Mortal Kombat

There’s a lot to love about the original Mortal Kombat film. Mortal Kombat is kind of a trash fire, but a well-produced one that has given us some indelible images of one of gaming’s most storied franchises. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s read of “Your brother’s soul is mine” has been misremembered and then immortalized as a meme over the years. It’s literally timeless. And who can forget Scorpion cartwheeling out from behind a tree to surprise Johnny Cage in the middle of the woods? That fight is burned into my brain for as long as I live.

Yes, the Mortal Kombat movie is light on the blood and gore that have typically defined the series, but I think it also captures some of the feeling of the older games in other ways. Take the Cage-Scorpion fight for example. Every move is so clearly telegraphed and belabored, it looks like it’s got the weight of the original titles. I don’t know the last time you played Mortal Kombat II on a cabinet, but that sucker is slow as hell and it’s rare to find action that deliberate in a game or movie these days. So no, Mortal Kombat isn’t the best adaptation of a game, but it does retroactively feel like it’s an honest one. — Moises Taveras