Mortal Kombat – Jax on Jax off

Full transcript of Mortal Kombat – Jax on Jax off.

0:00KT: It's another week in the For Your Reference household. And we are starting off with Unguess Me. You'll see from the title, and if you do follow us on the socials, which we strongly encourage, you will know that we doubled down Mortal Kombat lore, right Oti? So I am going to guess what Oti's favorite is out of the 1995, Annihilation 1997, 2020 Scorpion's Revenge, and the most recent 2021 Mortal Kombat. Three, two, one.

0:32Oti: 1900.

0:35KT: That's called a double plug scorpion special, friends and lovers. Let's get on with the show. Round one, friends and lovers. Welcome back to the For Your Reference podcast. You got your host, KT.

0:35Oti: And Oti.

0:35KT: Put on your hat for a dramatic face reveal and yell suckers as you check notes, escape into a portal. Choose your fighter as we enter the Outworld with the Mortal Kombat films. Wow. Friends

1:31KT: and lovers, welcome, welcome, welcome. We love and appreciate you so much. If you have just, you know, escaped from that dark damp room of yours playing Mortal Kombat and you've discovered the For Your Reference podcast, come and sit on our Jupiter's cock. It is the final level and the final boss in your story mode, friends and lovers. This is also a time to say spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, or fatality, fatality, fatality. If you have listened to our Jonathan Wickerson episodes as well as Bad Boys as well as Rush Hour and also Oti's Chucky episode,

2:12KT: We watch a lot of the films and we cover it in this review episode. We will get to the 2021 version later on in this review episode. So don't worry too much if you haven't watched it. And I guess we do have a lot more fun things to say about the first three as well. Mhmm. Alright. Let me just generally go over some details and stats. Obviously, there's a comprehensive sort of cast as well as people that have been involved, but let me just capture it here. So we have Mortal Kombat, the film

2:46KT: for our learned joystick lovers. These are characters from video games created by Ed Boon as well as John Tobias, and you'll also see their involvement or their uninvolvement during the particular film. So the 1995 version came out in August. Director Paul W.S. Anderson, who we'll see in later iterations was very involved in Resident Evil for reasons why the quality declined in Annihilation specifically. We also have Kevin Droney as the writer. It had a budget of $18,000,000 and a worldwide gross of $122,195,000.

3:28Oti: Wow. Yeah.

3:30KT: That's a lot of EDM dance house right there. Top billing for the cast, Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, as well as Linden Ashby. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation came out in November 1997. Director John R. Leonetti. Writers Brent V. Friedman, Bryce Zabel, and more. We have a budget of $30,000,000 and a worldwide underwhelming gross of $51,300,000. Oh. And I think we see that, you know, in franchises with, like, Bad Boys or even Rush Hour.

4:04KT: Because of the success, they get a bigger budget and then it makes it even more devastating when the Returns aren't there. Yeah. It wasn't a it wasn't a K no boomerang. It didn't come back. We have Scorpion's Revenge that came out last year in April 2020. Director Ethan Spaulding and writer Jeremy Adams. Top billing cast, Jennifer Carpenter, Joel McHale, Oti. I was a bit disappointed. His voice is more distinctive than the cast of Invincible. So I thought you would have been able to recognize him and Ike Amadi.

4:37KT: In regards to the most recent film that was released in April 2021 named Mortal Kombat, We have first time feature film director, Simon McQuoid. Mhmm. I think he directed a short previously to this film. We have writers, Greg Russo, as well as Dave Callaham. The budget is estimated at $95,000,000. That's some Titanic budget right there. And a worldwide gross so far of $19,400,000. Top billing cast, Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, as well as Josh Lawson. Nice. Was it nice? Yeah. And I guess that's just the peppering,

5:22KT: friends and lovers. But again, if you do follow us on our socials, you all know, at least for me in particular, you know, Mortal Kombat has become my personality for the past few weeks and to have it be for that reason, We will get to that, but let's stay in the campy happiness for a little while longer. Let's go through first impressions as we talk through the films. So we can leave 2021 in case people haven't listened to it yet. Let's start off with the official 1995 Mortal Kombat film. So

5:57KT: in regards to first impressions, I would love to know, Oti, you've mentioned that you've watched this many times. You played the game many times as a kid. How did it feel rewatching it in the lead up to the 2021 film?

6:06Oti: It felt great. Right? It felt great just watching characters that you loved playing as a kid. And it had this comfy feeling. Like, I it made me feel enjoy and have this nostalgic feeling that, you know what? Oh, there's not shit with the world. We can have a good Mortal Kombat movie that just pays homage to what how great the game was for a lot of us growing up. And I loved it. I loved every bit of it. Oh, absolutely.

6:37KT: And, you know, we talk a lot about dimension, but these characters are literal characters. Right? Johnny Cage is fucking annoying, but he's also self absorbed and that's what he is as a character, right? You have Kung Lao that is very, very serious. Kung Lao is my favorite and I'm very disappointed that we didn't see him in a lot, Really just the most recent film. And you have Guile in Street Fighter, like,

7:03KT: yeah, we can talk about dimension if we want to, but when it comes to video games, you want them to be completely different. You had that wooden motherfucker in Tekken, right? They even had a bear. Like, you want video games to be fun. You get the most ridiculous sort of characters, whether it be Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken,

7:23KT: because you wanna have that fun. You wanna sit around with your cousins and your mates and you wanna bash each other's heads through the screen. Mhmm. But then it turns into a real life bashing of each other. Right? And

7:34Oti: yeah. I absolutely agree. Like, wow. Yeah. I fully thoroughly enjoyed it. Rewatching it, it was just one of those moments where you sort of forget because it was in the it was at the back of my mind, especially after watching the most recent one. I know we we sort of been playing Mortal Kombat 11 on PlayStation, and it just sort of brought memories back. But just rewatching the '95 version, man.

