Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch!!!! All us MK fans do. We finally see something worth watching about MK and y'all still complain. Dark and Gritty is what we wanted. Too bad dark and gritty gets rid of a lot of the magical aspects of a game. I know it flips MK on it's head. But if any franchise needs a change in direction it's MK(well along with Sonic). The truth is is that if this movie was made everyone of us MK fans would see it. We would all agree that it's not the right storyline. But I bet this director could make a movie we are happy about provided he is well funded. But not just the regular MK fans would want to watch this movie which is great because we are a dying breed. It would pump more fans into the series. I'm all for this movie getting made even though I don't think it will happen.

See, that's the problem right there. The word "we".

WE don't agree on whether we want that or not. SOME do and SOME don't.

Why does "dark and gritty" mysteriously get rid of "magic"? It doesn't have to be that way, seriously. That's what a lot of us have been arguing this entire time. I really don't understand the notion these things cannot coexist in harmony.

NEW Interview with Michael Jai White on IGN.

Click Here.

We do not understand?

I see what you did there.

I've updated the story with the Michael Jai White interview... it would be great if he did a little more research though, like about how Larry Kasanoff is not the creator of Mortal Kombat.

No you're not... Nobody is. You know why? Because I'm sure this shit will never be made into a movie and I know it will never be made into a game...

Magic just doesn't coexist with dark and gritty. When I think of dark and gritty, I think of realism. I don't think of a man who can transform himself into every soul he has consumed and I don't think he can consume souls. I don't think of a billion different realms. When I think dark and gritty, I do think saw(I actually hate those movies) and I think The Dark Knight! MK is cartoonish, magical, and getting very boring. MK is damn good at retconning it's story anyway so why not go in a new direction. It will be viewed as non-cannon anyway so what's the big deal?

Because those of us that have stayed with the series this long obviously like it the way it is?

Your assertion that magic cannot be "gritty" is pretty ridiculous. How exactly is Batman at all realistic? It's the art style, nothing more. It's all fiction.

Dude Mortal Kombat isn't Lord of the Rings! It isn't easy to make magic gritty and dark.

Batman isn't quite real but it used no Magic at all so I don't get what your saying

Because why is "magic" so different from any sort of unrealistic thing? I don't see Batman in any more of a "realistic" light than I see anything else. It's still fictional. At the end of the day it's a guy in a suit fighting bad guys... that just does not happen in reality. Neither can this movie. I know all about suspension of disbelief, but I'm not sure how a person can do this for one fiction (Batman) but not for something else (Mortal Kombat) just because of the use of magic. I'm not seeing magic as this force that is inherently different from other things that clearly have no basis in reality.

I understand what you are saying now but it still doesn't help your argument. Magic is a lot different than a guy in a bullet proof suit kicking tons of ass. Batman is improbable but not impossible. Magic as we know today is impossible. That's why it's hard to wrap my head around a dark and gritty MK. And I have been with MK as long as anybody here and I understand how y'all feel about the direction of the the movie pitch. It's not really MK. Because magic seems to be gone, the other realms aren't there, when people die they stay dead(I doubt Johnny cage will come back from decapitation)! I will be comfortable with change because MK needs to change to survive. We have been the crappiest of the fighting games for awhile now. MK needs a new direction. Did you like Vincents art style that was shown a couple months ago?I did and I believe that's where we need to go. Sorry I kinda got off subject. I'm excites. Plus I believe the movie will be considered non-canon so Id be totally comfortable with it.

I gotta go to work but I'll argue with you later. Cya

I'm sorry but I disagree with this,

One of the reasons I kept coming back to MK since playing the original game is because I liked the setting and backstory to the characters. I cannot think of another fighting which had such intresting characters.

More on topic:

I read the director's interview and I have to admit I really don't think he's a fan of the franchise. If he was he wouldn't see the need to completely change some of the characters.

I personally preferred Conquest (the tv show) to the 2 films because they had room to get into the characters more.

