The Fandom Portals Podcast
"Welcome to Fandom Portals—the show that explores how your favourite fandoms can help you learn and grow!" 🎙️✨
Each episode, we explore TV, movies, comics, and games to reveal how these worlds and the characters in them help us learn about resilience, courage, friendship, and more.
The Fandom Portals Podcast is hosted by Aaron Davies and Adam Brasher, two friends who are obsessed with fandoms, storytelling, and building a community where passion and positivity come first. From Marvel to Middle-earth, Star Wars to indie comics, we dive deep into the stories you love — and how they help us learn and grow. ✨
The Fandom Portals Podcast
Mortal Kombat (2021) Fatalities, Fandom, and Fighting for Legacy (Crossover with Challenge Accepted)
Episode Summary:
This special crossover episode brings together The Fandom Portals Podcast and Challenge Accepted Podcast as Aaron was a special guest to Frank as they stepped into the bloody arena of Mortal Kombat. From its arcade origins and groundbreaking fatalities to film adaptations and modern fighting game culture, the crew unpacks why this franchise still holds such brutal staying power. With debates on favorite fighters, the balance of violence and storytelling, and the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 film hype, this episode is packed with nostalgia, laughs, and hard-hitting fandom insights.
Topics:
- The legacy of Mortal Kombat in gaming history
- First experiences with the arcade classic and its cultural shockwave
- Why fatalities changed gaming forever
- Comparing Mortal Kombat film adaptations: highs, lows, and guilty pleasures
- Upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 movie excitement and predictions
- Favorite fighters and dream matchups across generations
- Violence, censorship, and the ESRB rating system origins
- How Mortal Kombat built a loyal, multi-generational fanbase
- The crossover between fighting games and pop culture
- Fandom Fact Face-Off: brutal trivia edition
Key Takeaways:
- Mortal Kombat was more than a game—it reshaped the industry through controversy and creativity.
- Fatalities and character designs made the series unforgettable, but its storytelling keeps fans returning.
- Film adaptations vary wildly, but each leaves a unique stamp on fandom.
- The franchise thrives because it adapts—across games, films, and fan communities.
Quotes:
“When Scorpion yells ‘Get over here!’—that’s not just a move. That’s a generation’s memory.”
“Fatalities weren’t just gore—they were artistry, coded rebellion in pixels.”
“Every fan has that one character they spammed just to annoy their friends.”
Call to Action:
If you loved this crossover, make sure to check out the Challenge Accepted Podcast!
Don’t forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and join our mailing list at fandomportalspodcast.com
Apple Podcast Tags:
Mortal Kombat, Fighting Games, Fatalities, Video Game History, Mortal Kombat 2 Movie, Crossover Episode, Challenge Accepted Podcast, Gaming Fandom, Pop Culture Podcast, Movie Adaptations, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, Gaming Controversy, ESRB Origins, Geek Freaks Network, Fandom Portals Podcast
Contact Us:
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Threads: threads.net/@fandomportals
Email: fandomportals@gmail.com
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals
Hi everybody. It's Aaron here from the Fandom Portals podcast. This week we have a very special episode in store for you. We are showcasing some of our network's talent. That is the Geek Freaks Network, and one of the podcasts on our network is the Challenge Accepted podcast. That podcast is hosted by Frank and Thomas, but on this occasion Thomas was actually at the San Diego Comic Con, so I got the opportunity to guest on our sister show on our network, Challenge Accepted, and Frank was a wonderful host. We talked everything to do with Mortal Kombat and we hope you enjoy this episode. Guys.
Speaker 1:Our regular programming will resume in a week's time where you will hear the episode we've promised you on Zombieland, but we thought we would share this amazing episode that we have done as part of our network to you now of the challenge accepted podcast. Remember, if you love them, you can go and find them anywhere you find your podcasts at challenge accepted. They're also on instagram, so make sure you go and show them some love. Both thomas and frank have both guested on our podcast before, so if their voices sound familiar, that is exactly why. So go and show them some love. We definitely appreciate them sharing this episode with us so we could share it with you and we hope you enjoy hey all welcome to Challenge, Accepted the podcast where we challenge each other to do a movie or TV show every week.
Speaker 2:I am Frank and I'm joined by a very special guest, Aaron, from Fandom Portals. How are you doing, Aaron?
Speaker 1:Hello everybody.
Speaker 2:and how are you, frank? It's Aaron here, I'm doing really good, alright. So for some some crazy reason, if somebody's listening to challenge accepted and they have not listened to fandom portals, break down your show for them uh, fandom portals is a podcast where we explore fandoms to help us learn and grow as people.
Speaker 1:we look at a movie pretty much every week and we talk about our most valuable takeaway, which can be anything from talking about generational trauma to anxiety or even something like familial relationships. That is examined in the movie, and sometimes it's in a movie that you would expect, like you know the secret life of walter midi, which obviously has a lot of different sort of themes and sometimes it's from something that you don't really expect, like Sinbad or the Road to El Dorado. So we look at those different kinds of movies and we pull out the lessons that you can learn, and we don't try to do it in like a preachy way. We try to do it in like a hey, this is kind of cool in that kind of way, but we also geek out about the movie as well at the same time.
Speaker 1:The other element about Fandom Portals is I like to talk to industry guests because that's the learning part for me. The growing part is when we break down movies. The learning part for me is talking to some industry experts and fellow podcasters about their experience how they take movies, but also their experience on set and also the way that they sort of interact with stories and character and things like that as well. So it's a good little passion project and it's great to be part of the geek freakers network.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and you're working with a brash on this right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, he's the cohost there. He is a good friend of mine. We've been friends for a while and we started out playing a D and D campaign together and we just found out that we had'm really analytical and sort of facts driven, but sometimes he'll throw an opinion my way that it was something that I just didn't really see or didn't expect, because he comes at a lot of things that we watch or see as a very big fan and, yeah, I think our brains work in two different ways and I think that it's really good for the podcast, because our opinions are either very similar or very diverse, but it makes for a good conversation either way.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, he's jumped on and it's gone really good it's my favorite combo of podcasts is generally there's like the guy who has the research, the numbers, the knowledge, and then the person who's just like. This is what I visually saw this, how it made me feel. So when you combine the two it makes for a really good conversation. I love the podcast and it is a lot of fun. It's not super analytical and stuff like that, so totally worth your guys time and before we leave the show, a couple of your recent guests have been really interesting. Can you share a couple of your recent guests?
Speaker 1:yeah, so we've had jeffrey reddick on, who was the creator of the final destination franchise. He was a really great guest to talk to, but not only that. I've said it a times. He's a really awesome human being. Like we spoke about things not only about Final Destination, but just about how the horror genre is a little bit more than what you expect in terms of being able to express story and character, and just a little bit about his life growing up in Kentucky and how that influenced his writing and his upbringing in the arts and how important the arts are for kids growing up in schools as well.
Speaker 1:And then, most recently, we had Stephen Kepfer on, who is a stunt performer who worked on various different titles. Most notably he was a stunt performer and double in the TV show Ray Donovan. But he's also done some consulting work on John Wick 2,. John Wick 3, because he is very well versed in Sambo Russian fighting, which is the style of fighting that is prominent through John Wick. John Wick 3, because he is very well versed in Sambo Russian fighting, which is the style of fighting that is prominent through John Wick, like John Wick's the Sambo guy and a lot of the kids that were performing those martial arts moves in those movies were actually sort of trained by him and guided by him. So he gave us a little bit behind the scenes on that.
Speaker 1:But he's also working towards becoming a stunt coordinator, which is just like a bit of a trajectory for him, and he's just sort of finished his first official feature as a as a stunt coordinator in a movie coming out called eugene and the machine, which he's excited for and, yeah, he shared his story with us and also very passionate about safety on sets. So he talks to us about how stunts can be dangerous. But there's a big process that people go through and it's important to follow that process. And it was a good behind the scenes look at that side of it because all the flashy and action-packed stuff that you see on the screen, sometimes there's a human being doing that and you know it can be dangerous. So hearing from someone like that and just knowing what goes into your favorite scenes in the movie was eye-opening and awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it adds so much context to some of the movies that we love, so make sure you guys check that out. I'll have links in the description for everybody to follow up on. You should already be subscribed, and after you listen, make sure you drop a review as well. Fandom Portals Podcast with Aaron and Brasher. Okay, today we're going to be talking about Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 1:We today we're gonna be talking about mortal combat. We went back and forth on a couple different movie options. Why did this one, why is this one we landed? Why is this the movie we landed on? Well, I think we started talking about different kinds of australian movies that we could talk about, and there are some australian movies that are like hit and miss in terms of likability. You might say some are very culturally relevant to us as Australians, but not really so for the rest of the world.
