Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Mortal Kombat (1995): Flawless Victory or Fatality?
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Mortal Kombat (1995) isn’t exactly a “great” movie. But man, is it fun.
We’re going back to the 90s for a full nostalgia-fueled look at the movie that gave us memorable characters, ridiculous fights, and one of the greatest video game movie theme songs ever.
We talk arcade culture, trading fatality codes, Johnny Cage’s ridiculous charisma, Raiden, Shang Tsung, and the things that somehow work way better than they should.
We also get into the practical sets, locations, fight scenes, and why Mortal Kombat still has a charm that some modern blockbusters seem to be missing.
It may not be perfect, but it absolutely knows what it wants to be.
And yes... we’re talking about that theme song.
Listen now, and TEST YOUR MIGHT!
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Cold Open And Host Roll Call
SPEAKER_03Are you ready to test your might and save Earth Rome? Yes. And you? And you? You gentlemen?
SPEAKER_04Are you are are you I'm not really sold on this whole thing. Could you explain it to me again?
SPEAKER_03Yes, I can. But first, before I do that, I am Anthony and thank you for joining episode 174 of Project Ecology. Don't mind that really weird beginning, but we are going to be covering the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, but I cannot do it alone because I am joined as always with Dakota.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it is I from Earth Realm. I am one of the normal individuals without superpowers that is sent over to this island to fight these incredible, uh incredibly superpowered individuals who are not central to the plot. Uh we are covering Mortal Kombat today, guys. This is a first for me, and I'm excited to talk about it. But I'm only the second of three hosts. We are joined also by Rich.
SPEAKER_04Now listen, I'm just a podcaster. I'm not here to fight people. I don't really understand what's going on here. It's a little confusing. But uh either way, I'm here to uh do some splits and uh kick some heads and leave some signed glossy eight by tens. Really excited to talk about Mortal Kombat here. Some uh I hope at the end of this uh show you guys will uh feel like it's a uh I don't know, like a like a friendship uh, you know? Friendship ending. A friendship, you know? You know, friendship ending here. Uh not a Baby Bality, not an animality, you know, but the the friendship ending of the Mortal Kombat maneuvers that you could finish uh finish people off with.
SPEAKER_02Is that a thing? Is that there's a friendship ending?
SPEAKER_04Right, Anthony? There was uh you could do the Bay Battle me bay battle. There were the different uh finishers in the first two games, and one of them was like friendship, and like they would do like nice things to each other. I don't know. It's been it's been a while, but I I wouldn't we're gonna have to have you factory. This is th I I thought this was a cool way to like, hey look, I know about the lore, and instead now I just feel old. Thanks.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no. It's okay, it's alright. I am I I will admit that I probably have at some point played Mortal Kombat at like an arcade, but I've never sat down to play more than a round in a given five-year page.
SPEAKER_04It's a non-lethal finishing move. Instead of Gore, the winning character performs a lighthearted comical act of kindness towards a defeated opponent. First added into Mortal Kombat 2 to mock the game's violent controversy, friendships returned in 11 via aftermath update. Beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Good to know. Alright, great. You're you have been vindicated, sir.
unknownThank goodness, guys.
SPEAKER_04But no, I'm uh I'm actually I hope this isn't really for me a fun genre to talk about because like right around this time, I can't I can't tell you the year, but uh Street Fighter came out, Street Fighter, uh the it was also a fighting video game, 2D fighting video game that came out. So these kind of both came out at the same time, and it was uh it's kind of a weird slice of action movies at the end of the 90s.
SPEAKER_02Yes. This is a weird one, but it did give me like weird nostalgia for my childhood, even though I'd never seen it. You know, like it felt like something I'd seen before. If that makes sense, you know, like it's just a a slice of the past that you will not get again, basically. Like, because this was totally unironic in its sincerity. So if if anyone did this today, it would be extremely ironic. That's the difference, you know. Like Paul Anderson, the director, uh he's kind of known for his like video game spin-offs. Hold on, let me pull them up really quick. No, not the representative of some sector of the states. Hold on. Paul W. S. Anderson. How about that? There we go. Movies. Show me his movies. He did pretty much all the Resident Evil movies. He did a Monster Hunter movie.
SPEAKER_04He did the the early Resident Evil movies or the late ones. All of them. Oh god.
SPEAKER_03All all of the uh Mila ones.
SPEAKER_02Yes, all the Milajovovovich ones, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, he did, I think AVP as well. Yeah, so he's kind of known for that kind of corny, but as but it's not meant to be corny, you know, it's it's a weird thing. Like it's just supposed to be like action flick that doesn't really make much sense. And this totally fits the vibe. You know, this is the first for me, that's the first time I've ever seen it. But yeah, before we get too involved in the discussion of Mortal Kombat 1995, what have we been up to, guys? Let's start
Life Updates Baseball And Games
SPEAKER_02with Rich.
SPEAKER_04Uh, let's see, since we last spoke, uh it's Mets had six games at home, so uh I fought the good fight and I've gone to all six. I'm a little tired. I'm not gonna lie to you. Six is a lot. I don't say this out loud.
SPEAKER_02Hot dog time machine. That's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_04I don't tell my family that like I feel this way, but I know my knees hurt, like I'm tired, you know. I'm just like I'm good.
SPEAKER_02Like I want to take a little bit of a break from going to a baseball game. But that do you have to take your family to every game? Is that like so Charlie Is that the rule?