7:34KT: Oh, absolutely. This was a first time

8:01KT: watch for me. I tried to play Mortal Kombat when my older brothers weren't around. I wasn't necessarily officially allowed to play Mortal Kombat. But this was the first time I watched the 1995 version and I fucking loved it. Like you said, there's so much campiness to it, but I love that there was campiness to it because there is a dynamic within Mortal Kombat specifically where you obviously have the gratuitous vulgar gore,

8:32KT: but also at the same time you have the goofiness and the comic relief as well. Right? I do believe that there is a very delicate balance in regards to Mortal Kombat IP, the gratuitous gore and vulgarness of it all, but you've also got that, not necessarily campiness, but you have that reprieve, you have that comic relief and that sort of goofiness that's channeled mostly through Johnny Cage in this 1995 film. And I was absolutely

9:02KT: here for it. It was fun. The way the beat would drop and you have the shouting of the Mortal Kombat, I liked that it continued throughout the whole film. I can see why people talk about the CG because it's fucking atrocious. Like I get that. And, you know, Titanic was around the same time,

9:23KT: but also it obviously didn't have the same budget, but also it doesn't bother me. Like, it doesn't bother me. If the CG is bad, the CG is bad. Like, you know, reference the first Harry Potter when he's on top of the troll. But also for the same time, if the CG was good, that doesn't impress me either. And I guess that's where we'll come to the 2021 version. So I guess from that point of view, it wasn't a barrier for me not to enjoy the 1995 film.

9:50Oti: I absolutely loved it. I didn't really think the CG was that bad. Like, I think it was fine. It's not great. It delivered what he wanted. Like, I don't know what people, like, fucking expected. To me, it just brought back memories and seeing people like Sub Zero, Scorpion doing the moves. Like, we got a lot of get over heres from Scorpion, which was amazing.

10:15KT: It was also very accessible cosplay because, you know, in in the twenty twenties now, you have to have the actual costume from the inspiration. Right? But back then you just get yourself two blue cloths and put it over your loin cloth and you're fine. Right? Oh, but I absolutely love this film. It also sparked my love affair with Raiden,

10:39KT: which I think will be quite interesting as we go into characters. I want you to mention for each of the characters that we go through, which one was your favorite out of the four films that we're covering today. So let's dive into it. Let's talk about Lord Raiden.

10:53Oti: Yeah.

10:54KT: I now you know, when I was watching Lord of the Rings, I got bothered with Gandalf because he is the omniscient. Right? He's so powerful, but he fucking disappeared whenever anything was important. It's like when you play Kingdom Hearts and Donald and Goofy would disappear somewhere. When you need them. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, sorry.

11:14Oti: Sorry.

11:17KT: So, you know, I now appreciate Gandalf not being around because he would turn into Raiden in all of these films where he's always around, he's very powerful and he doesn't fucking do anything. But granted,

11:28Oti: unlike Gandalf, Raiden is restricted from interfering from the tournament.

11:33KT: So he says.

11:37Oti: It's like, would love to help you move house, guys. I'm just so busy right now. Mhmm. When we were kids, we'd stop each other from choosing Raiden because of just so it was just too powerful. Like, it was a cheat for anyone trying to use him. It's not fair. His move list was super simple, and it just bashed the other person, like, really, really badly. But he is super overpowered. We don't get to see him because he's a god that much or at least he doesn't interfere. So it's up to

12:05KT: Now we saw him. Well yeah. But With his dramatic walking down the way with his hat reveal.

12:13Oti: In terms of him fighting or or doing anything like that, think it it's not until Annihilation Ray gets to see some combat with Shao Kahn at the starting of this movie. But, wow. Raiden is just one of those characters where you're like, yeah, you know he's there, but he can't do much to help. And yeah, you accept it because the lore says that.

12:13KT: I don't accept.

12:35KT: I do not acknowledge him as my one and only Raiden. Who's your favorite Raiden across all of the films while we're here? Oh. So we have Christopher Lambert in the 1995. We had James Remar in Annihilation. We have Dave B. Mitchell in Scorpion's Revenge and Tadanobu Asano in the 2021. Who's your favorite Raiden?

12:35Oti: It has to be Dave from Scorpion's Revenge because he acted more like the Raiden I remember.

12:58Oti: Yeah.

12:59KT: Yeah. Okay. I absolutely agree. Yeah. But let's continue on to other characters because Raiden was fucking useless. He wasn't useless and that's what made him useless, I think was the point. Right? Arguably, at least for the first 1995 film, Liu Kang was the Nolan protagonist played by Robin Shou.

13:19KT: How did you feel about his character?

13:19Oti: Oh, I love Liu Kang. He is

13:19KT: Yeah. Him as a character, but in the 1995 film. How did you feel about him?

13:19Oti: I think he did a really good job. I think He is such an artist. He's such a like, lot of the moves came off, like, quite genuine. Like, you'd get shots of either be the Sonya, Kitana fighting, and it's it looks a bit underwhelming.

13:41Oti: Mhmm. But for Liu Kang, there's a reason why they brought him back in Annihilation. He was that good to me. People had a chance to come back. He was just nice and came out. I think they're like, yeah. You know, we'll give you an option. We won't go too hard, but Liu Kang had to come back because I think he did a really, really good job.

13:41KT: I think he was the only real opportunity for emotional resonance in in the 1995

14:04KT: film. Not not to say that it went beyond the surface, but if there was any sort of emotion to be injected in this film, it would have been Liu Kang's character with his brother. You have the iconic, your soul is mine GIF that goes around. Finally, I understand a reference. But as we know, I reference Friends without ever having to watch it. Right, Oti? Who would be your favorite Liu Kang? The 1995 Liu Kang and Annihilation Liu Kang. But he didn't really get much to do in in Annihilation.

14:34KT: We also have Jordan Rodriguez in Scorpion's Revenge as well as Ludi Lin, which I I believe he's an up and comer and will continue to be on our screens in the 2021 version.

14:43Oti: Yeah. The Scorpion's Revenge Liu Kang just rubbed me in a weird way.