Speaker 1:So there are a lot of movies that are filmed in Australia, because I'm going to humbly brag here and say we have a very beautiful country. It's got lots of different, diverse environments and ecosystems that people can shoot in and for that reason we draw a lot of big sort of movies here to be shot here, like pirates of the caribbean. Some of those movies were shot here. The aquaman movies were shot here and also mortal kombat was shot here in australia as well. We also landed on this one because a lot of the performers in this movie are australian, the director's australian. We want to kind, kind of wanted to highlight the, an australian film, because you have obviously me on, who's an Australian person as well, but not only that. Mortal Kombat 2 is coming out, frank Coming out very soon, and we got the trailer drop.
Speaker 2:What did you think of that trailer when you saw it?
Speaker 1:I liked it. I think that it's a very not that this wasn't a good movie, in my opinion, but I think it's a very big upgrade from the this one. I think it's a very big upgrade from this one. I think it's a very big upgrade in terms of production value. In terms of, obviously, casting We'll have to see how dialogue goes but I think they're going back to their roots here in Mortal Kombat 2, because it looks like it's very much centered around the titular tournament, the Mortal Kombat tournament, whereas if you've seen this movie, mortal Kombat it's obviously about the tournament is referenced and mentioned, but we don't explicitly see a tournament between Otherworld and Earthworld.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I agree with you. I do think it's got more polish to it and stuff like that, and I think when we're going over this movie, it might help us to kind of think of that Like this is something that they can prove and what we saw, you know. So let's keep that in mind as we go along, Before we get too far. We got to do our two-minute rundown and you're in charge of that this time. Are you ready for that?
Speaker 1:I am ready for that.
Speaker 2:All right, go for it. I got your timer and start.
Speaker 1:All right. So we open up with a brutal flashback from Hanzo Hasashi, who is actually Scorpion, and his family, and they're in a nice little garden and you know, everything's peaceful and awesome until bump, bump, bump Sub-Zero comes through the nether portal and he is setting up this centuries old rivalry and this is going to happen a lot in this rundown. But they fight and when they do so, sub-zero actually ends up spoiler, spoiler alert killing scorpion's family, which starts their rivalry and feud. Uh, b-han or sub-zero, wants to end the bloodline of hanzo hasashi. However, raiding comes in at the last minute and obviously rescues uh, the prodigy son of scorpion.
Speaker 1:Uh, we cut years later and we're introduced to cole young, who is a washed up mma fighter who is not from the video games. Uh, he's a introduced character and he's got this birthmark on his body, which is a clue to his true lineage. We learn that earth realm is in danger and, uh, we have lost, as earth realm, nine mortal combat tournaments in a row. So outworld, actually. If they win their 10th, then earth falls to uh, the outworlds and shang sun I believe his name is is the leader of the outworld fighters and they got some badasses on their team.
Speaker 1:Uh, and we have for earth realm a ragtag bunch of people sonja blade jacks, kano lu kang, kung lao, and obviously raiden as well, some of them empowered by what in this movie they call Arcana. 30 seconds, and how many? 30. 30. Okay, jax gets cyber arms, kano gets a laser eye, cole gets golden armor. I guess when the Arcana unlocks, the key deaths are like Kung Lao he dies heroically, of course, and Kano betrays the team. They finally fight in a battle at the end where Kohl's and Scorpion team up against Sub-Zero, revealing Kohl to be Scorpion's descendant, and Earthworm wins for the day, but only for now, and we end with Kohl setting off to Hollywood where we meet Johnny Cage.
Speaker 2:There we go. Very good, that last part. When you find out how much time you have left, you're like oh no, I'm still setting things up yeah, here's a lot of backfill and there's like one, two, three, all right, all the way down yeah so a big part of this movie, actually twofold.
Speaker 2:There's two big parts of this movie. When I'm watching this again is first off, it takes me back to the pandemic, because this was one of those first like oh hey, we're gonna have to release it on the streaming service instead of theaters. Did that come back to you when you watched it this time?
Speaker 1:I think so because actually I watched this movie in cinemas and it came out just when australia was reopening their theaters and you know it, it's not a Titanic-like masterpiece, but it was the first time people were starting to come out of their homes again during this time to actually be in a social space and enjoy a movie in the theater-like experience again. So this was actually one of the most active theater experiences that I've had in terms of like people whooping at the screen and it's a kind of fun movie that you're able to do that with as well. So obviously the Marvel titles are really sort of active cinema experiences. I didn't expect it from a Mortal Kombat movie but coming out of that pandemic when everybody was sort of locked up for so long, I think it was just what the doctor ordered everybody out for a bit of popcorn fun. And obviously you know Kano strikes a very awesome vibe with us Australians, so it was just good to get out and laugh again after so much bad news on the TV.
Speaker 1:And yeah, the film was definitely hindered by the COVID pandemic. I know it coincidentally or not coincidentally, but conveniently wrapped up filming just before Australia really locked down, tightened up its borders, so post-production was really the only thing that I could see that it was affected by and that was them trying to go through different sort of workflows to do post-production CGI and obviously reshoots and things like that had to be scheduled around actors' schedules but also when the borders would open up again. So a lot of complications that came to making this movie come to the big screen. But I think that it was a really good one to come to the cinema because it just gave us a lot of joy here in Australia when we were able to come out and see it again.
Speaker 1:And despite that as well, it actually did make $80 million, I think as well, which is more than what its budget was. So it's marginally profitable and it didn't have any marketing, obviously because they couldn't travel around the world and do the press junket. So with that and with this outstanding IP, I'm very interested to see how number two goes when they can obviously do that and they have a big star attached in the name of Carl Urban. Thank you, I just brain farted on his name. But attached in the name of Carl Urban, thank you, I just brain farted on his name, but yeah, I think that. I think I'm interested to see how that will go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it almost feels like the sequel. So this to me feels like a prequel, frankly, to what the sequel is, uh, which is, you know, the actual tournament with bigger, with bigger cast and it really it's like the pandemic, I think, almost kind of gave everybody like we understand it might not be the best movie, but it came out in these times we couldn't do this or this or this, so everybody's a lot more forgiving for this movie and I think that helps a bunch. And boy, like, my first theater going experience post-pandemic was spider-man, no way home, and we left that theater just being like we'll never have that experience again. But it was this moment of. I think we might be past this. You know this entire shutdown thing so it will live rent free forever. You know in you that that first time going to the theaters again, that's good yeah, yeah, I definitely agree.
Speaker 1:I did read somewhere that greg russo, who's the writer of this mortal kombat or the screenplay at least for this mortal komb Kombat he originally intended there to be three Mortal Kombat movies one that was held before the tournament, this one number two that's coming out is is at the tournament, and the third one, hopefully, that comes out, will be the, the post tournament movie. So I definitely agree with you that this is the, the prequel to that tournament, because it's referenced throughout but not shown done yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The other thing about this movie, of course, is the video game, so how familiar are you with, like the mortal kombat video games?
Speaker 1:so the first time I played a mortal kombat video, I think I was about eight years old. It was on a sega mega drive and it was my cousin's, and my cousin's house had less strict rules than what my house did which I think everybody has, that cousin. So you know this was obviously a game that was not for eight year olds, but playing fighting genre games before and also I think they're pretty universal on the button mashing sort of side of it.
