The Upcoming ‘Mortal Kombat’ Reboot Seems Interesting
By George Robbins
The ‘Mortal Kombat‘ franchise of video games has been a famous franchise ever since the release of the original video game in 1992. The games first came to prominence when it was revealed just how violent they were and this fact made them known on many news outlets. Due to the “intense” violence of the game there were many a controversy about the game where many parents were angry about it. This resulted in censorship of the game and eventually helped carve the path forward for the ESRB rating system for video games. Midway, who made the game, had to release toned down versions of the game to arcades. The censorship of the games eventually led to secrets being implemented into the games that turned the violent combat back on by allowing blood to be shown on screen.
Over time, and with the release of more violent video games, the games themselves could stop being censored so much. This is what led to the Mortal Kombat games being brought back as the violent games they were and it made those games among the most popular of all fighting games. The height of the series’ popularity was when the movie, simply titled ‘Mortal Kombat,’ released in 1995. The movie loosely followed the plot of the original video game, but it lacked something that made the games popular. The reason why the games were considered to be so violent to begin with was the fact that the fatalities seen in game were very vicious. They have since become even more so in the newer games to have released over the past few years.
For those unaware, fatalities are essentially finishers for the ‘Mortal Kombat’ series. When an opponent has been beaten, the fighter can then input a certain command with the controls to inflict a harrowing finisher unique to the character they are playing. In recent games, there are a number of different fatalities per character and they are all equally brutal. The fatalities are the reason why the game was considered so violent to begin with and they are what caused the controversy when the games first released. Over time, society has become more desensitized to the violence seen on screen and so the fatalities only ended up becoming even more brutal than before. So it is nice to here that these brutal finishers will end up making their way into a new film.
There is going to be an upcoming ‘Mortal Kombat’ movie reboot that will have a heavier focus on the actual combat part. Actor Lewis Tan who has a role in the new film has said that the fatalities are so brutal that it has made him feel sick. For those who are fans of the video games, this is a good thing to hear because it is the brutality of the games that people fell in love with over the years. This gives an opportunity not really seen by the original film to witness glorious combat in a way that only ‘Mortal Kombat’ can do it. Hopefully it will live up to the expectations that fans have for it and we will be able to see some incredible action as the film makes its way to the big screen.