14:50KT: Well, I guess it's like I guess that's how he looks in Scorpion's eyes, which kind of, yeah, accurate. Like if he's not the head of the story, he's kind of that whiny kid on the side. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I think 1995 Liu Kang is my favorite. If we're doing any drafting right now, 1995 is winning so far. Banking all the points. Oh, absolutely. But, yeah, he he's got that nobleness

15:16KT: about him. And I think it played very well in the 1995 version because you had the characters being very distinct, you could you could imagine how they would play off each other. Yeah. So he didn't come off as self righteous because you had the balancing flavors of Johnny Cage as well as Sonya Blade. Right? Agreed. Let's move on to Johnny Cage played by Linden Ashby. And then we have Chris Conrad in Annihilation, Joel McHale in Scorpion's Revenge, and I don't believe he's in the 2021 version.

15:46Oti: No. We're teased at the end of the 2021 version.

15:46KT: So how did you feel about the 1995 Johnny Cage?

15:46Oti: Didn't care for him because I felt like the story revolved rightly so around Liu Kang and I wanted it to be that. So any other character there was just a bonus. But if I had to pick a favorite, it it would be in Scorpion's Revenge. I think that was the best portrayal of Johnny Cage to date.

15:46KT: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And we love Joel McHale Yeah. With his high butt crack. Yeah.

16:20KT: I find in almost all of these films that we've watched, there's always a transfer of one particular character being the comic relief. And unfortunately, when you're going with barely one dimension, comic relief means one liners. Oh. Yeah. And Johnny Cage was that in 1995. Like I could have done without him. I didn't even find it satisfying or funny when he fell with his faux designer luggage off the boat when they first get to the island.

16:52KT: Yeah, I just I didn't care for Johnny Cage, but then I also knew that was the sort of character that he was as well. What I did like about it though, was at least he could fight. Yeah. So at least he gets some sort of credences somewhere, right? Yeah, True. Speaking about credences, let's talk about Shang Tsung played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. We have archive footage in Annihilation,

17:14KT: Artt Butler in Scorpion's Revenge and Chin Han in the 2021 version. How did you feel about Shang Tsung in the 1995 version?

17:14Oti: I feel like he was defeated a bit too easily.

17:24Oti: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Regardless of Liu Kang being, you know, one of the best, I feel like he brings a lot more to the table. And that's why he's the right-hand man to Shao Kahn. You know? He wouldn't just pick some dwindling idiot. And that's why I think he was sort of portrayed as in this, that we know his powers from the gameplay, and you're not coming into this movie fresh.

17:47Oti: We know everything about these characters to some extent.

17:47KT: Some are. Some are going into the trash.

17:47Oti: Well, from my perspective, and that's why it's called For Your Reference, mate.

17:59KT: Jax off.

17:59Oti: And and

18:01Oti: to me, I was like, I expected more from him. Not to be defeated that easily, but we did get some moments I was calling for. Because when I was rewatching this, I was thinking, oh, man, are we gonna get to see Liu Kang do some of the stuff that we know he can do? And we got those moments, albeit too easily. But Shang Tsung, man, he's just there, he's badass. He's

18:21KT: supposed to be badass. We're told he's badass. I'll point you to one of the final scenes in the 1995 film, where he talks about capturing a thousand souls and there were like five motherfuckers that showed up. I'm like, yeah, bring an army out, mate. Yeah. Like, where where is everyone else? It was supposed to be this, like, impressive grandiose smackdown of it all. You can see five people popping out of nowhere. Just because they're in different costumes doesn't mean that equals a thousand soldiers. Facts. And

18:57KT: I guess it's also because we're being driven from a Liu Kang angle, we're fighting for him. Right? Yeah. And that seems pretty consistent with the lore across all of the films, the same way we have, you know, Sub Zero and Scorpion, the lore being being quite consistent across the films. It's Liu Kang is the one that has to have the standoff with Shang Tsung. Yeah. I liked how dramatically evil Shang Tsung was in this one. Like, every line was overacted, but it worked.

19:27Oti: Yeah. That's all you expect from a Mortal Kombat movie. Yeah. You know? I'm not I'm not going there to see a brooding Superman from a Zack Snyder cut, you know? Just give me fucking MK.

19:33KT: But I I guess also at the same time, you know, the team loved him so much that they made him younger. Because it was supposed to obviously be an older character. I don't even know if it was explicitly mentioned, but Shang Tsung according to the Oti, FYR curriculum mythology, he has won nine tournaments. Right? Mhmm. So that would garner a lot of strength, which kind of undoes Liu Kang's victory as well.

19:33Oti: Not particularly.

20:04Oti: Because we see this is like the major sort of thing that a lot of pretty much all the Mortal Kombat movies

20:10Oti: put their eggs in. Oh, Shao Kahn has won nine tournaments, it's up to the warriors now to like, the lore in Mortal Kombat is so bloody rich. Because there's so many fucking games. And I'd want, like, I'd want us to just move away from that if, you know, granted this is the first one, you can do that. Good on you. But when you're like three movies in and that's still the the stake, come on now. We can do better.

20:10KT: Interesting. I'll I'll leave that for my 2021

20:36KT: thoughts. But who's your favorite Shang Tsung from the four films?

20:36Oti: Easy. 1995 Shang Tsung. It was brilliant.

20:36KT: Yeah. I agree. I feel like we know where this is going. We're going to finish talking about 1995 and then just have Theo barking in the background for the rest of the episode. Sounds pretty coherent to me. Let's talk about Sonya Blade. I will say it off the cuff right now. This 1995 Sonya Blade is my absolute favorite one. You know, we we talk a lot about

21:05KT: not just female led, but, you know, female characters that are prominent in stories. Very obviously, we haven't covered Wonder Woman, either of the films on our main podcast, but we do have it on our Patreon. I don't have a lot of female tax. You know, we talk about taxes a lot on the podcast. Just because I see a female character doesn't mean I'm automatically going to like them. Right? And unfortunately in recent years, we're seeing a lot, I'm a strong woman. I do everything by myself.