Speaker 1:So if you randomly get a fatality at the end of it, you're like, oh my gosh, like it actually happened, yeah. So that was my first sort of experience of it. I always knew the character of scorpion through this and it was, you know, really awesome to know that he sort of descended into hell and pulled off his mask and had a skull there. That was a really badass for an eight-year-old. Um. But then, as we went on, I didn't really touch mortal komb Kombat again until they pulled out the Mortal Kombat versus DC for the Xbox 360.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then Injustice by the same company that sort of made it, and I think that I honestly think that they're within the top tier of fighting games for console in terms of Mortal Kombat, if not the best. It's only competitor really for me is Street Fighter, maybe Tekken, but Mortal Kombat, I think, just has a really rich and deep lore. It's only competitor really for me is street fighter, maybe tekken, but mortal combat, I think, just has a really rich and deep lore, which I think is in regards to this movie. Something that a lot of critics talked about was how well that was represented or how well it was misrepresented. Um, so yeah, I think for me the video games are something that I have little seeds in my brain for, but it's not something that I really dove into and am absolutely enamored by and know everything about. What about you, frank? Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?
Speaker 2:Like you, as a kid I played it a bunch. Street Fighter was the one that parents knew you were playing. Mortal Kombat was the one they didn't know you were playing and just smash all the buttons. Try to remember what the heck you just did, because that was cool, one of the things. I grew up with two other brothers, so all video games diddy kong racing, mario kart this we had like those are my characters. You're not allowed to use my characters. Yeah, yeah. So for me, sub-zero was definitely my character. Was that yours too?
Speaker 1:yeah, me too. Yeah, absolutely. I loved his ice wall move. Um, I've forgotten what version it was in, but he would make this ice wall and as soon as the other player smashed it, sub-zero would come in from the other side of the screen. Just act him with an ice sword, yep, and you know. Once you find something that works in a fighting move, what do we do?
Speaker 2:Frank, yeah, just repeat it, we spam it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we spam it. That was definitely the one that I I used all the time with. It was sub-zero and yeah, he was just. He was almost like the, the badass version of of scorpion, so I really liked him.
Speaker 2:He was cool, yeah which, seeing luke hang my littlest brother, jonathan, which you've probably talked um geek freaks, his thing was luke hang and he had a little like and they did it in this movie I was like, oh, I'm tired to see that move so much where he does a little kick through the air, because when you're playing against your little brother can do that move. You're like son of a gun, do something different. And there's even a little reference to that, like when kano just kept getting, you know, kicked the ran has kicked on the floor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was like that is so video games yeah yeah, those were the references and the nods where you watch this movie and you're just like, oh my god, they're actually playing, playing some reference to that.
Speaker 1:So these guys are fans, or at least know of the source material, which is great, because you know you don't want a video game adaptation where there's there's no reference at all. So that's like a tongue-in-cheek. We all knew what was going on in that and it was just, yeah, not taking itself so seriously. But also it kind of mixed well with it, because mortal combat is a very sort of dark toned movie and ip when you think about it, but mixing things in it like that, like that comedy aspect and also just inserting kano in there just for a bit of levity every now and then. The way they represented him was also a good shift in the because otherwise you'd sit in there and it would be a very sort of dark movie after coming out of a pandemic, which is a very dark time. I don't think it would have hit as well as it kind of did.
Speaker 2:You know that tone is important for for mortal kombat as in general, because I think, yes, dark you know, oh, we got this other world, we got this blah, blah, blah. But I think a lot of the comedy too that comes from mortal kombat is in its overkill, the fatalities that are so ridiculous, which is like you're laughing at it because he just ripped his skeleton out or something. I think the fact that the movie made sure to kind of show some of that we were like, okay, you know was fun, and I and I don't know if I think they need to further embrace that going forward because there were moments in this movie where they were just doing like to come over here. Or fatality, we're like that line 100 does not fit, but man, I'm happy I just heard it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it was almost like, or the two that I can remember, the fatality where kano fights reptile and rips his heart out. That's it. That's straight from the, the mortal kombat game. Uh, and as he pulls that heart out, you know josh lawson says that line you know kano wins and he's like yes yeah, okay, we know where that comes from.
Speaker 1:That's the narrator in his deep, macho voice saying that. And then the other one obviously was the over-the-top buzzsaw kill from Kung Lao with the Frisbee hat, as Kano likes to say, and he's obviously sliced that person in half and it's just playing back to that over-the-top nature. But I would have liked to have seen and I'm not usually a guy that likes horror or gore, but I think in Mortal Kombat it fits because it's so ridiculous. And the best thing they introduced in the games was when they did that x-ray cam. Do you remember that when they introduced the x-ray cam for the games?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, once you get a certain amount of hits on or a certain amount of like like fatalities or special moves, it actually zoom into the neck that you were like snapping with your fist or where the ice shard would go into the neck. And yeah, it was just.
Speaker 3:You know, it's literally teenage boys dream seeing that kind of thing as you're playing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think that they they did that really well in the movie, but they did kind of. I feel like they held back a bit in terms of that as well, but maybe they did kind of. I feel like they held back a bit in terms of that as well, but maybe they did that again to appeal to a wider audience, with it already being an R rated movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually, one of my fun facts coming up is it is actually rated NC 17. So it was beyond R and then they had to bring it back down a notch, cause they're like we got to be able to sell this thing. So, yeah, I think there was a lot of that going on. Yeah, I agree. Looking at the story for this thing, what did you think about them bringing an entirely new character with Cole Young?
Speaker 1:So I think the story behind that was that Simon McCoy and Greg Russo, the director and screenwriter, they wanted a character that could serve as the audience's surrogate. So Cole Young was created for this, because he was experiencing the world of mortal kombat fresh and new, just like a lot of the audience members would. Because, as we said before, mortal kombat does have a quite extensive lore and people die and people come back and this is actually someone's twin brother and sub-zero has like three different versions of himself. So there is that deep sort of lore and rabbit hole that you can dive into. But I think they definitely introduced Cole Young, who's played by Louis Tan, into this movie to act as that for the audience, as that new person that's coming in asking all the what do you mean? Questions, so they can be answered in exposition for the audience to understand. Fun fact about him this was his first major motion picture role. He did go on then to play the Black Power Ranger in the Power Rangers movie reboot as well. So good old Louis Tan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that they added to this movie that I thought was a good job as well and introducing new people to this world is giving the term arcana to the idea of, like, why do these people have magic abilities? And that little Macguffin ended up, I think, enhancing the story, because the entire time you're like, oh, this one's special because they have an arcana, oh, you can steal the arcana, and it's all done by that symbol, which, of course, is the logo for the video game. I thought that was a really good addition. Did you feel like that was needed or overkill?
Speaker 1:I think it's definitely an awesome addition because it allows audiences to see that they could bring in a lot of new characters, because whoever kills somebody with that mark or the marker of the chosen will then become somebody who's chosen and develop their own arcana. But I've always really been fond of and liked movies where there is a hidden power inside somebody and they have to unlock it and you're just waiting to see how it manifests. And I think in this movie it was really well done because the powers that they've manifested, they kind of made them manifest during a moment of the character's personality, that sort of really portrayed who they are. So if we talk about, for example, the kano scene, his powers manifest with his laser eye, which is completely new from the video game. Usually it's cybernetics, but in this one it's a. It's a arcana laced laser eye.
Speaker 1:He's taking some heat from lu kang and kung lao and he's he seems like he's a very sort of macho and bravado driven character, but he's obviously getting very triggered by these very surface level attacks and because his anger just sort of swells in him and anger being a very prominent emotion in his toolkit, that heightened state really triggered his arcana and I found that really interesting as well, whereas if we combine that with, like a character like Cole Young, he's a very protective person in terms of his family.
Speaker 1:He's very much doing a lot of the things that he's doing to protect those people, and at the start of the movie, when he was talking about his MMA career, the trainer that was there was saying you know, oh, if you're going to be a fighter, you actually have to attack and defend, like that's part of the deal.
Speaker 1:So he actually got a power in arcana that allowed him to take a lot of punches and then redirect that energy back to people, um, not only denoting his fighting style, where he does take a lot of punches because he has no defense, but also sort of use that as his strength and his weapon to then redirect.
