cool. We have fights that are 25, 26, 27 moves of choreography with no cuts."
The MPAA gave the film an R-rating, and McQuoid explained the studio had always intended that this not be a watered-down version of the property, explaining: "When I first pitched on the film, the guys at New Line knew they wanted to do Mortal Kombat justice and this was the way to go about it. So full credit to New Line. I wanted to go in and elevate the DNA. My whole process from the beginning is we've got to make this feel like a massive experience for Mortal Kombat. That doesn't mean we go in and fiddle with it and change it. But we respect it and we elevated it. We don't give ourselves the R-rating. That's not how it works, The MPAA gives us the rating. We just knew we wanted to be authentic and we wanted to do justice to what the material was and we didn't release it or hold back.
Sounds good right, but where's Johnny Cage? Garner explained:
"The reason we held back Johnny Cage, he's a very egotistical guy, he's a scoundrel, he's bigger than life – so is Kano…are we gonna have two guys competing to see who could out funny or out ego each other in this movie? Or do you hold Johnny Cage back because God willing if we're able to do another one, everybody is waiting for that…"
Fans of the 1995 movie shouldn't feel like McQuoid and Garner are dismissing it. McQuoid called it a good movie, while Garner explained the culture it grew out of. "That movie was so steeped in the time… of the nineties. It was also steeped in that time in the nineties at New Line. They were making horror movies that had this amazing tone…the tone was very acerbic and funny and violent, so the filmmakers that were running this movie, that's what they were comfortable doing. In the nineties that was a perfectly legitimate filmmaking device. Superhero movies and comic book movies and martial arts movies have evolved."
Of course, one of the most-missed elements of the original film is the iconic Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) theme by The Immortals. Surely it won't be in the film right? Well, not so fast according to McQuoid.
"The music is one of the fundamentals of what makes Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat. Ben Wallfisch, who's the composer, really did a forensic study on that song (Techno Syndrome). We knew it was a key ingredient. So he pulled that song apart and used it."
He explained:
"The song has been used in a few different ways and umm…there's something that comes up at the end that's a little gift to those who love the song. I don't want to give it away, I don't want to tell you what's under the Christmas tree but it's pretty delightful if I do say so myself."