The Mortal Kombat movie on HBO Max didn't take enough time with its characters to allow us to feel anything for them.

I watched the latest edition of the Mortal Kombat movie, and it was entertaining. But it also wasn't good. As pointed out by a friend, the fighting was mostly good computer generated graphics/images. However, the dialogue and the story were very sub-par. They did try to insert lines from the video game to pay homage to their source material, but these attempts mostly came across as cheesy and stilted. Examples were Kung Lau saying, "Flawless Victory," and Kano declaring, "Kano Wins!" Kano (although I don't like the character) was easily the one that had the most personality in the show. Everyone else was either a bad actor, or they were concentrating on being broody and serious and had no time for things like emotion.

They also left the storylines behind and had the characters trying to kill each other off before the actual tournament started. The movie never actually made it to the iconic tournament at all, preferring to have its battles in many regular world locations. As an example of this, Sonya fought Kano in her mobile home trailer park. So, although I was impressed with the appearance and the diversity of the cast and their dedication to martial arts and these characters, the script kind of sold them short.

But rather than say, "Video games are difficult to adapt to make good movies," I want to take a moment and explain why I think Mortal Kombat could be a great movie if the person with the right vision and talent came along to fix it.

Also, I'm not saying that this person is me. I know next to nothing about what it takes to make a movie. However, I have ideas regarding this franchise and why it is failing. So here goes...here's what I think is wrong with all of the movie adaptations thus far and how I would go about fixing them, were I to be a paid consultant.

Mortal Kombat has an enormous storyline. It is easily as complicated as The Lord of the Rings and as nuanced as Marvel, with many characters intertwining with others to form entire story arcs. So, why are directors and movie makers trying to hammer all of that into a 90-120 minute film? This is one of those times where you want to give each character (or a couple of intertwined characters) their own movie first. Sonya Blade and Jax should have their own movie. Liu Kang and Kung Lao should also have their own movie. The same goes for Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Shang Tsung should have his own movie as well as Johnny Cage, Katana and her sister Melina, and Baraka and Kano. Each of these characters has a fascinating storyline, and the characters should be approached as superheroes (or villains) and not as video game characters. We can make Captain Marvel look cool shooting beams of energy out of her hands, because it's a slow build to the reveal and it is handled in a really cool way. Maybe the same kind of delicate hand should be used with Sonya Blade, so that we slowly buy into these characters and they don't come across as cheesy.

It could also be explored in television via the same way that Disney Plus has gone with its characters like the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. A mini-series devoted to telling the story of Sub-Zero and Scorpion (easily the best part of the Mortal Kombat movie that is shown in the first 7 minutes). The story also needs time to develop Raiden all by his lonesome, so that he is shown to be connected to the protection of Earth. This would be similar to a Thor treatment, where Raiden gets his entire own movie (or a mini-series) to develop his powers and show what he can do.

What I'm saying in all of this is that the Mortal Kombat adaptations are not taking enough time to allow the story of the huge tournament to unfold. It's a great idea, and I think it would make a fantastic film if the directors of these movies would just slow down and let us get to know these characters before they are trying to kill each other. There's enough of a fanbase to this that I think it could be really popular. Who knows? Maybe it could even be the next big franchise outside of Marvel.

The red band trailer for the new Mortal Kombat movie looks like great fun

Two months before the film is to be released, Warner Brothers has put out a trailer for Simon McQuoid's Mortal Kombat video adaptation. When I was in college, the first Mortal Kombat was very popular in these things that we called "arcades" that existed in malls. During my junior year at college, I remember that Mortal Kombat 2 came out and they put one in the area under the cafeteria where all of us went to check our mail. I spent several hours there distracting myself with that dumb game (but I was really good at it so it wasn't expensive).

Well, there have been other Mortal Kombat video game adaptations, but none of them have been good. The one that came out in 1995 had a really metal opening title song by (I think) Rage Against the Machine. I could be wrong though. It's just what I remember.

Anyway, the effects for this thing in the red band trailer I have linked below actually look good. Sub-Zero looks great, as does Liu Kang and Kung Lao. It almost makes me want to learn how to play the newest release of the game on a gaming platform, but I think I have better ways to waste my time. However, it does bring back fond memories. My favorite character to play was Liu Kang, and I just really liked his story.

Anyone else have some Mortal Kombat thoughts? Have a great weekend.

What I learned about violent video games recently made me never want to play them again.

A fatality effect that is included with Mortal Kombat 11 (you can do this to someone you defeat). 

Probably like you, I've enjoyed a video game here and there. But just this week, I learned that video game programmers are forced to work in pressure-cooker type situations, and that the content of violent video games is actually giving computer programmers PTSD. Examples of these types of games are Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto.

In a nutshell, what is happening is that there's a team of programmers that are assigned a certain section of a video game to complete. Sometimes it's only a sequence only a few seconds long that just requires a lot of detail. If the sequences are gory, then the programmer spends a huge amount of time examining gory images and making sure that things look authentic. The article I read on Kotaku indicated that in one office, it was pretty typical to see programmers watching videos of real life hangings, people getting killed, and cows being torn apart or cut up online so that they could get blood effects and death just right. Conversations around the water coolers talk about how blood splatters, how it lands, and how meat should look if its decayed, ripped open, etc.

I never realized that this was a thing...that people are actually being forced to watch stuff like this in order to make a living wage in this country (and other countries). One programmer talked about how he had nightmares so bad from staring at bloody images of real life people that were murdered (and posted around his desk for reference material) that it gave him severe nightmares. He said that he avoided going to sleep and took drugs to stay awake. Those that weren't effected like this had grown desensitized to violent imagery and talked about it like sociopaths. Is any of this good for society?

Knowing all of this, I don't think I can ever play a video game like Mortal Kombat ever again. It's not right, despite the fact that its fun to do. That's the problem I think: the things that consumers in the United States find fun or convenient are usually made possible because someone we can't see is made to suffer. I wonder how long this trend can be sustained, and what its long-term effects are going to be on society at large.

My favorite mutant in the X-Men comics is Nightcrawler. Who's your favorite?

Next week we get another X-Men movie, and that's just perfect (I don't really care what the reviews are going to be either). In celebration, I'm revealing my favorite mutant. It's Nightcrawler. Here's a few tidbits about him.

He goes by the name Kurt Wagner. Nightcrawler also possesses superhuman agility, the ability to teleport, and adhesive hands and feet. He has indigo colored skin (which helps him hide in shadows), two-toed feet, and three-fingered hands. He also has yellow eyes, a prehensile tail (like a monkey), and pointy ears. His mother (in the comic books) is Mystique and his father was Azazel. He grew up in the circus.

Why do I like him? I've always thought the ability to teleport at will was just really fun. Because of that, Scorpion was my favorite Mortal Kombat character (he could also teleport around) followed closely by Raiden (who could also teleport). I even invented a secret order of assassins in my Dungeons & Dragons game who all get special powers (like mutants) and my favorite one can teleport.

So now that I've told you my favorite X-Men, do you have one? If so, name it in the comments please. You get bonus points if you tell me why you like them so much.