Speaker 1:And the armor surrounding him can be metaphorical in terms of his, his protective nature and the nature of him as a person. So I think it actually enhances the characters and gives them a little bit of depth, as opposed to them just being like a really cool warrior from Earth that just happens to have cybernetic eye that shoots lasers and stuff, and there was always that suspension of disbelief that you have to go through with a Mortal Kombat character because you're like, oh, why does this human have metallic arms that can beat the crap out of people? Um, whereas if you serve it like and it is a very fancy explanation, but I think they've deepened it enough to give it that sort of belief system for the audience when you say that it's like, okay, he's got those arms because he's like he's strong, offensive, he's very protective of everybody that's around him, and yeah, I think when they've aligned it with the character's personality, it serves purpose as opposed to just having it there for coolies, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and there is a metaphorical part of it, right, which I really do enjoy, and I think, when Liu Kang and Kung Lao are talking to Kano, because their intention of doing this arena is to unlock those abilities, I think they're purposely like, you know, what this guy's fueled by anger that's definitely how we're gonna do this.
Speaker 2:Just like I think the reason Raiden says you need to go home is not because he doesn't want his help, it's because he's like the only way to get this guy to fight is if he has to protect his family, and that's. I think that was just smart move on rating with rating probably my favorite character of the of the movie, and so it's funny that this movie, when watching it as a whole, I get a vibe of like this is probably a cheap movie. You know I enjoy it for what it is Fireworks. You know it doesn't need anything crazy, but there are moments that kind of stand out like that were like that was actually well thought of. I liked that. They added, put, added that little extra mustard to this. That was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think one of the biggest things to me in terms of that element that you were talking about there was, yes, it had kind of a smaller budget but so much thought went into the costume designs of these characters as well. So, looking at some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, at characters like Shang Tsung, if you look at his breastplate, they've kind of designed his breastplate to look like it's got the forms of very tortured souls across his breastplate and shoulder pauldrons and that's obviously because his power, his arcana, is that he rips the souls out of people. So there was a lot of thought to combine the elements of the costume with the powers of the individual. In that sense, even when you're looking at like Sub-Zero and you're looking at his helmet, a lot of the things on his helmet are like the muscular sort of tendons sort of pull across as well. But there's also the very sort of muscular-like mask that sort of comes through to show that this is like a humanistic character. But he's void of all sort of human features and you know obviously the leather that's sort of portrayed through this and the various different masks that are through here.
Speaker 1:Just those details in the costume really serve the character and I think a lot of thought went into that as well and, that being said, it's very easy to look at these costumes and think it's very easy to make them look cheap and corny. But I didn't feel that way for this movie, at least for the costume side of things. I thought they all fit and they all looked pretty cool, and even the military characters that were kind of dressed down where they just had like tank top and and pants and boots and things like that still fit. So it was very creatively done, I'll say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it gives a vibe of the 90s action movies, which this is very much in line with. And then we see Johnny Cage coming up. He's a wash-up from a 90s action movie era, so it all lines up, especially with the played down characters. And then I really like sub-zero, because we first meet him he's all human, looking with light, ice powers, and then when we see him later on you can tell he's embraced the ice powers more and so he's now kind of like shelled himself off from humanity. And then at the end, that last fight, when he's about out of everything, he just sheds it all, just to kind of go back to his old roots and just kind of flails and I think is less powerful, ice wise again.
Speaker 2:But then he's fighting you know Scorpion hand to hand essentially. So there's something tied there Again. It's like one more layer of thought. You hand-to-hand essentially, so there's something tied there again, it's like one more layer of thought. You wouldn't think this movie needed to add, but if you want to find it it's there for you to check out.
Speaker 1:It's pretty.
Speaker 1:I yeah, I can definitely agree with that and that's literally what sort of that's the eye that I look through movies in and that's sort of why I created the phantom portals podcast, because I look for those sort of deep cuts in terms of sub-zero and scorpion.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of sort of messaging that you can take from that in terms of, like, generational trauma.
Speaker 1:For example, if you're looking at Scorpion specifically, like there is an absolute tragedy that happens to Scorpion, the original Scorpion, and through that tragedy obviously his ancestors go down through the time until Cole Young is born and he's obviously still a fighter which is in his blood, you could say.
Speaker 1:But there's a line at the end of the movie where scorpion sort of says to him protect the bloodline and it's almost like that's kind of like the, the burden on the family to continue on the legacy of what has come before you, which I think is very prevalent in some cultures more than others. But I think, if you wanted, you can kind of look at it and think that vengeance without discipline can lead to ruin. But Scorpion sort of looks at vengeance but he has this purpose and the purpose is obviously to get that retribution and to preserve the bloodline and make sure that his legacy and champions continue on to protect the earth realm and protect people from suffering the same sort of fate that he did. So it is there like you can sort of deep dive and look into those sort of deeper themes.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, I really like the and I always have like the relationship between sub-zero and and scorpion looking at that, yeah, yeah and then we're going to start going through these characters here, and I do want to touch on that then, because I the idea that he is fueled by vengeance, which is a big part of him in the video game, but also like he's couldn't protect his family, so he's wanting to use vengeance to protect cole's family.
Speaker 2:He sees the both, you know, frozen and ice, that kind of like knocked in next year and and then that goes into cole's powers too, like this whole, like that whole bloodline is protectors and the fact that that scorpion failed. He went to hell for that and fought his way back to continue to try to protect again. So it's not like he, you know, could have. I think if this was a poorly written character, he wouldn't have gone back to hell. He would have stayed now on Earth and like I'm Scorpion now, I'm going to be here all the time, but no, he went back to hell. I thought that was a smart move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think with Scorpion it's wrath, but it's tempered by that legacy in terms of the fact that he's kind of honoring what matters, whereas there's family, there's memory, there's redemption there. And in the end he does end up teaming up with Cole Young and he does become that protector. Because when Cole Young is literally down to his last beat and Sub-Zero is about to sort of finish him, we get that amazing line from Scorpion that's truly iconic, you know, get over here and he has that, that weapon that's symbolic of scorpion as well just absolutely at the very right moment pulls in and he joins the fray in the fight as that protector as well. And it carries that weight because it's not just a line, it's like, it's him like reclaiming that power, it's a call to justice, it's it's not just that sort of senseless violence. He's there to actually not really punish but to sort of make peace with his place within that punishment, if that's made sense.
Speaker 1:So yeah yeah, I thought that the scorpion fight at the end with sub-zero and scorpion and cole. That was probably my favorite one yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 2:That's. That's definitely a highlight for me. Were there any major standout performances in this film that you wanted to make sure to highlight, like for jessica mcname, who plays Sonia Blade? I think you know playing this character who is almost shunned by everybody else around her, but it's still like no, I belong here, I'm a fighter, I'm going to keep pushing. And then when she gets you know, kind of this revenge on Kano, I really felt like I was rooting for her. She wasn't like overly done. I don't think she was overly pushed upon the rest, everybody around her. I think she was fighting for her place and then earned it at the end in a way that I feel like really counters kano, who felt like oh, I should be here because I'm the best, and you guys don't even know it, and she's like I might not be the best, but I will eventually try to be the best, and those two really played off each other in a nice way on screen I agree.
Speaker 1:I think um sonja blade's character, jessica mcnamara, australian actress too, she she plays this sort of understated loyal character that kind of glues the rest of the team together and she's constantly being shat on excuse my french, but they're always looking at her and saying you know, you don't have a mark, you don't have a mark, you don't belong. Uh, but she still sticks around. Obviously she's got that loyalty to her family, which I think why she gets the symbolic representation of a unit which is like a ring, an unbroken ring. You see it in marriages, you know, that's the symbol of unity. That's what she gets when she, her powers sort of emerge. There's those rings that come and she uses them as an offensive weapon. So I think that her, her power is that she's able to keep a group together, fight for the just cause.
Speaker 1:And she does juxtapose well with kano because they're completely opposite. Kano will break a, a loyalty if the price is right. And I think, in terms of characters that are played and performance wise, I think Josh Lawson did an absolutely amazing job playing Kano. He was given the job of playing the stereotypical Aussie larrikin, which is like loud, crude, anti-hero, mocks authority, thrives on his own rules. We usually call it the pub guy here in Australia. It's like a pub star kind of bravado.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's this brash confidence that this devil may care attitude and he's just like a classic boorish, unrefined but kind of charming Australian male character as well.