SPEAKER_04So essentially Charlie wants to go as much as he can, and Lauren wants to be with us. So yeah, yeah, you know, that's kind of how it works out. Uh but there I do give her breaks. Like I'll be like, hey babe, why don't you just stay home today and then just me and Charlie go? But uh no, it's you know, it's uh it's summer, it's nice being outside, you know, and uh doing that. I'm really excited also about the Wolverine game coming out. Uh I'm it looks fantastic. I got that pre-order in. I I I absolutely cannot wait. I've actually been playing another Activision game, Spider-Man 2. They released uh the like the uh the out the outfit from the movie from Brand New Day. So I thought that was kind of cool, so I went in and kind of started playing it. Charlie actually also downloaded it, so we've been battling. Like he'll wake up and go, hey dad, you know, I just beat the flame cult, you know. What are you up to? So we're kind of like neck and neck uh going through the game right now, and it's been fun. So uh I'm I'm looking forward to Wolverine and I want to see the you know, it is it is supposed to be gory, but they did announce that there's also like a way to turn that off. And uh, you know, I want to see if he can play it, you know. Like he likes Wolverine not as much as I do, but I I wish that there was a way for him to be able to experience a Wolverine game without ex you know, letting my eleven-year-old see like horrible gory.
SPEAKER_02Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me he doesn't like the character as much as his father, who has modeled his own facial hair after Logan? That's hard to believe.
SPEAKER_04I don't I don't uh I don't think he gets the nuance of Wolverine yet, to be honest with you. You know, like at the end of the day I gotcha, I gotcha. Yeah, Wol Wolverine, I think, is the best because even though he can heal from anything, he can't heal from emotional scores and he still feels pain. Right? But I think that's like an emort.
SPEAKER_02He's constantly in the like everybody mode.
SPEAKER_04I think that's an adult thing. Yeah.
Movie Catch Up And Mental Health
SPEAKER_04But what have you been up to, Jack? I know you've uh been. Oh me?
SPEAKER_02You're throwing it over to me. I've actually been doing a lot. I I just have found a lot of time because I haven't been able to really be cre I haven't had time to like be creative on my computer or anything. I haven't had time to do a lot of other stuff like that. But I have had a lot of time by myself with the baby in the morning. So like Jen and I usually, most nights, um, split it up where she stays up late with the baby until like three or four in the morning, and then I wake up, and then I it's my shift, and I am pretty much up for the entire day, and she doesn't really get back up until like 11. So I there's a good like six, seven hours of just free time where I can six, seven it up. And I've been watching a lot of movies this past week. Let's see. I watched Disclosure Day, Spielberg's latest movie. That was an interesting one. I watched a couple movies I haven't seen or haven't seen in a while. Let me pull it up. I I started a letterboxed actually the other day just so that I could keep track of it. Mortal Kombat was one of these movies that I had time to watch very early in the morning. Did you cover Stalin's eyes? He was dead asleep in that hour. Honestly, like he can't see further than two feet ahead of uh like two feet in front of him anyway at the moment, so it doesn't even matter. He could barely focus on my face sometimes. I oh, I watched the first episode of The Lanterns show, which I thought was pretty good.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02And I decided I was gonna jump onto a movie that I haven't seen since 2011 when it came out in theaters, is The Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds. Still enjoyable.
SPEAKER_04Really?
SPEAKER_02I watched Tomb Raider.
SPEAKER_04You like that Green Lantern's movie?
SPEAKER_02Like is a hard is it's it's very middle of the line for me. It's it's fun. It's again, it's one of those things that's sincere. Okay, it was it genuinely wanted to do right by the comics. I think it just made the all all villain characters in the movie super uninteresting. Well yeah. The the biggest pro for the Green Lantern movie in 2011 was that they tried really hard to get all the comic book stuff mostly accurate, especially the Green Lantern core stuff, I thought was straight out of the comic book pages, and as a kid right out of high school, I thought, holy crap, they did it. They actually did it, and then everyone hated it. So that's that. I watched Tomb Raider 2018 with Alicia Vikander. Pretty good, pretty good. It was weird. I while I was watching it, and I'd never seen it before, but while I was watching it, I was just like, I know this story, I know what's gonna happen. What the heck is going on? Why do I know this? And it has nothing to do with the Angelina Jolie movies, but it has everything to do with the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider games, and I was a big fan of those. At least I was a big fan of the first one, and it's exact what's almost exactly beat for beat the story of Laura trying to find her father on this island called Yamatai with this like ancient goddess character from Japanese mythology, like Himiko or something. It was very similar in plot to the 2013 game. So I liked that, it was cool. And then I watched V for Vendetta this morning, which was it's such a good movie. I haven't seen it in maybe like 15 years, but it was it's such such a good movie. I'm like, while watching it, I was just I was thinking like how ahead of its time it was, you know, because it's it talks about pandemics and like how nations can use that against their own people, and it's it was fascinating. It was a fascinating watch. Alan Moore's a genius, but he did not want to be credited for this movie or any of the movies that he's involved in writing the comics for. But um, yeah, no, he he knocked it out of the park with this one. And I think that's it. We've been playing a little bit of Kingdom Hearts, playing a little bit of Final Fantasy XII. Enjoyed the D23 celebrations this past weekend, especially the Kingdom Hearts stuff, and then it was really disappointing and sad to hear of uh Hayden Paneteers passing the following Monday. For Rich, you probably know her best from Heroes. Um Anthony and I from Kingdom Hearts.
