I am not concerned,I am pretty sure he is gonna make a good movie,because as much people hate what he has done in MK Legacy webisodes,he had maximum 2 million dollar budget and a week of shooting. Not much,right?
The quality was very good,the webisodes were success(I am talking generally,most people liked it) and I think,it was kind of test from WB to Kevin,to see if he can really direct action genre movie.

Now he has passed it,I have no doubts he is gonna deliver and put his heart and soul into the project. Because,MOST IMPORTANTLY,he is MK FAN HIMSELF! And I don't think he will ruin it so bad,that it is gonna kill MK's movie future,because,again,he LOVES MK. I have hope in Kevin, and with 100 million $ budget, it is gonna be a bomb,I am positive. As long as he keeps mysticism balanced with his "reality" ideas. I agree with him that too much mysticism is cheesy nowadays,but I don't want his movie to be like MK Rebirth,so just balance it (which he is gonna do judging by his interviews). Plus,Michael Jai White said that with proper budget and time,they are gonna do bomb with Kevin's visions. I agree with MJW.

BUT! Don't cast Jeri Ryan as Sonya again! She is too fucking old,even looks older than Jax,which is not correct! Katheryn Winnick is perfect choice and I tweeted about it to Kevin several times!

I think I trust this guy with a MK movie. I saw rebirth and it was awesome. It had the perfect tone. I've seen the Legacy series; Not as good mostly because the episodes were too short to tell us about each character. Besides, I don't think it was dark enough like the original pitch.

If he can find a happy medium between Rebirth and Legacy the movie will be good. Just because he thought TMNT was ahead of its time doesn't mean anything.

The thing is, you could get a seasoned director to do MK, but if he doesn't care about the franchise, would he really do justice to it?
MK Legacy has proven, if nothing else, is that this guy knows how to do good fight scenes, and good production quality. And he's obviously a fan of the franchise, so clearly he's going to put that much more care into it.

Ktanch is a horrible director, the scene when Cyrax was getting cybernized was cheesy as hell, who the hell directs like that now?

@Noobsmoke - In the movie industry when you say a movie will be a bomb, it's not a good thing, it means a total failure (box office bomb) and it sounded like you thought highly of the series.

I'm wishy-washy on this. I mean, Paul Anderson wasn't an MK fan but he did make the first successful video game to movie adaptation, and then made the second one (Resident Evil) that beat out Mortal Kombat.Kevin claims to be an MK fan but as Megafire pointed out, has no real insight on film-making. TMNT was very 90s - people in costumes as turtles fighting evil doers is very 90s (Power Rangers anyone?). In fact, I would say with films like Howard the Duck and Garbage Pail Kids it was very 80s. Plus, in one of his images on Twitter (More than a decade apart! Crazy! #mortalkombatforever http://pic.twitter.com/5E9lo5KU) , he put the Legacy BR along with the movie BR just because they're more than a decade apart (when the remake to Scarface was made in 1983, that was more than 50 years apart from its 1932 original), which shows little insight into the film industry.

Based on Legacy, I am not convinced he is aware of anything Mortal Kombat outside what is already known, sort of having a text-book understanding like he just read their bios from MK9 and made videos based on that (or actually watched Story Mode and said, "I'll do that live-action"). He has shown he can choreograph good fighting based on dance choreography, but guess what the 90s had, its A-rated action superstar Jean Claude Van-Damme started in balle! So dance-based choreography, while effective, is nothing knew. Synchronizing to music would be awesome but in Legacy I noticed Kevin lacked a complete understanding of the MK story and I feel he lacks storytelling and the skills to make Mortal Kombat realized as the movie it should be. Perhaps this was a political move on Warner Bros. part to have him make a crappy movie so us fans can beg them to make another, like we are doing now.

Legacy had very high quality and production value, but in the realm of Mortal Kombat, eye-candy gets you know where but the victim of a fatality!

Flawless victory!

Well, what else is there to know about Mortal Kombat other than what's "already known"? Doesn't that statement kind of support itself?

I think people fail to see Legacy for what it really is. It's essentially a promo for the new game. Many games did live action short film series to promote a game. Resident Evil 5 did it, Alan Wake did it, and I'm pretty sure there are others that I can't think of right now.
And it's obvious from his interpretation of the Kitana and Mileena story that he didn't just get all his info from MK9 (where Mileena didn't have a long history with Kitana).

I think part of the reason people are so hard on the guy is because he IS a fan. When someone's not a fan, people can chalk any storyline mistakes, etc. to the fact that it's just a producer/writer/director trying to get money, and doesn't know better.
But if the person is a fan, like Kevin, everything he does is technically high budget, officially published fan fiction. Which means it's gonna be under a much closer magnifying glass by MK fans.