Speaker 1:You can see it through Australian cinema or if there's an Australian, to varying levels of degree. Obviously this has turned up to 11 in Kano. But another lesser example of it might be Mick Dundee from Crocodile Dundee. He's sort of very similar. He's very unrefined and he juxtaposes in various different sort of more refined situations as somebody who's a bit of an outsider but also very charming, someone who you might want to go for a beer with.
Speaker 1:Basically, and there's kind of a couple of different ways that people viewed kano. I think obviously australians kind of looked at him and said yeah, we're on screen, we love it because we love it when that happens. Ign, for example, I read they highlighted that kano was like the mvp of mortal combat and josh lawson brought a raucous kind of almost deadpool like energy to the character. But then there are other people that sort of criticized that and said he, he like he flirted with a line of self-parody for australians and it's like it's a lazy stereotype and that that's how we're being represented and it's not always a good thing and all that kind of thing. But I I think either way, any way you slice it, any way you look at it, I think josh lawson embodied the character of kano well and played him really well. And some of those lines that he played, those one-liners, they were all improvised as well. So, yeah, yeah. Simon McCoy, the director, said you know, lean into the absurdity of the character. And Josh Lawson said you got it, buddy. Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I think he did a great job. So, from my perspective as an American, I think I recognize him as like he's above and beyond, like we know, like when we watch Crocodile Dundee, we know that's not you guys are all walking around like that, but you know it's fun, just like, presumably, when you see an American who's just like you know all these guns and da da da you know and like, yeah, that's not us. Like well, there's some of us, but I've got an uncle like that, but yeah, that's that us Like.
Speaker 1:Well, there's some of us. I've got an uncle like that, but yeah, that's exactly it too, and some of us here in Australia are very much like that as well. As I was talking to you off stream before, there's a small little strip along the east coast of Australia that everybody lives in because it's safe to do so. None of the deadly animals go there. But anywhere west of that, where you start to get into a bit more country sort of territory of Australia, you get more and more levels of Kano until you reach the centre. It's like the more centre of the centre of Australia you get, the more towards the Kano side of things you get. But I think it's very interesting that both Crocodile Dundee, mcdundee and Kano both have extremely massive knives.
Speaker 1:Yes, I don't know where that came from as an Australianism, but I think some truck drivers have pocket knives and things but they use it as a tool utility I don't know where the big, massive knife thing came from.
Speaker 1:I think that, yeah, that was just an over-exaggeration. But yeah, I think that it was a fun character to insert, and you know Kano from memory as well. From the 1995 ones I think Kano was represented as like a British person as well. So I think it slowly transitioned into, like maybe Cockney, british and then Australian somehow. Yeah, but yeah, I think Josh Lawson deserves a bit of a shout out because he he did portray a really good Kano.
Speaker 1:One more I'd like to say Max Huang, who played Kung Lao. He hadn't acted in a lot of things and he did, you know, have that heroic death, kung Lao being the guy with a frisbee hat. Um, for those of you tracking he's, he's usually a stunt performer by trade and he was actually part of the jackie chan school of stunt performers as well. So he was there and actually consulted on a lot of the martial arts that were happening there to make sure that was kind of in line with whatever style that character wished to play. For example, h Hanzo Hisashi Scorpion. He does a lot of sort of ninjutsu and kenjutsu sort of fighting moves, and they've tried to make it as authentic as possible, weaving it into those Mortal Kombat moves as much as they possibly could, as well.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:I think that's worth a nod as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's a distinction between Hanzo and Baihan Sub-Zero being Chinese too, I did like how? Because you know the American move would be just like, oh, they're speaking Japanese, and then we'll throw it. But the fact that they were saying, no, this one's speaking Chinese, this is speaking Japanese, and that little difference too, and you can see it in their movements. I just love when we see it with, like Avatar, the Last Airbender, stuff like that, like the idea that there's so many other cultures within one culture that oftentimes get lumped together. It's beautifully done and it's subtle in this movie.
Speaker 1:But again, it's like if you want to see there's more context here, you can look for it there yeah, and I think that also translates to Kung Lao as well, because he, through his costume and through his fighting, he he is very Chinese in his orientation, but the hat that he uses and is so traditional for his character is of Korean design. So there's those two sort of cultures mixed in the one character and you could dive deep on that as well. You could say maybe that's an iteration of his sort of heritage and his bloodline. Because, yeah, kung Lao does have a very big lore and history through Mortal Kombat and in this movie it's mentioned that lord kung lao was the one who sort of led earth realm to a victory in the past. So he's a very honorable character as well. So just goes back to those details that you can find if you want to, even in a beat-em-up popcorn flick like, uh, mortal combat.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's, it is a fun flick and I think these characters there's so many times where it's like, oh yeah, I could see playing this character on in the video game or whatever you want to explore more of them. And then, yeah, I just go back to, of course, sub-zero. Don't pick my sub-zero kind of thing too, so there's always those that are just like born into us. You talked about the last fight scene. You're being your favorite fight scene. What about that scene? Do you stands out to make it your favorite?
Speaker 1:I think it's. It's the one that I waited for the whole movie, for one but for two, I think it's. It's just like that rivalry, that history, you know there's always the two characters pitted together. But you could also dive really deep into those two characters and see where that sort of rivalry started and both of their fighting styles being so brutal in nature and two fighters at the top of their game as well, like, I think, scorpion and Sub-Zero best characters in the game, not only just with how cool they are to play in video games but also, you know, lore-wise, they're very powerful fighters. So seeing two of them fighting each other and then with the added layer of the story element in this being that you know the bloodlines at risk and Cole Young being there to sort of fight in in amongst as well, I think there was just some really great sort of set pieces and a really good callback to the start of the movie. I mean the story in this is very thin, like we can admit it. The story in this is very thin. It's basically an excuse to get people together to fight. But I think that that callback to the start where Hanzo sees that Cole is suffering in the same sort of manner that he did and not wanting to continue on. That sort of that pain for his ancestor was what fueled those people to sort of come to the next level and fight Sub-Zero even harder.
Speaker 1:But also, I don't know what this says about me, but I always tend to pivot towards the villain as a favorite sort of character of mine, not because I sympathize with them but because I think they're interesting to look at and watch. So Sub-Zero for me it's interesting to see a character from Earthrealm that's obviously aligned themselves with Otherworld, and I kind of want to see a bit more of that later on, as to know sort of why that happened and why he aligned himself that way and why he turned against earth realm in that space to to to side with shang tsun and I hope that they do it later on, because they definitely do it in the law for the video games because sometimes sub-zero is seen as a good guy and sometimes he's seen as a bad guy, and that's another thing. That sort of that flip around for me is interesting where two characters can be seen on two sides of a coin yeah, even scorpion's like morally gray.
Speaker 2:He's never, always a good guy. Yeah, he is from hell 100 yeah to me.
Speaker 2:I thought. I thought a standout fight was the kano sonya, one that we saw like it was back in her, her home. And we have kano coming in. He's returning to this scene. Last time we saw him here he got scratched in the face and, you know, beaten pretty badly. When he returns now he's got the laser eye and he feels confident and overpowered. Sonya is here, it's in her element. She has no power, like she has no arcana, and she uses her wit, she uses her intelligence to outsmart him, something that we already knew that she had over kano. But this is her element, this is where she could really do it.
Speaker 2:She does like a home alone stuff like different trap doors and stuff like that and he's just shooting randomly like cyclops, losing his mind, and so I really enjoyed how she eventually took him out it was her choke, choked him out in the end or whatever and beat him and then with the subtle like just she gets the mark and is like oh's got powers now.
Speaker 2:They didn't even bother showing her powers in that moment. They let her save the day later on and then with her powers coming in, but something about that fight, it felt raw. It felt so claustrophobic because it was in that hallway for the most part and just the way that like debris was falling everywhere. It felt very real in a world where we saw a bunch of magic powers happening. This felt like a very real in a world where we saw a bunch of magic powers happening. This felt like a very real fight in a way. And his, his laser eye to the way that red just kind of like reflects everywhere as it's going off. It just seems so dangerous and out of control, like kano is it was.