SPEAKER_04Like like just completely randomly watching it now. You know, like we're in the middle of like season two or something like that, you know. So it's like even weirder because it just feels like it's like a gut positive. That's a long time ago, you know, but like I'm like, oh, that's so weird. Like I actually looked at my wife and I was like, Do you wanna like keep watching? Like, does it feel weird?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it does it's weird.
SPEAKER_03That's why save her. I feel like I I feel like the same thing happened when we had watched um I think it was we had seen Dune, and then like maybe shortly after that, maybe a month later, David Lynch died. And like it feels like the same, like we all caught heroes recently. Like I was watching a little bit of it. I know Dakota and Jen was watching a bit of it, and Rich, and then all of a sudden Hayden passes away. So I'm like, dude, this is a good idea.
SPEAKER_02It's like being on that high from seeing Rogue One, and then a couple days later Carrie Fisher passes, and it's like so yeah, it's just weird. Sometimes your personal entertainment cycle falls in line with a major celebrity death, and it's not always easy. It's not and it's yeah, it's it's sad. If anyone is going through anything right now or you're struggling, please contact someone, please talk to someone, reach out, because I guarantee you nobody wants what happened to Hayden Panatea to happen to you. So just please take care of your mental health people, and yeah, that way you'll be able to listen to our next podcast too. Anyway, um Anthony, sorry, what have you been up to this past week?
More Updates Then Back To Movies
SPEAKER_03I have also been on the Final Fantasy train, been playing that Final Fantasy XIV, been enjoying that. And also there was a beta that came out recently for the upcoming Gears of War game, Gears of War E-Day, and I actually had some pretty I had some fun with that. I didn't play the regular multiplayer mode, but I played a new mode that they have called uh was it like Beast Mode or Beast Siege or something like that. And that was actually pretty fun. And yeah, like and then watching yeah, I I caught some of the the the D23 stuff. I didn't watch all of it, but I did catch some of the the live streams, and yeah, just kinda kinda like you guys, like I'd caught some of like grew up with Hayden, you know, on screen with heroes, and then her voicing Kyrie in Kingdom Hearts and yeah, the you know what an insane loss, very young. She literally like five days before she was gonna turn 37. Like her birthday's coming up, and it's like two days. So that's yeah, that's really crazy. But you know, we don't wanna make this a somber podcast, we want to make this a campy one, which at least for this episode.
First Time Watching Mortal Kombat
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So let's jump into Mortal Kombat. Let's head to that extremely dangerous island where the tournament is taking place. I want to know where you guys are coming from with uh Mortal Kombat 95. Because I've not seen it before. This is a first for me. It's crazy. I know it's crazy, but again, like I've I think I've probably played like two rounds of Mortal Kombat ever in my life. Okay, you know, just randomly at an arcade. So it's just like something that I'm familiar with. I could probably name five or six of the characters just you know out of a lineup. Might get confused with some of the Street Fighter characters along the way, but it's one of those, you know, like it's always been in my periphery, but it's a little bit in my blind side, uh, or it's a lot of my blind side. This was an interesting choice for me watching this movie. I felt a little stupid putting it on, you know, at 4 30 in the morning, but it was a fun watch. It was a fun watch, and I I I found a date in the movie that I can put in to along with the timeline, and I'm ha I'm a happy camper.
SPEAKER_03As long as there's a date, it was that was there's as long as there was a date, there's not wasted time.
SPEAKER_02No, it was no waste, no waste. So what what about you, Ann? I I I know that you grew up watching this because I remember you I actually remember being in your house and you were showing me your stuff, and this was one of your stuff. It was was a cop like a bootleg copy of Mortal Kombat 95.
SPEAKER_03So Yeah, man. Rich knows about that life. But yeah, Mortal Kombat is I've watched this movie several times over the years. It's something that I I look back on fondly. I know it's this is one of those movies that it's not you don't watch it because it's some award winning movie. You don't go to it because you're watching some top-tier acting or even top-tier CGI. But kind of like what you said is that it's I feel like it set out to accomplish something specific, and it did just that. And you can't go and say that this movie is a hundred percent like trash. There's there's a lot of fun to have with it. There's some fun action in it, there's uh some fun comedy, uh that you know, obviously camp, but yeah, like I I grew up playing some of these uh back in the day. I didn't stick with the series, but I did play Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. I don't remember if I played it on Super Nintendo or Sega. I I want to say Sega. Sega Genesis is where I actually played the Mortal Kombat games. But yeah, man, no I I like I remember playing it. I I remember for the life of me, I could not figure out how to do the fatalities. They were like impossible. And back in the day, there was no looking it up on the internet just like like how you can now. So you just either you had to do it by either word word of mouth, figuring it out, or just not doing it. I remember like once there'd be times I'd just button mash and like I would actually do it and be like, I don't know what I did.
SPEAKER_02I can't replicate this. Rich, you seemed uh a little bit perturbed that I had not seen this movie in in my early years. Tell me a little bit about your experience with this film.
