How should the new movie be approached?
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posted07/18/2018 02:14 AM (UTC)by
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Goro Still Lives
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09/17/2008 03:10 AM (UTC)
For millennials reading this site they may find themselves confused to what us old-time fans (fans since 1992) keep talking about in terms of MK lore. The present project, "Book of Souls," is trying to establish that about all the games. And GzmeFaqs has a couple faqs on the lore and plot.

But what should only matter is how to tackle the lore for a reboot film.

As we know the later games introduced characters that referenced "past Mortal Kombats," since the first game with the legendary Goro defeating Kung Lao. The first game was actually the 10th tournament, so 9 (aka 9 potential movie prequels) happened before.

So... do we start with the 10th tournament like the 1992 game/1995 film? If so, bare in mind the original Mortal Kombat game had little story. That means there are A LOT of room for liberties. Yes there was a comic book. The novel by Jeff Rovin came later. All of which confused the hell out of everyone and helped turn MK into a clusterfuck of convoluted stories.

The filmmakers, if they choose the 1992 game, should keep things simple and go by the first game and comic book. Some story help can be found be found here: https://www.mksecrets.net/mk1/eng/mk-story.php

What do we know about the first game? The first MK tournament would have been about 1100 B.C. Thats because a new tournament is every 100 years. Goro has been champion since 1500. But that tidbit (every 100 years) could be from MKII which I'm choosing to ignore to simply things. There was never mention of Shao Kahn and I didn't recall Outworld existing in MK1 lore, any reference to emperor meant Shang Tsung.

We know The comic begins by filling in the backstory of Shang Tsung, the Great Kung Lao, and Goro, and tells us that Goro's victory in Mortal Kombat meant a new beginning for the tournament, bringing a dark new era. There is a cut to the present day, where Liu Kang requests—and receives—permission from Master Wu to fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Wu warns Liu Kang that Shang Tsung is treacherous and Goro, while overconfident, is to be feared. Two weeks later, at a harbour in Hong Kong, Liu Kang boards a boat that will take him to the island where the tournament will be fought. Johnny Cage is seen preparing to board, reassuring his agent and personal secretary that they have nothing to worry about, though they're clearly fearful for the Hollywood star's safety and disbelieving of the legitimacy of the tournament. A few miles away, Kano and some members of his Black Dragon gang are in a jeep, attempting to evade Sonya Blade, Agent Beran (whose name is not revealed here), and a man who is apparently Jax, as well as the rest of a U.S. Special Forces unit. Kano begins to flee on foot but Sonya follows. After creating a distraction, Kano leaps aboard the aforementioned boat, all in accordance with his plan to loot all the riches he can find from Shang Tsung's palace. In the mountains of rural Japan, Shang Tsung issues a challenge to Raiden, God of Thunder, inviting him to compete in the tournament. After Raiden accepts, Shang Tsung reminds Raiden that the tournament will be fought in his domain and under his rule. Back on the boat, Kano is trying to use intimidation tactics on Cage and a fight breaks out, but Liu Kang takes down Kano's associates before any further fighting can ensue. Watching from above, Sub-Zero surveys the scene, unaware of the lurking ghastly spectre of Scorpion, who ambushes him from behind. Scorpion vows to kill Sub-Zero just as Sub-Zero killed Scorpion exactly two years ago. However, he states he is no mere murderer and, instead of killing the Lin Kuei warrior on the boat, he will do so at the tournament. Sub-Zero says Scorpion is a fool to spare his life. At the island, after a day of practice and training, Shang Tsung and Goro welcome the participants in the tournament and introduce the latest entrant, Sonya Blade, who had been trying to track Kano down to the island, but was captured and brought in by guards. Shang Tsung says that not only does Sonya's life depend on her performance in the tournament, but so do the lives of her accompanying unit, who have also been captured. Goro then announces the start of the tournament and the story ends with the caption "To be continued...at an arcade near you!"