Speaker 1:It was well done, well done, yeah I I agree because I think that the audience, for example, gets really invested in a fight like that because there is a clear underdog, like Sonya Blade is a clear underdog when it comes to Kano. But in so many different fights in all of Hollywood you know that the biggest weakness of a character like Kano in a situation like this, where he knows that he's in a high advantage, is obviously his hubris. He knows he's good, he knows he's going to win, so therefore he's going to make mistakes. The hubris he knows he's good, he knows he's going to win, so therefore he's going to make mistakes. The other thing that's really good about this fight is, as you said, it's not as straightforward as some of the others. It's not two guys facing off each other, ready set fight.
Speaker 1:There's some different sort of elements and strategy involved in this and I think that that does also harken back to when we're first introduced to kano, when he's fighting the reptile, because when I first see kano he doesn't pick me and he's a mercenary and he's, like you know, he's called the black dragon and all that kind of thing. So there is some history with him, but he doesn't strike me as somebody who's very well versed in like martial arts or fighting or boxing, as all of the other characters and this is something that is highlighted in a lot of australian characters as well, where we we're wily, like we'll get in there and we'll, we'll fight in a wily sort of manner and not always in a like a clean manner, you might say, or an honorable manner. And Kano sort of exemplifies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Kano exemplifies that when he's fighting Reptile. And I think Sonya Blade highlights her intellect in the fact that when she actually goes to fight Kano in the end, because she sees how he sort of fought at the start and knows what his tactics are, knows what his game plan is, so she's going to meet him at his level but also strategize and do what she needs to do to win the day. So I think you'll like that one too. It was a really great representation of a smart character using history of an opponent to come out on top, which is good.
Speaker 2:Just out of curiosity. I don't think of the game she is, but would it be better for because this is such an australian developed movie if sonja was australian, so that there wasn't just the stereotypical brawler type, but that you actually had, kind of like you know, two sides of the of that coin? Would that make more sense to you or would you be happier with it?
Speaker 1:I'm not too sure.
Speaker 1:I think there is a lot of history in terms of sonia's character as being part of the, the us military, okay, um, yeah, for me I wouldn't mind it too much because I was obviously not too invested in the law and the, the, the actress macnamé she is australian as well, right, so for me it wouldn't, it wouldn't hurt too much, but I do think that there are a lot of people that probably would turn an eye towards it because of her character lore within the military and that does get I think it's going to get explored a little bit more in number two because she also does have a very good friendship with johnny cage as well and also has always had a really good friendship with jacks.
Speaker 1:It's almost like those three of like the military sort of training that they've had has bonded them as characters, which is sort of central to you then liking those characters. So if if she was an Australian, then I'd still think she'd have to have that sort of military background. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't say no to it because I like Australian characters in movies, right.
Speaker 2:I'm just wondering if there's something I didn't think about beforehand when watching this originally. I wonder if there's a tendency and it could definitely be, because the game came out in 93, where the characters are just so stereotypically like this is that kind of character I'm thinking about Jax as well Like the one black character is a character that just wants to punch things and looks very is very typical to what you would assume, and so I wonder if that's something that maybe the movies could take some liberties and go ahead and adjust from the video game. They quite old at this point, and so I was wondering like, yeah, do we need to show the one Australian character as just this brawler that you'd find in a pub?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I definitely think that there's some opportunity for that through the way that Simon McCoy, the director, has introduced, like the mark and the way that sort of transfers. So I think that now, these movies being a product of the 2020s, they'll be able to make some new characters that could then appear in video games that might be a little bit more diverse, a little bit more well represented in terms of different cultures, represented in terms of different cultures and, yeah, because this one is definitely you can look at it and the original movie coming out in 1995 as well uh, they are a product of their time and there are some things in there that obviously have aged well and some that have have not. So, yeah, I think that through that use of the arcana and the mortal kombat mark, I think it's definitely opened up the avenue to for fans to fall in love with some new characters by the way, for those who are Kano fans, kong Lao fans, they're both coming back for Mortal Kombat 2 yeah, which is I don't know how that's gonna go.
Speaker 1:But again, mortal Kombat lore is tricky stuff.
Speaker 2:So I asked Squeaks because he's like he actually knows like all the lore, whatever he's, you know he plays the fighting games for the stories, which is weird. But he was like oh yeah, they're called revenants or something like that. They're undead people. They come back and they're just fine. They're just dead people that came back like okay, so they don't care, just stays dead, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's that suspension of disbelief we're talking about as well. Um, in terms of you know, yeah, just make it work, just exactly make it work, yeah one of the things I thought was kind of distracting in this movie was the score.
Speaker 2:Did you notice that at all?
Speaker 1:yeah, I saw the. I've forgotten who the actual composer is in this movie. I don't know his name, but he I actually heard that he started making this before he was sort of formally offered the role because he was pretty excited to do it. But with that in in mind, I think he sort of tried to blend traditional sort of score with video game arcade music. And you know, sometimes when you do something bold like that it pays off and everybody is enamored by it. But other times it sort of doesn't sort of sit.
Speaker 1:And I found it in the latter for this movie. Sometimes it really did fuel the fight and other times I felt like it took me out of it a little bit and I was like, oh, this is like a not on the nose, but this is an obvious video game reference and I can see what you're doing here. But maybe this scene would would benefit more from an emotional musical piece or something with some drums to heighten the tension a little bit more and as opposed to like really high-pitched stereo arcade music right, right, a lot of electric drums going on.
Speaker 2:To me it felt like, oh, these are early marvel trailers, soundtracks, when they used to do like the same music for all of them. The composer, which is benjamin wall wallfish, did a lot of really good work. So I mean in the past, shazam, invisible man, blade runner 2049, it predator actually the new predator that you just did killer, killer of killers, did that soundtrack as well yeah, but this particular one like took chances.
Speaker 2:That, I think, actually kind of hurt the film. It was distracting. You should feel the soundtrack. You shouldn't have to notice it, and I think there was a lot of times where I was just like maybe this is a little too loud, maybe it's just misplaced, but I think the soundtrack could be fixed for the next movie.
Speaker 1:Personally, yeah, and it would have been hard as well because I know in in most movies if you have an action sequence, you usually compose one or two pieces for an action sequence and your action sequence lasts, for I don't know two to three minutes on screen. So if you compose something that's 10 minutes, you can use all different parts of it and it feels very connected and joined together, whereas in a movie like this the action scenes are probably like the runtime is an hour and 50 minutes and I would say that the action sequences probably encompass a lot of that. So it would have been a lot more for this person to compose and a lot more variety would have had to have been used in terms of the way that he composes stuff, just so it didn't feel repetitive as he, as he goes through. So maybe that sort of played into it as well. It's just, yeah, lots of different sort of creative choices he would have had to make to try and verify or not verify, but use variety in his, in his composure.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and then with post-production being done during the pandemic, looking at the cgi and and the special effects, I don't think that they are terrible. They are some places lackluster, but I think for the situation, especially where they're working from home and whatnot or doing it very late production, I don't think it's too bad, especially, like I would say, sub-zero's ice. I thought looks pretty good. Yeah, what did you think?
Speaker 1:yeah, I think traditionally cgi effects in the water ice fire department can be very difficult to get right.
Speaker 1:It can literally make or break.
Speaker 1:If you're looking at water or fire and you're just like that looks fake, uh, it takes you out of the whole picture.
Speaker 1:That wasn't the case for me for both Kung Lao's fire or Sub-Zero's ice, and I think that's a testament to the people that worked on it in the CGI department, because they not only had to generate these images for the movie, which is a big and tough job in itself, but they also had to do workarounds in terms of workflow because they were all doing it remotely.
Speaker 1:And then some of these CGI processes are really extensive and take a lot of time and CPU power to do, and a lot of these people were either working from home computers or trying to get into a place where they could use a computer that had enough power to actually generate those kinds of effects. So, with that in mind, looking at this and those sort of special effects in terms of some of the scenery and also some of the green screen that they used as well, it really does sort of hold up the only like goro as well goro's on my list, yeah yeah, so not the best, but you know it's a step away from the animatronics that have been used in the 1995 version of mortal combat.