SPEAKER_04So like, you know, one of the things is that around that time period there there weren't really comic book movies. So this was a pretty big deal, you know, when when this uh when this came out. I mean this cam this came out I want to say like seven months after Street Fighter. And I played both games and I won't lie, like I I liked both for different reasons. Uh my friend was big into getting like game informer and stuff, and so like we had the you know, he'd be like, Oh, you all got the code for the fatality, you know, like we'd share it at school and go home and like and do it. So, you know, what the game had was different ways to finish an opponent when they were groggy at the end, the screen would actually flash the words finish him in red letters, and then you it had a limited amount of time to punch in all the the correct A, B, up, down, left, right, whatever combinations. And if you did it right, then it would do a special finishing move. And you had the fatalities, you know, there were fatalities, but you had the violent ones, and then they started getting like weird, and they had like animalities, and like you turn them into an animal or babalities, and you turn them into a baby or something, and they had friendship where you'd like I remember Liu Kang made like um people holding hands by cutting paper and stretching it out across the screen. So that was my favorite part about that game, right? Like that one stood out because the Street Fighter games were fun and you had some like cool power moves, but at they didn't have anything as intricate as these games. So that that was really awesome. And like obviously they had them in the arcades, but I was able to play them at home. So I mean this was like this was the best game to have like five guys over, you know, and just be like, Alright, whoever, you know, whoever wins stays on the sticks, and then we would just rotate out. So you you could get hours of enjoyment and trash talk. I mean, then you you'd have the uppercut where like the guy would come out and you he'd be like, Whoopsie. Like they had absurd stuff in the first time. I remember that. You know, Scorpion's voice was like, get over here was like really awkward and and I thought the movie actually did a really good job of capturing how the video game, because of its limitations, was wonky and weird.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I uh like that that's what I said, like it they kind of set out to do something, and I think they did just that. But you know, the games, the older Mortal Kombat games, though like it was literally like motion capture, but like they like video like it was it's like actual people on the screen that are like doing these moves.
SPEAKER_04Oh that was the worst period. Like the wrestling games for a while were like that, where it was just like this very awkward, hyper accurate video of a person like in the game, and it just was so off putting because the background was super like still like clearly digitized, so it was like a bad green screen effect. I don't know. Those were it was a I this the Street Fighter games, they were more uh cartoon, and I I feel like just kind of like this movie. I think that's Like the the street the Mortal Kombat like took a little bit of a gamble.
SPEAKER_03I love how they did the announcements. They did like um like flawless victory, fatality.
SPEAKER_02I did recognize the the the joy in that yes.
SPEAKER_03And then one of so one of my favorite, my absolute favorite fights in this movie is the fight between Liu Kang and Reptile, and mostly because when Reptile like comes to like fight like his like ninja form, there there's the announcement that says Reptile, and it's literally the guy from the game, the announcer from the game that makes that announcement. They brought him on for that.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_03And yeah, and and I I love it so much. I love that like it has the that announcement, and I love that Reptile just immediately kicks Liu Kang into a wall, no dialogue. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02This is an interesting movie for a number of reasons, but like it just kind of struck me about that the time period that this was made in was an interesting one because stuff was optioned for movie rights almost immediately after something came out.
Nostalgia And Adaptation Weirdness
SPEAKER_02I think of you know, around this time, Jurassic Park, it came out I think the same year as the novel. You know, like they it was it was optioned before the movie came out. I know The Godfather was optioned, like the movie rights for The Godfather were optioned two years before the novel was even finished and published. And there's there's a bunch of stuff in that time period that was like that. And Mortal Kombat is kind of interesting because it's released just a couple years after the first game approved itself in '92. And I find that really fascinating because like who decided there's a story here, there's a story here, and we're gonna do it. And they pluck this guy, Paul Anderson, and you know, like, let's give you this roster of characters, you're gonna you're gonna make them fight for the fate of the world.
SPEAKER_04It was all about the way that movies came out then, right? So the movie comes out, right? There's build to it, right? Comes out, it's in theaters for months, they release toys, right? They have more games coming out. It wasn't even about the movie, it didn't matter, right? Like that that's kind of the beauty.
SPEAKER_02It was just it's a big like multimedia marketing. Yeah. But this one has grown to be quite a cult classic. Like I I know a lot of people who I mean, I've I've heard people talk about this movie. Just it's not a good movie, to be honest. It's not a good movie, but it's a fun movie, and I would watch it again. And there's actually some redeeming qualities to it. And I was the the fights were kind of over the top, and you know, it was enjoyable martial arts, but it's nothing groundbreaking. There's no there's no crazy martial arts fight that I'm just like, whoa, how did they do that? But the cinematography was actually really playful and really creative. Um, and there were a couple shots in this where I just I was like really blown away. I was I was really mesmerized about like, what are you trying to show me right now? Like, why are you why is the camera above their heads? Why is the camera following them as they climb up the stairs? Like it was really occasionally like really beautifully filmed. And I I spoke to Jen about it afterwards. She didn't watch the movie, but she was just like, you know, it's it's the time period, you know, it wasn't it doesn't cost anything to film on digital, but it does cost them to film on film. Yeah. So everything has to be worth it. Every shot, you can't waste it. Because it it takes physical space and uh money to replace, you know, wasted film.
SPEAKER_03So I and cutting was hard back then. Like there's a reason why they call it cutting. They literally had to cut the film and like splice it together. Yeah, it's it's crazy. One this right here, the scene behind me, right here, like I picked it because so the scene that I picked is Sub Zero and Liu Kang when they fight. And um this like shot right here is like one of my favorites. It just it's very it's just uh you know a side shot, but it looks really nice with uh with like the fog and everything.
