A personal rundown of Mortal Kombat & Injustice veterans' kostume redesigns (MK/Injustice series spoilers)
- Thread starter Scrappy-Fan92
- Start date
OP
OP
Tanya's design in MKX was soooo good and aesthetically pleasing. Wish she had gotten in 11 for that reason alone, with an updated version of that outfit and the incredible face modelling tech, she would've been one of the best female characters in the series.
I got banned for giving my opinion on Sheeva's design, so I'm not even going to comment on that.
I got banned for giving my opinion on Sheeva's design, so I'm not even going to comment on that.
Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins post (now w/King Gorbak)
OP
OP
We're back to cover some select non-game Mortal Kombat media. We start our expanded universe trek with the 1995 direct-to-video movie Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins. Created as a sort of unofficial prequel to the theatrical movie set to release later in that year, the film provided a look at the first meeting between kombatants Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage as they are invited to participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Raiden also appears to provide background detail on Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Goro, Shang Tsung, and the tournament itself. One part traditional art, one part CG art, this movie's animation quality is to put it politely uneven. The actual kharacter designs themselves are decent enough, and they're interesting composites of the whopping two games that were known quantities when this little experiment was likely given the green light.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gVOiS4189M%5B
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUlIQ0iKGBc
Liu Kang...
This animated adventure may be a loose retelling of MK1's events, but that's not gonna stop the red-striped pants from asserting their dominance. It's cut off by the trading card-styled bio many of the kharacters got at the end of this movie, but Liu Kang wears black shoes instead of white ones here.
Raiden...
His appearance is largely a direct translation of his MK1 garb, though with the black parts changed to a dark blue. And no, that's not a lighting trick making it look blue, it's blue and scenes where Raiden's next to Liu Kang and Sonya make it clear.
Sonya...
She's lost her armbands (shoulder bands?) and waist sash, and also gained black shoes like Liu Kang. Otherwise, this is basically OG Sonya translated faithfully.
Johnny Cage...
Johnny gets probably the biggest overhaul in design, taking more cues from his MKII kostume in silhouette if not the exact color scheme. Blue yoga pants and blue armbands to match. Notably, he wears his shades all the time in this movie, even at night.
Scorpion...
Nearly 1:1 with his game counterpart, though he's missing the black gloves. His and Bi-Han's cowls also seem to have widow's peaks not quite seen in the original game.
Sub-Zero...
Sub-Zero Bi-Han appears so the movie can stay consistent with the first game's events. He's about the same as always, though sporting a deeper shade of blue.
Goro...
Now we're seeing a bit more creative license. Goro's kept his general appearance but gained gold bracelets and anklets and a snazzy cape (one that was first seen in early Mortal Kombat comics and would also be carried over to the theatrical film). His underwear has also turned blue for some reason. Notably, during one of the CG flashback sequences showing how Goro became Champion, his underwear is black again.
Shang Tsung...
I actually really like Shang Tsung's design in this. It's reminiscent of the original game's wizard robes, though with a brighter shade of blue and featuring one of the first appearances of our good friend gold trim. The robes themselves look far more manageable to move around in due to not being wrapped around his entire body. Honestly, Shinnok's alternate kostume from Armageddon looks a lot like this kostume.
Shang Tsung's younger self also makes an appearance during a segment talking about his early acts of villainy:
Effectively the same as we saw him in MKII, skullcap and all.
Tarkatans...
The only kharacters/species not introduced in the original game to show up here, the Tarkatans (referred to as "Nomads" in The Journey Begins proper) appear as mooks for Liu Kang, Sonya, and Johnny to fight against. They basically look like Baraka but with grey vests and green pants. There is one Tarkatan seen among a panning shot of tournament fighters, but it's not confirmed whether they're Baraka or not.
The Great Kung Lao...
Making his first appearance in motion, Kung Lao and Liu Kang's ancestor shows up during another flashback segment fighting and losing to Goro. He's notably just dressed in MKII Kung Lao's garb (compared to the Liu Kang-esque attire he sported in the Midway comics), though with a darker shade of blue for the undersuit. This is the first time GKL is seen wearing something similar to modern Kung Lao's sawblade hat, and it won't be the last.
King Gorbak...
Alright, I can circle back to this guy and actually show off what he looked like in the old comics. King Gorbak is the ruler of the Shokan's realm of Kuatan, making his first appearance in the MKII tie-in comic published by Midway Games itself. There, he sent Kintaro to face off against the Earthrealm warriors to avenge the humiliating defeat of Goro at the hands of Liu Kang. For his appearance in said comics, Gorbak donned magenta robes with gray and gold trim, as well as a magenta cape. I'm really digging the studded bracelets he's got. It's a Shokan who dresses like a king, easy-peasy. As mentioned in the MKX section, Gorbak appears in one of the flashback sections alongside Goro and Goro's never-seen-before-or-again brother Duroc. He just looks like Goro with a darker skin tone and a cool scepter. That scepter should be in the games.
And that's that. Much like the film itself, this didn't take very long to get through. Next time, we'll talk about The Journey Begins' more well-known live-action counterpart, which would take a lot more liberties with kharacter designs.
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Mortal Kombat (1995) post
OP
OP
"Nothing in this world has prepared you for this."
