Adaptations in films or series of video games are more and more numerous, and very often, they do not live up to the expectations of fans, as evidenced by certain notable industrial accidents. The Mortal Kombat franchise is no exception. After a somewhat failed first attempt in 1995 – which resulted in a catastrophic sequel called Final Destruction in 1998 – the saga returned to the big screen last year. If this new opus has not been able to convince everyone, a sequel has often been mentioned, a sequel which has just been confirmed.
A sequel not really necessary?
The 2021 film is not really a failure sinceit generated 84.4 million dollars in revenue for a budget of 55 million dollars. It had a $23.3 million debut weekend and a viewing record on HBO Max with its 3.8 million viewers — making it the streaming platform’s top debut. Despite a thunderous start, the enthusiasm around the film quickly died down. Yes, because in terms of reviews, the opinions were rather mixed.
Certainly, if you wanted fight and guts accompanied by some Fatalities, you were served. But the film had many flaws. First of all, it was not very accessible to spectators who did not know much about the world of video games, who could be confused in particular by the excess of violence which, from a neophyte point of view, is not necessary for the scenario (if as long as we can call it a scenario). The story is distressing and the plot could be summed up on a post-it. We will also pass over in silence the atrophied oyster charisma of the main actor who seems to be wondering – like us by the way – what mess he has gotten himself into.
But HBO wants to continue its momentum and a second opus will indeed see the light of day. Simon McQuoid — director of the first film — would return, but the cast remains unknown to this day. Some crazy rumors even announce Dwayne Johnson as Shao Kahn. The film is set to continue the story begun in the 2021 feature, starring Joe Taslim (Sub-Zero), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), and Tadanobu Asano (Raiden) among others. ). A character was specially created for the film, Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan. It is not unreasonable to think that besides Shao Kahn, Kitana should also appear in this film, she who was absent from the first film. The Otherworld should be in the spotlight in this new opus.
Too many adaptations?
Hollywood and the streaming platforms have understood that digging into our favorite licenses to make us spend money in dark rooms is a good vein.. Let’s be honest, there are still some successes in this endless stream. Warcraft: The beginning of 2016 was able to convince, and many fans are impatiently awaiting the sequel, the Silent Hill of 2006 receives the encouraging mention just like the Sonic of 2020 (saved in part by the amateurs of the license who cried scandal – rightly – after the broadcast of the first trailer), or Pokémon Detective Pikachu, released in 2019. In terms of series, Riot Games delighted last year with Arcane which takes place in the universe of League of Legends.
But when we do the calculations, there are still more industrial accidents than anything else. We are not going to list them all, but some adaptations are clearly to be forgotten. The most recent to date is the famous Resident Evil series on Netflix which is a real purge at all levels: non-existent scenario, detestable characters and incongruities of all kinds are on the program.. The show is so bad that it restores a little (a little I said) legitimacy to the first film — and just this one — of the saga directed by Paul WS Anderson and started in 2002. And speaking of our good old Anderson, we also remember with pain Monster Hunter released last year. Although this feature film is particularly bad in many aspects, you can watch it without knowing the eponymous license (and preferably in return for the evening, with a few pints in your nose, just to watch something without the fuss before go to sleep).
The truth is, fans always have high expectations when it comes to adapting one of their favorite franchises. — but above all that they are less tolerant when writers and producers decide to do anything with games they don’t really know. So, will Mortal Kombat 2 deny all predictions and live up to it? Hard to predict. Simon McQuoid is no stranger to the world of video games. Before hitting the big screen, he did commercials for Xbox, PlayStation, Call of Duty, and Halo 3, among others. Mortal Kombat was his first experience as a filmmaker, and the movie isn’t a real disaster. We can therefore keep a little hope for this sequel…
Whether on Allociné or Rotten Tomatoes, the Resident Evil series concocted by Netflix is getting a big miss from user reviews. In question, hollow characters, a storyline without head or tail and ultimately very little link with the source material.