Speaker 1:But again, I think if this was in a more sort of favorable post-production environment I think it would have done really well. But one thing visually that I did love about this movie and I don't know if this is just an australian thing, but I loved seeing the the scenery. And I did see a thing from Simon McCoy, the director, that said he wanted to do this as much in camera as possible, which means that anything he could shoot real life he tried to do so. In hindsight that was actually a really amazing choice because his post-production was already marred by the COVID pandemic. Imagine if that was 10 times a bigger job because he didn't use the Australian scenery like he did in his production instead of the post-production.
Speaker 1:So shout out to places like Port Adelaide, mount Crawford, the Downton, adelaide, rundle Mall area was all used. The shots of Outworld was used from a place called Lee Creek, which is a coal mine that we don't use anymore, and even a very famous tourist destination called Coober Pedy. That's where basically a lot of opal mines have been used, where rock faces have been sheared into the space, the opals have been taken out and then obviously they're not used anymore because the fossickers have found whatever they need to. But that was the location for radon's temple. So all real life places in australia, very sort of beautiful. They obviously touched it up with cgi and effects and things like that. But even surprisingly, the the pine forest at the start, that was mount Crawford in Adelaide Hills and they made it look like, you know, 16th century feudal Japan and places like Port Adelaide was made to look like Chicago, like downtown Chicago. So using these places, I think, was a really good choice and it just goes to show set dresses, set designers. They're doing a brilliant job on film.
Speaker 2:Even even in that final battle that we talked about in the past, how, how, how much of a highlight that was. That was clearly in an actual location, a building, and there was some dressing up with like ice effect here and there and stuff like that where they needed to. But that was all realation and I think if this was done by somebody else who didn't necessarily want to do it, they would have done the room or the stage where they have the monitors everywhere. So the fact that they took the time to just put this in an actual room, I think really enhanced the film and gave you a lot bigger bang for your buck on this film.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think everything that was going I'll say in quote marks against this movie in terms of the time that it was made. It did suffer quite a few release date changes Originally slated for a March release and it ended up being delayed until April and then the extended post-production and all the things that sort of did or could potentially go wrong with this production. It ended up being a pretty okay film. It's fairly decently rated. It does have its critics, it does have its drawbacks, obviously, but in the end I think that they did create a pretty solid popcorn flick that obviously has spawned off a sequel, which not all of them do. So, as an Australian with this movie being filmed in Australia, pretty proud of it and yeah, I think it was really smart of them to do a theater release but then also combine it with a home streaming release as well. They did both and it ended up being one of the most highly streamed movies from HBO Max at the time of the COVID pandemic. So I think it did a pretty decent job.
Speaker 2:I tell you what man I remember when this came. So I was like, boy, talk about dark times right middle of the pandemic, nobody's going outside, you don't see your friends, you know like that. But then this movie comes out. You're like, oh, we get to see a theater movie at home. Okay, that's cool. So this was like really talked about. I mean, it was a little bit of something you know, whatever the other side.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think, and that's kind of like the selling point for it as well, and I hope that the second one does gain enough traction for us to get the third.
Speaker 1:And I'm again, as I said, I'm very interested to see how this goes, with some marketing behind it and it might make it do really well, but it might also then do the opposite, because if more eyes get on it and more people sort of you know, critics either lean one way or the other, depending on what they see or what their expectations are. And in a in a crappy environment to make movies when you're not getting much movies that you're watching and consuming, something like Mortal Kombat comes along and you look at it and you're just like, oh, this is really good, this is better than anything I've seen in the last eight months, because COVID has absolutely annihilated our film industry. But then now we're expecting different sort of blockbusters in terms of like just look at this summer's release schedule for example yeah, yeah, Just absolute bangers in terms of fantastic for Jurassic park, that other one that we all love, superman, yes, beautiful.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, thunderbolts came out earlier this year, just to name off the franchise ones, let alone all the other amazing sort of original pieces coming out. So I think Mortal Kombat 2 has a lot more to compete with this time. So it's going to be interesting to see, which is why I think it's important and awesome that they drew on that star power of Carl Urban in this one. One thing that they did say as well, in terms of johnny cage's inclusion in his first movie, because everybody was looking for him. The director did that purposefully to sort of spur excitement for the sequel. But also he thought that johnny cage's personality would clash with kano's quite a bit on screen. So they he wanted to give Johnny Cage a chance to be highlighted in his own movie through the sequel, as opposed to pairing him with a character like Kano, who was already larger than life scenes, feeler as it was. And you know, I think Johnny Cage is definitely going to be the the titular sort of figure in this movie coming out.
Speaker 2:That's going to be our brash American See we get our turn at the brash guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's it, and it'll be interesting to see the differences, but I think it was a good choice to make him a washed up movie star I like, as opposed to one that is just hot, hot off his latest hit. I think that leans into something that carl urban can play a little bit more authentically, as opposed to him being like a high, bravado, pretty boy.
Speaker 2:Not saying he's not a handsome man, but I think this leans more into his wheelhouse yeah, yeah, yeah, all of us still a very good looking man yeah, I mean yeah, don't get me wrong, I'll watch the boys every day. Uh, all right, so let's go into some fun facts here fun facts.
Speaker 1:I'm good fun facts here we go.
Speaker 2:So, as mentioned before, the film was nearly nc-17. Director simon mccoy said that the movie came quote quite close to the line of nc-17 due to the brutal fatalities, but the team made some slight edits to secure the intended r rating. So when they do that, when they do these edits, generally it comes down to one second dropped here, one second drop there. That's how tight these edits are. So think about, like in this post-pandemic world where they're sitting there on their laptops at home, just be like I gotta figure out how to cut off a little bit of this blood, just so I could get this thing into an r rating. It'd make or break. I mean, sometimes it won't even head into a streaming service if it gets that high of a rating.
Speaker 1:So yeah, excellent work it's hard too, because I think that the, the fans of mortal combat, are expecting that, as we discussed earlier. You know they definitely want that. They expect that it's. It's literally what people watch the and play the franchise for. So it's a fine line to to tow. And we saw that when when deadpool was so successful with the r rating and then it got sold to disney and everybody was worried then that they'd tone down deadpool to a disney sort of level of rating. And yeah, again it can make a break. So I think that's good. Can I give a fun?
Speaker 1:fact, absolutely, you can yeah okay, so I've got one about joe taslim, who plays sub-zero. So it was said by simon mccoy that one of the most impressive feats during filming was that he actually had to tell joe subZero to slow down his techniques and his moves because he was moving so fast that the cameras couldn't pick his moves and his fighting style up.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the fight coordinators couldn't capture his motions properly on film and this precision made obviously Sub-Zero just one of the most praised aspects of the film. But it just shows how talented some of these actors slash some people are, because they're not only trying to act and put form the script, but they're also performing their craft at the same time. Yeah, and it's like almost telling, like Tom Brady, to sling the ball slower. You know, you're like you can do it as best you can, but it will it look as good? We'll have to see, but it's just so good to see that he couldn't even be captured on all of the amazing cameras that they use in movies. So incredible, yeah, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:That reminds me bruce lee's the same problem. When he did the movie, the one they he. There's one part where he's like doing all these moves and when they showed it in test screenings they were laughing because they're like, well, you guys sped it up. It's like, no, that's just bruce lee. And so they had to like fix it because it was like it looks fake. And so it's like, no, it's just bruce lee being awesome. So I love that when people are like that's guilt, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, next one over 600 vfx shots. Shots were done by rising sun pictures. That's an adelaide based company. They handled all these shots, which, including the 10 minute dual sequence. Later on they ended up winning the aeaf special merit award for their work and they did an excellent job. They actually they've also done like harry potter in the past and stuff like that, but you got to remember, with the situation, they were in 600 shots, fantastic work based out of adelaide. That's cool, all right. And then we talked about that music and I wanted to bring up exactly what it was called here. Benjamin wallfish began composing before officially joining the project. He used the game's techno quote, techno syndrome melody, as the backbone of the score, creating a new orchestral take on the classic. So that's the. That's the thing where I think, like it was a I I applaud his effort. It just didn't sound right to me, but I think there's something there was like at least you gave it a shot, you know yeah, yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1:it's a testament to his ability to sort of compromise and change where he needed to, and I think that an attempt was made. We'll say yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my last fun fact here is they added some graffiti in the background. So when you see Jax and Sub-Zero beginning to fight in the back, you'll see graffiti that says down arrow, right arrow LP sprayed on the wall. That's in reference to Sub-Zero's ice block combo in the game, which I thought was like oh man, I needed that as a kid. I needed that written on my wall so I could remember it myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you remember back in the day before we had internet, to all you young viewers listening, there was a time when we had to find these cheat codes out of magazines and things like that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember them very well.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I remember you telling me a story about how you used to acquire them, which we might not go into now just to save your criminal record but yeah, I think it was like you just had that piece of paper that sat inside your video game box and it just used to get rattier and rattier and rattier as the year went on and you'd have to squint at it to look at it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was definitely a well-used piece and I think that's like a piece of nostalgia that is not so much used now because obviously everybody has tablets, smartphones, whatever. But yeah, and I think you know more games, I feel like have to have simple, little fun cheat codes like that. They call them cheat codes but all like you know special moves, sort of signifies like that, because there was nowhere in the Mortal combat instruction book that told you how to do that stuff. So I, not once did you look at the instruction book and say sub zero, here are all his moves. You know right, and you know, in some of the games in the later versions you could click on the menus and it would show you and you'd be like okay, down, up, down, up down, a right b and you'd have to try and remember that. Yeah, so I remember doing that heaps on, like dragon ball z games and everything like that too. So yeah, cheat codes bring them back I think it's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of sega games I remember I had remembering the cheat codes for, and when you discover them, especially naturally, oh my god, what a holy grail. You go to school the next day and you're telling your friends about it and stuff like that. So I yeah, there's something special about it. I think today's kids they could just google everything. We'll never know.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, I actually remember playing like zelda ocarina of time, and my mate had played it before me. So the way that I got through hard parts I'd try my best for like an hour and a half, but then I'd call him up on my landline phone and we would talk about it on and he'd be like, okay, do this, all right, what do you see now?
