Ahead of the release of the new Mortal Kombat movie, Game ZXC spoke with the film's writer, Greg Russo. He is a massive fan of Mortal Kombat and explained that the movie would be made primarily with fans in mind.
We were most curious about the creative decisions that the team behind the movie made when planning out how to tell the story of the new film, especially because it has been so long since anyone has attempted to adapt Mortal Kombat into a movie. Luckily, Russo had some great insights into the goals of the Mortal Kombat movie, as one would expect of the man who wrote the screenplay.
There is one major issue with adapting Mortal Kombat into film format that the creators must have grappled with from the very start: there are so many possible directions to go. With so many games and characters to draw from, there are almost too many stories to tell, but even more pressing is the issue of tone. Mortal Kombat tends to ride a fine line between self-seriousness and over-the-top camp, which is reflected well in the original 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. Russo was happy to tell how he and the team managed to set the tone in the new film, too:
"In terms of the bigger picture, we wanted to steer away from the more basic ideas of where we could I go. I always saw Mortal Kombat as a bigger world and a bigger universe, so I wanted to get away from what the old films had done in the 90s, and build out and expand it into a more fleshed out adventure movie. Less of a by the book Enter the Dragon clone, and really make a bigger adventure movie, similar to what other tentpole franchises are doing.
For the tonal question, you could go campy with Mortal Kombat, but you could also go super serious. We had a lot of questions about what the right tone was for this. If you look at the source material, Mortal Kombat always had this sort of 'wink-wink' mentality to it. Its stakes were real, it took itself seriously, but it also loved to make fun of itself and be ridiculous, over the top, and campy. We decided the best balance tonally would be to go right between: have real stakes, real drama, real characters, everything grounded in real emotion. At the same time, we want the movie to be fun. You're gonna laugh, there's gonna be jokes and humor throughout. To me, that's the perfect balance of what Mortal Kombat should be."
Russo makes a good observation that the 1995 Mortal Kombat was heavily influenced by Hong Kong action movies of the time, but the action-adventure genre has come a long way since then. It's very understandable to want to go in a new and different direction. After all, the 1995 movie exists, and audiences can watch it whenever they like. There's no need to re-tread old ground. That said, we still wondered if Russo had watched the older film during his preparations, and if there were any small nods or inspirations that came from it.
"Not only did I watch the original movie, I was there opening night, an hour ahead of time...I was a huge fan of the original film. That being said, I didn't look at it and think I needed to adhere to what it had done. That film is its own thing and it's beloved by many for what it is. Part of the goal was not to mimic or ape that film and to create our own identity...We're rebooting for a new audience and a new generation that didn't grow up with that movie. But, there are a few fun nods and winks to the classic 95 film that I wanted to put in there because I love it."
It sounds like long-time fans will be able to find a good deal of entertainment searching for references to the older movies and original games, but should also expect to be taken in new and interesting directions. That's likely the most anyone can ask of a good Mortal Kombat adaptation, along with plentiful fight scenes and gratuitous violence.
Mortal Kombat released in theatres and on HBO Max on April 23rd, 2021.