21:38KT: Right? Which may be true. But in that case, just give me Meg from Family Guy. Like I would prefer that one dimensional, because it's not preaching to me. Yeah? But in any case, I really liked this Sonya Blade. I don't really want any other Sonya Blade because it did become, you know, pounding your chest out, walking around. And it's also credit to the team and also Paul Anderson

22:06KT: because apparently it is possible to have a woman on a screen and not zoom in on her ass for no reason. I thought the cameras just did that automatically. Your eyes do that to my ass, but that's a story for another day. And, you know, we'll get to Annihilation, but that was part of the problems I had with Annihilation. You add more women in them, but then you sexualize them more. So like, give me Meg again for Family Guy. I don't need that. Sonya, I don't think she has the most compelling or gripping

22:34KT: sort of story compared to the rest of the characters. But specifically in regards to 1995, I fucking loved her. She was great. She only had like one fight compared to everyone else that had an average of two or three. I Johnny Cage definitely fought more than Sonya did, but that's absolutely fine. But I I enjoyed having her as a character without being that annoying female character, whether it's because men wrote her or because she needed to be sexualized or for whatever reason. Right? That's a fight bigger than the Mortal Kombat IP. But generally,

23:07KT: I loved her.

23:07Oti: I don't think I can add anything to that.

23:07KT: Is it because you don't like one dimensional female characters? Is that why?

23:07Oti: Oh, wow.

23:17Oti: But Sonya's cool. Like, yeah, definitely the 1995 version was the best depiction of her.

23:21KT: And sounds like Sonya got picked less than Reptile in your household. Let's move on to another strong woman, Kitana. Kitana.

23:34Oti: Man, how quickly did she fall in love with Liu Kang?

23:38KT: Well, well, apparently according to interviews and according to my learned IMDb research, Robin Shou was saying that there was a romantic storyline in the 1995 version, but they decided to cut it for more action scenes. Okay. It worked. Because it felt out of no. It felt out of the blue and it annoyed me in 1997 that they had a love story.

23:58Oti: No. I have to be I have be consistent in my criticism because usually there's like I'm like, oh, there's too many love stories and movies. Don't fucking need it. And then when it's cut out, I shouldn't complain when someone just falls in love instantly with them. So, you know, I'm gonna buck my horse and say, they did it perfectly.

24:17KT: You just gave me whiplash. Well, you know, Kitana is more than her potential entanglement with Liu Kang. I wouldn't say so in the 1995.

24:29KT: She's not my favorite, but you go.

24:29Oti: No. We get to see aspects of her that's just beyond ogling over Liu Kang. You know, she has she's also looking to take down Shao Kahn. She wants Earthrealm to win the tournament, And there's a lot of depth to her in that regard, you know, more so than I think I prefer Kitana's storyline more than Sonya's. So to me, she was one of the standouts in the movie.

24:29KT: Yeah. Kitana has definitely got the more layered sort of backstories.

24:58KT: I definitely agree. It's no competition between her and Sonya in regards to backstory. But I don't feel like that was realized in the 1995 version.

24:58Oti: Fair enough.

24:58KT: She was like a carbon copy of Raiden. She just walked around whispering things to Liu Kang. Believe in yourself. Meet me in my pussy valley.

24:58Oti: Oh, wow.

24:58KT: Yeah. You didn't see the KT director's cut?

24:58Oti: No. Missed that. My favorite Kitana would be the nineteen ninety five one.

24:58KT: No. This this this is where I do not choose 1995.

25:33KT: I I choose Scorpion's Revenge Kitana. Let's move on to Kano in 1995. Mhmm. There wasn't really much to him, really. Not really. But I think he's that sort of character and we'll we'll come to the other films. But Kano is like Creed from The Office. You don't fucking need him in every scene.

25:52Oti: Yeah. You don't make a spin off of Creed. No. You know? Just like you don't make a spin off of Kano or make him the main character.

25:52KT: Well, make me mistaken because I thought that's what I watched today.

26:02KT: Wow. Let's move on. Let's talk about Scorpion and Sub Zero in 1995. They really didn't get a lot of prominence, I would say, which I was very confused over because this was the first time I watched the film. And even though I'm not a diehard Mortal Kombat fan, I say Mortal Kombat, not MK like Plastic fan. Like, I always saw Mortal Kombat as those two. So it was interesting that the film didn't really focus on them. Even the fact that Johnny Cage killed one of them.

26:33Oti: Yeah. We didn't get too much of them because I think the focus was more on Liu Kang. But what what we get with Sub Zero and Scorpion's rivalry is unprecedented. Like, it's it's so bloody rich, And we get to see that in Scorpion's Revenge, which was just done so perfectly. We didn't get a lot of them, but I think my theory would be though setting them up for to be a bigger part in Annihilation.

26:57KT: Yeah. I guess so. And I and to go back to your comment, I definitely agree. Scorpion and Sub Zero are like Naruto and Sasuke. Like, they're main headlining show. They're the ones you go for. Just like Naruto and Sasuke will be shouting each other's name, Scorpion. Sub Zero, Scorpion, Sub Zero, Scorpion. And repeat that for five hundred episodes.

27:26KT: Any other general thoughts in regards to the 1995 film?

27:26Oti: I think it was made for the fans. It was made for the fans of Mortal Kombat, and it lived up at least for me to everything that MK stood for.

27:26KT: Yeah. I I think it was a nice way of trying to balance it even though per the studios, they did wanna make it PG-13 so teenagers could go and watch it. I do love

27:49KT: my vulgar R-rated, but also at the same time, I did enjoy this particular iteration. I have a couple of notes that I made while watching this. Johnny Cage looks less like action star and more a man with a mortgage that eats brussels sprouts sandwiches. And also the fighting scenes kind of felt like they were playing patty cake. Like, there was no sense of danger. It's like, you punch me, I punch you, we tumbled together. Alright. Let's get into Annihilation.

28:18KT: I speak on behalf of, as I always speak on behalf of both of us when I would say this is not the best.