It's kind of easy to take the 1995 Mortal Kombat film for granted. The franchise owes a lot of its later lore to this film and its popularity. Released in August of 1995 by New Line Cinemas and Threshold Entertainment, Mortal Kombat provided a feature-length retelling of the Mortal Kombat tournament as seen in the original game, while also integrating kharacters and plot elements from Mortal Kombat II. Its general Enter the Dragon meets Masters of the Universe vibe is more or less carried over from the games and given a high-budget Hollywood supercharge, which does make it all the more amusing that this game came out between the release of the original MK3 and its first update, the former of which lacked many of the kharacters featured in this movie and the both of which erred more on the urban techno-fantasy side of things. But I digress. This film featured a handful of the most popular fighters seen in the first two games and attempted to translate their designs into the world of an actual undigitized martial arts flick. For the Earthrealm heroes, they were given regular clothes as opposed to the aerobics garb they sported previously and had to rely on the actors' performances to convey their personalities. The villains on the other hand got to stay weird.
I've decided to break protocol in kharacter ordering to match the iconic theme song's "lyrics." Use the GIF below to follow along up to Sonya.
And speaking of the theme song...
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwWPadFsOA
Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) Song by The Immortals
“Techno Syndrome” is a song composed by Oliver Adams and performed by the Belgian techno duo The Immortals, commonly associated with the Mortal Kombat series...
www.youtube.com
Kano...
The late Trevor Goddard was the actor chosen to portray Kano in this film and his performance was well-received enough that starting with Special Forces Kano's in-game appearance and background would be retconned to more closely match Goddard's portrayal. For this movie, Kano's abandoned the white martial arts gi in favor of black pants and an open vest (making his MK4 replacement Jarek's design all the more auspicious). It's simple criminal attire outside of the jewelry Kano sports. He may be a scumbag, but he's still got some class. His metal faceplate was basically carried over wholesale with minimal changes and I respect that. A decent retooling of one of the series' earliest villains and a dry run for his appearance in Deadly Alliance.
Liu Kang...
I imagine the first Mortal Kombat game's more grindhouse, "We have no money" aesthetic lent itself well to a more "grounded" adaptation. Liu Kang has none of the added detail that he gained in the game sequels, though it's excused by the fact that in this movie he's on the outs with the Shaolin and is basically wandering the earth on his own. Throughout most of the film, Liu Kang is usually seen wearing a tattered tank top, only going shirtless for his final confrontation with Shang Tsung.
Raiden...
Raiden takes a less active role in this film due to the franchise rules of the tournament basically being codified here. As such, he acts as more of a snarky mentor to the Earthrealm warriors, a more laidback God of Thunder than the one usually seen in the games. He's mostly content with white and beige robes, only wearing his straw hat in his introduction when he's trying to recruit Liu Kang. For the first time ever, he's also abandoned his cowl and let his long, silver hair flow freely for the audience to see. It's a lovely look and befitting of this more jocular depiction of the kharacter.
Johnny Cage...
Not pictured: His $500 sunglasses. Moving away from his Jean-Claude Van Damme appearance, Johnny here is kind of just dressed like a dude. This makes sense for what he is in this movie, i.e., the audience surrogate understandably wondering what the heck is going on with all of the demons and sorcerers and whatnot. I'm honestly surprised they didn't at least give him a blue shirt, instead opting for a(n admittedly lovely) shade of green. This is basically what I imagine Johnny wearing when he's offset and arguing with his agent over whether or not he gets killed off in a script. A more traditional-looking Johnny does appear in a magazine in the film, though in-universe Johnny's not depicted in the most flattering light for that. This is a supreme instance of the actor (Linden Ashby) embodying the kharacter through performance more than appearance. A lesson to be kept in mind for the future.
Scorpion...
Now we're getting to the good stuff. Scorpion is pictured above fighting Johnny in his hellish lair. The ninjas of this film maintain the silhouette of their MK1/MKII selves with a few tweaks here and there. Most notably, actual sleeves for the first time. The cross-stitch patterning of the overtunics has also been removed outright (leaving a more simple leather look with popping colors) and the color-coded cloth masks have been retired in favor of hard gray masks.
Sub-Zero...
Bi-Han appears here working alongside Scorpion with a handwave from Shang Tsung about them being under his control or something. This movie opts to just leave the palette swaps' backstories steeped in some mystery to maintain focus on Liu Kang and his personal circle, and for the purposes of pacing and keeping Liu Kang the star, I'm fine with that. Sub-Zero has the same general kostume outline as Scorpion, though his overtunic is a notably deeper blue than it was in the games at the time. More impressively, his mask seems to almost have a layer of permafrost on it, a literally and figuratively cool addition. On an unrelated note, Sub-Zero might be the only kharacter other than Scorpion and Shang Tsung who recreates or attempts to recreate one of his in-game Fatalities in the movie proper, though it doesn't end well for the Lin Kuei at all.
Sonya...
For the first -- and for a good many years, final -- time, Sonya actually looks like a member of a military unit. She's ditched the workout gear in favor of an all-black ensemble, which she wears for the first half of the film before switching to a black tank top and shorts to deal with Kano. It's a good look.
And now for the rest!
Reptile...
Reptile appears in this film, fully dropping his human disguise for the first time. The middle picture directly above shows his small, colorful lizard self aided by the power of 1995 CGI. It's a little iffy-looking relative to the rest of the effects in the film, but I'll give credit to the production crew for utilizing Reptile's smaller stature for all it was worth, having him be a stealthy sentry with more extensive use of the camouflage powers he demonstrated in the games.
But that's not the end of this section. As many of you know, Reptile would take a humanoid form to fight Liu Kang in one of the film's most memorable scenes. He's got the same get-up -- now with a deep forest green -- as Scorpion and Sub-Zero, though his mask's differences are far more pronounced, evoking the screaming mouth of a lizard. It kind of looks like a gimp mask and I'm not proud of myself for making that association. Even putting that aside, the mask looks a bit too big for the actor. With all that said, he's a wonder in motion. Go watch the fight scene to see what Reptile was born to do.
