Mortal Kombat Kollection 4K Review

I only ever had Mortal Kombat on that old clipper DVD, so I’ve been waiting to pick this new 4K set up from Arrow for some time. Now that I have successfully moved house I am able to buy and watch movies again, so this was first on my list.

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Mortal Kombat (1995)

Plot: Mortal Kombat, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, delivers a fast paced, crowd-pleasing adaptation that pits Earth’s greatest fighters against the forces of Outworld in a no-holds-barred tournament for the fate of humanity. Featuring unforgettable characters like Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage and the thunderous Raiden, the film blends martial arts choreography, fantasy world-building and a now legendary electronic soundtrack to create one of the most influential video game movies of its era.

Review: I remember seeing Mortal Kombat on the big screen back in 1995; I was around 17 years old and had grown up playing the arcade of this and Street Fighter II religiously.

I’ve always loved the movie as it just captured the feel of the game perfectly and that opening theme tune is one of the all-time greats. The practical sets still look great and the fight scenes still hold up for the most part too. The early CG visual effects weren’t amazing even at the time, but it’s also part of the film’s charm.

The casting is perfect and no one will ever be a better Shang Tsung than Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa; he just embodied the role so well that any actor coming after him had huge shoes to fill.

The rest of the cast are a flawless victory too with Linden Ashby bringing the right amount of swagger to Johnny Cage, Robin Shou bringing personality and awesome fight skills to Liu Kang and Bridgette Wilson bringing tough as nails attitude as Sonya Blade. I also have a great time with Christopher Lambert as Lord Raiden who brings his cheeky sense of humour to the role. The late Trevor Goddard was also good fun as Kano; that character always seems to steal the show especially in the new films. Keep an eye out for Leo Lee and Gerald Okamura who appear briefly.

Mortal Kombat is never less than great fun rarely taking itself too seriously with plenty of funny one-liners and the pacing never slows down. It’s incredibly well paced and sure, some of it is corny but it’s always an easy watch.

It’s never looked better than in 4K with the vibrant colours popping off the screen and the music nearly blew my speakers.

Overall, Mortal Kombat is still my favourite live action adaptation of the game as it just has a sense of fun with a cast who seem to be enjoying themselves and plenty of fight scenes to keep things moving. That opening theme tune is one of the greatest of all time too.

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Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)

Plot: The saga continues with 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, expanding the scale and mythology as the battle spills beyond the tournament into an-all out war between realms. With higher stakes, new fighters, monstrous adversaries and epic confrontations, the sequel embraces the franchise’s operatic excess and supernatural chaos, pushing the Mortal Kombat universe into full fantasy spectacle.

Review: Widely regarded as a terrible movie, I’ve started to grow rather fond of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. As my friend J-Man says “this movie opens with ninjas falling out of the sky; all arguments are invalid!” which is hard to dispute.

Standing back, it’s really just the awful visual effects and a few cheesy line deliveries that truly let the film down. It still has some solid fight scenes and characters like Cyrax look awesome. His fight with Sonya and Jax is a highlight of the film for me.

Only two of the original cast members return (Robin Shou as Liu Kang & Talisa Soto as Kitana) and they kill off Johnny Cage in the first few minutes. As much as I hate that they kill him off I like how you didn’t know who would survive. No one was guaranteed to make it to the end credits which keeps things interesting.

James Remar takes over as Raiden and does the best he can, but Christopher Lambert had made the role his own and his presence is missed in this movie.

Brian Thompson is usually good value as a villain but even he struggles to elevate such poor material; he does get to bellow out some awful dialogue which admittedly makes the film more entertaining in a Mystery Science Theatre kind of way.

This movie still has the greatest line delivery of all time too.

Liu Kang is very much at the forefront along with Sonya Blade; my favourite Mortal Kombat character has always been Baraka but even he looks terrible and ends up getting killed after a few seconds.

Despite the flaws each character does have their own arc and the story has a beginning, middle and an end so in that respect it works. I’m not going to pretend this is a good film as it really isn’t, but I do enjoy it more with each watch and like the first movie the pacing is faultless.

We still get the classic theme tune which is used at the best moments, so it’s difficult to hate on a movie that has such a banging main theme.

Overall, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has plenty of flaws with some of the worst visual effects you’ll ever see; if you can get past that and the awful dialogue there are some solid fight scenes and the music is still awesome.

SPECIAL FEATURES

2-DISC 4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 4K restorations of the two films by Arrow Films
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the two films
• Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio on both films
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for both films
• Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by Simon Ward and John Torrani
• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
• Two double-sided foldout posters featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin

DISC 1 – MORTAL KOMBAT

• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by Arrow Films approved by director Paul W.S. Anderson
• Brand new audio commentary with director Paul W.S. Anderson
• Brand new audio commentary with comic book expert and podcast host Dave Baxter
• Cage Match, a newly filmed interview with with actor Linden Ashby
• Leveling Up, a newly filmed interview with cinematographer John R. Leonetti
• Quarters to Millions, a newly filmed interview with producer Lawrence Kasanoff
• The Heavyweight, a newly filmed interview with designer and suit performer Tom Woodruff
• Mortal Kombat: A Journey Behind the Scenes featurette
• On-set interview bites with the cast and director and B-roll footage
• Theatrical trailers
• Image gallery

DISC 2 – MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION

• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by Arrow Films approved by director John R. Leonetti
• Brand new audio commentary with director John R. Leonetti moderated by filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat
• Brand new audio commentary with comic book expert and podcast host Dave Baxter
• The Queen of the Night, a newly filmed interview with actor Musetta Vander
• Techno, Taiko, Orcho, a newly filmed interview with composer George S. Clinton
• The Man of a Thousand Deaths, a newly filmed interview with stunt performer J.J. Perry, who played Cyrax, Scorpion and Noob Saibot
• On-set interview bites with the cast and director and B-roll footage
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Let’s start off with Mortal Kombat: there is a fun interview with Linden Ashby who talks about getting the role of Johnny Cage; it’s about 16 minutes long and I love how honest he was about it. He nor the studio were expecting the film to be as huge as it was, but he always took the role seriously even if Johnny Cage is more of a humorous character. John R. Leonetti talks about the practical sets and Tom Woodruff talks about creating creatures and following his father’s footsteps. There are some great commentaries as well as archival behind the scenes footage. It’s too bad there isn’t a tribute video to Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa or deleted scenes, but what we get is still fantastic.

Now, on to Annihilation: There are some real gems on here and the interview with J.J. Perry is absolute gold as he discusses his time in the military to auditioning for Lionheart and how this movie was actually Tony Jaa’s first role as he doubled for Robin Shou. I had never heard that before, so that tidbit alone made this worth buying. Perry is a great story teller who also doubled multiple characters in these movies including Johnny Cage. Composer George S. Clinton talks about creating the epic techno music mixed with orchestra while also talking about how he used to work on the American Ninja movies. The booklet discussing the two movies is enjoyable and even defends Annihilation which is bold.

Overall, the Mortal Kombat 4K Kollection is definitely worthy to be added to the physical media library especially if you only ever had the clipper DVD that I did. The films looks better than ever even with their dodgy visual effects. The music sounds amazing and there are some fascinating special features too. It’s too bad there is no involvement from Robin Shou or a tribute to Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa but this is still essential stuff.