28:24Oti: Yeah. It definitely isn't. I think a lot of the budget went and what we got was them clinging on to dream of a sequel and just, wow, the execution was not that great. But they did bring other aspects of Mortal Kombat that I was really excited for and I'd even forgotten about. You know what that is?

28:24KT: Animality.

28:24Oti: Exactly. Yeah. There's more yelling in this episode than our Shield episode. Yep. But surface level, I think a lot of the things that they did in this, the introduction of Mileena,

28:59Oti: we get to see Nightwolf. There's a lot of a fan in me, like a young Oti cheering and really being happy at seeing these characters.

28:59KT: It was present day Oti. You were cheering as we were watching you.

28:59Oti: Like you just forget a lot of these things and watching it on screen just makes the kid inside you just jump up in joy. And if that doesn't work for you and all you saw was body facts and a shitty storyline,

29:24Oti: you know, fair enough.

29:24KT: Do you think Liu Kang prescribes to the theory of holding his sperm to keep his power?

29:24Oti: Where did he get that idea from?

29:24KT: We watched the same film, did we not? When he was getting tempted in the desert by the sexy lady.

29:24Oti: He has Kitana. Why would you wanna go do cheating on Kitana, mate?

29:24KT: Well, those weren't Kitana's lips.

29:47KT: Is it still virtuous if he got a kiss here and there or not? Yep. He's like some R and B singer in the nineties. It doesn't count. Too little little deity. We see the introduction of Mileena and Baraka. So let's spend some time there. Man, that Baraka costume was something else. Similar to Jax's as well, like, you know, with Baraka, it's like, why would he randomly be wearing that shirt? Like, you know it's the budget.

30:18KT: I think it's like, because the CG obviously is a different technology, I give it graces, but surely you can sit in the makeup chair for a little bit longer.

30:18Oti: No, man. Like, I understood. Like, I didn't even watch it thinking that or even focusing on the CG or anything. To me, it was looking at a lot of the aspects that they didn't even get to do in the 1995 version,

30:40Oti: where we get to see a lot of the main characters moves and signature moves and stuff. And I was like, I was there for it. Yeah. I think this is the first time we saw Kitana with her swords. Right? Yeah. With the blades. And then we got to see Sub Zero doing his proper Sub Zero stuff. Mhmm. So to be honest, like, yeah, I'm here for this. Just for out of the nostalgia of it and the pure enjoyment of seeing how

31:03Oti: purely executed it was, but it was still enjoyable. But it was still not very not good.

31:09KT: Speaking of very not good, I did mention in 1995 how Johnny Cage kind of became the one liner comic relief. In this film, Annihilation,

31:19Oti: Jax, your man Jax. Why do they do that to Jax?

31:23KT: I feel like you're saying Jax, but you're speaking on behalf of something else.

31:30Oti: You know, one of the one of the black characters in Mortal Kombat, mate, And he's just so purely executed in all the versions.

31:39KT: Man. Actually, yeah. That that is the consistent theme that we have

31:39Oti: Give to some brothers some love.

31:45Oti: Come on. Because the first time we're watching the 1995, we're like, where's Jax? And then we saw him in Annihilation, we're like, uh-oh, Jax. The Jax's back in the box.

31:56Oti: If that's how he's supposed to be. He was just there for one liners. Oh, absolutely. I just didn't understand. Yeah. I didn't get it. You know, a lot of the times as kids, I think Jax was one of the most chosen character to fight with in Mortal Kombat, at least for us guys. Yeah. Because we talked about frame of reference. And and just to see him being like some auxiliary one liner machine

32:19KT: that just is there to be some sort of I'm not even gonna say comedic relief because he he didn't do any of that. Wow. It just shocked me. It shocked me. You know how the Bechdel test? Mhmm. Where you have two women on screen and they're not talking about a man. I'm creating a Jax-del test. A character on screen that can't not say something every time they appear.

32:42KT: He was annoying us. That was Jax. He couldn't just be on the screen and not fucking say something. Yeah. That added to literally nothing. Yeah. This is not Def Jam comedy, mate. Like, what are you doing? There was also a quote when he was talking about his arms and he was like, I wish I had this back in high school. Like, is that a jerking off joke or what?

33:04KT: Maybe it is, you know? It was yeah. He was just not needed. But again, it just transfers from character to character depending on the film. And unfortunately, was Jax.

33:04Oti: See, I think he was the weakest link in this. He was my least favorite.

33:19Oti: Maybe across all films, across characters. He was very Yeah. He was very annoying. He was very annoying. I give you that. Also

33:28KT: Scorpion was very interesting in this film because I cannot imagine Scorpion as a character yelling suckers as he goes into a portal.

33:39Oti: Yeah. That was fun.

33:41KT: Like, we had to pause for a second because we're like, did that did that really happen? That's more of a Jax thing, surely. Maybe so. But we got to see Scorpion lighten up a bit. Oh, we're here for it. You're here for it. Yeah. Speaking of not being here for it, I already kind of mentioned it when we were talking about 1995. I didn't care for this particular Sonya Blade and also the other women in this as well. But then it wasn't as bad as when we had cut to Sonya in the 1995

34:12KT: version and her hair is fully blown out, sexed out and she's wearing a whole different outfit. Xena outfit. Yeah. Yes. Like Shang Tsung took the time to like get her dressed and blow her out of her hair and everything. Yep. So I think they Captive now. Captive mode. Yeah. So they kind of just like took that and enlarged the pixels into Annihilation apparently.

34:33Oti: Fair enough, man.

34:35KT: Do any of your favorite characters in the 1997 version? No. No. I thought this was the bottom of the barrel, but we we need to continue and maybe my mind will change. But this yeah. This is definitely Bad Boys For Life equivalent. Let's move on to Scorpion's Revenge. How did you feel generally? Because for me, tonally, this is the best out of all of the films. It was able to traverse gratuitous, vulgar gore as well as funny, goofy sort of humor.