SPEAKER_04It looks like the way you would start the game, you know. Yeah, it's just yeah I only have okay. I'm only I only have two gra I know this movie's not good, whatever, but whatever. I liked it. I had a good time watching it. I remember watching it. I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was it was a fun time.
SPEAKER_04I won't lie, I'm more partial to the Street Fighter franchise probably, so I liked that movie better. And this came out like s you know eight months later, so it felt like, oh well, they're doing the same thing that the Street Fighter thing did. But I still went to see it. But there's I did not know there was a Street Fighter movie. Oh yeah, dude. It's a lot more cornier. Dude, listen, the Street Fighter movie, Raul Julia was dying of cancer, alright? And that dude did that movie for his kids while he was dying. They had to film stuff out of order and things. It and Jean-Claude Van Damme for some reason is the American guy. I don't want to talk about it. Sorry, I'm sorry, maybe another time. I love that movie. No, it's okay. But anyway, this
Characters Powers Casting And Lore
SPEAKER_04one. Two things. I don't understand what everything I know, and maybe anything they can help me. Everything I know about Sub Zero and I know about Scorpion. Why is it that Scorpion was bested by fire and Sub Zero was bested by cold when that's their forte? I don't I that that part baffled me. Well, it was like a backfire, but fire is what like swallows up Scorpion when Johnny Cage fights him in that demon dimension where he has no idea where he is.
SPEAKER_03Well, it it's good Well, he gets cut and like that's what he was that was what was kind of like oozing out of him and yeah, that that like set him ablaze. But with Sub Zero If you cut yourself and then suddenly your blood burns you, that would be weird.
SPEAKER_04No?
SPEAKER_03Well, what's so with Sub Zero the it's like almost like the the effect that there's you know haven't you ever like played a game or seen something where there's a character that has ice powers, but if they like fall into water, they like freeze over. That's essentially what this is. I think the th same thing happens to um to Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze is like the same, I think.
SPEAKER_04Well yeah, yeah, yeah. But Mr. Freeze, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Alright.
SPEAKER_03So I think it's like that, like you know, he had used the water to essentially like it it turned into a like a ice spear and then you know it, you know.
SPEAKER_04So he's not vulnerable, he's not technically sharp objects. Right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02So one thing that I will jump on for discussion, because I don't know a lot about this universe. I'm assuming all of these characters are playable characters in the series.
SPEAKER_03Raiden, Sub Zero, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Lu Kang. Johnny Cage, yeah. Um and it like a lot more.
SPEAKER_02Knock the guy with four arms. Oh, he's uh Goro?
SPEAKER_04You can't from I remember the first one, he was like the mini boss before Shao Kahn, so you couldn't play as him. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Goro was hard.
SPEAKER_04So Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Alright, so I feel like they kind of buried the lead a little bit by choosing characters that don't have superpowers. Or was that kind of the point? You know, they they wanted to separate their god tier characters so that they could sh give the the non-superpowered characters more of a challenge, or at least a perceived challenge, because you know, everything is balanced in the games. You could just as easily uh defeat Sub-Zero with Liu Kang as, you know, the opposite. But like how did you do you think it was uh intentional that they chose the normal, everyday characters to be the leads of the movie? Whereas the more supernatural and superpowered people kind of like stayed in the background as like Raiden was almost like a dead uh an entity in the background that was just kind of like he had some like just he was kind of like Q in Star Trek The Next Generation. He just kind of popped up and just gave some words of wisdom and left. But what what it yeah, sorry, I'm I'm rambling. What are you guys' thoughts on the the whole dynamic of like choosing the normal characters?
SPEAKER_03Well he he wasn't all so Raiden wasn't allowed to really interfere unless unless like they were you know the other side was not playing or they weren't competing fairly. But so with Lu Kang, Liu Kang is is different because I mean uh so he he's a descendant of this character that becomes like playable in uh some of the like you know past the the first couple games because I don't remember him being in a one or two, but uh Kung Lao. Kung Lao has this like this like giant hat with like blades and he like tosses it. That's like his like weapon. But like later on in the series, uh Lu Kang has like these powers, he has like these like flame powers, so he does like eventually have supernatural powers, but I think that they probably went with characters that were like the more popular characters too. Like Luke Lu Kang is like obviously popular, and one of his like popular moves he actually does in in this movie, and it's called the Bicycle Kick, where yeah, yeah, when he does that, he does that like kick against Reptile when he beats him. And that that's like one of his like most popular moves.
SPEAKER_02Uh same with in my head while I was watching it, I'm like, Physics would not work that way, my friend. But I'm gonna I'm gonna let you do it. I'm gonna let you do it.
SPEAKER_03Neither does Wuchia, none of that. So I uh you know I I put it uh uh under the the things that would never happen, but it would happen is in this uh realm. But the uh and then uh Johnny Cage, uh something that he does in this movie, I don't think he did it, I don't remember him doing it in the old games, but they but one of the fatalities that he does in the newer games is that when he beats a character, he throws down an autograph and he does it in this movie.
SPEAKER_04I couldn't, it's so that it's so absurd, right? Because he gets pulled into a dimension that he doesn't expect to be in. I wasn't even sure. But then is able to then drop the eight by ten, right?