It's funny to compare Paul Anderson to Kevin, because remember, Paul Anderson only directed one other movie before he made Mortal Kombat, so Kevin already has a bigger history in film making. I just don't think it's fair to judge his story telling ability from a bunch of 10 minute shorts.

As for fighting choreography based on dance, well, you could say that comes from the 90's, but frankly, that's what we need to go back to. Kevin did right. In the 2000's, there's been nothing but Matrix style Wire-Fu and quick cut, shaky cam action sequences. And neither could compare to the way it was done in the 90's.

Kevin Tancharoen is a fan of Mortal Kombat? So what? I think a lot of MK fans are reading too far into that. I mean sure its great to have someone at the helm who cares about the characters, but that doesn't translate into technical skill. AND it doesn't mean he isn't going to experiment with the characters, Legacy and Rebirth made that abundantly clear.

As far as production quality, Legacy ranged from average to mediocre. He has shown he's strength is not in writing, luckily that one guy who wrote "The Kitchen Sink" will be handling the script.

The Rebirth short was much more well shot. But it makes sense; Rebirth was a one off, and Kev's ass was on the line, while Legacy was a series that had to be produced quickly and cheaply, which is probably why it feels so chopped together.

He has demonstrated, however, that he's good at choreographing fight scenes. But does that mean he should be making all the creative decisions? I would be all for a movie where he was the stunt choreographer and someone else was directing and writing. Him being in charge of it all is just iffy to me.

Its like this past summer when Guillermo del Toro let Troy Nixey (a comic book artist) direct "Don't be Afraid of the Dark". Him having a background as a artist meant he had an eye for startling and disturbing visuals, but the rest of the film was largely a failure in all other departments.

Hopefully, Tancharoen has a good script, and an even better cinematographer to work with. Other wise I'm afraid we'll end up with a mediocre film with a contrived story line and shitty visuals but awesome fight scenes.

P. W. Anderson, Ridley Scott, James Cameron, Shamalayan, Zack Snider, etc.

The problem is, some people forget that each episode had different genres assigned to them, such as the Johnny Cage biopic, or the Scorpion which is chambara movie with flash cuts (which I hope fall out fast with the moviegoers). Some genres call for different direction and cutting.


Also, TMNT WAS ahead of it's time. Animatornics and the overall subject matter was successfully translated onto the big screen. Mind you it is the adaptation of the CARTOON TMNT (the original non Archie comics version was hardcore violence), which was a 4th. wall breaking action comedy.


And MK isn't exactly the most serious franchises ever, it is borderline comedy -come to think about it on the meta level it is. I mean nutshots with splits, cheeezy monsters, ninjas of the western variant that have magical powers....

Sure this is on par with the seriousness of Citizen Kane.

MK is a B-movie in terms of content, good B movie, perhaps, but still B movie.

I just think the bottom line is that people shouldn't pass judgement on Kevin and this movie until it's actually made. You can get your hopes up, or be cynical about it, but neither will change anything. We'll see how it turns out.

BioHazard and Chrome, I would agree, but seriously Kevin has already let so many die-hard MK fans down that many of them will never give him the time of the day. Need I remind you of the wimpy-ass 40 minutes extras on the Blu-ray? "Never Back Down," another B-movie, had a lot more extras.

Well, I don't see how he let them down. Just because he took some creative liberties with Legacy? Hell, he got the job for Legacy in the first place be cause he directed the Rebirth short, and that was WAY further from MK than anything in Legacy.
He didn't to anything to let them down (nothing major anyway), so those fans need to get over it and take it for what it is. The simple fact is, these days, fans just like to bitch when a movie based on a game isn't what they wanted. And the problem with that is that half the fans want a direct translation of the game into a movie format, and the other half of the fans realize that it's impossible to make something like that successful and would rather see something more original. And trying to meet both parties half way, everyone's gonna get butthurt over one thing or another. It's happened with every game based movie out there, including the very successful ones like the Resident Evil franchise (which gets a TON of hate).

It's not Kevin's fault that those fans are pissed. Apart from the Kitana and Mileena episode (namely, mispronouncing Sindel's name), he hasn't done anything in Legacy to upset anyone.

And you forgot the Raiden episode, which pissed off even more people. The Cage episode was just a retelling of what was already in the comics and the movie. The Sonya/Jax/Kano episodes were probably one of the best even though they did connect Kano to Cyrax/Sektor, which was completely messed up in its own story form because it happened in some warehouse and not a Lin Keui HQ or anywhere like it did in DOTR. Kitana/Mileena was mostly anime sequences, and the costumes for Scorpion/Sub-Zero were so awful I'm stopping there.

I am aware Legacy was meant to promote the game. For the reasons already described it failed on that level too.