35:10Oti: Yeah. It was definitely more gory. And I think that's one of the aspects that was really, you know, oh, let's see that. Let's see a a more adult version of Mortal Kombat. First R-rated. Yes. First R-rated. And I I enjoyed the tone of it. I think the focus on Scorpion and Sub Zero was really, really good. Absolutely. Yeah. We got to see a lot of the lore that got explored and wow. It felt the most Mortal Kombat. Agreed. Agreed.

35:43KT: And because, you know, we have Marvel and even though I'm not a Marvel gal pal, you know what you're getting into with those films and the success of the films is that they lean into the Marvel brand, right? So I really liked the way that they traversed it in Scorpion's Revenge because, again, the foundations of Mortal Kombat are Scorpion and Sub Zero's rivalry.

35:59Oti: Yeah. And we get to see Quan Chi, you know? Yeah. We get to see Quan Chi references to Shinnok and those a lot of setting up, I was thinking, wow. If they did a sequel to this, it will be amazing.

36:19KT: And obviously, you can't really compare this to the other two, but the stakes were higher. There was more tension building in this particular film. Yeah. And it's not to say that you can only achieve it within animation, but I think once we enter the realm of animation, there is more possibility of how to be able to convey particular themes and also how far you can go. I really liked the x-ray, you know, gut punching and the sword wielding

36:52KT: and all of that sort of violence because it really was on brand. Right? But you'll also have playful moments where Sonya Blade is like, she's finished beating someone up and she's blowing a kiss.

37:02KT: So you're still acknowledging the game sort of origins of it, but it's also a very compelling story as well.

37:02Oti: Oh, a 100% agreed. And I think one of the better things that they did with this is we've got to care about the characters. We've got to care about Scorpion and we got to see an aspect of what drove him and what made him who he was.

37:21KT: It was John Wick level emotional resonance, would say. Because you wanted him to succeed. And even when he's talking to Shang Tsung, like he had no choice but to believe him. If there was any ounce of being able to bring his family back, of course he would do that. What I don't understand was Quan Chi, like, what benefit did he have aside from being a mustache-twirling villain? Why would he even say that he impersonated Sub Zero?

37:45Oti: He thought it won. He thought that Scorpion just would give up and die. That was a callback to when he was telling his kid, you know, Scorpions will end up spied him on. Mhmm. And it just made sense that, you know, Quan Chi was gonna be got.

38:05KT: Enlighten me of the lore. Scorpion and Sub Zero, are they immortal?

38:06Oti: Scorpion is. Sub Zero, well

38:06KT: Like, is it known knowledge? Like, does everyone around the street corner know that Scorpion is immortal? Because wouldn't Quan Chi have known that?

38:06Oti: But we know that when Scorpion does kill Sub Zero later on, in the lore, Sub Zero goes into like the fifth level or whatever, and he becomes Noob Saibot. And there's a lot of things that they could explore in the movie that just made me excited for it. I don't know what happened.

38:06KT: There's a nerd in the room.

38:40Oti: What happened to my man? Where did he go?

38:45KT: Okay. Thank you for more than I asked for, Oti, as you do. Alright. Well, I guess that's enough for Scorpion's Revenge, but I will say it is my favorite film of the ones that we are covering today. Like we mentioned, Johnny Cage is the best Johnny Cage in this particular film. One of the best quotes was where he was calling Raiden now Merlin. Yeah.

39:10KT: And another quote in this film that I really enjoyed was when Sonya was trying to egg on Kano saying, come down here, I'll give you a hug. And Kano was like, you'll do a better job than Jax.

39:10Oti: Because at that point, Jax didn't have any arms.

39:23KT: Yes. Thank you, exposition Oti.

39:23Oti: You're welcome.

39:28KT: I also didn't appreciate that Liu Kang was kink shaming ball crushing. Yeah. You know, you get your ball crushing where you can. The ultimate edge lord, Liu Kang. I also love this film. Go and listen to our Passion of the Christ and our Prince of Egypt episode. I just like Scorpion's attitude towards God. Yeah. He's like, damn your God. Fuck off.

39:54KT: Also shout out to Kevin Michael Richardson who is a maverick in the voice acting world who plays Baraka in Scorpion's Revenge.

39:54Oti: The one thing that annoyed me in the latest Mortal Kombat is we just get to see how fucking useless Raiden is.

39:54KT: No. I knew that from 1995, mate.

40:10Oti: No. No. You know, for a lot of shit that the gods and the elder gods do and don't do, for him to just appear immediately after a scorpion's family is fucking wiped out is shit. If you appeared that immediately were you that second? Because

40:24Oti: he was fucking aware if he showed up then. It's like he waited. He was like, let me just wait here and let me see how this goes.

40:24KT: Maybe that was a prophecy. He had to let Scorpion and the family die for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

40:24Oti: Oh, man. Then they have shitty prophecies.

40:38KT: Yeah. It's Raiden, which we've established, my love.

40:40Oti: From a pure storytelling perspective, and you wanna paint this Raiden guy as as as as a god looking after, you know, the Earthrealm. Give us another god. Why would we we don't want you. A massacre. That's every that's the proof that we have of gods, man. Wiping out a whole clan, a whole bloodline. Yeah. And then you're here. Asif Da Bebe. Oh, piss off.

40:40KT: The only thing that would have made the 2021 version

41:08KT: salvageable would be Orlando Jones. Because anytime there are gods fucking up, I wanna see Orlando Jones.

41:14Oti: Anansi, man.

41:15KT: If you're nasty. Mhmm. Okay. So give us your general thoughts in the Panorama space time continuum. It is rare and the world is kind of opening up again to watch films in cinema. It's also good to know that Godzilla vs. Kong kind of revived the cinema industry and it wasn't Tenet. I don't know if Mortal Kombat will do the same thing. It might, but it might not have the same lasting impression.

41:44KT: So just generally tell us how you feel because if our friends and lovers are this deep into the episode, I feel like they'll love and respect our opinion. So you go.

