Mar’s Musings: Mortal Kombat Rankings

The new Mortal Kombat releases in theaters this weekend, so here’s a quick rankings of the three theatrical releases so far (along with some trademark Mar thoughts):

3. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Of course this is dead last of the three; slashed budget, every single actor besides Lui Kang and Kitana were recast, killing off Johnny Cage in the first five minutes, a plot that makes no sense, and pretty awful acting from top to bottom, especially THAT line from Sindel.

2. Mortal Kombat (2021)

Releasing right after the pandemic, this flick was pretty fun for the most part, except for trying to do the “fish out of water” storyline aspect with an original character named Cole Young. This could have easily been Johnny Cage’s role, which they seem to be fixing with today’s release. Kano steals the show with his quips, but unfortunately, his character seems to overshadow everyone else, including Lui Kang who is supposed to be the lead in Mortal Kombat lore.

1. Mortal Kombat (1995)

Flawless Victory.

Seeing this on the big screen was amazing for a 10 year old who shouldn’t have been playing Mortal Kombat in the first place. So many memorable performances and one liners, especially from the late Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s Shang Tsung and Linden Ashby’s Johnny Cage. The fight between Goro and Johnny Cage is the definite comedic highlight (“Those were $500 sunglasses asshole!”)

Let’s hope the newest release can live up to the hype, especially with Karl Urban’s casting.