Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody.
It's Aaron here from the FandomPortals podcast.
This week we have a veryspecial episode in store for you
.
We are showcasing some of ournetwork's talent.
That is the Geek Freaks Network, and one of the podcasts on our
network is the ChallengeAccepted podcast.
That podcast is hosted by Frankand Thomas, but on this
occasion Thomas was actually atthe San Diego Comic Con, so I
(00:23):
got the opportunity to guest onour sister show on our network,
Challenge Accepted, and Frankwas a wonderful host.
We talked everything to do withMortal Kombat and we hope you
enjoy this episode.
Guys.
Our regular programming willresume in a week's time where
you will hear the episode we'vepromised you on Zombieland, but
we thought we would share thisamazing episode that we have
(00:44):
done as part of our network toyou now of the challenge
accepted podcast.
Remember, if you love them, youcan go and find them anywhere
you find your podcasts atchallenge accepted.
They're also on instagram, somake sure you go and show them
some love.
Both thomas and frank have bothguested on our podcast before,
so if their voices soundfamiliar, that is exactly why.
So go and show them some love.
(01:05):
We definitely appreciate themsharing this episode with us so
we could share it with you andwe hope you enjoy hey all
(01:28):
welcome to Challenge, Acceptedthe podcast where we challenge
each other to do a movie or TVshow every week.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I am Frank and I'm
joined by a very special guest,
Aaron, from Fandom Portals.
How are you doing, Aaron?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hello everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
and how are you,
frank?
It's Aaron here, I'm doingreally good, alright.
So for some some crazy reason,if somebody's listening to
challenge accepted and they havenot listened to fandom portals,
break down your show for themuh, fandom portals is a podcast
where we explore fandoms to helpus learn and grow as people.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
we look at a movie
pretty much every week and we
talk about our most valuabletakeaway, which can be anything
from talking about generationaltrauma to anxiety or even
something like familialrelationships.
That is examined in the movie,and sometimes it's in a movie
that you would expect, like youknow the secret life of walter
(02:20):
midi, which obviously has a lotof different sort of themes and
sometimes it's from somethingthat you don't really expect,
like Sinbad or the Road to ElDorado.
So we look at those differentkinds 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 geekout about the movie as well at
the same time.
(02:41):
The other element about FandomPortals is I like to talk to
industry guests because that'sthe learning part for me.
The growing part is when webreak down movies.
The learning part for me istalking to some industry experts
and fellow podcasters abouttheir experience how they take
movies, but also theirexperience on set and also the
way that they sort of interactwith stories and character and
things like that as well.
So it's a good little passionproject and it's great to be
(03:03):
part of the geek freakersnetwork.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh yeah, and you're
working with a brash on this
right?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, that's right,
he's the cohost there.
He is a good friend of mine.
We've been friends for a whileand we started out playing a D
and D campaign together and wejust found out that we had'm
really analytical and sort offacts driven, but sometimes
(03:29):
he'll throw an opinion my waythat it was something that I
just didn't really see or didn'texpect, because he comes at a
lot of things that we watch orsee as a very big fan and, yeah,
I think our brains work in twodifferent ways and I think that
it's really good for the podcast, because our opinions are
either very similar or verydiverse, but it makes for a good
conversation either way.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So, yeah, he's jumped
on and it's gone really good
it's my favorite combo ofpodcasts is generally there's
like the guy who has theresearch, the numbers, the
knowledge, and then the personwho's just like.
This is what I visually sawthis, how it made me feel.
So when you combine the two itmakes for a really good
conversation.
I love the podcast and it is alot of fun.
It's not super analytical andstuff like that, so totally
(04:06):
worth your guys time and beforewe leave the show, a couple of
your recent guests have beenreally interesting.
Can you share a couple of yourrecent guests?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
yeah, so we've had
jeffrey reddick on, who was the
creator of the final destinationfranchise.
He was a really great guest totalk to, but not only that.
I've said it a times.
He's a really awesome humanbeing.
Like we spoke about things notonly about Final Destination,
but just about how the horrorgenre is a little bit more than
what you expect in terms ofbeing able to express story and
(04:35):
character, and just a little bitabout his life growing up in
Kentucky and how that influencedhis writing and his upbringing
in the arts and how importantthe arts are for kids growing up
in schools as well.
And then, most recently, we hadStephen Kepfer on, who is a
stunt performer who worked onvarious different titles.
Most notably he was a stuntperformer and double in the TV
(04:56):
show Ray Donovan.
But he's also done someconsulting work on John Wick 2,.
John Wick 3, because he is verywell versed in Sambo Russian
fighting, which is the style offighting that is prominent
through John Wick.
John Wick 3, because he is verywell versed in Sambo Russian
fighting, which is the style offighting that is prominent
through John Wick, like JohnWick's the Sambo guy and a lot
of the kids that were performingthose martial arts moves in
those movies were actually sortof trained by him and guided by
(05:19):
him.
So he gave us a little bitbehind the scenes on that.
But he's also working towardsbecoming a stunt coordinator,
which is just like a bit of atrajectory for him, and he's
just sort of finished his firstofficial feature as a as a stunt
coordinator in a movie comingout called eugene and the
machine, which he's excited forand, yeah, he shared his story
(05:39):
with us and also very passionateabout safety on sets.
So he talks to us about howstunts can be dangerous.
But there's a big process thatpeople go through and it's
important to follow that process.
And it was a good behind thescenes look at that side of it
because all the flashy andaction-packed stuff that you see
on the screen, sometimesthere's a human being doing that
and you know it can bedangerous.
(05:59):
So hearing from someone likethat and just knowing what goes
into your favorite scenes in themovie was eye-opening and
awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, it adds so much
context to some of the movies
that we love, so make sure youguys check that out.
I'll have links in thedescription for everybody to
follow up on.
You should already besubscribed, and after you listen
, make sure you drop a review aswell.
Fandom Portals Podcast withAaron and Brasher.
Okay, today we're going to betalking about Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We today we're gonna
be talking about mortal combat.
We went back and forth on acouple different movie options.
Why did this one, why is thisone we landed?
Why is this the movie we landedon?
Well, I think we startedtalking about different kinds of
australian movies that we couldtalk about, and there are some
australian movies that are likehit and miss in terms of
likability.
You might say some are veryculturally relevant to us as
Australians, but not really sofor the rest of the world.
So there are a lot of moviesthat are filmed in Australia,
because I'm going to humbly braghere and say we have a very
(06:53):
beautiful country.
It's got lots of different,diverse environments and
ecosystems that people can shootin and for that reason we draw
a lot of big sort of movies hereto be shot here, like pirates
of the caribbean.
Some of those movies were shothere.
The aquaman movies were shothere and also mortal kombat was
shot here in australia as well.
We also landed on this onebecause a lot of the performers
(07:16):
in this movie are australian,the director's australian.
We want to kind, kind of wantedto highlight the, an australian
film, because you haveobviously me on, who's an
Australian person as well, butnot only that.
Mortal Kombat 2 is coming out,frank Coming out very soon, and
we got the trailer drop.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
What did you think of
that trailer when you saw it?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I liked it.
I think that it's a very notthat this wasn't a good movie,
in my opinion, but I think it'sa very big upgrade from the this
one.
I think it's a very big upgradefrom this one.
I think it's a very big upgradein terms of production value.
In terms of, obviously, castingWe'll have to see how dialogue
goes but I think they're goingback to their roots here in
Mortal Kombat 2, because itlooks like it's very much
(07:56):
centered around the titulartournament, the Mortal Kombat
tournament, whereas if you'veseen this movie, mortal Kombat
it's obviously about thetournament is referenced and
mentioned, but we don'texplicitly see a tournament
between Otherworld andEarthworld.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah.
So I agree with you.
I do think it's got more polishto it and stuff like that, and
I think when we're going overthis movie, it might help us to
kind of think of that Like thisis something that they can prove
and what we saw, you know.
So let's keep that in mind aswe go along, Before we get too
far.
We got to do our two-minuterundown and you're in charge of
that this time.
Are you ready for that?
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I am ready for that.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
All right, go for it.
I got your timer and start.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
All right.
So we open up with a brutalflashback from Hanzo Hasashi,
who is actually Scorpion, andhis family, and they're in a
nice little garden and you know,everything's peaceful and
awesome until bump, bump, bumpSub-Zero comes through the
nether portal and he is settingup this centuries old rivalry
and this is going to happen alot in this rundown.
