Mackheath said:
Cowabungaa said:
I knew there was a fan behind that mini-movie, there had to be. If only more big fans were behind previous game-to-movie adaptations, then perhaps they wouldn've sucked so much.
Yeah. But Uwe Boll somehow was always first in the queue...
Therumancer said:
What's more, I would also think they might want to consider going back to the basics on some levels. What made Mortal Kombat stand out originally was that it used real people who had been digitized for the game. I think once they started going with 'toons/graphics it lost a good portion of what set it apart, and without that gimmick it lead to more criticism of the gameplay itself..
Really? I thought it was the first open instance of violence that stood out; there were violent games from the 8/16 bit era as well yes, but MK was graphic, new, and quite hilariously inventive. Instead of the 8/16 bit-pardon the pun- butchery of slasher films.
I never liked the first two films because practically everything about them-from acting to CG- was so badly done I continually meet my palm with my face whenever I think on how I used to like it. The short gave a sort of Chris Nolan-esque feel which-to me- the series badly needs.
Needs to get away from the bad spandex and cheesy dialogue even more though.
Well, I think the first "Mortal Kombat" movie was the first decent video game movie. It was not high art, but it WAS entertaining, and captured the essence of the games fairly well. At that time CG and such was brand new, so of course it was cheezy when looked back at in retrospect.
Truthfully, I don't think ultra-violence in gaming was anything new at the time, but it had been a while. The blood and "fatalities" were noteworthy because they were in the arcade, but at the time I seem to remember systems like "The Amiga" had plenty of games that splashed blood and dismembered limbs all over the place. I seem to remember there were a lot of game nerds argueing "huh, why are people are upset... what about this that went further, and has been out longer?" at the same time.
I believe it was the technology of Mortal Kombat along with the fact that digitized actors were hot at the time, this being the beginning of CD rom and the first interactive movies, and RPGs like "Prophecy Of The Shadow" using cheezy SCA-looking actors for NPC dialogue scenes.
I guess opinions are going to vary, it has been a long time.
Truthfully though I think the appeal of Mortal Kombat *IS* the cheez, doing it seriously would mean that it wouldn't be Mortal Kombat anymore.
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As far as Uwe Boll goes, I used to hate him, but in recent years I've obtained a sort of cultish appreciation for his work.
The reason is simply that I realized while awful, his movies are fun. I've watched "House Of The Dead" several times, and honestly things from that movie like having a kung-fu asian babe in an American Flag bodysuit named "Liberty" stick out in my mind. The bad FX, video game clips, dialogue, and other things. What's more everyone doing these movies seem to be having fun... and let's not forget that Uwe Boll manages to get some pretty big name people like Jason Statham, Kristina Loken (who was a bigger name then), John Rhys Davies, and others to do his movies.... and he STILL manages to land them despite everything, leading me to believe that people like working with him.
Now granted, I'd prefer to see some GOOD material done based on my favorite games, but failing that a "C grade" Uwe Boll movie can be a worthy homage... but then again I've always enjoyed bad movies, and have probably seen more stuff by "Troma" than I'd like to admit to.