Goro...
Prince Goro here is a marvel of moviemaking. One part man in a suit serving as an internal puppeteer, one part animatronics (clunky animatronics if the crew's testimony is to be believed), one part CG for his facial movements in certain scenes, he's a behemoth of a fighter. He's largely unchanged, just sporting more detail, including some nice studded wrist bracelets. His black speedo and red sash have been removed in favor of a leathery red loincloth, which makes me wonder if his design in MKX took some cues from this film. Goro is notably taller than his game counterpart, likely to accommodate the animatronics. It makes me think of him as a 'roided out walking stick.
Shang Tsung...
For the movie, it seems the production and casting crew decided to go for a sort of happy medium between old and young Shang Tsung. He's definitely far less ancient than his 1992 counterpart despite this movie hewing closer to the original game, though he's kept his propensity for long robes. Or rather, a long leather coat with red trim. It's a more modern take on an evil martial arts movie crime boss as opposed to the stock kung fu wizard he normally is in the games. This design has the honor of being the first kostume from the movie to be carried over to the games directly as Shang Tsung sports it as an alternate skin in Mortal Kombat 11.
Kitana...
Kitana is retroactively added to this retelling of MK1's events, though she doesn't really fight. She mostly just observes and offers some hints and exposition to Liu Kang and Johnny. For her initial scene, she opts to do more with the princess side of the ninja princess archetype, attiring herself in a sparkly black dress with what appears to be a black leather bodice. For the majority of the film, she wears something marginally closer to her MKII outfit, but we'll discuss that at length when we talk about this film's sequel.
Jax...
Jax only appears briefly in this film for a few scenes, played by the late Gregory McKinney. He's in similar garb to Sonya and as this is an adaptation of the early parts of Mortal Kombat canon, he's lacking the metal arms. Of note is Sonya to Jax's left in the picture above. She's sporting a black cap that would likely partially inspire her appearance in Mortal Kombat 4.
Shao Kahn...
Finally, we have the emperor of Outworld. Shao Kahn appears at the very end of the film (via apparition) to challenge Earthrealm's warriors after they've triumphed over Shang Tsung. For such a short glorified cameo, he's pretty imposing-looking. I'm not really sure if this was an actor with effects and prosthetics overlaid or just a wholly CG creation, but Shao Kahn looks like Shao Kahn, right down to the skull straps on his chest.
And there you have it. Thirteen kharacters brought to life on the big screen, and I'd say they all turned out well enough. It's interesting if nothing else to point out that this movie largely just rolls with the games' absurdities. Scorpion and Sub-Zero are introduced early and wear their iconic suits throughout the whole movie. Compared to the long stretches of time it took for the Mario Brothers or Street Fighter's World Warriors to get into reasonable facsimiles of their recognizable garb in their respective movies, I can appreciate this film's shameless confidence in its source material's aesthetics. Taking the -- and I say this with unironic reverence -- super cosplay of the games and marrying it to a slightly more practical look paid off. Next time, we will not cover this movie's sequel but look into an earlier work from 1996. Stay tuned.
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Mortal Kombat: Live Tour post
OP
OP
Alright, guys, I didn't know what to do with this one.
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was a laser lights-focused martial arts stage show that ran in the United States from 1995 until 1996 (meaning my earlier comment at the end of the previous threadmarked post was off). Produced by Threshold Entertainment's Lawrence Kasanoff in what he deemed "The Year of Mortal Kombat," the stage show involved Earthrealm's warriors doing battle with Shao Kahn's forces to retrieve an amulet (and replica amulets were sold as merch!). Now I wanted to have fun with this, but the show has seemingly never been uploaded in its entirety on the internet, making it somewhat lost media. Thankfully, there are TV commercials, cast interviews, and publicity photos of the (mostly) fully-kostumed kast that have survived, which means I'm really just dumping pictures for you to look at.
Since this stage show came out at the height of Mortal Kombat 3 mania, we're going to predominantly use that game's assets as the initial point of comparison (even if this stage show made its debut about a month before UMK3 released, making my use of that version's assets iffy, but shh...).
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwWPadFsOA
Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) Song by The Immortals
“Techno Syndrome” is a song composed by Oliver Adams and performed by the Belgian techno duo The Immortals, commonly associated with the Mortal Kombat series...
www.youtube.com
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M8nXTl6ObI
Really, just check the Mortal Kombat Wiki's page on the show and its videos, with this handy link I'm providing you.
Kharacters...
Liu Kang 
| Raiden 
| Sonya 
| Johnny Cage 
| Scorpion 
| Sub-Zero 
| Kano 
| Shang Tsung 
| Kitana 
|
Mileena 
| Jax 
| Baraka
| Shao Kahn
| Kabal 
| Sindel 
| Cyrax 
| Sektor 
| |
All things considered, these are pretty faithful translations of the MK3 designs, for better or worse. Cyrax and Sektor are looking like felt versions of Daft Punk, though I acknowledge that doing stunts for a game with multiple shoots and the aid of digital editing is different from having to pull off live fights and acrobatics while dressed as cyber assassins. Also, I'm not sure who in these pictures are supposed to be Johnny and Baraka. Notably, Sonya and Sindel seem to have had kostume discrepancies between shows. Sindel in the last picture is looking like a prototype design for one of Quan Chi's minions in Mythologies. Of note is some of the talent this stage show had on and off the camera. One of the actors selected to play Sonya was Kerri Hoskins, her performance model from Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4. Hakim Alston, who played an unnamed warrior in the 1995 film, was one of Jax's actors. Future Rain actors Tyrone C. Wiggins and Percy Brown played Jax and new(?) kharacter King Baraka respectively. And Mortal Kombat: Conquest's Reptile, Jon Valera, was one of Liu Kang's actors for this show. The 1995 film's Shang Tsung, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, was the fight choreographer for this show as well.