So obviously there is a lot of room for liberties. Just not a Cole Turner as a main character. Another Art Lean is fine.
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Goro Still Lives
07/13/2018 08:31 PM (UTC)
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Also, the first Mortal Kombat movie combined the stories of MK1 and MK2 which honestly I don't think should have been done. Rayden was actually a fighter in the games. In fact he was never a guide. Ever. In fact if you read his bio, we have never known him as a God because he took the form of a human to compete. So in 1992 we knew in his God form he was a god but we never meet this form (this is a reference to Hindu deities taking many forms, like Kali from whom is the basis of Goro). Kitana was also a fighter and never a guide in Outworld like in the movies. What the movies did get right is that Shang Tsung was both a host and a fighter. The movie got so much wrong no one really cared it seemed...

*Scorpion and Sub-Zero were ninja clan rivals. Scorpion is a reincarnated spector and was only killed 2 years before this MK.
*Reptile was found in the bottom of the Pit not in the MKII armory which the first film loosely imitated. I don't think he honestly had a story since he was just there to be a secret character who had both Scorpion and Sub-Zero's moves.
*Sonya wore green workout outfits (spandex, it was the thing then) in the game and black attire in the film (like SWAT attire).
*Liu was simply a guy who left the secret society White Locus to join the Shaolin Temple. Nothing about being a former monk or fisherman because we weren't even told what the White Locus was past being a "super secret society".
*Johnny Cage was a martial arts actor. That's it. Not looking to prove himself. I think that story arc came in MKII. His backstory and ending reminds me of Frank Dux who claimed he fought in the kumite and turned his story into a Hollywood film Bloodsport). I can't help but to notice a similar story arc, martial arts actor goes to Thailand to make a movie he found out was real in King of the Kickboxers.
*Kano was a thug, mercenary thief and exortionist with the Black Dragon crime gang. So a thief with a knife who bullies people. Thats it. He was not paid by Shang Tsung to teach Sonya a lesson. Shang Tsung done that himself.

If you want to see what the first MK movie should have been watch "Enter the Dragon." (Or even Bloodfist 2 or Bloodsport.) It's also one of the few respected martial arts films by fans and critics who immediately, since the first game and restated when the first movie was, knew MK was loosely based on this 1976 classic.

By the way its never stated why you had to fight Shang Tsung after you beat the champion Goro. This is why:

Every fighting movie back then usually involves the "tournament master" or "leader" to face their fate and be killed by the hero. In a real life fighting tournament the "tournament master" or "fight promoter" almost never fights and generally doesn't match themselves at the end of the bracket when they do.

Martial arts movies were often centered around drugs or trafficking despite MK avoided that and replaced it with a tournament legacy story arc.

By the way, the first movie pissed alot of us off because it ignored the whole Test Your Might round (breaking wood was the shit in real world martial arts then). It kindof instilled an Exhibition round with Liu Kang with the fighting monk/guard, although why the fuck a guard was fighting we'll never know. We also never got a Mirror Match (the Chan thing was Liu "facing himself") but hey we at least did get something like an Endurance match twice - Goro throwing opponents i the statuary garden and Liu facing the souls of warriors. The closest thing to breaking stuff was in Bloodsport. I think Karate Kid done this too. It also avoided the entire purpose of the Battle Plan established in MK1 where there were no friends and no difference between Earth warriors and Outworld warriors since Outworld didn't exist in MK1. In the original Battle Plan you fought your way through the stacks of fighters, which isn't reflective of a real lifd tournament since the other fighters would also fight each other. So there was no time for Liu, Johnny, or Sonya to make friends. And while on the subject, Scorpion technically couldn't be in MK game since a spector isnt mortal. His arcade bio never mentioned he was dead but the comic does. Also, most of the arenas from the game never translated well into the movie. Shang's palace in the movie was pretty much a cave whereas in the game its basically a palace in a court with temples. Goro's Lair, a creepy dungeon, never made it into the film. Technically the Pit never did either and the Warrior Shrine was loosely translated into the Statuary Garden.
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KenshiMaster16
07/18/2018 02:14 AM (UTC)
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First tournament, include more fighters on both sides (but have them be people who actually have a reason to be there i.e. Kenshi because of Shang, Kung Lao showing up because of Liu and jealousy, more Lin Kuei warriors pre-cyber ninjas like Cyrax, Sektor or Smoke, or more of Kahn's warriors to fight on behalf of Outworld, more Black Dragon characters alongside Kano).

End the flick with the Tarkatans, with Baraka leading, invading Earthrealm and kidnapping some of Earth's warriors and our first big look at Kahn. Basically the first movie, done better, and more lore accurate with some modern twists.
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