Mortal Kombat’s Dark Reboot?
by GL News
After a mysterious seven minute long, live action trailer surfaced on the internet for a new, darker looking Mortal Kombat, dubbed Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, fans of the fallen franchise raised their heads and speculation has been growing ever since. What is it? Is it a game teaser or promo? A new movie? Featuring appearances from Jax, Sonya, Johnny Cage, Reptile, Baraka, Shang Tsung, and with Scorpion seemingly in the featured role, it is certainly a change in direction from the previous Mortal Kombat films.
Directed by Paul W.S Anderson in 1995, the original Mortal Kombat film was, to be fair, something of a success. Avoiding falling prey to the bad game movie curse, it was pretty inoffensive, though clichéd in places and generally ‘lite’, but perfectly acceptable. After all, how can you spin the idea of a tournament to the death into a whole, worthwhile film? Now, apparently, someone has tried and from the look of the trailer, have achieved a measure of success. Or have they? No one knows, or rather, knew, whether it is a movie teaser or even a game promo, so what exactly is everyone getting excited about?
Kotaku today reported that according to Jeri Ryan’s Twitter (what would we do without Twitter at times like this), the lady herself who appeared as Sonya Blade in the trailer, reportedly shot down hopes that it was a game trailer.
“It’s not a game trailer. Actually was made for the director to sell WB on his vision for a reimagined MK film.” Ryan said she did her role as a favour to a friend. “No idea yet what WB’s reaction to it was,” she adds.
It is something of a shame; after Midway cracked and broke and various publishers stepped in to scoop up the pieces, Mortal Kombat was one game which deserved a reprieve. So, sadly no game for now and, it seems, unless Warner Bros liked what they saw, no movie yet, at least in this form. Though a promised reboot has been on the cards for some time, it has been languishing in development hell for a long time. Could this short convince Warner Bros that director Kevin Tancharoen is the man to lead the reprieve?
Tancharoen’s vision looks to be an impressive one, blending elements of the mythology and backstories with new ideas and presenting a grim, nasty looking piece, far removed from any comic violence. The new, dark tone, spattered over threads about serial killers, assassins, and an underground tournament, with the piece centred around a worn, overwhelmed Police department, presents a dirty, almost ‘Seven-like’ grimness in its vibe.
For an extended concept trailer to pitch to WB, it was damned impressive…let’s just hope that Warner have enough sense to recognise the potential that a mature reboot, such as this, presents. With the hyped comments and positive feedback slowly building and the new approach of focussing more on fan-favourite Scorpion as opposed to the usual ‘Sonya/Cage/Kang’ good guys, it looks as though, if green-lit, it could be a winner. Warner, it’s in your hands now…step up and test your might.
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Wow, this is something I never thought I’d see… it’s awesome looking! Mortal Kombat, by its very nature of “fight to the death”, should always have been dark and gritty and, although I actually enjoyed the original movie, it was a little comic book for my liking. Sure, it was appropriate in terms of how the game looked, but never appropriate in terms of the context.
I really, REALLY, hope that this gets made. I love the darker Batman movies (even the original Burton is dark enough for me to feel at home with the character) and a darker Mortal Kombat would just kick serious ass. Citing Reptile as being a Harlequin baby was absolute genius, although I’m not sure the overly sanitised Warner camp would allow footage of genuine Harlequins in the movie. They should though, it’d add to the realism.
Awesome piece!
It looks excellent – dark, nasty, grimy…everything Mortal Kombat should be. I hope that Warner Bros realise what a great vision this is…with their recent ‘dark reboots’ of the Batman franchise and proposed Superman one, it certainly bodes well…fingers and everything else crossed.
I also enjoyed the first MK movie, though never touched the second one…didn’t miss much from the sound of it and was annoyed that Johnny Cage was bumped off, although he appears to have suffered the same fate in this pitch trailer
Still, very atmospheric and Reptile was certainly interesting – great idea.
[...] on the heels of the impressive and utterly dark pitch trailer, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth which we reported on recently, comes the news that Mortal Kombat in game form is back and back in style. While it is still [...]
I’ll be honest im not one for beat um ups but that is one of the best game trailers i’ve seen in a while
[...] since we saw the live action Mortal Kombat short last year, we’ve been craving similar action from director Kevin Tancharoen, and we’re about to [...]