And that's kind of all I've got. Next time, we'll talk about a piece of Mortal Kombat media that actually debuted in the year 1996. In the meantime, regale yourself with the efforts of the fine people (and me) of the gaming hardware slave labor thread and read up on how to make our hobby a little more decent.
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OP
OP
Hey, everyone. I'm late, I know. I've been watching Defenders of the Realm to see which kharacters are present for comparisons (and because I've just been curious to watch it all these years). That show's section will be here soon enough, but for now please enjoy an update to the MKvsDCU post, 'cause I've added comparisons for the DC heroes (and Darkseid) who earlier appeared in the 90s fighting game Justice League Task Force.
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I really can't applaud this thread enough. You keep going deeper and deeper. What's next? Mortal Kombat on Ice?
(rhetorical)
(rhetorical)
Alright, guys, I didn't know what to do with this one.
Mortal Kombat: Live Tour was a laser lights-focused martials arts stage show that ran in the United States from 1995 until 1996 (meaning my earlier comment at the end of the previous threadmarked post was off). Produced by Threshold Entertainment's Lawrence Kasanoff in what he deemed "The Year of Mortal Kombat," the stage show involved Earthrealm's warriors doing battle with Shao Kahn's forces to retrieve an amulet (and replica amulets were sold as merch!). Now I wanted to have fun with this, but the show has seemingly never been uploaded in its entirety on the internet, making it somewhat lost media. Thankfully, there are TV commercials, cast interviews, and publicity photos of the (mostly) fully kostumed cast that have survived, which means I'm really just dumping pictures for you to look at.
Since this stage show came out at the height of Mortal Kombat 3 mania, we're going to predominantly use that game's assets as the initial point of comparison (even if this stage show made its debut about a month before UMK3 released, making my use of that version's assets iffy, but shh...).
Really, just check the Mortal Kombat Wiki's page on the show and its videos, with this handy link I'm providing you.
Kharacters...
All things considered, these are pretty faithful translations of the MK3 designs, for better or worse. Cyrax and Sektor are looking like felt versions of Daft Punk, though I acknowledge that doing motion capture for a game with multiple shoots and the aid of digital editing is different from having to pull off live fights and acrobatics while dressed as cyber assassins. Also, I'm not sure who in these pictures is supposed to be Johnny and Baraka. Notably, Sonya and Sindel seem to have had kostume discrepancies between shows. Sindel in the last picture is looking like a prototype design for one of Quan Chi's minions in Mythologies. Of note is some of the talent this stage show had on and off the camera. One of the actors cast to play Sonya was Kerri Hoskins, her performance model from Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 4. Hakim Alston, who played an unnamed warrior in the 1995 film, was one of Jax's actors. Future Rain actors Tyrone C. Wiggins and Percy Brown were cast as Jax and new kharacter(?) King Baraka respectively. And Mortal Kombat: Conquest's Reptile, Jon Valera, was one of Liu Kang's actors for this show. The 1995 film's Shang Tsung, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, was the fight choreographer for this show as well.
And that's kind of all I've got. Next time, we'll talk about a piece of Mortal Kombat media that actually debuted in the year 1996. In the meantime, regale yourself with the efforts of the fine people (and me) of the gaming hardware slave labor thread and read up on how to make our hobby a little more decent.
Um...OP, what's going on here?
OP
OP
If you're talking about the outfit, the Shang Tsung actor's "vest" just seems a bit ill-fitting. It's pretty accurate otherwise and when I first saw your isolated version of the pic I thought the actor was shoving their right hand up their not-shirt. But, the actor's arms are both down and just kinda hanging loosely.
...Unless you're worried about something else entirely, in which case I'll need you to point it out to me.
EDIT: It's the legwarmers, isn't it?
...Unless you're worried about something else entirely, in which case I'll need you to point it out to me.
EDIT: It's the legwarmers, isn't it?
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Earlier images reformatted for clarity
OP
OP
Back again, with no post on DOTR. I'm getting to it, I promise.
But I have been spending the past few days working on something else related to this thread. I had noticed that a lot of images were fuzzy and not able to properly expand to the sizes I wanted, so I apologize for the readability issues that likely caused. I've replaced/reuploaded nearly everything so all of you can actually view the designs without straining your eyes. This also has the side-effect of me getting far clearer renders for Deadly Alliance, which means you really get to see how bony Quan Chi's elbows are. And how utterly hairy Kano is.
But I have been spending the past few days working on something else related to this thread. I had noticed that a lot of images were fuzzy and not able to properly expand to the sizes I wanted, so I apologize for the readability issues that likely caused. I've replaced/reuploaded nearly everything so all of you can actually view the designs without straining your eyes. This also has the side-effect of me getting far clearer renders for Deadly Alliance, which means you really get to see how bony Quan Chi's elbows are. And how utterly hairy Kano is.
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Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm post
OP
OP
My apologies for the long wait. I had to watch every episode of this show over a period of several months to comb through scenes to see which kharacters would be present. Thirteen episodes of hilariously toned-down Saturday morning violence, and I kind of loved it? Like, everyone's a snarky douchebag in this show. I almost feel bad for Raiden because he's basically a kindergarten teacher in this iteration of the franchise. But there are some legitimate moments of pathos here and there and some of the plots are quite entertaining. But enough of my mini-review. Defenders of the Realm was a one-season animated series loosely following up the events of the 1995 film while using many of the designs from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. As such, I probably won't have as many novel things to say about the kharacter outfits here. Also, finding good images for a lot of these guys was less than ideal. As such, image quality is more inconsistent than usual, and I apologize in advance.
