Retrospective Film Review

Mortal Kombat (1995) • 25 Years Later

Three martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world.

Dawn of Time: The One Being is felled by the Elder Gods, carved with the Kamidogu into the realms of our multiverse. Antiquity: War threatens to restore the realms establishing the tournament of Mortal Kombat. Nine Generations Ago: the Great Kung Lao fails as Earth is primed to be conquered. 1993: Super Mario Bros. 1994: Double Dragon. 1995: Street Fighter. A long history of things not being great. But Mortal Kombat promised to be different…

It may sound like I’m introducing The Lord of the Rings, but this retrospective covers a production history as wild as the video game’s mythology. Mortal Kombat, both the 1991 arcade classic and 1995 movie, follows a simple pitch: Enter the Dragon (1973) meets Dungeons & Dragons. Three protagonists — vengeful monk Liu Kang (Robin Shou), tough soldier Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), and Hollywood actor Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) — arrive on a mysterious island to…