May Remakes & Reboots - Day 22 - Mortal Kombat - (1995) / (2021)

​Remakes were always a thing, even going back to the early days of movies. They’d remake a silent movie when talkies came out, etc. But the further we go, the more they remake. In todays world DVDs, Blu Rays, and five billion streaming channels, we feel there is less and less need for them. Most of them are pretty easy to find if you are interested in watching them. But Hollywood insists on rebranding and making a new version, trying to improve upon the original. “Psycho”? You can’t improve it. You can’t change it. You made the same movie again. Why? They are useless. Occasionally they get it right. Not all of these are winners though. Its a mixed bag. Some good, some bad, some just out of the box.

Day 22 - Mortal Kombat - (1995) / (2021) - Melanie
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MORTAL KOMBAT *starts singing techno music* ...... OK so I LOVED this game back in the day, and honestly, I would still play it now if I had a newer game system ... and the game!

The 1995 movie is definitely cheesy, but that doesn't necessarily mean bad. The biggest problem it has is that it was edited to a "more acceptable" PG 13 version. For whatever crazy reason, known only to the movie studios, they thought their key demographic would be teenage boys whose parents wouldn't be taking them to an R-Rated movie. Total fail! One of the things about the game was the insane death scenes, to epic cries of "FINISH HIM" and of course "FATALITY". With a 13 rating there was no way to get in all the blood, the gore, and honestly all the violence I wanted to see. That being said it does have the game's iconic music, and it does feature the epic tournament, and for that alone I will applaud it.

With 2021 version,  I wasn't interested in the character backstories. When I used to play I was the kind of person that skipped all that stuff and just wanted to fight ..... and that's what I wanted in this movie - FIGHT SCENES!  With that being said, when this version had them, they were epic. Blood and gore and everything that I would have LOVED to have seen in the earlier version. The two big misses though were 1. The lack of the techno soundtrack (although it might only have been me and Greg that missed that lol), and 2. NO TOURNAMENT! Lots of talk about the epic tournament with the champions for Earth Realm, but no actual tournament itself, with the movie focusing more on the set up and various other fights. 

Overall both movies work in their own way.  For me Christopher Lambert stole the role of Lord Raiden giving the 1995 version a huge advantage, but the R Rated violence of the 2021 version was just a far better plan and felt more like the game I used to play.

Jenn  Says - Finish Him! These famous words go with a very popular game that was made into a movie, yes "Mortal Kombat", well it was also recently just remade and I have to say this is a instance where I enjoyed the remake more than the original. not because the original was bad or anything but because the remake gave you more story and more backstory into the characters history, and I’m a sucker when it comes to a characters backstory and origins. I absolutely love it. 

Dave Says - The first set of movies are filled with cheese and fights. The newer one is heavier on plot and blood. Even though I like a little cheesiness with my horror, I didn't find it appealing in the older movies of this franchise.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

​Original, Remake, or Neither? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!