Anyways, have a look at this cel sheet of the main group:
They're a pretty colorful kast, wouldn't you say so?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3i4VKa1f8Q
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6oVYCicOW4
Raiden...
"Rayden" in this show hews far closer to his visual depiction in the games, blue overtunic and all. The cel sheet is notably missing the game-accurate yellow circles on the sleeves, which are in the show proper. His cowl has a somewhat shiny color with blue highlights in some scenes. A decent recreation, even if the overtunic looks oversized on occasion due to what I'm guessing were animation errors.
Anyways, this is Raiden, and these are his Defenders of the Realm.
Liu Kang...
It's MK3 Liu Kang, mullet and all. Notably, he's missing the leg wrappings and has no studs on his bracelets whatsoever. Said bracelets also have red highlights due to the art style of this series.
Kitana...
Her design here looks like a composite of her MKII outfit, her UMK3 outfit, and her battle kostume from the movie. Shiny black spandex/leather with blue highlights and a headband. It's not bad, though rather simple compared to her fellow kombatants who usually go for three-toned clothing.
Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang)...
The younger Sub-Zero makes his first animated appearance as one of the principal kharacters of this show, mostly reenacting his story from MK3. That means suspenders are back in fashion. It's a pretty straightforward lift from the game. His belt's design is changed slightly, the blue rings around his pants are higher up in the show's rendition, his boots/tights are all-black at the bottom, and he has larger and more detailed cuffs now. Aside from those minor differences, Kuai Liang is Kuai Liang.
Stryker, Sonya, and Jax...
Our three normies look more-or-less like their MK3 selves in DOTR. It's especially notable for the latter two given how the movie went out of its way to deck them in black for pretty much every scene, so seeing them wearing their bright aerobics outfits again is amusing to say the least. Jax's pants appear notably less busy-looking than they did in MK3, which I appreciate. Stryker's also wearing dark blue pants instead of his black pair and has gloves that cover the entirety of his hands. Sonya for her part has monochromatic pants (instead of the loud ones she sported in the game), fully-covering gloves, and black boots.
Nightwolf...
Nightwolf serves as mission control for most of this series, usually opting to contribute from behind a computer instead of facing off against Shao Kahn's forces in the field. He notably lacks the war paint his game version is always seen with, except when he merges with his wolf companion Kiva for the times when he does get to fight. Beyond that, it's Nightwolf, just with better pants and smaller feathers on the headband.
Scorpion...
Scorpion appears solely in the series' second episode, going from his MK1-inspired look to a near-perfect recreation of his UMK3 look, skull mask and all. His rope kunai is replaced with a sentient chain snake, splitting the difference between the game's (relatively) more grounded weapon and the movie's more overtly organic depiction.
Sub-Zero (Bi-Han)...
Bi-Han makes an appearance via flashback in the first episode, depicting a comparatively less violent version of his demise at the hands of Liu Kang as seen in the 1995 film. Pictured above is him (in UMK3-styled attire) getting frozen by his own ice instead of being impaled and then frozen.
Kano...
While this show did try to follow up on the movie's events in a family-friendly fashion -- even keeping Reptile dead and having the visually similar Komodai as the token lizardman -- Kano somehow makes it here unscathed despite Sonya snapping his neck previously. Not resurrected or anything, his death just got retconned. Anyways, he's basically taking after MK3 Kano in appearance (some minor details like replaced cuffs aside), though Trevor Goddard's portrayal already started making its way into other media by this point given Kano's speaking with a clear Australian accent, to say nothing of retaining movie Kano's beard.
Shang Tsung...
Shang Tsung appears in the aptly-titled ninth episode, "Resurrection." He actually comes back naked, so he spends his first few minutes revived wearing a simple robe provided to him by some Shadow Priests. When it comes time for him to go back to the battlefield, he's just wearing a modified version of his MK3 kostume, but with new wrist bracelets. Also for some reason, his tattoos are red instead of black.
Smoke...
Smoke is featured heavily in the fifth episode, which goes into detail about his and Kuai Liang's friendship before the Lin Kuei's Cyber Initiative ruined their lives. As such, we get to see both warriors wearing unmasked variants of the UMK3 Lin Kuei uniforms.
Shao Kahn...
Our series villain is here, sporting a streamlined and less spiky variant of his usual garb, cape included. He's notably got proper boots in this show instead of the shinguards he had in the games. His cape is also a solid red and missing the silver trim at the bottom featured in John Tobias' art.
Kabal...
Kabal was yet another one-shot kharacter in this series, showing up in the episode "Amends" which reveals he and Sonya may harbor feelings for one another. His appearance in DOTR is largely faithful to MK3's depiction in silhouette if nothing else. He actually wears a shirt now and his mask looks more like a ventilator than a demon's mask. What really gets me are the bright yellow pants. I'm frankly surprised the game version of Kabal didn't have a brighter color on him.
Sheeva...
Serving as the show's most recurring secondary antagonist, Sheeva appears relatively unchanged. Her silver cuffs are replaced with darker ones and her belt is now monochromatic.
Cyrax and Sektor...
Appearing in the same episode as Smoke, Cyrax and Sektor look about the same as they usually do, outside of having more white on their armor. Said armor also looks like armor and not repainted BMX gear. This show also featured the first appearances of the two's human forms, which I will backport to the MK9 post featuring them.