SPEAKER_02And I was like So I I thought I interpreted that because we don't actually did do we see him physically throw it, or it just kind of drops on the body. I thought that Scorpion was just a big fan of his and just had that in his suit, like or like in his outfit. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03That was his yeah, it's it's a fatality, like at least in the in in the later games that I think. I love that. Okay, I I actually really like so I will say that even though the acting isn't the greatest and it is kind of stiff sometimes, the casting is not that bad, especially with Liu Kang, uh Sonia, and Johnny. And Raiden, man, what's his name?
SPEAKER_04He's a legend in uh Kung Fu movies, David Carity, I think his name is.
SPEAKER_02He was in Highlander, right? Yeah. So I I it was so funny watching because I couldn't take Raiden seriously whenever he was on the screen. Because he almost looks like cross-eyed a little bit, and he has he has this mysterious Brooklyn accent. You know, it's like it's not really Brooklyn, but it's definitely Brooklyn somewhere in there, you know. Like I looked him up and he was from New York, he was born and raised in New York, but then he moved to the Europe. So he's it's like Brooklyn mixed with like European accents. Um I just I could not like get over the like his accent and like he's just so white looking, it's so funny. It's David Carradine. Carradine, that's right. Yeah. And he kind of looks like Q in his own way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, it's it's I so I he was in a lot of stuff that I watched, you know, he was in Highlander and things like that, so I was used to his ridiculous style, so I I it was a delight to see him on screen. I was like, oh my goodness, he's Raiden! And Raiden is such a mysterious character. And you know, to kind of like add on or to kind of what you were saying before about the way they did the characters, I I definitely think they did like the the non like powered characters as like the good guys. And even in the games, like Scorpion was kind of a bad guy to begin with, uh, Sub Zero was kind of questionable, you know, Liu Kang was kind of a good guy, like Johnny Cage is braggadocious and annoying, but in the end a good guy, you know. So they kind of did split it down like the good guy, bad guy lines in a way that's kind of appropriate, you know.
SPEAKER_02Is Art Lane one of the playable characters? Or he was just a character in this movie? The the black guy, Art Lane.
SPEAKER_03Oh, uh Jax? Is that no no that wasn't Jax.
SPEAKER_04Ajax?
SPEAKER_03No, no, that wasn't Jax. Oh. He wasn't in this movie. Jax is the he has like the he's in the second movie and he has like these like robotic arms. Sorry, I watched, as usual, I I did a deep dive and watched way too much Mortal Kombat. But but yeah, no, no, Art Lean, at least like not in the earlier games, uh, he he wasn't in it. But yeah, like Scorpion and and uh Sub Zero are interesting. Um they're named uh was it there's Bihan, which is Sub Zero, and Hanzo, which is Scorpion, and they I mean they were good at like one point, and then they kind of get taken over by um Shang Sung, which is you know, he's like the the sorcerer, which like that's my boy. Like I I feel like he does a good job at like being a bad guy. And being like I mean Shang Sung or Okay the actor Kerry Hiryuki Takawa.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, Shang Sung. He actually killed it. Like every scene he was in, he just ate up that screen. Yeah, he's so good. You know, he was Oh he yeah, he was he was loving that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's he's one of my yeah, unfortunately we we lost him last year, he passed away. But I mean he he was older, he was 75. But yeah, he's been in a few things that I like. He's done the Shang Sung voice in uh the Mortal Kombat games. He also was in one of my like favorite like Disney Channel movies called Johnny Tsunami. He was the grandfather in that one, and which is crazy, like he goes like it's like I mean that that's gotta that's gotta talk about range, right? Like he goes from like being one of the most evil characters to being one of the most like loving characters in a child's life, a grandfather.
SPEAKER_02What did you guys think of Katana?
SPEAKER_03She was decent, but I'm used to the blue outfit from the games.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that bothered me a little bit.
SPEAKER_03And and the fans. She has no fans. Where the fans? She didn't have the fans.
SPEAKER_02I I did recognize the name Katana, and I probably, you know, if you lined up the female characters and, you know, asked me to name it, I probably will get that correct. But I was surprised by how little I recognized the character in this movie. Because I recognized the name, and I'm just like, am I just thinking about a different game? But I guess not. Alright, so that that explains it.
SPEAKER_03I think the the uh it's insane how it how pretty much like spot on. Like they literally took the outfits for Scorpion and Sub Zero from the games and like gave it to them in this movie.
SPEAKER_02But they didn't do that for the rest of them.
SPEAKER_03No. Liu Kang, I feel like the the rest of them, they they performed their characters, you know? Especially Johnny Cage. Like I just I feel that like kind of that kind of caricature of a egotistical kind of actor, I think it it just it worked well for this movie.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I was pretty surprised by how much I like enjoyed it and was able to pick it up.
Practical Sets Vs Modern CGI
SPEAKER_02And some of the sets were gorgeous too. Yes. Um I was surprised by like a couple of them. There was one, I forget who was fighting, it was either Johnny Cage or Liu Kang, but they were in a it was like scaffolding everywhere, but it was like bones and wicker scaffolding, like it was and like ladders and it just everywhere you looked there was more of it. And I was just like, they must have spent so much time putting this this together, and it looks so good on film, and I was really impressed with a lot of it. And there were even some shots that they clearly like waited until like golden hour or like early in the morning for the sun to rise to really just maximize like the beach scenes and everything, or because I think they filmed a lot in Thailand. It looked like Thailand to me.