(08:57):
But they fight and when they doso, sub-zero actually ends up
spoiler, spoiler alert killingscorpion's family, which starts
their rivalry and feud.
Uh, b-han or sub-zero, wants toend the bloodline of hanzo
hasashi.
However, raiding comes in atthe last minute and obviously
rescues uh, the prodigy son ofscorpion.
(09:20):
Uh, we cut years later and we'reintroduced to cole young, who
is a washed up mma fighter whois not from the video games.
Uh, he's a introduced characterand he's got this birthmark on
his body, which is a clue to histrue lineage.
We learn that earth realm is indanger and, uh, we have lost,
as earth realm, nine mortalcombat tournaments in a row.
So outworld, actually.
(09:42):
If they win their 10th, thenearth falls to uh, the outworlds
and shang sun I believe hisname is is the leader of the
outworld fighters and they gotsome badasses on their team.
Uh, and we have for earth realma ragtag bunch of people sonja
blade jacks, kano lu kang, kunglao, and obviously raiden as
(10:03):
well, some of them empowered bywhat in this movie they call
Arcana.
30 seconds, and how many?
30.
30.
Okay, jax gets cyber arms, kanogets a laser eye, cole gets
golden armor.
I guess when the Arcana unlocks, the key deaths are like Kung
Lao he dies heroically, ofcourse, and Kano betrays the
(10:25):
team.
They finally fight in a battleat the end where Kohl's and
Scorpion team up againstSub-Zero, revealing Kohl to be
Scorpion's descendant, andEarthworm wins for the day, but
only for now, and we end withKohl setting off to Hollywood
where we meet Johnny Cage.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
There we go.
Very good, that last part.
When you find out how much timeyou have left, you're like oh
no, I'm still setting things upyeah, 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.
There's two big parts of thismovie.
When I'm watching this again isfirst off, it takes me back to
the pandemic, because this wasone of those first like oh hey,
(11:03):
we're gonna have to release iton the streaming service instead
of theaters.
Did that come back to you whenyou watched it this time?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I think so because
actually I watched this movie in
cinemas and it came out justwhen australia was reopening
their theaters and you know it,it's not a Titanic-like
masterpiece, but it was thefirst time people were starting
to come out of their homes againduring this time to actually be
(11:30):
in a social space and enjoy amovie in the theater-like
experience again.
So this was actually one of themost active theater experiences
that I've had in terms of likepeople whooping at the screen
and it's a kind of fun moviethat you're able to do that with
as well.
So obviously the Marvel titlesare really sort of active cinema
experiences.
I didn't expect it from aMortal Kombat movie but coming
(11:52):
out of that pandemic wheneverybody was sort of locked up
for so long, I think it was justwhat the doctor ordered
everybody out for a bit ofpopcorn fun.
And obviously you know Kanostrikes a very awesome vibe with
us Australians, so it was justgood to get out and laugh again
after so much bad news on the TV.
And yeah, the film wasdefinitely hindered by the COVID
(12:14):
pandemic.
I know it coincidentally or notcoincidentally, but
conveniently wrapped up filmingjust before Australia really
locked down, tightened up itsborders, so post-production was
really the only thing that Icould see that it was affected
by and that was them trying togo through different sort of
workflows to do post-productionCGI and obviously reshoots and
(12:37):
things like that had to bescheduled around actors'
schedules but also when theborders would open up again.
So a lot of complications thatcame to making this movie come
to the big screen.
But I think that it was areally good one to come to the
cinema because it just gave us alot of joy here in Australia
when we were able to come outand see it again.
And despite that as well, itactually did make $80 million, I
(13:00):
think as well, which is morethan what its budget was.
So it's marginally profitableand it didn't have any marketing
, obviously because theycouldn't travel around the world
and do the press junket.
So with that and with thisoutstanding IP, I'm very
interested to see how number twogoes when they can obviously do
that and they have a big starattached in the name of Carl
(13:22):
Urban.
Thank you, I just brain fartedon his name.
But attached in the name ofCarl Urban, thank you, I just
brain farted on his name, butyeah, I think that.
I think I'm interested to seehow that will go.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, it almost feels
like the sequel.
So this to me feels like aprequel, frankly, to what the
sequel is, uh, which is, youknow, the actual tournament with
bigger, with bigger cast and itreally it's like the pandemic,
I think, almost kind of gaveeverybody like we understand it
might not be the best movie, butit came out in these times we
couldn't do this or this or this, so everybody's a lot more
(13:50):
forgiving for this movie and Ithink that helps a bunch.
And boy, like, my first theatergoing experience post-pandemic
was spider-man, no way home, andwe left that theater just being
like we'll never have thatexperience again.
But it was this moment of.
I think we might be past this.
You know this entire shutdownthing so it will live rent free
(14:11):
forever.
You know in you that that firsttime going to the theaters
again, that's good yeah, yeah, Idefinitely agree.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I did read somewhere
that greg russo, who's the
writer of this mortal kombat orthe screenplay at least for this
mortal komb Kombat heoriginally intended there to be
three Mortal Kombat movies onethat was held before the
tournament, this one number twothat's coming out is is at the
tournament, and the third one,hopefully, that comes out, will
be the, the post tournamentmovie.
(14:38):
So I definitely agree with youthat this is the, the prequel to
that tournament, because it'sreferenced throughout but not
shown done yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
The other thing about
this movie, of course, is the
video game, so how familiar areyou with, like the mortal kombat
video games?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
so the first time I
played a mortal kombat video, I
think I was about eight yearsold.
It was on a sega mega drive andit was my cousin's, and my
cousin's house had less strictrules than what my house did
which I think everybody has,that cousin.
So you know this was obviouslya game that was not for eight
year olds, but playing fightinggenre games before and also I
(15:18):
think they're pretty universalon the button mashing sort of
side of it.
So if you randomly get afatality at the end of it,
you're like, oh my gosh, like itactually happened, yeah.
So that was my first sort ofexperience of it.
I always knew the character ofscorpion through this and it was
, you know, really awesome toknow that he sort of descended
into hell and pulled off hismask and had a skull there.
That was a really badass for aneight-year-old.
(15:38):
Um.
But then, as we went on, Ididn't really touch mortal komb
Kombat again until they pulledout the Mortal Kombat versus DC
for the Xbox 360.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, and then
Injustice by the same company
that sort of made it, and Ithink that I honestly think that
they're within the top tier offighting games for console in
terms of Mortal Kombat, if notthe best.
It's only competitor really forme is Street Fighter, maybe
Tekken, but Mortal Kombat, Ithink, just has a really rich
and deep lore.
It's only competitor really forme is street fighter, maybe
tekken, but mortal combat, Ithink, just has a really rich
and deep lore, which I think isin regards to this movie.
(16:11):
Something that a lot of criticstalked about was how well that
was represented or how well itwas misrepresented.
Um, so yeah, I think for me thevideo games are something that
I have little seeds in my brainfor, but it's not something that
I really dove into and amabsolutely enamored by and know
everything about.
What about you, frank?
(16:31):
Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Like you, as a kid I
played it a bunch.
Street Fighter was the one thatparents knew you were playing.
Mortal Kombat was the one theydidn't know you were playing and
just smash all the buttons.
Try to remember what the heckyou just did, because that was
cool, one of the things.
I grew up with two otherbrothers, so all video games
diddy kong racing, mario kartthis we had like those are my
characters.
You're not allowed to use mycharacters.
Yeah, yeah.
So for me, sub-zero wasdefinitely my character.
(16:58):
Was that yours too?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
yeah, me too.
Yeah, absolutely.
I loved his ice wall move.
Um, I've forgotten what versionit was in, but he would make
this ice wall and as soon as theother player smashed it,
sub-zero would come in from theother side of the screen.
Just act him with an ice sword,yep, and you know.
Once you find something thatworks in a fighting move, what
do we do?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Frank, yeah, just
repeat it, we spam it.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, we spam it.
That was definitely the onethat I I used all the time with.
It was sub-zero and yeah, hewas just.
He was almost like the, thebadass version of of scorpion,
so I really liked him.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
He was cool, yeah
which, seeing luke hang my
littlest brother, jonathan,which you've probably talked um
geek freaks, his thing was lukehang and he had a little like
and they did it in this movie Iwas like, oh, I'm tired to see
that move so much where he doesa little kick through the air,
because when you're playingagainst your little brother can
do that move.
You're like son of a gun, dosomething different.