Cyber Smoke...
Cyber Smoke looks like Cyrax and Sektor, but in gray. While it's more color-accurate to the human version, I do wish they had kept the blue, especially given how the generic Cyber Lin Kuei used as fodder in this series sport a similar color scheme. The primary difference is that Smoke (and the other cyborgs who are confirmed to have once been human) have non-segmented waists compared to the gaunter frames of the (hopefully) mass-produced mooks that Liu Kang and the others have no compunctions in outright thrashing.
Motaro...
As per canon, Motaro serves as one of Shao Kahn's enforcers, to the annoyance of Sheeva and the Shokan. His appearance is largely unchanged.
Ermac...
Ermac makes a few appearances in the series as the leader of a group of red ninjas, basically looking like his usual self. The primary difference is that we get to see him unmasked a few times, and apparently he wears earrings.
Rain...
Rain appears once during an episode that plays up his Edenian connection with Kitana. He goes unmasked for all of his screentime.
Jerrod...
Kitana's father, after making his first visual appearance in the Malibu comic series, shows up in a flashback in the series' final episode. Both versions go for a long-haired blue-clad monarch look, though the comics' version opts for a more warrior king appearance compared to the version we saw in the show who was killed while simply enjoying his time off. And speaking of warrior kings...
The Warrior King...
Okay, Defenders of the Realm aired on USA Network in 1996 alongside three other cartoons: Street Fighter: The Animated Series, Savage Dragon, and Wing Commander Academy. For one day, all four shows had a loose crossover of sorts via the appearance of the Warrior King, a world-traveling warrior in search of a mysterious orb. He first appeared in Street Fighter and Savage Dragon as an ally of those shows' respective heroes before traveling to the world of DOTR to get his orb in the aforementioned "Resurrection." After defeating Shang Tsung, Raiden tosses the orb through a portal to the deep reaches of space to set up the Wing Commander episode and the King only appears via silhouette to chase after it. His appearance is generally the same in all four shows, though obviously shifting to match the respective art styles, so I'm only mentioning him here because this is quite possibly the only time I will ever be able to talk about Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in the same post. It's canon.
Alright, that should be it. Defenders of the Realm was an alright series with some alright redesigns that would've been better served with a higher budget. Next time, we go back to the live-action space to discuss Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
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Thank you very much.
By the by everyone, check MK9's third post section if you feel so inclined. I've made yet more revisions to it.
Probably because I went over four months without any major additions.
By the by everyone, check MK9's third post section if you feel so inclined. I've made yet more revisions to it.
Still my fave thread on this board. Would love for someone to tackle another fighting game series like Tekken.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation post
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Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) - Final Showdown GIF | Gfycat
Watch and share Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) - Final Showdown GIFs on Gfycat
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Don't mind me, just linking a legitimately baller shot from this movie. Released in November of 1997, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was the sequel to the 1995 film, picking up where its predecessor left off (and recasting all but two kharacters in the interim). After Shang Tsung's failure to defeat Earthrealm's warriors in Mortal Kombat, Shao Kahn arrives to handle them himself with the help of his minions and a resurrected Sindel. As you could guess, this movie is mostly taking cues from Mortal Kombat 3 and features darn near the entire kast of that game. Darn near everyone who wasn't already killed in the first movie anyway. This movie strays away from its predecessor's slightly more grounded kostume design to more accurately represent the WWF wuxia madness of the games, with varying results. Let's get to it, shall we?
I once again apologize for the woefully inconsistent image quality. Real life doesn't get perfectly formed full-body art unless you commission the cleanest of photoshoots, and this movie generally lacked cool trading card-styled promotional body shots compared to the prior film. Once again, we are going in theme song order.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dePaRih9Kzs
Mortal Kombat Annihilation Theme
Theme frm the funny movie Mortal Kombat Annihilation
www.youtube.com
Liu Kang...
Liu Kang, now the newly crowned Champion of Mortal Kombat, isn't too different from when we last saw him. He's ditched the tank top he usually had in the first film for a not-all-that-different layered white vest that he wears for the entirety of the movie. It gets him through deserts, snow-covered landscapes, and a trip through magic underground hamster ball tunnel systems.
Sonya...
Sonya, now played by Sandra Hess, probably went through the biggest design overhaul. She spent a good portion of the last film in black shorts and a tank top, before ending the film in a leather dress courtesy of a creeptastic Shang Tsung. Despite this movie starting immediately after the first, Sonya is seen wearing a white tank top and green shorts. It's blatant outfit retconning that would make Midway proud. Now, I'm generally in favor of the switch on the petty basis that Sonya gets to wear her signature arcade-era color on the big screen for once. I say "generally," because someone on set didn't give Ms. Hess a bra. That tank top doesn't hide anything. Well, at least they don't have Sonya mud-wrestling in this movie.
Jax...
As you know, Jax stayed behind when Sonya went to Outworld. Upon her return home, Sonya finds Jax (now played by Lynn "Red" Williams) at a military base undergoing an operation to test out his metal prosthetics. Unlike subsequent adaptations, these are just voluntary augments that he can take off at will. His fingers are even visible, making them more like metallic goth sleeves. The metal arms themselves have a pretty bionic look, the metal finish emulating musculature but still high-tech enough to feature blinking lights. Jax also goes shirtless for the majority of the movie, keeping nothing but an open vest and a dog tag on his person while traveling with Sonya.
Kitana...