41:55Oti: I went into this cold. I didn't want to hear any reviews. I just wanted to enjoy Mortal Kombat for what I know it was, especially given that they're using quite current technology. So I expected the CG to be bloody great, and they delivered in that front. But after watching the movie, sat there asking myself a lot of whys.

42:17KT: Oh, no.

42:18Oti: Why did they have to introduce a new character who takes out some one of the most classic person you have in Mortal Kombat quite easily. Like, I didn't understand a lot of the decisions and why that was needed. Because we have such a vast majority of characters and stories that we could have focused on, and it had to be the same one that we've been watching for the past few years.

42:45Oti: Earthrealm has lost nine battles. That's our starting point. We need champions to go and, you know, win it for Earthrealm so that it could be taken down back to zero for Shao Kahn. And, you know, for all the bad things that we said about Annihilation, we got to see Shao Kahn do something. Yeah. You know, it's like they're teasing us with Thanos without us having to ever get Thanos, without us ever having to get Darkseid. We know Shao Kahn is fucking badass.

43:11KT: Yeah. He's the big bad. Right? And before Shinnok,

43:14Oti: after Shinnok, it's just there's so much. We don't need a fucking Mighty Joe Young or whatever his Cole Joe person name is Cole. With his wonky powers that takes out Goro in two seconds? Yeah. I'm not for that. I just wasn't for it, I think. And then they tease us. And then they tease us. Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya, Jax, they all need to fight together to beat Sub Zero. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, yeah. But then all we need is Mikey Joy Yang to appear from somewhere and do it by himself.

43:46KT: I didn't care for it. And you know what? I did get emotional watching the start of the 2021 film, but that was, you know, residual emotion that I had from Scorpion's Revenge because they had set again that Jonathan Wickinson revenge emotion so well. So when we had the opening scene, and it was very compelling, right, the opening scene, but everything fell the fuck apart. And what I don't understand is why they even needed an introduction of a new character being Scorpion's son. Because he's not

44:18KT: even aware of what's going on. So it's not like he's carrying on the revenge that's going on. It makes no sense. I didn't care for it. And I guess what's also more offensive to myself is that unlike 1995, there was a lot of budget around this. There was a technology available. So the fact that they weren't able to do anything that would resonate to a fan like yourself or just someone that appreciates good story like mine self, it becomes more aggravating.

44:49KT: Right? Because you had all of the resources in front of you and you failed to deliver. 1995 doesn't deliver in the way that many people would want, but it's still a self contained encompassing sort of film. Right? This felt so much like, you know, when you're watching like

45:09KT: the last three episodes of a TV show or the season and you know nothing's going to happen, nothing big's going to happen because they're gonna carry it on to the next season. That's how this felt. Right? And other day, I think after we watched the 1995 version, was like, oh, imagine if video games were treated the same as comic books in regards to the film industry. I take that the fuck back. Don't do this again. It was bothersome. It was tiresome. In this Pamela Anderson paninis,

45:38KT: a lot of movies are being shot in Australia right now. Taika Waititi go and listen to our Reference Degustation. They're currently doing Love and Thunder right now. A part of me felt like the Australian government said for you to film in Adelaide, we need to have Kano have a more prominent role, and he speaks all the time. He passed the Jax-del test.

46:04Oti: Well, fair enough. Like, to me, Kano wasn't even the main issue. I felt like-

46:04KT: He was an issue.

46:04Oti: He wasn't even an issue to me personally. I think a lot of his wackiness, I was like, yeah, cool. Whatever. It was sort of expected. You know? He was super heavy accent and all that. They leaned into a lot of that, which I could see. But to me, it comes to the authenticity of what Mortal Kombat is. Alright. Why use the story point of, Earthrealm has lost nine and then not have a bloody tournament? Awesome.

46:35Oti: Covert Shang Tsung underground

46:39KT: weirdness or whatever. Just waited for the tournament, and then they just kept fucking fighting. And that's that was part of what was annoying about Annihilation. There was no actual tournament,

46:47Oti: and there was no tournament in this either. I just was like, I feel like I've waited for so long to see a proper tournament. Yeah. And then nothing. They delivered nothing in that regard. We have these some random battles everywhere and brawls that don't really mean much. Yeah. And then the goals of Shang Tsung to have, like, he's not even scared of Raiden. Like, I don't know. To me, he just felt like the nerve, man. The nerve.

47:12KT: Can I ask you another question? Even though the nerd hasn't left the room. The marking that they talk about in this film, I don't think that was spoken about in any of the other films, were they? And if so, is that part of the game as well?

47:12Oti: No. We see that we saw the mark in the 1995 version where it kept on disappearing

47:31Oti: and turning into a dragon and flying away.

47:34KT: Oh, that's what that was. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I thought it was that dragon phoenix in the live action Mulan.

47:42Oti: Instead of enjoying getting out of the movie, feeling satisfied, I just felt like there was a missed opportunity and them teasing us with Johnny Cage at the end of it, just pissed off. I I don't trust you enough to deliver it properly the next time around.

47:42KT: And I think when when everything looks so slick

48:01KT: and, you know, there's so much time, money, and attention put into it, It actually makes the blemishes stand out a lot more. I'm glad that there there's there's more of a diverse cast and there's a lot of Asian prominent, successful, well loved Asian talent in the film, but everyone felt one dimensional. And I know we're talking about a video game, but we've just exemplified through Scorpion's Revenge and even 1995. And dare I say myself, 1997 Annihilation to a certain degree. We did have some semblances of characters on the screen beyond

48:37KT: sound bites. Right? And what really bothered me about this film, like you said, there was a lot of filler because the canon are Scorpion and Sub Zero. And that was what made the trailer so amazing because you see the fight and you see the blood swords. I was looking for sploosh swords, but unfortunately, I had to sploosh myself. No. My my qualm majorly is with the addition of Cole and

48:37Oti: That's what I'm saying, Fila. We don't need him. He's the he's the ninja ostrich.

49:04Oti: Like, you have Liu Kang. Mhmm. He is by far one of the toughest guy in Mortal Kombat.