And there's even a littlereference to that, like when
(17:52):
kano just kept getting, you know, kicked the ran has kicked on
the floor.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, and I was like
that is so video games yeah yeah
, those were the references andthe nods where you watch this
movie and you're just like, ohmy god, they're actually playing
, playing some reference to that.
So these guys are fans, or atleast know of the source
material, which is great,because you know you don't want
a video game adaptation wherethere's there's no reference at
all.
So that's like atongue-in-cheek.
We all knew what was going onin that and it was just, yeah,
(18:19):
not taking itself so seriously.
But also it kind of mixed wellwith it, because mortal combat
is a very sort of dark tonedmovie and ip when you think
about it, but mixing things init like that, like that comedy
aspect and also just insertingkano in there just for a bit of
levity every now and then.
The way they represented himwas also a good shift in the
(18:39):
because otherwise you'd sit inthere and it would be a very
sort of dark movie after comingout of a pandemic, which is a
very dark time.
I don't think it would have hitas well as it kind of did.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
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 thisblah, blah, blah.
But I think a lot of the comedytoo that comes from mortal
kombat is in its overkill, thefatalities that are so
ridiculous, which is like you'relaughing at it because he just
ripped his skeleton out orsomething.
I think the fact that the moviemade sure to kind of show some
(19:10):
of that we were like, okay, youknow was fun, and I and I don't
know if I think they need tofurther embrace that going
forward because there weremoments in this movie where they
were just doing like to comeover here.
Or fatality, we're like thatline 100 does not fit, but man,
I'm happy I just heard it.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah yeah, it was
almost like, or the two that I
can remember, the fatality wherekano fights reptile and rips
his heart out.
That's it.
That's straight from the, themortal kombat game.
Uh, and as he pulls that heartout, you know josh lawson says
that line you know kano wins andhe's like yes yeah, okay, we
know where that comes from.
That's the narrator in his deep,macho voice saying that.
(19:48):
And then the other oneobviously was the over-the-top
buzzsaw kill from Kung Lao withthe Frisbee hat, as Kano likes
to say, and he's obviouslysliced that person in half and
it's just playing back to thatover-the-top nature.
But I would have liked to haveseen and I'm not usually a guy
that likes horror or gore, but Ithink in Mortal Kombat it fits
(20:10):
because it's so ridiculous.
And the best thing theyintroduced in the games was when
they did that x-ray cam.
Do you remember that when theyintroduced the x-ray cam for the
games?
Yes, yeah, once you get acertain amount of hits on or a
certain amount of like likefatalities or special moves, it
actually zoom into the neck thatyou were like snapping with
your fist or where the ice shardwould go into the neck.
And yeah, it was just.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
You know, it's
literally teenage boys dream
seeing that kind of thing asyou're playing.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
But yeah, I think
that they they did that really
well in the movie, but they didkind of.
I feel like they held back abit in terms of that as well,
but maybe they did kind of.
I feel like they held back abit in terms of that as well,
but maybe they did that again toappeal to a wider audience,
with it already being an R ratedmovie.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, actually, one
of my fun facts coming up is it
is actually rated NC 17.
So it was beyond R and thenthey had to bring it back down a
notch, cause they're like wegot to be able to sell this
thing.
So, yeah, I think there was alot of that going on.
Yeah, I agree.
Looking at the story for thisthing, what did you think about
them bringing an entirely newcharacter with Cole Young?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So I think the story
behind that was that Simon McCoy
and Greg Russo, the directorand screenwriter, they wanted a
character that could serve asthe audience's surrogate.
So Cole Young was created forthis, because he was
experiencing the world of mortalkombat fresh and new, just like
(21:30):
a lot of the audience memberswould.
Because, as we said before,mortal kombat does have a quite
extensive lore and people dieand people come back and this is
actually someone's twin brotherand sub-zero has like three
different versions of himself.
So there is that deep sort oflore and rabbit hole that you
can dive into.
But I think they definitelyintroduced Cole Young, who's
played by Louis Tan, into thismovie to act as that for the
(21:53):
audience, as that new personthat's coming in asking all the
what do you mean?
Questions, so they can beanswered in exposition for the
audience to understand.
Fun fact about him this was hisfirst major motion picture role
.
He did go on then to play theBlack Power Ranger in the Power
Rangers movie reboot as well.
So good old Louis Tan.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, one of the
things that they added to this
movie that I thought was a goodjob as well and introducing new
people to this world is givingthe term arcana to the idea of,
like, why do these people havemagic abilities?
And that little Macguffin endedup, I think, enhancing the
story, because the entire timeyou're like, oh, this one's
special because they have anarcana, oh, you can steal the
arcana, and it's all done bythat symbol, which, of course,
(22:34):
is the logo for the video game.
I thought that was a reallygood addition.
Did you feel like that wasneeded or overkill?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I think it's
definitely an awesome addition
because it allows audiences tosee that they could bring in a
lot of new characters, becausewhoever kills somebody with that
mark or the marker of thechosen will then become somebody
who's chosen and develop theirown arcana.
But I've always really beenfond of and liked movies where
(23:01):
there is a hidden power insidesomebody and they have to unlock
it and you're just waiting tosee how it manifests.
And I think in this movie itwas really well done because the
powers that they've manifested,they kind of made them manifest
during a moment of thecharacter's personality, that
sort of really portrayed whothey are.
So if we talk about, forexample, the kano scene, his
(23:23):
powers manifest with his lasereye, which is completely new
from the video game.
Usually it's cybernetics, butin this one it's a.
It's a arcana laced laser eye.
He's taking some heat from lukang and kung lao and he's he
seems like he's a very sort ofmacho and bravado driven
(23:44):
character, but he's obviouslygetting very triggered by these
very surface level attacks andbecause his anger just sort of
swells in him and anger being avery prominent emotion in his
toolkit, that heightened statereally triggered his arcana and
I found that really interestingas well, whereas if we combine
that with, like a character likeCole Young, he's a very
(24:06):
protective person in terms ofhis family.
He's very much doing a lot ofthe things that he's doing to
protect those people, and at thestart of the movie, when he was
talking about his MMA career,the trainer that was there was
saying you know, oh, if you'regoing to be a fighter, you
actually have to attack anddefend, like that's part of the
deal.
So he actually got a power inarcana that allowed him to take
(24:26):
a lot of punches and thenredirect that energy back to
people, um, not only denotinghis fighting style, where he
does take a lot of punchesbecause he has no defense, but
also sort of use that as hisstrength and his weapon to then
redirect.
And the armor surrounding himcan be metaphorical in terms of
his, his protective nature andthe nature of him as a person.
(24:47):
So I think it actually enhancesthe characters and gives them a
little bit of depth, as opposedto them just being like a
really cool warrior from Earththat just happens to have
cybernetic eye that shootslasers and stuff, and there was
always that suspension ofdisbelief that you have to go
through with a Mortal Kombatcharacter because you're like,
oh, why does this human havemetallic arms that can beat the
crap out of people?
Um, whereas if you serve itlike and it is a very fancy
(25:10):
explanation, but I think they'vedeepened it enough to give it
that sort of belief system forthe audience when you say that
it's like, okay, he's got thosearms because he's like he's
strong, offensive, he's veryprotective of everybody that's
around him, and yeah, I thinkwhen they've aligned it with the
character's personality, itserves purpose as opposed to
(25:31):
just having it there for coolies, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
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 thoseabilities, I think they're
purposely like, you know, whatthis guy's fueled by anger
that's definitely how we'regonna do this.
Just like I think the reasonRaiden says you need to go home
is not because he doesn't wanthis help, it's because he's like
(25:55):
the only way to get this guy tofight is if he has to protect
his family, and that's.
I think that was just smartmove on rating with rating
probably my favorite characterof the of the movie, and so it's
funny that this movie, whenwatching it as a whole, I get a
vibe of like this is probably acheap movie.
You know I enjoy it for what itis Fireworks.
You know it doesn't needanything crazy, but there are
(26:17):
moments that kind of stand outlike that were like that was
actually well thought of.
I liked that.
They added, put, added thatlittle extra mustard to this.
That was good.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, I think one of
the biggest things to me in
terms of that element that youwere talking about there was,
yes, it had kind of a smallerbudget but so much thought went
into the costume designs ofthese characters as well.