Kitana wears the exact same battle outfit she had in the prior film, which I can now talk about at length. It's a black leather corset with detached sleeves and pants. Simple, to the point, and infinitely less of a hassle for the actress to wear, though not particularly "Kitana." The woman needs blue. Some of the lighting choices in Annihilation almost make the corset look blue in certain scenes, but it's still black. Kitana does get one blue thing -- okay, two -- in this movie: her war fans. They're pretty cool props and contrast her suit and the scenery well in the one fight that they're used.
Jade...
See what I'm talking about? Jade gets to wear bright colors, and it looks fine. She's even rocking the opera gloves before her Shaolin Monks rendition made that a thing in the games. Unlike Kitana's leather corset, Jade's looks to be made of a softer cloth with more visible stitching, and one that's attached to a choker. Also of note are her thigh-high boots, a detail I didn't even notice until recently A relatively faithful kostume for a not-very-faithful Jade.
Sub-Zero...
Kuai Liang appears before Liu Kang and Kitana to kill Smoke (wait, what) and fight Scorpion. Our Cyromancer friend here is modeling the latest in recolor attire, taking loose inspiration from the UMK3 "ninjas." This film basically took the conceit of the first movie's goal of individualizing the ninjas' suits and ran with it, giving them unique overtunic patterns as well. For Sub-Zero, I think the ribbon patterning works. And all things considered, I think he got the best mask of the bunch. Not that he wears it all that much.
Scorpion...
Scorpion (here played by future Sub-Zero actor J.J. Perry) appears for a whopping one scene to fight Kuai Liang and take Kitana away. His suit is pretty much a sleeved UMK3 Scorpion, with rhomboids on the overtunic instead of squares. The biggest differentiation is the boxy mask. I'm not sure what to think of it; I appreciate the designers for giving everyone more color, but the gray masks looked less cheap. If someone could take the first movie's mask and place it on this movie's outfit, we might have an all-time winner.
Cyrax...
I don't envy what the production crew had to undertake with certain elements of the franchise. "Yellow cyber ninja with wire locs who looks like a legally distinct Predator" was always going to be a bit weird, even with the non-robot ninja Power Rangers running around. Cyrax looks alright, though I do wonder why his head colors are basically inverted. They gave his head more yellow. Maybe because his one fight scene takes place in a dark laboratory and they wanted to make sure the audience (and Lynn Williams) could make out the guy in the suit. Speaking of said suit, it's pretty accurate, for better or worse. The Cyber Lin Kuei always looked the most "off-the-shelf" of the original trilogy's fighters, but the players weren't going to see all of that up close too often by virtue of the games keeping them at a distance. Cyrax here is up close and personal, so his armor looks almost as plastic-y as the BMX gear Sal Divita wore for digitization in 1995.
Mind you, I don't think this is a bad design, I just think it could be improved with a few minor tweaks. Loath as I am to suggest live-action adaptations just add more black to designs, I would do so for the shoulder pads to keep them from blending into the chestpiece too much. Maybe making the helmet's "muzzle" yellow while making the rest black could also possibly work. Armchair analysis nearly 25 years after the fact is good, no? On an unrelated note, Cyrax also has an exposed panel for him to shoot out his weapons. It's there, I guess.
(Cyber) Smoke...
It seems Defenders of the Realm wasn't the only project that thought Smoke should be gray in all forms. Though to be honest, Cyber Smoke in the movie's got more of a silver finish. I think that's what Cyrax is missing. The game version has some silver decals on the suit to complement the yellow and black. Cyrax doesn't really have it outside of some exposed circuitry. Smoke's just as monochromatic but silver and black don't contrast with each other as much. Even as he appears to be more of a knock-off RoboCop than usual, Smoke's got a pretty cool look. I really do think it's the metallic finish. It keeps the prop armor from looking like paintball gear in a way that Cyrax's bright but slightly weathered yellow armor kinda can't do.
Sheeva...
Sheeva's not too different beyond having a more conservative (and very shiny) singlet to accommodate an actual actress instead of a claymation creation. Oddly enough, she's lost all of her silver. No silver belt...okay, no belt at all, and no silver around the bracelets and anklets. Maybe Smoke's paint job took up all the budget.
Motaro...
Motaro in this film is a half-CG creation to mimic the claymation look in a big-budget format. Some issues with his front "feet" aside, the effects were generally decent from what I recall. Motaro doesn't deviate all that much from his game counterpart below the waist outside of the metal "belt" area being a darker shade of gray. And if you want to consider it an accessory, his tail is far less smooth than it is in the games.
And now for the rest!
Raiden...
Switching actors to James Remar, Raiden starts the film wearing roughly the same white robes we usually see him in. After he gives up his godhood to more directly assist Liu Kang and co., though, he undergoes a change. It seems that the loss of deity status somehow makes him younger and he dresses in attire that wouldn't be too out of place on this continuity's version of Liu Kang. A simple black vest, brown pants, and some caged bracelets. Give him a red headband and this would be a Liu Kang kostume. "It's a new look," indeed, Raiden.
Johnny Cage...
For his woefully short screentime, Johnny (now played by Chris Conrad) wears more-or-less the exact same thing he had on in the last film. He also apparently picked up a new pair of shades along the way, judging by how he takes them off dramatically in the opening.
Mileena...
Mileena's appearance in this film has her donning a bright pink version of Kitana's attire with equally bright pink gloves and a headband. And for obvious reasons, she's also wearing a mask. Also, shout-outs to her fingernail polish. Makes some of Mileena's idle animations in MK11 all the more amusing.
Baraka...
The blades are my favorite part of this design. Shame the Tarkatan arms are obvious rubber sleeves overlaid on the human actor's arms. Probably should've given this version of Baraka gloves to hide the untouched hands. And also a mask that doesn't show the actor's teeth. The actual clothing parts of the kostume are fine and accurate, but Baraka's most defining features are kind of let down by a few design snags. I actually dig the earring, though.