Speaker 1:okay, and then you'd have to describe it like you're actually talking to a blind person. There's, yeah, different time. You should if kids listening, if you just do it for fun, just see, see how you go, it's fun do it nintendo, it was a dream job.
Speaker 2:I thought like this was the dream job. Nintendo used to have a phone line service. You'd call and they had binders, and so like you would say like oh, I'm on the altered beast. And they were like, okay, I got the altered beast binder, where are you at? And like they would have to open. Like what a job to be on the phone like 10 year old. Be like all right, you see the skeleton, okay, he's gonna throw an axe, like how cool would that be?
Speaker 1:that's so good yeah that's so great mate, how times have changed.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I know, I think it's good looking at this movie, do you think this deserves to be in the top 100 hall of fame for movies? The way I just kind of give some context to this, the way I generally will put it and, by the way, things can go in and then get pushed out later on, the way I generally put is like okay, how does this compare to other, say, for this example, video game adaptations? So for you, do you feel like this deserves to be in the top 100?
Speaker 1:I think the ip does. Does this movie, I don't know. I think recently, especially with the ones nintendo's bringing out in terms, and sega as well in terms of like sonic and the mario brothers those are really great video adaptations these days that are happening. I think I will reserve my comment until mortal kombat 2 comes out to see how they do it in a more tournament specific setting. So at the moment I'll say no, not to say this movie is bad, but I think it just has.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit too far removed from the original ip for me to say that it's a. It should be in the top 100 video game adaptations because they obviously didn't focus on the titular tournament and they tried a few different things where it stepped away from the original lore. So as an adaptation, it's always good to try new things to bring it to a new audience and I think they did really well here. But in terms of the criteria for a top 100, I feel like that authenticity is kind of what you need to sit with Because, for example, like the Mario movie, I think that balanced it really well. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's my response to that, anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So in the idea of it being in the top 100 of movies, I think that there I would say no as well movies I think that they're. I would say no as well, but I would possibly consider it as a piece of like history is that pandemic era, production, pandemic era, like? I think that part of this movie is pretty unique and so if it was ever for consideration the top 100, I think it'd be there, because I can't think of another movie.
Speaker 2:There were a lot of movies coming up Wonder woman, 1984 was one of them, and stuff like that but this is a really good example of that time in our lives and thank God, frank, thank frankly, we won't have to explain too much of like this is how dark it got for us, but this might be something you tell your kids about someday. Like, yeah, there was a time where we were excited because this movie got made on laptops, eventually came out and we were all excited about it. So there's something there. But I think, yeah, I don't think it cracks the 100 and yeah but, you should definitely watch it.
Speaker 2:It's a great saturday movie. Saturday movie to watch with the kids, not with kids to watch with the popcorn. Yeah, yeah, exactly with the baits there you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think with think in terms of those movies you were talking about. With the COVID pandemic, I wonder how it's going to be in 10 or so years' time when we look back at movies made during this time, because in some movies there are some sort of subtle references to the pandemic or to different sort of habits that changed. For example, I was watching Glass Onion the other day and a lot of the characters in that are wearing like masks. So they're talking about isolation and things like that. And you know benowitz like in his bath doing a million sudokus because he's just been isolated for so long. So, yeah, it's interesting to see how these movies will be received in in times in the future.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah for american cinema there's a real huge especially in television production, if you're, if you like this stuff, you'll note that, like 2001, there was a shift in how production looked and like because of 9-11, for you know, for us, and so like in all cinema, like oh, we decided to go with a darker batman, we decided to do everything shifted and instead of, like all the sitcoms for some reason were about like single females working hard in new york, or oh, a bunch of friends hanging out in new york, and then it shifted to like this is in pennsylvania, that's in chicago, like it just branched out out of nowhere. So there are things when you look back in hindsight you see like oh, they really shifted us for some reason, and there's some scholars out there that'll do the math on that and figure it all out. But yeah, it's interesting to see how it affected us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at the whiteboard and the balls of yarn and see where all the dots connect and be really frazzled as they're explaining it to their significant other who hasn't seen them in the basement for a while, all right, before we head out again, guys check out fandom portals.
Speaker 2:What is something you got coming up that everybody can be looking forward to?
Speaker 1:So at the moment we've got some movie deep dives coming up. We're most recently doing the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but we're also going to be looking at a four episode arc that we're going to be doing, focusing on four different movies that help see people realizing their potential basically. So the Secret Life ofter midi is the first in that series of four, and in our series of fandom portals podcast, we always look at a most valuable takeaway. So instead of having a most valuable takeaway every single time with different movies, we're going to be looking at the same takeaway and seeing if, seeing what movies sort of fit that takeaway, with the takeaway being, um, you know, realizing your potential.
Speaker 1:So, uh, we also have a interview with a fellow podcaster whose name is reese crook and they're from the crook cut podcast and she's got a really unique take on australian uh movies and also various different representations of sharks in cinema as well. That's how we connected, because she did an episode on how sharks are severely misrepresented in movies. They're always villainous and she doesn't like it, so she's just like a really unique sort of character that leans into her personality in her podcasting. So we got her on the show and we had a bit of a chat about Tom Cruise movies and our favorite ones for that. So that's what's coming up on the show and, um, yeah, it's been fun there we go, guys.
Speaker 2:Fandom portals podcast aaron and brasher. Make sure you guys check it out. Thank you very much for hanging out with me today and I appreciate it thanks so much for having me on.
Speaker 1:I love coming on with you. We always have such a good chat, so, yeah, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:It's been good, of course, all right, everybody, we'll see you on the next one when we come back. By the way, we'll have fantastic four and we're gonna be hearing from thomas, as he's in studio comic-con right now geeking out on all the cool stuff. He's gonna tell us about what's going on, peacemaker and I like. So I'll see you guys. Doesn't he have a panel too? He does have a panel, yeah, so we're gonna have to bug him on that as well, very cool all right good yeah, we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker 2:Bye, see you guys.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for sticking around through the episode. If you'd like to challenge us to something or send us your thoughts on a movie or show that we've discussed, you can email us at challengeacceptedgf at gmailcom, or connect with us on Instagram, tiktok or all the other socials at challengeacceptedlive. We hope this brightens your day, so have a great week. Please share this with someone new and we'll catch you for the next channel. Aloha.
