I think Jeff Meeks did a pretty good Rayden/Raiden. Would have been better if they let him fight a little more, he never got to show off his martial arts.

BTW Raiden (Raijin) is a Japanese thunder god/spirit not Chinese last time I looked.

Christopher Lambert. I just wish his voice had the Raiden deepness.

Oh man do I agree. I always thought it was kinda wierd to have a caucasian dude play a Japanese diety. I mean how disrespectful is that anyway?

The best portrail of Raiden however, is the video game actor in Mk1-2. I can never remember his name. In those games, he even looked asian to me. I wasn't disapointed to find that he was really a caucasian guy, though in the first movie it was a little decieving at first.

The first one did an excellent job (the first movie) with Raiden. He gave him some character. THe conquest one wasn't too bad though. MKAnnihelation was meh at best.

Christopher Lambert rocked as Raiden. In Defenders of the Realm, I think Clancy Brown did a respectable job. Interestingly enough, the two actors I referenced were enemies in Highlander :p

Lambert definitely was the best

Lambertforever~

How is it disrespectful? It's not like Raiden was a real supreme ruler of Japan or something. He's a video game character.

Not to mention...being a god he can choose any form he wants. Be happy he doesn't appear as the classic demon looking form as shown in some old statues/paintings of the mythical Raijin.

Lambert put some humor in the movie,the other guy is too serious but has a good voice for raiden

lambert, he was a very good raiden

*Shrugs* Not a big deal really (note: current and multitude of other current characture sigs), just thinking about "face///name recognition". And well, it is their mythological god, that'd be like making the character Zeus a eskimo or cowboy or something, lol. Or like having "Liu Kang" be a native african dude...."Raiden" just generally lines up with "Asian Guy" in my head. Meh..



Yea, I hear ya.
Hey, I've seen a couple of those pics and that might be cool considering his current state of "irritation".......lol

Raiden - late iron-age Yamato era warlord. He was ruler of Japan.
Not to mention the connotations with Raijin, and shinto gods.

Heh.

Let's just say it was sarcasm and we'll never speak of this again.

Christopher Lambert was the best

I always loved the caucasian guy being a japanese god because it was symbolic of a god's omnipresence. Sort of like if a chinese guy was made president of the united states. You know what I mean.

Has got to be Jeffrey Meek, hands down. Had the skills, the fighting ability and the right mix of persona.

I would be very disappointed if he, Daniel Bernhardt, Adoni Maropis and Bruce Locke were absent from the third movie.

You know, I've never been even 60% pleased with any of his on screen Representations//Personas. Never.

I was never truley impressed with Raiden on-screen. I thought it was cool to see Lambert as Raiden.... But simply because The Highlander wasn't such a far stretch from Mk....

Never even close to being "pleased" through. More like sustained or..."the lower halve of a 60/40 settlement". lol

I always thought Raiden, in the movies, should've been represented far closer to the Video game character....Not so much in the costume though I do think he should've been younger, but more his personality.

I think he should've been less passive even as a god because, he is capable of a fatality. More pure.......
"only tolerant of you"
Not less wise....just more of a presence through his personality. Not so "just another character".

idk..ramble




Oh yea,
"Carlos Pesina" just remembered his name.

the best raiden is the one from MKconquest series!

The games' Rayden was fucking boring, still is to this day, even with the heel turn. His sense of humor added alot of character in the movies and Conquest.

I'll quote you.

I dissagree totally, I think the humour made how people interpret Raiden worse...What I was saying in my last post is that if Raiden on-screen, was closer to Raiden in-game(Mk1/2), he'd be more appreciated.

Not so much as a "tough" figure head, but more as an agressive protector. Much like an experienced parent corrects their 10yr old, or protects that same child from a real outside threat. "Reason to fear a God" is what I'm after on-screen.

And I always felt there were reasons to fear a god in the movies and Conquest. Because whenever Rayden got mad, he got fucking pissed off. Especially in Conquest when he was practically ''dark Rayden'' when Kung Lao accepted Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat challenge, and also when he was trying to get information out of Quan Chi's assassin, Sora. His sense of humor translates into self confidence, and thus, toughness. If Rayden was just another ''Oh I'm a God, therefore I'm strict and protectice and shit'' he'd be REALLY boring. Characters aren't interesting if they're just simple stereotypes, the contradiction adds alot more.

Movies: Christopher Lambert, hands down.

Games: Carlos Pesina, who else?

Christopher Lambert by far.

You can argue that other portrayals or lookalikes fit the "description" of rayden better but don't kid yourself, before the cast of the original MK movie the characters we saw in MK were as deep as a sketch and hokey bios. The cast of the original MK breathed life into the entire original cast of Mk and made them and the game that much more appealable.