Mortal Kombat is one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time – the same, however, can’t be said about the live-action movies we’ve gotten out of it. The first film, Mortal Kombat, was released in 1995 and was a box office success – but received mediocre reviews from fans and critics alike. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation followed in 1997, and made far less than the ’95 film – and is regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. Plans for a third film were cancelled due to the poor reception of that film. Now, over twenty years later, we’re getting a new live-action Mortal Kombat movie – and we have our first look.
First look at Mortal Kombat (Warner Bros), directed by Simon McQuoidhttps://t.co/kakHp6WR67 pic.twitter.com/bxZlxc3GSo
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More Mortal Kombat photos pic.twitter.com/xQaKFg1RqH
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The first look comes to us courtesy of EW. The director of the film, Simon McCuoid, said they set out to honor fans of the video game:
“I’ve been playing the game since I was a kid. For lack of a better way to describe it, you don’t want to mess it up because it’s so iconic. You want to bring something new to the table that people haven’t seen before, but at the same time, really respect and pay homage to these legendary worlds that were already created.”
He added:
“I wanted to make sure that everyone respected the material, the lore of Mortal Kombat, the fans and the love they have for this. Everyone was clear on it.”
You can also expect the film to feature an R-Rating – and feature plenty of brutal fatalities:
“Out of context this quote might seem incendiary, it’s not: The rules around ratings aren’t what a lot of people think they are,” he says. “It’s amount of blood, it’s amount of red, it’s interpretation of how you go about it. We had a lot of discussions about getting the balance right so there was gore and there was blood and there were fatalities.” He pauses to repeat what he just said. “And there is gore, blood, and fatalities.”
Mortal Kombat hits theaters everywhere and HBO Max on April 16th, 2021.