Mortal Kombat has the distinction of being one of the only video game based movies to actually turn a decent profit and, perhaps just as surprising, it isn’t universally hated by gamers. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who has since made a career of turning successful video game franchises into fairly unimpressive movies, Mortal Kombat hit theaters in 1995 promising fans “nothing in this world has prepared you for this”. A clever tagline, as it doesn’t necessarily assure theatergoers that the experience will be an enjoyable one. Paul W.S. Anderson should probably adopt it as a placeholder tagline on all future projects.

Mortal Kombat centers on the familiar characters Lui Kang, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage – three mortals who have been summoned to defend humankind by competing in an ancient martial arts tournament known as – you guessed it - Mortal Kombat. The tournament, held once a generation, is a fight to the death between the best fighters from the realms of Earth and Outworld, the latter of which is a forsaken land ruled by the evil Emperor Shao Kahn. If either realm wins ten straight tournaments ownership of both realms goes to the victor. Outworld has won the last nine tournaments against Earthrealm – Earthrealm cannot lose the tenth. As Lord Rayden - God of Lightning and Protector of the Realm of Earth – tells the trio, “The fate of billions will depend on you.”

Each of the characters is lured to Mortal Kombat by tournament grandmaster Shang Tsung. Lui, traumatized by the death of his younger brother (at the hands of Tsung) seeks revenge. Sonya, a U.S. Special Forces Unit Lt., also seeking revenge takes Tsung’s bait and is enticed into the tournament in her effort to kill Kano – a thuggish underworld figure who brutally disposed of her former partner. In fact, unlike Kang and Cage, Sonya isn’t even aware that she is to be taking part in the tournament until she is on the boat well on her way toward the tournament island. Meanwhile, martial-arts movie star Johnny Cage enters the tournament to squash rumors that his talents aren’t the real deal. His invite was given to him personally by Tsung, who had shape-shifted into the form of the one person Cage would trust over anyone else: his old martial arts master.

Soon after arriving on the island and we’re “treated” to our first real fight – a rather boring battle between Lui Kang and an unnamed “Guest Fighter” – which serves as an introduction to four back-to-back fights between the main cast of characters. Next up is Sonya vs. Kano, also short and fairly anti-climatic, after which it jumps immediately into the movie’s first fight of substance: Cage vs. Scorpion. This fight has a few things going for it – it’s longer than a minute, features some decent combat and actually offers a glimpse at what the movie is capable of. After that bout, Lui Kang and Kitana have a brief tussle, which sets up the stage for another short, but slightly more satisfying, fight between Sub Zero and Lui Kang.

Although some liberties have been taken both out of necessity and by choice, Mortal Kombat sticks fairly close to its source. All of the characters from the original game, and several from the second, make appearances - for the most part staying faithful to their video game origins. Unlike Street Fighter, Lui Kang isn’t suddenly some Hawaiian guy and they didn’t cast someone completely wrong for the part like Dolph Lundgren to play Shang Tsung. They even did a pretty good job on Goro. Of course, Kano was Japanese in the original game and in the movie he is “Australian” – but who gives a damn about Kano anyway?

In a pre-emptive strike against possible bored viewers Anderson does his best to pack the film with memorable over-the-top sequences. A true to life stop-motion puppet of Prince Goro makes several appearances, as does a fully CG Reptile – in both reptilian form and the more humanoid incarnation that we’re more used to. The movie never lets a plot drag it down either – with most dialogue sequences coming in the form of a joke no matter how serious the subject matter was supposed to be.

As the movie starts its ascent towards the final scenes Lord Rayden appears again to offer the characters some advice, as “our heroes” grow closer toward each other and the realization of the task ahead of them. One of them will go face to face with Shang Tsung – the fate of all of mankind resting on his or her shoulders. Mortal Kombat is very much a popcorn movie, which places all emphasis on throwing as much at the audience as possible. Assuming, most likely correctly, that the core audience would have an extremely low attention span – no more than five minutes goes by without some sort of special effects sequence or cheesy joke. As demonstrated in instances like the back-to-back fight scenes it can grow quite tiresome to anyone looking for more substance.

Also, disappointing is how tame the fights themselves are. Mortal Kombat became popular because of the blood, gore and remorseless finishing moves. One of the first changes that had to be made in order to keep the profitable PG13 rating was to tone down the violence – meaning the movie is more akin to the SNES version of Mortal Kombat. Some of the opponents go down with no more than a kick to the face or chest – the lack of even a few real fatalities is a downer.

Although it lacks the brutality that made the games a worldwide smash Mortal Kombat does have enough in it to satisfy fans. It is obvious that it is a product of the Mortal Kombat universe, sticking close to the established stories and characters and including numerous references to please fans. This movie is often, although certainly not exclusively, referred to rather fondly - at least on a video game movie scale. In a medium with truly no real winners it should come as no surprise that Mortal Kombat doesn’t show-up its peers by much. However, due to a few decent sequences and at least a little effort Mortal Kombat succeeds somewhat where others fail almost entirely. And when all else fails, it has the kickass theme by Utah Saints to fall back on. MORTAL KOMBAT!