SPEAKER_04I thought that gorge really good for like 1992. Actually, yeah, man? And it wasn't I was impressed with that too. Like I don't I didn't read up on it, right? But to my eye, it was a lot of practical right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think it was all practical.
SPEAKER_04It's just like wow. I can't believe it. But it's 2026 and I watched it and I said, that doesn't look bad, man. Like, I don't know. I I was pretty impressed by it.
SPEAKER_03What what does that say about movies? Like you look back on this movie and you're like, this isn't the greatest movie that I've ever seen. The acting isn't the greatest, but like, wow, these sets are amazing. What does that tell you about like current-day movies where it's just all green screen almost?
SPEAKER_02It's a different era, honestly. And I don't think people care less about the movies that they're making nowadays. Um, so I d I think that it's just we use the tools that are available to us to do the easiest thing that we can. And that's kind of scary in a world where AI can pretty much make whatever you want now. But it's it's amazing when you look back at stuff like this. And I was thinking about like what makes art enjoyable, why do we appreciate art? And I I think the answer to that is we can understand the effort that went into it. And with something like, you know, with with the modernization of like CGI and everything, and especially AI, where you can just put a prompt in a thing and it'll spit out something somewhat decent, um, and it'll only get better from here. I I feel like I just can't appreciate it like I can, you know, the practical sets of the 90s, you know, like the the actual effort that it took to create things is so much more impressive to me than the technical prowess of our modern day. And taking the the AI conversation out of the picture a little bit, I think we've when The Mandalorian first came out, wow, the volume, that's gonna be that's gonna change the way that films are made, like, oh man, this looks so good. It really worked for the Mandalorian season one. And because it was fresh, it was new, but I think it's gotten so overused to the point where it's very easy to point out when they're filming in a round circle, in the volume that has like the LED screens and everything. Like the Avatar live action series is almost 100%, at least the first season was almost 100% filmed in the volume, and it showed it looked like a very small set. Everything was very confined into one little section, and then nothing in the background. You know, it's kind of just open. Thor Love and Thunder is another example of, you know, like maybe you shouldn't have done that. You maybe you should have stuck to more like normal sets on location shooting when available. It's I I think that audiences are starting to oh Ahsoka, Ahsoka season one. I think that might be one of the worst offenders when it comes to modern day Star Wars using the the volume and stagecraft. Not that I dislike Ahsoka or the show. I will just say a lot of it didn't hold up or a lot not even day of, you know, like a lot of it just doesn't look good because of the way that it was filmed and the closeness of the camera or the distance of the camera. Like if the camera's too far away and you have actors moving at their normal speed, they don't look like Jedi's. You need to be a little closer, you need to either speed them up a little bit, um, you need to play with it a little bit more. And that there's a lot, especially in the later half of that season. I think of uh the scene in Ahsoka where they are fighting the the zombie stormtroopers. It looks like trash. It just it's so meaningless to watch because it doesn't look like they're it looks like they're acting, it doesn't look like the characters are portraying the characters that they're supposed to be portraying. And I digress greatly right now, so I'm gonna pull it back into Mortal Kombat. I think that they were really creative with the camera angles, you know, like they had to cut, so they had to make strong cuts so that it looked like they were really pummeling each other, it looked like they were really throwing each other across the screen, and it works. It works, you know. It may not be the most amazing spectacle uh of like martial arts or whatever superheroics that you've ever seen. It might not even crack the top a hundred, but it works, it does the job, and um you don't really think about it, and that's that's the magic of like filmmaking decisions and how they've changed. Sorry, rant over.
SPEAKER_03Rich, what would you say that that this movie is? It's uh it's not Just fun. It's not just a good time. It's it's a ripuring time, man.
SPEAKER_04It's you know, hey, look, they were capitalizing, man. They saw that Street Battery came out, and that movie was corny as all hell. Alright. And I don't know how much it made, but I saw that in a movie tw I remember seeing that in the theaters twice. There's only like four movies I've ever seen in theaters twice, and it's like that spawn, Dracula dead and loving it. I don't know. It's weird weird movies. I won't tell you that, but I love the Street Fighter movies. And then this came out and it was just riding that wave, you know, and it was and the thing is like it's different, man, because I don't mean to like sound super old, but I I it came out in the summer, it's the middle of summer, it's August. We're not in school right now. Like that was a big deal, you know. A movie came out and you'd go see it just because. Oh, I vaguely know of that thing, you know. Like, Dakota, you could have been like if you were a little older at that time, it's the type of thing where like, oh yeah, I went to the arcade twice and played that, why not? I'll go see it, you know. Like it just didn't matter. Lore, nobody like nobody even cared about the background, you know. Like when even when you saw Street Fighter, the thing was like the backgrounds, the lore wasn't really fleshed out. So like they could do whatever they wanted, and the audiences were just happy to see like a cool a movie.
SPEAKER_01Something they recognize, yeah. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't think we get that.
SPEAKER_02I don't appreciate that by now. Like it I missed. No, because everything has to be so lore accurate, and you know, just slop something on there.
SPEAKER_04I'll be happy, you know. Like the like the Fallout game, like they're doing like lore stuff and whatever, and it's like the the move the show, and I'm like, you don't need to do that. Like, I just I'm cool to see Fallout, you know.
SPEAKER_02Like I don't need the the vault to be very specific, you know, like oh that that's Vault 67 over there in Vegas, and that's where I found the although I do love that they've kind of chiseled out their own little corner of the Fallout universe, and knowing that it is canon makes me excited to like jump into the games to like kind of like piece together, okay, this is gonna lead to the show in its own like little way, you know.