Basically if they were to start a new movie(s?) I would opt for sticking with the MK story. Tbh serial killer surgeons and cannibals with skin conditions don't set a dark and realistic setting, It kind of insults me that he'd assume that I want a gore fest with unrealistic characters. If that was the case i'd want a Darker, grittier Jason film, not an MK film.

However in regards to the fight scenes I have no problem with the actual hand-to-hand being more reality based BUT without removing the Magical elements.

I'd like to do what White is asking us to do and write "the powers that be" for a film, but I don't know who that would be.

Not with that attitude it wont, its a pitch for a film so your right about the game part and that's good, but true to original story or not this film would put asses in seats. MK is dieing the way I see it; if this next game is a failure, and if they at least dont try a well written movie like this one, WB will likely shitcan MK for good. Diehards be damned

Fast facts: Mortal Kombat has never "failed" with a main series game. MK vs. DCU sold over 2 million copies, and if that's your definition of "failure", well, I'm not sure what to say to that. The franchise kept Midway afloat for nearly a decade single handedly. I think because Midway went under people get this impression Mortal Kombat is "dying", but that really isn't the case. If it was a dying franchise, a powerhouse like WB would not have invested in it. If you truly believe this is something like "MK's last chance" you really don't know much about anything.

People talked about the numbers not long ago. MK's sales are and have been within a steady range of all other major fighting game series, and ranks among one of the most popular in North America specifically.

The citizens of Gotham should be pretty used to crazy unbelievable shit happening by now.

Someone didn't play Kakuto Chojin. Or Tao Feng. Or Capcom Fighting Evolution.



We got one. People were pissed about the way Armageddon turned out. So we got an awesome crossover.



No. I like Scorpion way more when it doesn't look like someone peed on him. I'm not into that scene.



No one expects a film to completely follow the games' canon. Doesn't mean the basic buliding blocks of the franchise need to be ignored.

I rate success and failure in this case from a purely financial perspective. at $60 2 million copies is 120 million and 100 at $50. not sure exactly how much over two million it sold but the bottom line is if you dont make more money than you spend, you go under.

the way games are these days, didn't Midway spend way more than 120 million?' EDIT: it appears street fighter 4 hit 2 million copies week one, tekken6 2.5 million week one MK Vs DCU hit 1.8 million almost 3 months after its release and has yet to break 3 million. in terms of direct demand MK got raped.

Mortal Kombat has virtually always made a profit. Midway went under because you cannot exist as a publishing company and expect one lone "big name" series to keep you afloat forever.

All the MK games turned a profit and sold well. If what you were saying were true, there would be very, very few games coming out today. Not every game sells over two million copies.

I really hope you're joking about it costing $120,000,000 to make that game, by the way. I really, really hope you are.

ok ok, I checked GTA 4 and apparently that only cost about 100 million to make, so I suppose you are right, this is a relief actually, 2 million seems a bit low is all. GTA4 hit 17 million at the end of its cycle and I figured it took about half the staff to make MK as it would have for GTA. I thought the original cost for GTA was 400 million but apparently that was Shenmue(sp?)

I consider myself a true MK fan...


I realize the mythos of the characters in the pitch trailer were completely butchered but I can't blame a creative mind for taking the franchise in a different direction at all, considering MK:A. I don't believe the proper direction is the proposed pitch trailer, but somewhere in between. The tone of the pitch trailer kinda implied it was humanity against an alien race...which the old film franchise kinda never made it human enough, it was more about the individual game characters...think Independence day but with earth against outworld...that MIGHT work...but bastardizing the reptile and baraka mythos instantly would be too harsh.

There is no way you can have a continuing MK storyline without an aspect of the supernatural....which is why re-imagining not only Reptile but Baraka would be too drastic.

