Thursday, September 4, 2014

Finish it! Watch it again!

Prepare to Fight! again, and join us for a screening of  "Mortal Kombat" (1995), along  with
"Super Mario Bros."(1993) this Friday at Blue Starlite.

For  fanboys,  a film adaptation of a video game can be more strenuous to power  through than  a difficult level of the  game itself.  This includes myself and my  initial,  snobbish  thought that "they are going to ruin it."

It's easy  for such a film to  jump short  right off  the  digital cliff and  into the never-ending realm of fandom ridicule.

Why no,  "Double Dragon" movie,  I  totally don't mean  mean you.

A based-on -the-video-game is  pretty much a  loosely-based-on film because there is a narrow amount of material to go off of. Even with the inclusions of the digital hero's unique  outfit, signature noises of action and distinct  battle locations,  a based-on-the-video-game movie can  be made with too much creative license  that  it leads  to an unforgivable  contrived storyline.

Yet, "Mortal Kombat " the movie didn't  ask us  to play ignorant to the beloved game; it amplified it.

The story was as simple as that of the  game, keeping the battle of good vs. evil entertaining and spirited.  The movie made plenty of room to pay  homage to its source material.  It came with  surrealistically translated sets, shot with video-game POV finesse. It had a  pulsing  90s techno-elite soundtrack, including that infectious re-working of the theme song
The casting came with a  go-for-cheeky bunch: Christopher Lambert. who served up Raiden  with a hefty helping of hammy  and cheesy panache; Kano, who was serious and Japanese-American in the game, but wonderfully sleazy and Australian in the film;  Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, with her tough and sassy Sonya; the overconfident, animatronics -wonder Goro

The movie may have lacked excessively bloody violence in which the  game was infamous for and  ultimately slapped with a Mature rating during the early days of  the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Fatality?!  Not so much.

"Mortal Kombat"  the movie is self aware that it came from a video game about  an over-the-top  blood-fest brawl , and it's self aware of being pure camp. 

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