Mick, you seem as if you're one of the "Mature" users who can't find anything funny and take everything way too seriously.

Personally, I want to see change. I think that the MK team put its' collective head so far up it's ass with MKA in terms of the story that they just need to use Armageddon as a plot device to wipe the slate clean. Keep a few of the favorites, but use this opportunity to make MK grow up.

Still, I guess you'll simply never please everyone, especially hardcore fans. If the next MK game were dark and gritty and had a great story, you'd still have people whining abut how the essence of MK is lost because there's not enough mysticism. The reverse was true when MK:DA came out and alot of people complained that it wasn't dark and gritty enough.

I guess the movie will be the same way.

Personally, I don't think there's a problem or even an aversion to change when it comes to the next MK movie or game, but I think that everyone has a right to their own opinion on what constitutes a good change or a bad change without having to be called out for being change-averse in general.

I think that those against changing a character's look and origin completely have a point. It's wrong and what's more, it's kinda pointless. Just leave those characters out if they don't mesh with what you're trying to do. Of course, I also think that The Dark Knight is a good template for a gritty new MK. More realism, less centaurs and lizard people and chaos realms etc.

I think that there's a happy medium though between the spandex era of MK and the Dark Knight and I personally don't think that this video finds it.

On a side note... Can you imagine the sh!t storm that's going to blow up on this board when we finally see new stuff on the next MK game at E3? I mean, this was just some PITCH for a MOVIE version! Imagine what'll happen when we actually see the real deal on the next game!

Play nice children.

This is a totally different interpretation of Mortal Kombat. It is different. It is unfamiliar.

But you CAN'T say it is bad, or good, until the concept is developed and fleshed out. Because that's all it is right now; a concept. And even bad concepts can be developed into something spectacular (like, you know, a man who dresses up as a flying marsupial that fights crime in tight spandex with the help of a neon-colored kid sidekick.)

The people who are saying this "isn't MK" aren't wrong, but they have no way of knowing for sure whether it could be something great or awful.

The people saying "this IS MK" aren't wrong either.

After all, these are opinions. If you are rigid in your belief that MK should be a supernatural carnival of alien freaks from different dimensions in brightly colored spandex unitards fighting each other with Dragon Ball Z special attacks, then a gritty, modernized interpretation grounded in realism just may not be your cup of tea. If you've been sick to death of the cheesy, campy, childish tone the past few MKs have taken, then you may greatly enjoy a Twisted Metal Black or Dark Knight inspired bloodbath with a more grown-up approach.

Regardless, I'll always have fond nostalgia for the original MK games. Just like I can appreciate and enjoy Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, despite their vast differences, and different Bond movies, ranging from Dr. No to Goldeneye to Casino Royale.

Still, let's never forget the classics.
MK2 Commercial

I agree with KenshiMaster16. Lets stop this pointless fighting. I now have respect for your opinion Mick and wish you would respect mine, but it's alright.

Haha.

I don't know if I want the burden of being the guy who has to actually tell someone they're being stupid every time it happens around here, but this one seems simple and you were very polite and patient, so I'm game.

Evil ambitious people worse suits for decades prior to the nineties.


Here's your problem.

That's the shallow early nineties we all know and, contextually, loathe!

To the tune of the eighties/nineties crossover -- If Lloyd Kaufman didn't have a healthy sense of humor, I'm sure he'd be thrilled by the prospect of taking this stuff seriously. Unfortunately, not even he is wacky enough to call that mature, realistic, or progressive.

Sometimes a spade is a spade.
If you want to make a good Mortal Kombat movie, heck. Make a good Mortal Kombat movie. There's nothing wrong with martial arts mythology or some of the overwrought philosophy that comes with it, and there's nothing wrong with smooshing it up against Americana and post-Enter the Dragon tourism.

Like I said in the post too long for people to read -- MK runs the gamut of concept. There's a lot of room to move. MKSF might not have been great in execution, but there's a live example for people ot decypher, where MK can clearly go in different directions with appropriate tangents. If you want Jax to hunt some B-movie horror villains in the city, there's plenty of license to go and do that in a corner where an audience is going to sustain it. It's not MK -- not yet, at least -- but as a deviation it's perfectly valid.