So, looking at some of thebehind-the-scenes stuff, at
characters like Shang Tsung, ifyou look at his breastplate,
(26:45):
they've kind of designed hisbreastplate to look like it's
got the forms of very torturedsouls across his breastplate and
shoulder pauldrons and that'sobviously because his power, his
arcana, is that he rips thesouls out of people.
So there was a lot of thoughtto combine the elements of the
costume with the powers of theindividual.
In that sense, even when you'relooking at like Sub-Zero and
(27:06):
you're looking at his helmet, alot of the things on his helmet
are like the muscular sort oftendons sort of pull across as
well.
But there's also the very sortof muscular-like mask that sort
of comes through to show thatthis is like a humanistic
character.
But he's void of all sort ofhuman features and you know
obviously the leather that'ssort of portrayed through this
(27:26):
and the various different masksthat are through here.
Just those details in thecostume really serve the
character and I think a lot ofthought went into that as well
and, that being said, it's veryeasy to look at these costumes
and think it's very easy to makethem look cheap and corny.
But I didn't feel that way forthis movie, at least for the
costume side of things.
I thought they all fit and theyall looked pretty cool, and
(27:47):
even the military charactersthat were kind of dressed down
where they just had like tanktop and and pants and boots and
things like that still fit.
So it was very creatively done,I'll say.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah, and it gives a
vibe of the 90s action movies,
which this is very much in linewith.
And then we see Johnny Cagecoming up.
He's a wash-up from a 90saction movie era, so it all
lines up, especially with theplayed 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
(28:19):
him later on you can tell he'sembraced the ice powers more and
so he's now kind of likeshelled himself off from
humanity.
And then at the end, that lastfight, 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 offlails and I think is less
powerful, ice wise again.
But then he's fighting you knowScorpion hand to hand
(28:41):
essentially.
So there's something tied thereAgain.
It's like one more layer ofthought.
You hand-to-hand essentially,so there's something tied there
again, it's like one more layerof thought.
You wouldn't think this movieneeded to add, but if you want
to find it it's there for you tocheck out.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
It's pretty.
I yeah, I can definitely agreewith that and that's literally
what sort of that's the eye thatI look through movies in and
that's sort of why I created thephantom portals podcast,
because I look for those sort ofdeep cuts in terms of sub-zero
and scorpion.
There's a lot of sort ofmessaging that you can take from
that in terms of, like,generational trauma.
For example, if you're lookingat Scorpion specifically, like
(29:11):
there is an absolute tragedythat happens to Scorpion, the
original Scorpion, and throughthat tragedy obviously his
ancestors go down through thetime until Cole Young is born
and he's obviously still afighter which is in his blood,
you could say.
But there's a line at the end ofthe movie where scorpion sort
(29:31):
of says to him protect thebloodline and it's almost like
that's kind of like the, theburden on the family to continue
on the legacy of what has comebefore you, which I think is
very prevalent in some culturesmore than others.
But I think, if you wanted, youcan kind of look at it and
think that vengeance withoutdiscipline can lead to ruin.
(29:53):
But Scorpion sort of looks atvengeance but he has this
purpose and the purpose isobviously to get that
retribution and to preserve thebloodline and make sure that his
legacy and champions continueon to protect the earth realm
and protect people fromsuffering the same sort of fate
that he did.
(30:13):
So it is there like you cansort of deep dive and look into
those sort of deeper themes.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
But but yeah, I
really like the and I always
have like the relationshipbetween sub-zero and and
scorpion looking at that, yeah,yeah and then we're going to
start going through thesecharacters here, and I do want
to touch on that then, because Ithe idea that he is fueled by
vengeance, which is a big partof him in the video game, but
also like he's couldn't protecthis family, so he's wanting to
(30:39):
use vengeance to protect cole'sfamily.
He sees the both, you know,frozen and ice, that kind of
like knocked in next year andand then that goes into cole's
powers too, like this whole,like that whole bloodline is
protectors and the fact thatthat scorpion failed.
He went to hell for that andfought his way back to continue
to try to protect again.
So it's not like he, you know,could have.
(31:00):
I think if this was a poorlywritten character, he wouldn't
have gone back to hell.
He would have stayed now onEarth and like I'm Scorpion now,
I'm going to be here all thetime, but no, he went back to
hell.
I thought that was a smart move.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, and I
think with Scorpion it's wrath,
but it's tempered by that legacyin 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 upteaming up with Cole Young and
he does become that protector.
Because when Cole Young isliterally down to his last beat
(31:35):
and Sub-Zero is about to sort offinish him, we get that amazing
line from Scorpion that's trulyiconic, you know, get over here
and he has that, that weaponthat's symbolic of scorpion as
well just absolutely at the veryright moment pulls in and he
joins the fray in the fight asthat protector as well.
And it carries that weightbecause it's not just a line,
it's like, it's him likereclaiming that power, it's a
(31:56):
call to justice, it's it's notjust that sort of senseless
violence.
He's there to actually notreally punish but to sort of
make peace with his place withinthat punishment, if that's made
sense.
So yeah yeah, I thought that thescorpion fight at the end with
sub-zero and scorpion and cole.
That was probably my favoriteone yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
That's.
That's definitely a highlightfor me.
Were there any major standoutperformances in this film that
you wanted to make sure tohighlight, like for jessica
mcname, who plays Sonia Blade?
I think you know playing thischaracter who is almost shunned
by everybody else around her,but it's still like no, I belong
here, I'm a fighter, I'm goingto keep pushing.
And then when she gets you know, kind of this revenge on Kano,
(32:39):
I really felt like I was rootingfor her.
She wasn't like overly done.
I don't think she was overlypushed upon the rest, everybody
around her.
I think she was fighting forher place and then earned it at
the end in a way that I feellike really counters kano, who
felt like oh, I should be herebecause I'm the best, and you
guys don't even know it, andshe's like I might not be the
(32:59):
best, but I will eventually tryto be the best, and those two
really played off each other ina nice way on screen I agree.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I think um sonja
blade's character, jessica
mcnamara, australian actress too, she she plays this sort of
understated loyal character thatkind of glues the rest of the
team together and she'sconstantly being shat on excuse
my french, but they're alwayslooking at her and saying you
know, you don't have a mark, youdon't have a mark, you don't
belong.
(33:26):
Uh, but she still sticks around.
Obviously she's got thatloyalty to her family, which I
think why she gets the symbolicrepresentation of a unit which
is like a ring, an unbroken ring.
You see it in marriages, youknow, that's the symbol of unity
.
That's what she gets when she,her powers sort of emerge.
There's those rings that comeand she uses them as an
offensive weapon.
So I think that her, her poweris that she's able to keep a
(33:49):
group together, fight for thejust cause.
And she does juxtapose well withkano because they're completely
opposite.
Kano will break a, a loyalty ifthe price is right.
And I think, in terms ofcharacters that are played and
performance wise, I think JoshLawson did an absolutely amazing
job playing Kano.
(34:09):
He was given the job of playingthe stereotypical Aussie
larrikin, which is like loud,crude, anti-hero, mocks
authority, thrives on his ownrules.
We usually call it the pub guyhere in Australia.
It's like a pub star kind ofbravado.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And it's this brash
confidence that this devil may
care attitude and he's just likea classic boorish, unrefined
but kind of charming Australianmale character as well.
You can see it throughAustralian cinema or if there's
an Australian, to varying levelsof degree.
Obviously this has turned up to11 in Kano.
But another lesser example ofit might be Mick Dundee from
(34:47):
Crocodile Dundee.
He's sort of very similar.
He's very unrefined and hejuxtaposes in various different
sort of more refined situationsas somebody who's a bit of an
outsider but also very charming,someone who you might want to
go for a beer with.
Basically, and there's kind of acouple of different ways that
people viewed kano.
I think obviously australianskind of looked at him and said
(35:08):
yeah, we're on screen, we loveit because we love it when that
happens.
Ign, for example, I read theyhighlighted that kano was like
the mvp of mortal combat andjosh lawson brought a raucous
kind of almost deadpool likeenergy to the character.
But then there are other peoplethat sort of criticized that
and said he, he like he flirtedwith a line of self-parody for
australians and it's like it's alazy stereotype and that that's
(35:31):
how we're being represented andit's not always a good thing
and all that kind of thing.
But I I think either way, anyway you slice it, any way you
look at it, I think josh lawsonembodied the character of kano
well and played him really well.
And some of those lines that heplayed, those one-liners, they
were all improvised as well.
So, yeah, yeah.
Simon McCoy, the director, saidyou know, lean into the
(35:52):
absurdity of the character.