Also, Mortal Kombat is the year's best fighter because, let's face it, it's the only year's real fighting game that has the brutal violence COD and GOW players have come to expect.

I have no problems with liberties being taken - the Scorpion/Sub-Zero teaming up in the movie was acceptable because it worked and had an explanation. But putting Raiden into a mental hospital because he just fell there - not acceptable. He is a god and would know better, let alone would have known how to teleport out of there anyway without going through such a chaotic and stupid ass episode.

The Raiden episode was one of the best. I can't believe people didn't like it. Nowhere did it say, "Okay, people, MK Legacy is the new official canon for the game," so I don't see why people are taking it to the heart so much. The Raiden episode was a great 'what if' scenario, and a very interesting story.
The problem with the Kitana and Mileena episode was that it felt like those animated sequences were just there because they couldn't afford to do those scenes in live action, so it almost felt a little cheap or incomplete.

And again, involving Kano in the Lin Kuei story was kinda cool, I just wish he had his eye in it. But still, who cares that it happened in the warehouse? This is a different interpretation of the storyline, do people not get that? It's not supposed to tie directly into the games (obviously).

I think this idea of Lin Kuei and Black Dragon working together is remarkable. I mean,it should have been obvious for NRS to link these two organizations even before in the games,but strangely they did not.Fans speculated and guessed,but finally Legacy brought it up.

It is logical,that Kabal's and cyborg's equipment,plus Kano's eye should originate from the same place and it doesn't contradict anything,actually,that gives some kind of depth for MK lore and shows how truly powerful Black Dragon cartel really is that it can steal US Military Secret Weapons and sell them. Their power was only mentioned in MK1 in Kano's and comics,but that's it,nothing extraordinary as ORGANIZATION.

And I liked how besides being thug and murderer,Kano appeared as criminal mastermind in those deal operations,benefiting his cartel and as tactician ambushing and waiting for Jax's crew to show up.

And this Black Market's Doctor...He was shown both in MK9 and Legacy. In MK9 we can see his game version,but nothing says about his involvement in Cyber Initiative. In Legacy though, he is responsible for Kano's operation AND Cyber Initiative,so I guess it is not last time we will see this character in either games or movies.

I can't say about the other directors since I haven't seen all of their movies. But I never seen Zack Snyder direct a scene like the Cyrax Automation.

And that's not only bad scene in the series, there's tons of others. The automation scene is the only scene I complain about in text. With the others, I would have to take screen shots, make .gifs etc.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may have been a fourth wall-breaking action comedy but it did nothing to progress either one of those genres. It wasn't the first movie to break the fourth wall, and it wasn't the first film to blend action and comedy. It's not ahead of its time.

Saying something is ahead of it's time is one of the highest compliments you can pay a film. However entertaining and enjoyable TMNT is, it simply isn't deserving of such praise. It's high concept family fodder, at best.

It's obvious to those with eyes and ears that different sections of legacy had different genres. Tancharoen tried to give each character a different focus in each episode of Legacy. The results ranged from mildly effective to embarrassing.

This is what contributed to the series feeling disjointed. The problem was they were all too far apart, I felt no sense of continuity between the episodes, which is essential when one is working within a shared universe.

However there is a general “dark and gritty” (never get tired of reading that) tone running throughout KTANCH’s adaptation of the franchise, and Kevin has made it clear that that will be his take on Mortal Kombat from a general standpoint.

I don't know how effective Legacy was as a promotional device for the game, because frankly that can't be accurately measured. It was one of the highest rated shows on Machinima, but I always got the impression that the success of the game got people interested in the web series, not the other way around.



My aim is not to judge a movie that hasn't been released. But to speculate about said film based on the directors previous works. I wan't to stimulate conversation about the upcoming movie and Kevin Tancharoen.

I don’t think he should be shielded from fan criticism. It should be expected when one is at the helm of a fan driven franchise like Mortal Kombat, that one will be subjected to a ridiculous amount of scrutiny (some of it valid, a large portion of it not). It comes with the territory.

Don’t get butt hurt if someone has doubts about Tancharoen (which they have every right to have). Kevin himself will have ample opportunity to prove them wrong when his version of Mortal Kombat comes out in 2013 (fingers crossed).

I'm not saying they shouldn't or couldn't doubt him. But quite frankly, I was very happy with what I've seen in Legacy. And a lot of the complaints I see are about what he's done with it. In other words, the complaints are actually about his interpretation of the story, "Wah, wah, wah, the Raiden episode sucked!". But it's those kinds of fans that always, always complain about video game to movie adaptations, because either the writer or director take too many liberties, and it ends up being 'way too different' from the game (which, frankly, is a good thing), or they try and make it faithful to the game and not get it quite right, and those people just complain about how they got all the small details wrong. Either way, they will complain, and either way it's not justified.