It's only stupid because two minutes after being introduced to something new and almost unrecognisable -- which attempts to completely contort the established tropes and trademarks of the franchise, and has a little bit of adrenline for a fifteen year old who's really, really excited about blood, rusted metal, and a contrast filter -- people are actually attempting to suggest there's a valid discussion here.

After twenty years I'd love to think, even the most shut-in and under exposed MK fans might've gleaned something useful, some sort of creative perspective from a very playful brand that we all obviously take a great interest in. I'm disappointed that doesn't seem to be the case.

Change is great. A lot of more nostalgic fans than I -- and much less, too -- still celebrate the curve of MKII as one of the greatest moments in the franchise. It was an aesthetic and stylistic shift that had a lot of precedent, and was a well informed and creatively fruitful turn. Some of the kids might want to digest a few dozen more trending topics before they complain about being called stupid for being tragically narrow sighted.

Well said.
If only all the others would actually read your post we'd be getting somewhere.

Oh yes I can, the same way I can say I would never watch an episode of Law and Order or CSI after watching a commercial. Or how I can say I would never go see a horror movie after I saw the trailer.

I do not like crime dramas and I don't like horror films. Those aren't genres I watch. They're not relevant to my interests. The difference between 7 minutes and 2 hours doesn't MATTER when you're talking genre. And that is what we're looking at here. This isn't just a little bit different. It's not just little details that I'm not liking. This isn't "Green Goblin's costume looks like a Power Ranger" or "They gave Hulk's dad Absorbing Man's powers". It's a completely different GENRE. The entire CONCEPT of what Mortal Kombat is even about has been altered. They literally kept nothing but the characters' names. I don't need to see a finished product to know that, it's already right there for everybody to see.

"They changed everything but the names" is a JOKE people tell about adaptation decay! A JOKE! And these guys ACTUALLY DID IT.

I agree completely. It's one thing to have your own opinion, and it's one thing to challenge someones opinion with your own for a debate between both points of view, but name calling, like saying people are stupid, is rediculous. I hate Annihilation and my wife likes it better than the first movie. Do I call her stupid? No. I'd be sleeping on the couch wishing I'd bitten my tongue. I respect her opinion. I'll watch the first movie while she watches the second. But this trailer IS worth discussing in such a manner, especially if something like it becomes a part of MK history if a movie, like it, is released.

Sometimes a spade is a spade.
You can want it to be a bowl of petunas all you like. It's a spade. It's been used to shovel manure and it will not make your dinner table smell nice. Sorry. I can arrange councelling.


Oh, geez. Get a load of this guy with the making sense!
What-everrrrr! Haven't you been to the cinema lately? Conceptual decay is all the rage, hommes! It's realistic, mature, contemporary. Shyeah.


Honestly, now that I know the MK fanbase is so ready for change and receptive to realistic, mature ideas, I'm just looking forward to the online swell of support for an MK fought entirely through discussion. Awesome! Finally MK is growing up! Yesssss!

I can not speak, for everyone, so I'll just say, no this film is not exactly what I have seen when I've played past Mortal Kombat games, but this film's style is exactly where I've hoped the Mortal Kombat franchise would go with each new game. I feel like people everywhere have hoped for 'dark and gritty' (gosh what is with this gritty term?), but to each his own. I literally didn't know serious MK fans liked the globs of blood in the original games and would like to never see that evolve into anything more than globs of blood. I felt like that looked so cartoonish, and even when I was playing those games, I was imagining a more realistic MK. Now, sure this trailer isn't without faults for me, I can not accept Baraka as a guy who spent God knows how many years in medical school to become a surgeon (hey maybe if he's someone from the slums who performed surgeries on people who didn't have enough money to go to a real doctor, that'd be a step up), and true I love the mystical aspect to Mortal Kombat, but this trailer was not the end all for where any future games or movies could be going.

I don't know. Everyone's different. Everyone views the world their own way. I can accept that in your head that this looks just like Saw. You're probably the same person who watched Avatar and thought you were watching Pocahontas. I hate to try to assume anything about you, so I apologize, but I guess you're the kind of person who is like 'do it my way or don't do it at all' but I like to see different people with different ideas create their own adaptations. Someone's new take on the MK franchise whether it be the next movie or the next game will not make me like the original MK games any less. If they're exploring new routes, I'm all for it.