And Josh Lawson said you got it, buddy.
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I think he did a
great job.
So, from my perspective as anAmerican, I think I recognize
him as like he's above andbeyond, like we know, like when
we watch Crocodile Dundee, weknow that's not you guys are all
walking around like that, butyou know it's fun, just like,
(36:21):
presumably, when you see anAmerican who's just like you
know all these guns and da da dayou 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 (36:27):
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 inAustralia are very much like
that as well.
As I was talking to you offstream before, there's a small
little strip along the eastcoast of Australia that
everybody lives in because it'ssafe to do so.
None of the deadly animals gothere.
But anywhere west of that,where you start to get into a
bit more country sort ofterritory of Australia, you get
more and more levels of Kanountil you reach the centre.
It's like the more centre ofthe centre of Australia you get,
the more towards the Kano sideof things you get.
(36:50):
But I think it's veryinteresting that both Crocodile
Dundee, mcdundee and Kano bothhave extremely massive knives.
Yes, I don't know where thatcame from as an Australianism,
but I think some truck drivershave pocket knives and things
but they use it as a toolutility I don't know where the
(37:10):
big, massive knife thing camefrom.
I think that, yeah, that wasjust an over-exaggeration.
But yeah, I think that it was afun character to insert, and
you know Kano from memory aswell.
From the 1995 ones I think Kanowas represented as like a
British person as well.
So I think it slowlytransitioned into, like maybe
Cockney, british and thenAustralian somehow.
Yeah, but yeah, I think JoshLawson deserves a bit of a shout
(37:30):
out because he he did portray areally good Kano.
One more I'd like to say MaxHuang, who played Kung Lao.
He hadn't acted in a lot ofthings and he did, you know,
have that heroic death, kung Laobeing the guy with a frisbee
hat.
Um, for those of you trackinghe's, he's usually a stunt
(37:50):
performer by trade and he wasactually part of the jackie chan
school of stunt performers aswell.
So he was there and actuallyconsulted on a lot of the
martial arts that were happeningthere to make sure that was
kind of in line with whateverstyle that character wished to
play.
For example, h Hanzo HisashiScorpion.
He does a lot of sort ofninjutsu and kenjutsu sort of
(38:11):
fighting moves, and they'vetried to make it as authentic as
possible, weaving it into thoseMortal Kombat moves as much as
they possibly could, as well.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I think that's worth
a nod as well.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, and there's a
distinction between Hanzo and
Baihan Sub-Zero being Chinesetoo, I did like how?
Because you know the Americanmove would be just like, oh,
they're speaking Japanese, andthen we'll throw it.
But the fact that they weresaying, no, this one's speaking
Chinese, this is speakingJapanese, and that little
difference too, and you can seeit in their movements.
(38:43):
I just love when we see it with, like Avatar, the Last
Airbender, stuff like that, likethe idea that there's so many
other cultures within oneculture that oftentimes get
lumped together.
It's beautifully done and it'ssubtle in this movie.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
But again, it's like
if you want to see there's more
context here, you can look forit there yeah, and I think that
also translates to Kung Lao aswell, because he, through his
costume and through his fighting, he he is very Chinese in his
orientation, but the hat that heuses and is so traditional for
his character is of Koreandesign.
So there's those two sort ofcultures mixed in the one
character and you could divedeep on that as well.
(39:16):
You could say maybe that's aniteration of his sort of
heritage and his bloodline.
Because, yeah, kung Lao doeshave a very big lore and history
through Mortal Kombat and inthis movie it's mentioned that
lord kung lao was the one whosort of led earth realm to a
victory in the past.
So he's a very honorablecharacter as well.
So just goes back to thosedetails that you can find if you
(39:36):
want to, even in a beat-em-uppopcorn flick like, uh, mortal
combat.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So yeah, it's, it is
a fun flick and I think these
characters there's so many timeswhere it's like, oh yeah, I
could see playing this characteron in the video game or
whatever you want to exploremore of them.
And then, yeah, I just go backto, of course, sub-zero.
Don't pick my sub-zero kind ofthing too, so there's always
those that are just like borninto us.
You talked about the last fightscene.
You're being your favoritefight scene.
(40:01):
What about that scene?
Do you stands out to make ityour favorite?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
I think it's.
It's the one that I waited forthe 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 pittedtogether.
But you could also dive reallydeep into those two characters
and see where that sort ofrivalry started and both of
their fighting styles being sobrutal in nature and two
(40:27):
fighters at the top of theirgame as well, like, I think,
scorpion and Sub-Zero bestcharacters in the game, not only
just with how cool they are toplay in video games but also,
you know, lore-wise, they'revery powerful fighters.
So seeing two of them fightingeach other and then with the
added layer of the story elementin this being that you know the
bloodlines at risk and ColeYoung being there to sort of
(40:50):
fight in in amongst as well, Ithink there was just some really
great sort of set pieces and areally good callback to the
start of the movie.
I mean the story in this isvery thin, like we can admit it.
The story in this is very thin.
It's basically an excuse to getpeople together to fight.
But I think that that callbackto the start where Hanzo sees
that Cole is suffering in thesame sort of manner that he did
(41:12):
and not wanting to continue on.
That sort of that pain for hisancestor was what fueled those
people to sort of come to thenext level and fight Sub-Zero
even harder.
But also, I don't know what thissays about me, but I always
tend to pivot towards thevillain as a favorite sort of
character of mine, not because Isympathize with them but
because I think they'reinteresting to look at and watch
(41:33):
.
So Sub-Zero for me it'sinteresting to see a character
from Earthrealm that's obviouslyaligned themselves with
Otherworld, and I kind of wantto see a bit more of that later
on, as to know sort of why thathappened and why he aligned
himself that way and why heturned against earth realm in
that space to to to side withshang tsun and I hope that they
do it later on, because theydefinitely do it in the law for
(41:53):
the video games becausesometimes sub-zero is seen as a
good guy and sometimes he's seenas a bad guy, and that's
another thing.
That sort of that flip aroundfor me is interesting where two
characters can be seen on twosides of a coin yeah, even
scorpion's like morally gray.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
He's never, always a
good guy.
Yeah, he is from hell 100 yeahto me.
I thought.
I thought a standout fight wasthe kano sonya, one that we saw
like it was back in her, herhome.
And we have kano coming in.
He's returning to this scene.
Last time we saw him here hegot scratched in the face and,
you know, beaten pretty badly.
When he returns now he's gotthe laser eye and he feels
(42:30):
confident and overpowered.
Sonya is here, it's in herelement.
She has no power, like she hasno arcana, and she uses her wit,
she uses her intelligence tooutsmart him, something that we
already knew that she had overkano.
But this is her element, thisis where she could really do it.
She does like a home alone stufflike different trap doors and
stuff like that and he's justshooting randomly like cyclops,
(42:52):
losing his mind, and so I reallyenjoyed how she eventually took
him out it was her choke,choked him out in the end or
whatever and beat him and thenwith the subtle like just she
gets the mark and is like oh'sgot powers now.
They didn't even bother showingher powers in that moment.
They let her save the day lateron and then with her powers
coming in, but something aboutthat fight, it felt raw.
(43:13):
It felt so claustrophobicbecause it was in that hallway
for the most part and just theway that like debris was falling
everywhere.
It felt very real in a worldwhere we saw a bunch of magic
powers happening.
This felt like a very real in aworld where we saw a bunch of
magic powers happening.
This felt like a very realfight in a way.
And his, his laser eye to theway that red just kind of like
(43:34):
reflects everywhere as it'sgoing off.
It just seems so dangerous andout of control, like kano is it
was.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
It was well done,
well done, yeah I I agree
because I think that theaudience, for example, gets
really invested in a fight likethat because there is a clear
underdog, like Sonya Blade is aclear underdog when it comes to
Kano.
But in so many different fightsin all of Hollywood you know
that the biggest weakness of acharacter like Kano in a
situation like this, where heknows that he's in a high
(43:58):
advantage, is obviously hishubris.
He knows he's good, he knowshe'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 makemistakes.
The other thing that's reallygood about this fight is, as you
said, it's not asstraightforward as some of the
others.
It's not two guys facing offeach other, ready set fight.
There's some different sort ofelements and strategy involved
in this and I think that thatdoes also harken back to when
we're first introduced to kano,when he's fighting the reptile,
(44:21):
because when I first see kano hedoesn't pick me and he's a
mercenary and he's, like youknow, he's called the black
dragon and all that kind ofthing.
