In today’s episode of The Cinematic Schematic, first-time special guests Brock Lay and Josh Reid are welcomed to the show to share their fond memories and experiences with the Mortal Kombat franchise before joining me to review the 2021 HBO Max/theatrically released Mortal Kombat from producer James Wan and first-time director Simon McQuaid.

Video game big-screen adaptations have a pretty poor track record for box office and critical success with very few films justifying full-blown franchises and even fewer managing to be received well by critics or remembered fondly by audiences. The flops date back to one of the earliest attempts by Buena Vista’s 1993 Super Mario Bros. One of the more notable exceptions to this trend is 1995’s Mortal Kombat, a film made on a relatively low budget of $18 million. It struck a chord with filmgoers who simply could not resist the synth-heavy theme, resulting in over $120 million at the box office.

Though the film has remained appreciated by generations of moviegoers, its 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was a huge flop and ridiculed by fans and critics alike. More than twenty years and an entire Mortal Kombat web series (Mortal Kombat: Legacy) later, Warner Bros. has brought the blood-soaked franchise back for their HBO Max streaming service to put a much harder “R” spin on the famed video game tournament. Is this resurrection from Hollywood’s development hell a flawless victory or is it a fate worse than death? Tune in to hear our spoiler-free review followed by our spoilerish discussion.

According to IMDB, Mortal Kombat is described as:

MMA fighter Cole Young(Lewis Tan) seeks out Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe.

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