Why is everyone so scared of new things?

I dont own Mortal Kombat, and neither do most of you guys, so who are we to say that things cant change?

Grow up, kids.

Hmm, so far from what we know they changed Reptile to a homicidal human with several birth defects. One character. Baraka is human, but esentially a more expanded character with background, aside from being the leader of the nomads... okay, two characters.

And? Cage is an actor. Shang Tsung is still a hidden benefactor of a battle arena tournament. Jax and Sonya are police, okay, not military, but that is the most miniscule difference. Not counting. Scorpion is an asassin, who ha a grudge against another, Sub-Zero. Okay, not dead....

Shang and Scorpion could be unravelled as supernatural. Hell, people are not born without pupils and cornea.... so far, two people are different from the original canon. Wuptie fuckin' do. Johnny Cage dies ...seriously, that should be a MEME by now. We know how that played out right?

So far, not so much difference in characters. Hell, they payed attention to a very hidden miniscule detail: the Shirai-ryu. The genre may be intact, the presentation can change, and that is what people are afraid of.

See? This is why you don't make assumptions people!
You're so wrong. I gleaned a premise and had absolutely no desire to actually see Pocahontas-meets-WoW-meets-Fern Gully.

[I'm kidding. Obviously you are absolutely right about that, and assumptions win again.]

It's not that OH EM GEE, this is Saw. There are very obvious aesthetic similarities, though. If you're going to draw a comparison, as people are wont to do, that's just about the most obvious comparison to make. This isn't something that cries out to the Enter the Dragon origins of the fire game, or plays in the mire of mythology and Eastern influences like some of the later ninja-sorcerer-monster fare.

Apparently you know this doesn't represent anything MK has actually done, so you're a better person for explaining that, even if you have awful taste.

So what? So friggin' what? Even MK itself has been guilty of retconning and changing their histories before, sometimes dramatically.

Oh gawd, Kano is no longer a Chinese crimelord. Now he's suddenly Australian! Oh no, Reptile isn't a ninja anymore; he's a dino-raptor! Smoke's been turned from a stealthy ninja into a clunky robot! Johnny Cage was canonically dead.... wait, turns out that was all just a goofy movie mistake.

The saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" is so overused, yet it still is true. There are movies in genres I typically hate that have surprisingly good entries. The trailers for movies such as "How To Train Your Dragon" totally undersold how good the film was. I was insanely surprised at films such as "Paranormal Activity", "District 9", and "28 Days Later", despite not being a fan of those type of genres normally.

If you want to know what a REAL "Joke" is... just look at Mortal Kombat: Armageddon or even MK: Shaolin Monks. They're half-assed, stripped down, bloated messes of game with terrible stories, dozens of plotholes and unresolved cliffhangers, violated character development, retconned history, a surplus of unnecessary, unlikable, worthless throwaway characters, crippling gameplay flaws, mediocre graphics, childish humor in the realm of fart jokes and hammy voice acting, and a complete and utter cavalier attitude towards both game structure as a whole and to the die-hard fans that put up with that crap game after game, year after year.

Don't be so close-minded to turn yourself off from new or original ideas. Even failed experiments, made with heart and passion, are worth investing into from time to time. I don't necessarily love the movie Blade Runner, but I'm proud to have it in my collection due to the risks and gambles it took. The game ICO was a huge commercial failure, and yet I proudly show it to my friends as a testament to slow-burn, artful game direction and player immersion.

You never know until you try, and you never expand your horizons unless you open up to the risk of failure. You may be absolutely right and this could be the worst thing to happen to MK since Special Forces tarnished the franchise into a self-imposed hiatus, OR it could be the much-needed shot in the arm and confident reinterpretation the franchise, or even the entire genre, needs to remain relevant and compelling.

You have to gamble big sometimes to get the biggest rewards.

Also two thoughts on the matter:

I almost-guarantee it that if this were to be a third party project that would take artistic license with MK, 3/4 of the people would be more accepting, simply because sure why not? Let's have an urban MK.

On the second it became clear that this is somewhat the next canonical step in the design of MK, people became scared, because they hate having their confortable background somehow "violated" by something that they need to/ want to/ could / not sure if want to adapt.