The point of a video game based movie isn't to retell the story exactly from the game. Especially not now, when we have gorgeous graphics and things like the "Story Mode" even in fighting games. The point is to deliver the same basic themes, characters and on some level visuals, in a different medium. And frankly, in terms of art direction, choreography and production quality, Kevin did a great job with Legacy. Regardless of his past works.

And sure, that's a matter of opinion, but so are the complaints. Things like, "Oh, it sucks that Black Dragon and Lin Kuei were working together," or "I don't like Scorpion's costume," or whatever. I mean, I've had the same types of complaints about every single Mortal Kombat game that came out since Deadly Alliance, that didn't diminish the good things about those games.

Which is exactly what it is. Opinion. And I do not give a rat's ass about the majority of the MK fandoms wishes. Quality is not dependant on fanbase.

This thing is the only thing that is MK related that holds any relevance to me, and it is so exactly because afore described things.

I find the Black Dragon / Lin Kuei angle refreshing. The BD has actual relevance.

The purpose of this series was to establish the background. You can't fucking possibly expect the fanbase and newcomers to re-read absolutely trite Malibu stuff that was put out in comics format. For one it is 20 years out of date, for two, inaccessible, three rehearsing the same shit is not interesting.

Suuuure, bash Kevin all as much as you can for showing an alternate idea of what a Raiden could be imagined as. Shit fanfiction writers don't get the same threatment when they are writing superfluous in-depth fics over how Scoprion has sexual tension over Sub-Zero or Tanya. If people can give a pass over those while:

-adding unintended shit that isn't DEEP but simply MORE.
-being wore than the MK comics that sometimes put the worst of everything from the latest three decades.

...then they have no right to bash Legacy. The canon of the series is not a dogma. It can be molded, eventually rewritten and reinterpreted. That is what happens to stuff throughout the times.


Just because it isn't and intentionally close to the original story doesn't make it bad. And on it's own, Legacy was far more enjoyable for me than whatever Midway cranked out since MK3 and again from DA.


Could I have done a better job? Futile question. I wouldn't know unless I am at the point of making it.

I for one enjoyed the majority of Legacy. I like the somewhat realistic approach and the Raiden episode was cool. But I think this approach would fail on the big screen and disappoint many fans... They should have realism but also have the Mysticism that is Mortal Kombat's trademark.

never been a fan of tmnt but could probably get into it one day,anyway,.he did a great job on mortal kombat legacy,'except with the raiden story that sort of sucked ass'.but he took a low budget and made mortal kombat more violent,brutal,and intertaining.he gets a dumbs up.

kevin will do alright,. some of it will be good and some of it will be bad. it might not even be better than the 1995 movie except in cgi effects!!

the thing is that he(kevin) tells the story in different ways which will be good to people that are CASUAL fans of mk story. but to the hardcore it will be terrible. same thing with the joker in dark knight. yes, the character is GREAT that heath plays, BUT its way different from the comic book joker, which is why some still believe jack played the character better.

i liked the the dark knight joker but then again, im not a big COMIC BOOK JOKER FAN, just a LITE casual fan. but when it comes to ledger, IM THE BIGGEST FAN IN THE WORLD. lol

And i would like to see when the dragon king ruled, young shao kahn and great kung lao..........I wish their could be a well produced series to show what happens in detail inbetween the broad stroked movies.

In short. A 90 minute feature based on our MK canon would struggle all over the place, in my opinion. We can't complain about NRS and some of their shitty plot pieces, then expect somebody to make something amazing out of the same pieces.

MK "fans" need to learn the presence of different universes withing a franchise. Especially the way MK is headed. To argue that Legacy was in a different direction is far too closed-minded here. Gotta look at it from a critical standpoint and learn to let the series grow. As long as our canon is intact with the games, who cares about the movies story? they are separate! NRS doesn't have oversight on the script. Its called evolution and it is inevitable.

All these different Batman and Spiderman series. Those fans learn to appreciate it for the individual effort it is. Not bitch about differences or exploring within a different universe. Or at least not as whiny and often as the MK community.

I am concerned above all else at Preserving what little good MK has going for it with plot. But get with the times. This is happening. Its the best thing that could happen. Deal with it.

This is not directed at anybody individually. Just my opinion.

Kevin is clutch as fuck compared to the countless other morons WB could have assigned to MK. So just sit back, relax and watch the hype build to MK2013. I will be first in line.

Filming is supposed to start this month, but nothing came up yet. If he didnt direct this film, then heres a list of directors who could

Gavin Hood
Justin Lin
Hughes Brothers
Francis Lawrence
David S. Goyer
John Moore
Zack Snyder
James Mcteigue