So there is some history withhim, but he doesn't strike me as
somebody who's very well versedin like martial arts or
fighting or boxing, as all ofthe other characters and this is
something that is highlightedin a lot of australian
characters as well, where wewe're wily, like we'll get in
(44:42):
there and we'll, we'll fight ina 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.
Yeah, Kano exemplifies that whenhe's fighting Reptile.
And I think Sonya Bladehighlights her intellect in the
fact that when she actually goesto fight Kano in the end,
because she sees how he sort offought at the start and knows
(45:04):
what his tactics are, knows whathis game plan is, so she's
going to meet him at his levelbut also strategize and do what
she needs to do to win the day.
So I think you'll like that onetoo.
It was a really greatrepresentation of a smart
character using history of anopponent to come out on top,
which is good.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Just out of curiosity
.
I don't think of the game sheis, but would it be better for
because this is such anaustralian developed movie if
sonja was australian, so thatthere wasn't just the
stereotypical brawler type, butthat you actually had, kind of
like you know, two sides of theof that coin?
Would that make more sense toyou or would you be happier with
it?
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I'm not too sure.
I think there is a lot ofhistory in terms of sonia's
character as being part of the,the us military, okay, um, yeah,
for me I wouldn't mind it toomuch because I was obviously not
too invested in the law and the, the, the actress macnamé she
is australian as well, right, sofor me it wouldn't, it wouldn't
hurt too much, but I do thinkthat there are a lot of people
(46:06):
that probably would turn an eyetowards it because of her
character lore within themilitary and that does get I
think it's going to get exploreda little bit more in number two
because she also does have avery good friendship with johnny
cage as well and also hasalways had a really good
friendship with jacks.
It's almost like those three oflike the military sort of
training that they've had hasbonded them as characters, which
(46:28):
is sort of central to you thenliking those characters.
So if if she was an Australian,then I'd still think she'd have
to have that sort of militarybackground.
But I wouldn't, I wouldn't sayno to it because I like
Australian characters in movies,right.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
I'm just wondering if
there's something I didn't
think about beforehand whenwatching this originally.
I wonder if there's a tendencyand it could definitely be,
because the game came out in 93,where the characters are just
so stereotypically like this isthat kind of character I'm
thinking about Jax as well Likethe one black character is a
character that just wants topunch things and looks very is
very typical to what you wouldassume, and so I wonder if
(47:07):
that's something that maybe themovies could take some liberties
and go ahead and adjust fromthe video game.
They quite old at this point,and so I was wondering like,
yeah, do we need to show the oneAustralian character as just
this brawler that you'd find ina pub?
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, I definitely
think that there's some
opportunity for that through theway that Simon McCoy, the
director, has introduced, likethe mark and the way that sort
of transfers.
So I think that now, thesemovies being a product of the
2020s, they'll be able to makesome new characters that could
then appear in video games thatmight be a little bit more
diverse, a little bit more wellrepresented in terms of
(47:41):
different cultures, representedin terms of different cultures
and, yeah, because this one isdefinitely you can look at it
and the original movie comingout in 1995 as well uh, they are
a product of their time andthere are some things in there
that obviously have aged welland some that have have not.
So, yeah, I think that throughthat use of the arcana and the
mortal kombat mark, I think it'sdefinitely opened up the avenue
(48:04):
to for fans to fall in lovewith some new characters by the
way, for those who are Kano fans, kong Lao fans, they're both
coming back for Mortal Kombat 2yeah, which is I don't know how
that's gonna go.
But again, mortal Kombat lore istricky stuff.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
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 thestories, 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 justfine.
They're just dead people thatcame back like okay, so they
don't care, just stays dead,gotcha.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
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 thethings I thought was kind of
distracting in this movie wasthe score.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
Did you notice that
at all?
Speaker 1 (48:55):
yeah, I saw the.
I've forgotten who the actualcomposer is in this movie.
I don't know his name, but he Iactually heard that he started
making this before he was sortof formally offered the role
because he was pretty excited todo it.
But with that in in mind, Ithink he sort of tried to blend
(49:18):
traditional sort of score withvideo game arcade music.
And you know, sometimes whenyou do something bold like that
it pays off and everybody isenamored by it.
But other times it sort ofdoesn't sort of sit.
And I found it in the latter forthis movie.
Sometimes it really did fuelthe fight and other times I felt
(49:39):
like it took me out of it alittle 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 seewhat you're doing here.
But maybe this scene wouldwould benefit more from an
emotional musical piece orsomething with some drums to
heighten the tension a littlebit more and as opposed to like
really high-pitched stereoarcade music right, right, a lot
(50:05):
of electric drums going on.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
To me it felt like,
oh, these are early marvel
trailers, soundtracks, when theyused to do like the same music
for all of them.
The composer, which is benjaminwall wallfish, did a lot of
really good work.
So I mean in the past, shazam,invisible man, blade runner 2049
, it predator actually the newpredator that you just did
killer, killer of killers, didthat soundtrack as well yeah,
(50:29):
but this particular one liketook chances.
That, I think, actually kind ofhurt 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 likemaybe this is a little too loud,
maybe it's just misplaced, butI think the soundtrack could be
fixed for the next movie.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Personally, yeah, and
it would have been hard as well
because I know in in mostmovies if you have an action
sequence, you usually composeone or two pieces for an action
sequence and your actionsequence lasts, for I don't know
two to three minutes on screen.
So if you compose somethingthat's 10 minutes, you can use
all different parts of it and itfeels very connected and joined
together, whereas in a movielike this the action scenes are
(51:03):
probably like the runtime is anhour and 50 minutes and I would
say that the action sequencesprobably encompass a lot of that
.
So it would have been a lotmore for this person to compose
and a lot more variety wouldhave had to have been used in
terms of the way that hecomposes stuff, just so it
didn't feel repetitive as he, ashe goes through.
So maybe that sort of playedinto it as well.
It's just, yeah, lots ofdifferent sort of creative
(51:25):
choices he would have had tomake to try and verify or not
verify, but use variety in his,in his composure.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Yeah yeah, and then
with post-production being done
during the pandemic, looking atthe cgi and and the special
effects, I don't think that theyare terrible.
They are some places lackluster, but I think for the situation,
especially where they'reworking 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.
(51:53):
I thought looks pretty good.
Yeah, what did you think?
Speaker 1 (51:56):
yeah, I think
traditionally cgi effects in the
water ice fire department canbe very difficult to get right.
It can literally make or break.
If you're looking at water orfire and you're just like that
looks fake, uh, it takes you outof the whole picture.
That wasn't the case for me forboth Kung Lao's fire or
(52:16):
Sub-Zero's ice, and I thinkthat's a testament to the people
that worked on it in the CGIdepartment, because they not
only had to generate theseimages for the movie, which is a
big and tough job in itself,but they also had to do
workarounds in terms of workflowbecause they were all doing it
remotely.
And then some of these CGIprocesses are really extensive
(52:37):
and take a lot of time and CPUpower to do, and a lot of these
people were either working fromhome computers or trying to get
into a place where they coulduse a computer that had enough
power to actually generate thosekinds of effects.
So, with that in mind, lookingat this and those sort of
special effects in terms of someof the scenery and also some of
the green screen that they usedas well, it really does sort of
(53:00):
hold up the only like goro aswell goro's on my list, yeah
yeah, so not the best, but youknow it's a step away from the
animatronics that have been usedin the 1995 version of mortal
combat.
But again, I think if this wasin a more sort of favorable
post-production environment Ithink it would have done really
(53:21):
well.
But one thing visually that Idid love about this movie and I
don't know if this is just anaustralian thing, but I loved
seeing the the scenery.
And I did see a thing fromSimon McCoy, the director, that
said he wanted to do this asmuch in camera as possible,
which means that anything hecould shoot real life he tried
(53:42):
to do so.
In hindsight that was actuallya really amazing choice because
his post-production was alreadymarred by the COVID pandemic.
Imagine if that was 10 times abigger job because he didn't use
the Australian scenery like hedid in his production instead of
the post-production.
So shout out to places like PortAdelaide, mount Crawford, the
(54:05):
Downton, adelaide, rundle Mallarea was all used.
The shots of Outworld was usedfrom a place called Lee Creek,
which is a coal mine that wedon't use anymore, and even a
very famous tourist destinationcalled Coober Pedy.
