Simon McQuoid’s “Mortal Kombat” has officially debuted in Malaysia! After the failed attempt in creating a Mortal Kombat movie franchise in the late 1990s, we finally have a fresh and better-polished film adaptation of the popular video game series.
The movie is produced by James Wan (“Aquaman”, “The Conjuring”) and features some prominent Asian stars on the big screen. There’s a lot to unpack about “Mortal Kombat”. So without going into too many spoilers, here are a few reasons why all you moviegoers need to see “Mortal Kombat”:
1. There’s a lot of epic fight scenes
Expect some great and promising choreographed fight scenes, as the movie is centered around martial arts. It also helps that a few of the cast members are well-trained in martial arts, such as Ludi Lin (林路迪), Max Huang (黄又亮), Hiroyuki Sanada (真田広之), and Joe Taslim. What elevates the fight scenes are the use of special effects. As each character possesses a special ability, we get to witness the unique effects of their powers.
2. “Mortal Kombat” features Lewis Tan’s first lead role
In addition to legendary Japanese celebrities Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano (浅野忠信), Lewis Tan steps into a lead role in “Mortal Kombat”. After spending most of his earlier career as a stuntman in old blockbusters like “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, his hard work is finally paying off.
3. Look out for Benjamin Wallfisch’s awesome soundtrack
Here’s some great news for anyone who lived through the 1990s. The new “Mortal Kombat” movie will include the iconic techno theme from the 1995 version of Paul W.S Anderson’s film. For some fans, get ready to go on a nostalgic journey!
The soundtrack was composed by Benjamin Wallfisch, who’s well known for creating soundtracks for various films like the “It” series, “Shazam!”, “Hidden Figures”, and “The Invisible Man”. In fact, having him onboard influenced lead actor Lewis Tan to join the film. With the movie being based on a 90s video game, expect some retro-sounding music.
4. It’s got actual good Asian representation
When you have a video game based on Asian culture or martial arts, it would be a huge disservice if the whole cast were white-washed. Luckily, the majority of the cast in this film are mostly Asian. Take “Godzilla vs. Kong” for example. The blockbuster had a predominantly group of white actors despite it being based on an Asian icon like Godzilla.
5. “Mortal Kombat” offers some female empowerment
What’s a blockbuster movie without some badass women? We’re proud to say that “Mortal Kombat” does indeed have an amazing female protagonist who’s none other than Jessica McNamee. The Australian actress plays Sonya Blade and as seen in the trailers, she can easily kick some butt – especially when she’s pissed off. Despite not having the marking on her body, Ms Blade shows that she can still hang with the big boys.
6. How is this version different?
“What’s vastly different is that our version is 1000 times more bloody and violent. So it’s got an R-rating. But I don’t think Simon (McQuoid), our director, just for his own ends, uses meaningless violence. All the violence feeds into the story, as you’ll see all the fights tie into each other and really tells the story of the character. The story is basically about each character discovering their inner truth and hidden power,” Ludi Lin exclusively told us during our interview.
7. Ludi Lin teases us on which particular scene to look out for
When asked what was the biggest challenge while filming “Mortal Kombat”, Ludi told us that the physical stuff felt like second nature to him. “The physical stuff, I love to do. It’s always going to be challenging but I love it. I always rise to the challenge. Shooting through the night and the fighting… it was all challenging. Shooting on sets in the middle of the night and it’s in the Australian desert where the closest city is six hours away and you’re in this granite mined and things are exploding all over the place and you have to fight all night — all that was challenging but I love it. I wouldn’t pick it over anything,” he said.
However, the 33-year-old actor dropped a little hint saying, “I don’t want to give anything away. I’ll just give you a clue, “TCM”, and then lookout for something like that in the movie.”
“Mortal Kombat” is currently showing in cinemas.