SPEAKER_04I think that that's there's dates in uh Fallout, buddy. Lots of dates. There's dates.
SPEAKER_02Don't even tempt me, bro. You're talking about the games or the the games, the the show, the show.
SPEAKER_04There's lots of dates, man. You've got a lot of dates to go from.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. The the issue is like it's just like dates on like recordings of random stuff. But anyway, one thing I will bring up that I thought was kind of
The Banquet Gag And Juicy Reviews
SPEAKER_02funny. In the very beginning, when they first get to the island and they have like a banquet prepared for them before like the the first day of fighting, they they bring out all these like nice trays of food, nice trays of food, and then literally the next scene they have like shirtless guys just like flip over the tables to like make room, and then like the next shot is just like the floors are like totally clean, but like I'm telling you that food was juicy. Like there was so much juice on those plates. Like, there's no it would have taken so long. They should have just lifted it up, put it on the corner, you know, like like nice strong men. They didn't have to like flip over tables of uh uneaten food. But speaking of juicy, I'm gonna take this in a different direction. I want you guys to review this podcast a nice five-star juicy review. You don't gotta say much, just make it juicy and we'll know. You know, it's it's very easy to pinpoint a juicy review as opposed to a non-juicy review. You know it when you see it, it's one of those things. Can't describe it, but you know it when you see it. And just like the food that was flipped over on those tables, we hope your review is as juicy as that. So, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for episode 174, uh, where we discussed Mortal Kombat!
Techno Syndrome Theme Song Love
SPEAKER_02Actually, I do want to talk about that song a little bit because that's been in my head for uh a little bit now. It's called Techno Syndrome.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02Um, right before no no, it's okay. Right before we did this podcast, my my son was acting up. And the one thing that always calms him down, no matter what I play, he loves music. He loves just being picked up. I tell my I don't want to wake her from her slumber, but S-I-R-I. I I I say, hey, S-I-R-I, play something I like. And you know, it'll play some random stuff. And he no matter it could be rap, could be metal, could be the slowest jam you've ever heard, he loves it. He loves just dancing in my arms. So I decided, hey Siri, play Techno Syndrome.
SPEAKER_01And here's Techno Syndrome, Mortal Kombat by the Immortals.
SPEAKER_02Hey Siri, stop. Anyway, he uh he loved it. He was just he actually looked like he was having fun. Like he wasn't like falling asleep like normal, like he was like wide awake, just like I've that song's been in my head since 1995, sir.
SPEAKER_04I have had that on on first on cassette tape, then C D, and then finally MP3 version. I don't know how you can listen to that song and not have the best time ever. It's it invites you to be an idiot, to scream, to test your might, you know. I mean, it's a it's a challenge, right? It's a calling.
SPEAKER_02It's a head bopper, it's a mosh pitter, you know. Like you can do whatever you want to that song. It's truly good.
SPEAKER_03It's a perfect song for this movie for a theme.
SPEAKER_02It really is. And I I'm glad they played it a couple times. I thought it was really fun.
SPEAKER_04It's the best part. It's so good. Like, I knew people whose like voicemail messages were that song. You know, they like they play it like, hey, uh, you know, Dakota, leave a message. Like, it's so weird. Like, test your bite, like it's so crazy, man.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I love it. Yeah.
Final Thoughts And Sign Off
SPEAKER_02Final thoughts on Mortal Kombat 95. We'll start with Anthony.
SPEAKER_03Mortal Kombat 95. It's not the greatest movie that you'll ever see. It won't be the greatest acting. It won't have the greatest story, but it what it will have is the greatest fun. Because it is a rip-roaring good time, as Rich says. And if you haven't seen it, I would say go and watch it at least once and formulate your opinion on it. And if you have seen it, now is the time to go back and watch it if you haven't seen it in a while. Because it's just too fun not to.
SPEAKER_04Rich? So for me, okay, obviously it's not a fantastic movie, but I would say that what you need like if you played the video game, you're gonna look you're gonna enjoy it. Like that's if you never played the game, I'm not gonna lie to you, it's uh it's an odd watch, you know. Like, uh, I don't know if if that's the move for me. I don't know. Uh like like if you haven't read Little Women, like I'm not sure if I'm gonna go say, hey, the Little Woman movie is for you, you know. Like I feel like part of it's engaging in that content. So if you played the game, hey, I think you're gonna like it. If you pulled off a fatality after memorizing it and getting it from your friend in math class, you know, and almost getting in trouble because you passed the note, but now you have that piece of paper and you run home and you punch it in and you get your first fatality and it's amazing, then you're gonna love this movie. If you didn't experience that, go watch it and poke fun at it. But I don't think you'll have the same experience.
SPEAKER_02I consider this to be better than the worst MCU film. Or project, worst MCU project. You know, like I would be more willing to watch this than the bottom tier MCU. Finish him. Secret invasion, I'm talking to you. You suck. Anyway, yeah, that's uh that's how I feel. Um Mortal Kombat, fun time. Glad I watched it. Would watch again. I would not force my wife to watch it, but um I would trick her into watching it. Because I'm Trixie like that. Guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for episode 174. We will see you. Or here you will hear from us at another point in time. Bye guys.
SPEAKER_03Bye.
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