That's where basically a lot ofopal mines have been used,
where rock faces have beensheared into the space, the
(54:29):
opals have been taken out andthen obviously they're not used
anymore because the fossickershave found whatever they need to
.
But that was the location forradon's temple.
So all real life places inaustralia, very sort of
beautiful.
They obviously touched it upwith cgi and effects and things
like that.
But even surprisingly, the thepine forest at the start, that
was mount Crawford in AdelaideHills and they made it look like
(54:52):
, you know, 16th century feudalJapan and places like Port
Adelaide was made to look likeChicago, 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 jobon film.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Even even in that
final battle that we talked
about in the past, how, how, howmuch of a highlight that was.
That was clearly in an actuallocation, a building, and there
was some dressing up with likeice effect here and there and
stuff like that where theyneeded to.
But that was all realation andI think if this was done by
somebody else who didn'tnecessarily want to do it, they
would have done the room or thestage where they have the
(55:35):
monitors everywhere.
So the fact that they took thetime to just put this in an
actual room, I think reallyenhanced the film and gave you a
lot bigger bang for your buckon this film.
Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah, I think
everything that was going I'll
say in quote marks against thismovie in terms of the time that
it was made.
It did suffer quite a fewrelease date changes Originally
slated for a March release andit ended up being delayed until
April and then the extendedpost-production and all the
things that sort of did or couldpotentially go wrong with this
(56:06):
production.
It ended up being a pretty okayfilm.
It's fairly decently rated.
It does have its critics, itdoes have its drawbacks,
obviously, but in the end Ithink that they did create a
pretty solid popcorn flick thatobviously has spawned off a
sequel, which not all of them do.
So, as an Australian with thismovie being filmed in Australia,
(56:28):
pretty proud of it and yeah, Ithink it was really smart of
them to do a theater release butthen also combine it with a
home streaming release as well.
They did both and it ended upbeing one of the most highly
streamed movies from HBO Max atthe time of the COVID pandemic.
So I think it did a prettydecent job.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
I tell you what man I
remember when this came.
So I was like, boy, talk aboutdark 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 seea theater movie at home.
Okay, that's cool.
So this was like really talkedabout.
I mean, it was a little bit ofsomething you know, whatever the
other side.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
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 usto get the third.
And I'm again, as I said, I'mvery interested to see how this
goes, with some marketing behindit and it might make it do
really well, but it might alsothen do the opposite, because if
more eyes get on it and morepeople sort of you know, critics
(57:31):
either lean one way or theother, depending on what they
see or what their expectationsare.
And in a in a crappyenvironment to make movies when
you're not getting much moviesthat you're watching and
consuming, something like MortalKombat comes along and you look
at it and you're just like, oh,this is really good, this is
better than anything I've seenin the last eight months,
because COVID has absolutelyannihilated our film industry.
(57:52):
But then now we're expectingdifferent sort of blockbusters
in terms of like just look atthis summer's release schedule
for example yeah, yeah, Justabsolute bangers in terms of
fantastic for Jurassic park,that other one that we all love,
superman, yes, beautiful.
And then, you know, thunderboltscame out earlier this year,
just to name off the franchiseones, let alone all the other
(58:13):
amazing sort of original piecescoming out.
So I think Mortal Kombat 2 hasa lot more to compete with this
time.
So it's going to be interestingto see, which is why I think
it's important and awesome thatthey drew on that star power of
Carl Urban in this one.
One thing that they did say aswell, in terms of johnny cage's
inclusion in his first movie,because everybody was looking
(58:35):
for him.
The director did thatpurposefully to sort of spur
excitement for the sequel.
But also he thought that johnnycage's personality would clash
with kano's quite a bit onscreen.
So they he wanted to giveJohnny Cage a chance to be
highlighted in his own moviethrough the sequel, as opposed
to pairing him with a characterlike Kano, who was already
(58:58):
larger than life scenes, feeleras it was.
And you know, I think JohnnyCage is definitely going to be
the the titular sort of figurein this movie coming out.
Speaker 2 (59:06):
That's going to be
our brash American See we get
our turn at the brash guy.
Speaker 1 (59:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's it
, and it'll be interesting to
see the differences, but I thinkit was a good choice to make
him a washed up movie star Ilike, as opposed to one that is
just hot, hot off his latest hit.
I think that leans intosomething that carl urban can
play a little bit moreauthentically, as opposed to him
being like a high, bravado,pretty boy.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
Not saying he's not a
handsome man, but I think this
leans more into his wheelhouseyeah, yeah, yeah, all of us
still a very good looking manyeah, I mean yeah, don't get me
wrong, I'll watch the boys everyday.
Uh, all right, so let's go intosome fun facts here fun facts.
Speaker 1 (59:49):
I'm good fun facts
here we go.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
So, as mentioned
before, the film was nearly
nc-17.
Director simon mccoy said thatthe movie came quote quite close
to the line of nc-17 due to thebrutal fatalities, but the team
made some slight edits tosecure the intended r rating.
So when they do that, when theydo these edits, generally it
comes down to one second droppedhere, one second drop there.
(01:00:12):
That's how tight these editsare.
So think about, like in thispost-pandemic world where
they're sitting there on theirlaptops at home, just be like I
gotta figure out how to cut offa little bit of this blood, just
so I could get this thing intoan r rating.
It'd make or break.
I mean, sometimes it won't evenhead into a streaming service
if it gets that high of a rating.
Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
So yeah, excellent
work it's hard too, because I
think that the, the fans ofmortal combat, are expecting
that, as we discussed earlier.
You know they definitely wantthat.
They expect that it's.
It's literally what peoplewatch the and play the franchise
for.
So it's a fine line to to tow.
And we saw that when whendeadpool was so successful with
the r rating and then it gotsold to disney and everybody was
worried then that they'd tonedown deadpool to a disney sort
(01:00:51):
of level of rating.
And yeah, again it can make abreak.
So I think that's good.
Can I give a fun?
fact, absolutely, you can yeahokay, so I've got one about joe
taslim, who plays sub-zero.
So it was said by simon mccoythat one of the most impressive
feats during filming was that heactually had to tell joe
(01:01:11):
subZero to slow down histechniques and his moves because
he was moving so fast that thecameras couldn't pick his moves
and his fighting style up.
Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
So, yeah, the fight
coordinators couldn't capture
his motions properly on film andthis precision made obviously
Sub-Zero just one of the mostpraised aspects of the film.
But it just shows how talentedsome of these actors slash some
people are, because they're notonly trying to act and put form
the script, but they're alsoperforming their craft at the
(01:01:43):
same time.
Yeah, and it's like almosttelling, like Tom Brady, to
sling the ball slower.
You know, you're like you cando it as best you can, but it
will it look as good?
We'll have to see, but it'sjust so good to see that he
couldn't even be captured on allof the amazing cameras that
they use in movies.
So incredible, yeah, that's socool.
Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
That reminds me bruce
lee's the same problem.
When he did the movie, the onethey he.
There's one part where he'slike doing all these moves and
when they showed it in testscreenings they were laughing
because they're like, well, youguys sped it up.
It's like, no, that's justbruce lee.
And so they had to like fix itbecause it was like it looks
fake.
And so it's like, no, it's justbruce lee being awesome.
So I love that when people arelike that's guilt, that's
(01:02:24):
incredible.
Yeah, next one over 600 vfxshots.
Shots were done by rising sunpictures.
That's an adelaide basedcompany.
They handled all these shots,which, including the 10 minute
dual sequence.
Later on they ended up winningthe aeaf special merit award for
their work and they did anexcellent job.
They actually they've also donelike harry potter in the past
(01:02:44):
and stuff like that, but you gotto 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 thatmusic and I wanted to bring up
exactly what it was called here.
Benjamin wallfish begancomposing before officially
joining the project.
He used the game's techno quote, techno syndrome melody, as the
(01:03:05):
backbone of the score, creatinga 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 tome, but I think there's
something there was like atleast you gave it a shot, you
know yeah, yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
it's a testament to
his ability to sort of
compromise and change where heneeded to, and I think that an
attempt was made.
We'll say yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Yeah, my last fun
fact here is they added some
graffiti in the background.
So when you see Jax andSub-Zero beginning to fight in
the back, you'll see graffitithat says down arrow, right
arrow LP sprayed on the wall.
That's in reference toSub-Zero's ice block combo in
the game, which I thought waslike oh man, I needed that as a
kid.
I needed that written on mywall so I could remember it
(01:03:55):
myself.
Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Yeah, do you remember
back in the day before we had
internet, to all you youngviewers listening, there was a
time when we had to find thesecheat codes out of magazines and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Oh, I remember them
very well.
Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
yeah, yeah, I
remember you telling me a story
about how you used to acquirethem, which we might not go into
now just to save your criminalrecord but yeah, I think it was
like you just had that piece ofpaper that sat inside your video
game box and it just used toget rattier and rattier and
rattier as the year went on andyou'd have to squint at it to
look at it.
(01:04:26):
But yeah, it was definitely awell-used piece and I think
that's like a piece of nostalgiathat is not so much used now
because obviously everybody hastablets, smartphones, whatever.
But yeah, and I think you knowmore games, I feel like have to
have simple, little fun cheatcodes like that.
They call them cheat codes butall like you know special moves,
sort of signifies like that,because there was nowhere in the
(01:04:48):
Mortal combat instruction bookthat told you how to do that
stuff.
So I, not once did you look atthe 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 clickon 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 andremember that.
Yeah, so I remember doing thatheaps on, like dragon ball z
(01:05:10):
games and everything like thattoo.
So yeah, cheat codes bring themback I think it's.
Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Yeah, I mean, there's
a lot of sega games I remember
I had remembering the cheatcodes for, and when you discover
them, especially naturally, ohmy god, what a holy grail.
You go to school the next dayand you're telling your friends
about it and stuff like that.
So I yeah, there's somethingspecial about it.
I think today's kids they couldjust google everything.
We'll never know.
Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Yeah well, I actually
remember playing like zelda
ocarina of time, and my mate hadplayed it before me.
So the way that I got throughhard parts I'd try my best for
like an hour and a half, butthen I'd call him up on my
landline phone and we would talkabout it on and he'd be like,
okay, do this, all right, whatdo you see now?
okay, and then you'd have todescribe it like you're actually
talking to a blind person.
(01:05:53):
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 doit nintendo, it was a dream job
.
Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
I thought like this
was the dream job.
Nintendo used to have a phoneline 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 gotthe altered beast binder, where
are you at?
And like they would have toopen.
Like what a job to be on thephone like 10 year old.
Be like all right, you see theskeleton, okay, he's gonna throw
(01:06:22):
an axe, like how cool wouldthat be?
Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
that's so good yeah
that's so great mate, how times
have changed.
Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
But yeah, I know, I
think it's good looking at this
movie, do you think thisdeserves to be in the top 100
hall of fame for movies?
The way I just kind of givesome context to this, the way I
generally will put it and, bythe way, things can go in and
then get pushed out later on,the way I generally put is like
okay, how does this compare toother, say, for this example,
video game adaptations?
So for you, do you feel likethis deserves to be in the top
(01:06:50):
100?
Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
I think the ip does.
Does this movie, I don't know.
I think recently, especiallywith the ones nintendo's
bringing out in terms, and segaas well in terms of like sonic
and the mario brothers those arereally great video adaptations
these days that are happening.
I think I will reserve mycomment until mortal kombat 2
(01:07:12):
comes out to see how they do itin 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.
It's a little bit too farremoved from the original ip for
me to say that it's a.
It should be in the top 100video game adaptations because
(01:07:33):
they obviously didn't focus onthe titular tournament and they
tried a few different thingswhere it stepped away from the
original lore.
So as an adaptation, it'salways good to try new things to
bring it to a new audience andI think they did really well
here.
But in terms of the criteriafor a top 100, I feel like that
authenticity is kind of what youneed to sit with Because, for
example, like the Mario movie, Ithink that balanced it really
(01:07:56):
well.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's my response tothat, anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Yeah.
So in the idea of it being inthe top 100 of movies, I think
that there I would say no aswell movies I think that they're
.
I would say no as well, but Iwould possibly consider it as a
piece of like history is thatpandemic era, production,
pandemic era, like?
I think that part of this movieis pretty unique and so if it
(01:08:23):
was ever for consideration thetop 100, I think it'd be there,
because I can't think of anothermovie.
There were a lot of moviescoming up Wonder woman, 1984 was
one of them, and stuff likethat but this is a really good
example of that time in ourlives and thank God, frank,
thank frankly, we won't have toexplain too much of like this is
how dark it got for us, butthis might be something you tell
(01:08:45):
your kids about someday.
Like, yeah, there was a timewhere 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'tthink it cracks the 100 and yeah
but, you should definitelywatch it.
It's a great saturday movie.
Saturday movie to watch withthe kids, not with kids to watch
with the popcorn.
Yeah, yeah, exactly with thebaits there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Yeah, I think with
think in terms of those movies
you were talking about.
With the COVID pandemic, Iwonder how it's going to be in
10 or so years' time when welook back at movies made during
this time, because in somemovies there are some sort of
subtle references to thepandemic or to different sort of
habits that changed.
For example, I was watchingGlass Onion the other day and a
lot of the characters in thatare wearing like masks.
(01:09:29):
So they're talking aboutisolation and things like that.
And you know benowitz like inhis bath doing a million sudokus
because he's just been isolatedfor so long.
So, yeah, it's interesting tosee how these movies will be
received in in times in thefuture.
Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
So, yeah, yeah for
american cinema there's a real
huge especially in televisionproduction, if you're, if you
like this stuff, you'll notethat, like 2001, there was a
shift in how production lookedand like because of 9-11, for
you know, for us, and so like inall cinema, like oh, we decided
to go with a darker batman, wedecided to do everything shifted
(01:10:05):
and instead of, like all thesitcoms for some reason were
about like single femalesworking hard in new york, or oh,
a bunch of friends hanging outin 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 youlook back in hindsight you see
like oh, they really shifted usfor some reason, and there's
(01:10:26):
some scholars out there that'lldo the math on that and figure
it all out.
But yeah, it's interesting tosee how it affected us.
Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Yeah, look at the
whiteboard and the balls of yarn
and see where all the dotsconnect and be really frazzled
as they're explaining it totheir significant other who
hasn't seen them in the basementfor a while, all right, before
we head out again, guys checkout fandom portals.
Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
What is something you
got coming up that everybody
can be looking forward to?
Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
So at the moment
we've got some movie deep dives
coming up.
We're most recently doing theSecret Life of Walter Mitty, but
we're also going to be lookingat a four episode arc that we're
going to be doing, focusing onfour different movies that help
see people realizing theirpotential basically.
So the Secret Life ofter midiis the first in that series of
(01:11:11):
four, and in our series offandom portals podcast, we
always look at a most valuabletakeaway.
So instead of having a mostvaluable 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 takeawaybeing, um, you know, realizing
your potential.
So, uh, we also have a interviewwith a fellow podcaster whose
(01:11:34):
name is reese crook and they'refrom the crook cut podcast and
she's got a really unique takeon australian uh movies and also
various differentrepresentations of sharks in
cinema as well.
That's how we connected,because she did an episode on
how sharks are severelymisrepresented in movies.
They're always villainous andshe doesn't like it, so she's
(01:11:55):
just like a really unique sortof character that leans into her
personality in her podcasting.
So we got her on the show andwe had a bit of a chat about Tom
Cruise movies and our favoriteones for that.
So that's what's coming up onthe show and, um, yeah, it's
been fun there we go, guys.
Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Fandom portals
podcast aaron and brasher.
Make sure you guys check it out.
Thank you very much for hangingout with me today and I
appreciate it thanks so much forhaving me on.
Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
I love coming on with
you.
We always have such a good chat, so, yeah, really appreciate it
.
Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
It's been good, of
course, all right, everybody,
we'll see you on the next onewhen we come back.
By the way, we'll havefantastic four and we're gonna
be hearing from thomas, as he'sin studio comic-con right now
geeking out on all the coolstuff.
He's gonna tell us about what'sgoing on, peacemaker and I like
.
So I'll see you guys.
Doesn't he have a panel too?
He does have a panel, yeah, sowe're gonna have to bug him on
that as well, very cool allright good yeah, we'll see you
(01:12:43):
on the next one.
Bye, see you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Thanks so much for
sticking around through the
episode.
If you'd like to challenge usto something or send us your
thoughts on a movie or show thatwe've discussed, you can email
us at challengeacceptedgf atgmailcom, or connect with us on
Instagram, tiktok or all theother socials at
challengeacceptedlive.
We hope this brightens your day, so have a great week.
(01:13:12):
Please share this with someonenew and we'll catch you for the
next channel.
Aloha.