Basically...don't take the pitch vid TOO literal...Imagine the work involved if you had to re-imagine every non human characters origin in MK? it'd be so crazy. Just take the vid at face value, it's impressive in production value but I just believe it's a vid to show how committed the director is to raising the fighting scenes and gore up a few notches. This thing is SOOOO far from real production status and will have so many studio tweaks before it even gets produced by studio heads...bottom line...


don't get mad over nothing. that's basically what this is...it's a test vid.

To knight of the Lin kuei: You and me are alike. I play the game for the storyline and characters. Mk has the best when it comes to cool characters. But as a fighter it hasn't lived up to Tekken or Street Fighter in the last couple years. They are better fighting games. Maybe not as good with a cool story of MK but they do fighting well.

To Tonytiger: Crow and I were talking about the new movies not the animated series or the comic book. The new batman movies are way more realistic than it's cartoon version.

To OptimusGrime: I never played one of the games you mentioned because Im to big an MK fan to want to play crap like capcom and Tao Feng. I was comparing MK to the other two top fighting franchises such as Tekken and Street Fighter.

Your the only one I know who didn't like Vincents artwork. LAME

And the crossover wasn't that awesome. I bought the collectors edition played it for a month, beat the shit outta people online, yawned, then took all of it(artwork included) back to gamestop. It was a good step forward from MK but it was not MK. The game had no replay value for me.

Well if I'm going to be here I might as well put in my two cents on the topic at hand.

The Pitch:

1. Just because there is nasty dark gore in a movie does *not* make it torture porn. I doubt if this movie were going to be made that they would have Baraka carving some dude up for 15 minutes or highly emphasize reptile's eating habits for long periods of time. Its dark, there's gore and I'm pretty sure the film would have plenty of fighting in it to classify it as a fighting film.

So the stories were butchered who gives a rats ass? Okay okay so MK1 was successful, but that doesn't make it good. EXAMPLE: Firefly=Good. Twilight=Successful. Sometimes you have to tare something apart to make it good. In that pitch video they did exactly that and for damn good reason in my opinion. The MK story line for these characters is too thin/cliche or shit in some cases to translate into a film that puts more than just the asses of hardcore fans in seats. Baraka and reptile's stories from the game would make any critic who loves the film industry more than MK cringe and general audiences would just say "wait what? that's lame". As for Jax and Sonya, I hate to burst everyone's nostalgia bubble here, but even for the video game the whole rumsfeldian, canyonaro, special forces crap is just lame and has no business in a fighting game any more than guns do. This is more real world and people can much more easily relate to the character archetypes presented in the short. Even with these liberties the people involved said there would be plenty of mythos to keep purists happy. Everyone was pissed when the Joker didn't take a bath in the acid come Dark Knight time or that his makeup wasn't strict clown. After the movie I didn't hear a word of bitching from them, not a word.

It's still MK to me, It looked MK it felt MK, and it was actually good, if they could stretch that kind of writing into 90-120 minutes and have plenty of ass kicking, I say fuck the naysayers, flawless victory. They butchered the stories and settings of resident evil and DOOM and I would argue every game based movie and I still recognize them enough to call it by the games name and be happy I did, even if the majority of the movies sucked. I liked MK1 but it did not age well at all.

As for the new game, great a 2.5D go is a great idea, Hell MK might actually get above 85 on metacritic for once. I'd love to see a 90 plus but Ed Boon couldn't do that if his life depended on it. the best he can do is 82 for MKDA, everything else is in the 70s. VF4=94 Tekken's in the 80s and so is soul caliber. I grew up an MK fan, I'll die an MK fan, but a better fighting game is a better fighting game. its time to ax some chars, remove the dial a combos. make it smooth and fast like the other fighters, introduce physics based falls, implement a dynamic block/grapple/counter system, top it off with a full level editor/mod/console enabled PC version. Bam instent 95+ metacritic rating and MK 10 will sell 7 Mil minimum. I want to see MK rip out the hearts of all fighting games and shove that shit right into their mouths, with this team, its not going to happen.