Video game movies are almost always universally terrible, but Mortal Kombat was actually fairly decent when it hit theatres way way back in 1995.
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The movie was also a box office smash, making $122.1 million off a budget of just $18 million – which was pretty big money back then. Unfortunately its sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was absolutely terrible and a box office flop which led to any hope of a franchise being shot dead in the water.
After a renewed interest in the series thanks to Mortal Kombat X, original star Christopher Lambert – who played Raiden – has revealed that they’re now working on a third movie. He also explains in an interview with Loaded why he refused to appear in the second instalment:
Mortal Kombat was an arcade game, a beat’em up and because of that they were forced to create a story rather than simply relying on the game’s plot.
I didn’t want to do the second one because I didn’t think the script was very good. I didn’t like it. I liked the first one.
However, they’ve now got a great idea for the third one. It will be very different.
We are going to be travelling through time but in a very special way.
So imagine characters having a battle in the middle of London and then whoosh, you smash through a window and find yourself on the hood of a New York cab.
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Right. I’m not really sure what Lambert’s on about with that time travel crap but you’ve got to admit that a Mortal Kombat movie in 2016 (or whenever it would come out) could be completely and utterly sick with the amazing way special effects have developed since then. Imagine all those fatalities.
There’s also enough characters and enough of a backstory to develop it into a completely sick franchise if it’s done correctly. We’re excited, even if it could be years before we actually see it.
It’s funny that Lambert mentioned the story of the original movie too, because everyone knows they pretty much copied the Enter The Dragon storyline frame for frame.