49:05KT: But he did show that he was strong in the 2021. I'll give them that. He Compared to Sonya and Jax and Kano,

49:20Oti: he was the stronger out of that group. He was like, yeah, we can't defeat Sub Zero on our own. But this guy just appears out of nowhere and does it. Yeah. Nah, man. Who's just mastered his own power a few seconds ago and Liu Kang has been doing it for how long? He's prepared his whole life for this. Yeah. Oh, man.

49:38KT: They had to big Cole up, I guess. It just wasn't needed. It just wasn't needed. I don't even get the point of his character because it's not like they introduce someone that like is kind of a teenager so they can grow with the franchise. I don't understand why we couldn't just have Scorpion through the whole film. It's not like Scorpion died or anything, he's there. But you know what I mean? Like he wasn't, he was Raiden level in regards to the presence in the film.

50:05KT: And you keep glazing over Kano. Kano was very annoying and for the amount of time that he's on the film, he does deserve to hear my umbrages in regards to Kano's character.

50:05Oti: Yeah. Give us your umbrages because I didn't feel those particularly.

50:05KT: Setting the tone of a film is very important. And unfortunately, what that meant in this film, they put all of the vulgar language on Kano. Like, it was like he was in Queen Soho because he kept saying fuck, fuck, fuck. And it's like, there is a way to balance vulgar,

50:38KT: you know, sort of elements because you have the fight scenes that are very gory, cool, thumbs up in your asses. But like they needed to have that R sort of rating, that R sort of feeling, The Boys, for example. But it just turned out like Invincible. That's the second time I've come for Invincible today. But it's like, it's cool. You know? I love some I love a spicy way to speak, especially if it includes fucks and swearing. Right? So that's not even the problem that I have with Kano. It's like everyone

51:09KT: is a sensible sort of person with a sense of honor and integrity. And then you just have this bum fucker from nowhere saying, fuck, fuck, fuck. Like, where is where's the balance in regards to that? It's like you're cooking something and you just over salt one particular vegetable.

51:24Oti: That's what happened. Wow. Yeah. I did not feel that strongly over him because

51:24KT: But he was on the screen so much. How did it not annoy you?

51:24Oti: I don't know. Like, his game on, I didn't really care that much about him. Yeah.

51:24KT: But it's like it's like if you had Zangief in Street Fighter being on the screen for 80% of the time.

51:24Oti: Oh, I'd like Zangief in the same screen.

51:24KT: And it wasn't even

51:45KT: mind blowing. It wasn't even shock and gasp when he betrayed them. Like, what was that even for? Because it wasn't surprising. So what was the point of

51:51Oti: Yeah. I get that. I appreciate that. And it just goes to show because Sonya defeats him quite easily even before Sonya gets the powers. Yeah. So yeah. I'm not sure what the ranking is in this new Mortal Kombat, what they're taking us through and what power levels people have, and what their abilities are because they just do stuff that we don't know about.

51:51KT: I'm going to update our LinkedIn, Oti. In addition to being intimacy consultants,

52:20KT: we will also offer our services for being reference consultants. Because man, like let us read the script and watch a film before you release it, man. Well, they did a better job with Jax here, albeit not much more. Didn't you like how the power of friendship gave him those Jacked arms? Yep.

52:42Oti: I'm not sure what more you could do with Jax, but at least they didn't make him into the Annihilation version.

52:48KT: Yeah. Okay, friends and lovers. We do rate everything we covered for the year in December.

52:56KT: Don't give me a number, but which do you think is better? Annihilation

53:00KT: or Mortal Kombat 2021?

53:03Oti: At least I chuckled a lot in Annihilation. That's a tough one. It's a coin toss for me.

53:10KT: Either or. Either or. Either or. Yeah. I definitely agree as well. Is there anything else you wanna say about the 2021 version?

53:10Oti: Mortal Kombat is rich in lore. There's

53:21Oti: a lot of stories to tell. There's a different points you can choose from and let's be adventurous and let's be brave in our decisions.

53:21KT: I love that. That was such a heartfelt plea.

53:31KT: Unfortunately, the expanding of video game universes may, you know, roll forward, but definitely aren't going to be the depth of. And yeah, like I acknowledge the success of Marvel. I definitely acknowledge the success of Marvel. Even though those aren't my sort of movies, they they've hit their sweet spot in regards to what audiences expect and what they deliver and how they can stretch that. Right? We talk about Ragnarok being the perfect marriage between the Marvelisms and the Taika-isms.

54:04KT: Right? I don't know if we'll ever get to a point where video game films will be able to achieve that. I hope Mortal Kombat does because

54:13Oti: it has the capability. It has. It really does. Compare it to Tekken or Street Fighter, it's just above and beyond for me. You know, I really didn't get into Tekken as a kid. I stuck to my roots. And there's a reason why there's so many Mortal Kombat movies in like one Tekken. Oh, hey.

54:34KT: Don't come for my evil Jinhao Dai. It's true, man. It's true. It is true. It still hurts though. Alright, friends and lovers. Thank you so much for joining us. If you're feeling disappointed, well, that's fucking life and that's how we felt coming out of the cinema.

54:57Oti: We're also certified hankers and we've talked about that on the podcast.

55:00KT: In Australia, we do have lounge experiences. So we got some cute little nibbles, we ordered a bottle of wine and even that didn't save the film is the point. All right, let's finish off in a segment we call For Your Reference, Oti.

55:16Oti: I will reference the video games, go play them. Wow. Go play them, they tell the story quite well. You get a lot of background knowledge and you get to fight in tournaments.

55:27KT: And Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat 11 is my absolute favorite. Yep. Daddy Lao. I will reference the Bad Boys franchise because even though it overstayed welcome, it's still enjoyable. If you'd like to see us overstay our welcome on Twitter and Instagram, we're at for your ref pod. Write us an email at hello@fyrpodcast.com. We're still on suckers podcast if you like to leave a rating and review. And we'll see you guys next week. See you. Hi.