MK film review pt 2- Character Introductions

     Yeah I'm writing more on this because in my last post about this (here) I just slightly scratched the surface as to why I think the first Mortal Kombat film, released in 1995, is better than most folk make out. I'm going to be actually talking about the film itself, focusing this post of it's character introductions. If you've not seen the film this whole series of posts is possibly going to be spoilery, but the film was released over a decade ago, and I'm not sure if those kinds of spoilers count.

         I feel the way that MK introduces its characters is very clever. The film opens focusing on Shang Tsung, its main villian, killing Chan Kang in a nightmare of his brother's- Liu Kang, the films hero. In barely a few minutes the whole push of the film is shown, as Liu sets out on his quest for revenge. The film segues into the introduction of Sonya and Kano, as well as a brief look at their history together. Kano is set as Shang Tsung's willing puppet and the lure for Sonya to enter the competition. To quote Shang Tsung, "You [Kano] killed her partner didn't you? She'd follow you into hell..." And she does. We cut to Los Angeles, California next, and to Johnny Cage kicking the hell out of four armed guys in suits. It turns out to be the set of his latest film and we find that he is bombarded with accusations about being a fake. His former karate master visits him at the studio and tells him of a competition where he can prove to the world that he can actually fight, although all is not what it seems, as the image of Cage's master was just an illusion created by Shang Tsung. But Cage's desperation to prove he can fight means that he'll be at that tournamet. The next segue goes back to Liu Kang as a means to introduce Raiden and commits Liu Kang to entering the competition.

       Already we've been introduced to our main villian, our main good guy and our three potential heros. Liu Kang is the reluctant hero, revenge driven to avenge his brother, he knows the danger he is going into and he goes willingly, even if not for the right reasons at first. Sonya is, again, driven by revenge, unaware of exactly what she's getting herself into until she's in the thick of it. Johnny Cage is driven mostly by vanity, the want to prove himself in battle- not an ignoble thing in itself, but his motivations are selfish and he comes across as such. To me the characters introductions work very well at hinting to the characters of each person in the film and gives the reason behind why they're even at the tournament. All we're left to do is enjoy watching them overcome these flaws as they fight in mortal kombat.

This took so many attempts just to get finished thanks to my lappy's failings, but I'm so glad I got it done. I'm still looking forward to going into more detail about this film, although I'll try not to bore you too much with it, and I hope that if you've never seen the film, you're at least curious about it now. Thanks so much for reading and if you have any feedback I'm happy to hear about it. Bye!