This is herd-philosophy. The amount of intelligence and tolerance decreases if larger and larger amounts of the same-thinking crowd are together. This is a valid phenomenon in mass-psychology. The majority is faced with something utterly unfamiliar... the quickest response is to deny.

I literally did choose to not see Avatar because the plot looked like Dances with Wolves/Fern Gully/Pocahontas/Last Samurai and I have no interest in seeing that generic "dude falls in love with a girl from a primitive culture and defends them in war with his more advanced people" crap again no matter how pretty the CGI is.

I'm picky.

... Should I mention how unbelievably stupid that thought process is? Or is it going to sort itself out? (RE: Chrome)

LOL @ The e-fight.

Be right back, I'm going to get some popcorn so I can really enjoy this!

By all means, exercise you logic to disprove me. I brought up the two thoughts becase

A. I have experienced this first hand. May or may not apply to MK.
B. it is a regular part of my curriculum at university.

Well after having a day to think about all of this.

I mean I'm hearing that some of the actors in it have tweeted its for a movie. So I mean I guess that means the game will be different? But part of me would really want to see what this would be like as a game. A much more real take on MK. I know its a big change, but it good turn out good. Who know's maybe they're not going in the direction, we don't know yet.

Only thing is I would like a bit more enthasis on the mystical side of MK if it was like this. I think if they combined this new take of realism with some more of the old supernatural stuff, I will be pleased. MK needs something new...

A lot won't agree due to people not liking change,but I absolutely dug the video.Change can be bad or good and in this case following the last few genres of MK,I feel this is a good step.

I'm an old school MK cat like quite a few on here.That being said,what is it that people fear or can't get a hold of from the teaser?The concept is still pretty much valid from days of old with a few tweaks and changes.

If you look at the batman movies and how silly they got from one to the next....dark knight was a great move.Why can't this be the same way?

I say go with it.It really seems like the gritty,dark step this once upon a gritty,dark franchise needs.

This is just my opinion and feeling on it.

It shouldn't take a university curriculum to state the obvious.

When a negative change has a chance of being implemented within the definitive ideaspace with lasting consequence, yes. People will be bothered. Completely unlikely and undiscussed suggestion generally aren't very bothersome, no.

I'm pretty sure some local community college writing 101 courses would probably provide more insight into the reactions of an apparently select (at the present) few. Not that I wouldn't love to see many of you pursue lasting careers as writers. whose apparently vast and unique penchant for reboots would surely be very useful in the booming industry of Choose Your Own Adventure novels. It's a rare skill. I'm not mad! I'm impressed!

Pinning disapproval of an unrelated and unimpressive aesthetic and conceptual shift in an established brand on fear of change is lazy, creatively unremarkable, and dare I repeat myself, utterly stupid. People should probably read more, take in a show, invest in a comic book. Anything to expand their apparently grossly limited horizons.


It's a demo reel, so really it's just a philosophical debate, now.
It's a non-issue released to the public with, I would hope, such fundamental flaws in terms of economics and creative merit that it wouldn't be picked up, regardless of grinning approval from online punters.

That's just me, though.

Watch out friend, I feel a barrage of insults and name calling coming on.
I completely agree with you though, also an old school fan.

"It shouldn't take a university curriculum to state the obvious. When a negative change has a chance of being implemented within the definitive ideaspace with lasting consequence, yes. People will be bothered. Completely unlikely and undiscussed suggestion generally aren't very bothersome, no. I'm pretty sure some local community college writing 101 courses would probably provide more insight into the reactions of an apparently select (at the present) few. Not that I wouldn't love to see many of you pursue lasting careers as writers. whose apparently vast and unique penchant for reboots would surely be very useful in the booming industry of Choose Your Own Adventure novels. It's a rare skill. I'm not mad! I'm impressed! " Ok, what did you just say? lol

I'm sure it made sense to you, but I was distracted by Baraka beating the shit outta J. Cage.

That's right. Mature and realistic. Mmhmm.
It's a bright and scholarly future for MK, indeed.




I've been hearing a lot about this Modern Family show on TV.
How about this? We repackage MK as a contemporary and realistic group of families who are trying to work through the daily struggles of clan feuding, murderous blood feuds, and other slapstick situations. I think it could really work. It's what the people want. It's gritty! Stop fearing change, pansies!