By all accounts, the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot is going to give the fans exactly what they want. Paul W.S. Anderson’s original endures as a cheesy cult favorite backed my a thumping mid-90s techno soundtrack, but Simon McQuoid’s spin on the source material promises to take things a little more seriously, or at least about as seriously as you can treat the fantastical concept.
The first trailer smashed records on YouTube and drew plenty of praise for what looks to be a faithful adaptation of the popular video game series, packed full of the requisite martial arts action. McQuoid recently admitted that he instructed his stunt coordinator to deliver the best fights ever committed to film, and while Mortal Kombat might not be able to set the all-time standard, there’s no harm in trying.
The footage was also very R-rated, and the principal cast and crew members have frequently touted game-accurate fatalities and no shortage of gore. In a new interview, the first-time feature director couldn’t quite give a specific figure on how much claret audiences should expect to see spilled, but it hardly sounds like an unsubstantial amount.
“I don’t know the gallon number, but I’ve seen drums of blood sitting around.”
Video game movies have been experiencing something of a minor resurgence recently, but Mortal Kombat is about as far away from the light-hearted and family-friendly antics of Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog as you could possibly hope to get. The violent actioner is aiming to draw in a completely different kind of crowd, and if it lives up to the undoubted potential of the trailer, then it’s going to be another slam dunk for HBO Max, and possibly even a smash hit at the box office.