Noob Saibot...
Noob gets summoned by Ermac of all people during the finale's four-on-four rumble. Noob's backstory was minimal at the time and no one knew he was Bi-Han yet, so I guess we're just supposed to assume he was some other condemned soul that made up Ermac's composition. Anyways, he's Noob, but not a full-on shadow spectre, just a ninja in black. His suit notably looks more leathery, which does make the fabric shine during the night scene he appears in. Said suit also hews closer to the more MK1 take of the prior movie's ninja uniforms, which does unintentionally give credence to the idea that this is Bi-Han recently resurrected to serve the Forces of Darkness.
Shao Kahn...
In Annihilation's rendition of the first film's ending scene, Shao Kahn appears in the flesh to declare his intentions for konquest. His suit is a pretty faithful rendition of the game design. You know, just with pants. He's also got new straps across his chest. This movie's version of Shao Kahn has his shoulder pads attached to his cape, which does make him look a little naked for fight scenes when said cape is tossed aside. Shao Kahn is also sometimes seen wearing more casual attire when he's resting in his quarters, actually wearing a shirt in some scenes. The emperor in this film is depicted with a few more dimensions in general, so I guess they wanted to humanize him a bit more. I commend the movie for bringing this pretty outlandish design to life, though the helmet looks floppy and cheap. This may be why they toss it off in several scenes, but it looks more ceremonial as opposed to "This is my killing helmet." I mean, it still is, it just doesn't offer much in the way of protection.
Nightwolf...
Nightwolf shows up briefly to teach Liu Kang the secrets to unlocking an Animality. His appearance is largely game-accurate, war paint and all. Primary difference is his get-up being all-black and having non-holey pants. To be expected.
Sindel...
Everyone's favorite scream queen makes her film debut with the greatest line ever uttered in cinema. She's traded the vest and silver cuffs for a cape and opera gloves and gotten some black tights, but this is a bonafide Sindel. This is one of the few kostumes from the movie that I would outright say fits perfectly in MK Trilogy, no alterations needed.
Ermac...
Ermac gets hexagons on his overtunic, and his shinguards are shaped like hexagons too. I neglected to mention this earlier, but the overtunics of this film seem to be sturdier as opposed to the more fluid leather ones seen in the 1995 film. This design is fine, points to him and Rain for having cowls that lack the widow's peaks seen on Scorpion and Sub-Zero's cowls, but something about Ermac's mask looks a bit overlayered.
Rain...
Rain also has hexagons on his overtunic, though I think his mask may be a recolor of Sub-Zero's.
Water God and Fire God...
Two of Raiden and Fujin's fellow Earthrealm Gods and some of the bosses seen in Mythologies: Sub-Zero, who've been upgraded to Elder Gods in Annihilation. The Water God is now visibly human and wearing blue robes while the Fire God has gone from a burning Raiden sprite to an older human in elaborate red robes. Simple and to the point.
Shinnok...
Yes, despite this being an adaptation of MK3's events, Shinnok is at the forefront pulling the puppet strings of everything. This includes Shao Kahn, who's his son. And Raiden's brother. This movie is weird. Alas, the film's color, color everywhere initiative did not extend to the Elder God, who opts for simple black and silver robes. I mentioned how Shinnok in Mythologies looked like a Sith Lord, but this guy is just a bearded Palpatine before he gets hit with lightning. It's fine, just nothing that really screams "Shinnok." The elaborate headgear in the games really does help the silhouette. Movie Shinnok might have his Amulet somewhere. He might be holding it in the picture seen above. Or it might be on his belt.
And from a deleted scene, we were able to (not) see Shinnok with:
Quan Chi...
Seen only in publicity photos alongside Shinnok -- presumably to meet with him once the Elder Gods banished him to the Netherrealm and set up an MK4-inspired third movie -- Quan Chi looks pretty one-to-one with his game counterpart from the few images we've been able to find on the internet. Main difference is the lack of red on the belt and the patterning on the robes themselves. This is a pretty sick kostume and I'm surprised it wasn't carried over wholesale when Quan Chi appeared properly in Mortal Kombat: Conquest.
And there you have it. I don't think these kostumes hit quite the same beats as the first film's, but there are a few winners. And I'll give them credit for generally not watering down the designs of genuinely freaky-looking foes like Baraka and Motaro. By comparison, the first movie only really needed to have Reptile and Goro to satisfy its weirdness quota, and even Reptile circa 1995 was only lizardlike once the mask came off. Really, I think it's just the abundance of fighters that probably ran the kostumers ragged. A smaller group of fighters may have allowed them to put all their time and effort into making them slick and detailed. As it stands, most are detailed, though some (Quan Chi, Sindel) look like they got more attention than others (Sheeva). It is what it is.
While Annihilation would be the last film in the original continuity (and goodness knows they tried for years to follow it up), it would not be the end of this continuity period. Less than a year after its release, Mortal Kombat faithful would receive additional adventures that would attempt to contextualize the events of the two films. But that's a post for another time. Until then, have a good night, and enjoy a poll.
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Thank you. And that's awesome. Do you remember who "King Baraka" was?
Thank you. There is something comforting about returning to this.
Nah I don't remember, I was a kid. I was just excited to see the characters and see em fight.
I actually saw the Mortal Kombat Live Tour when I was 8-9. It was awesome and mind blowing for little me.
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You're not misremembering. There were "Raptors" who wore green versions of the same ninja uniform everyone else had, but I wound up keeping them out due to the fact that they're technically just fodder for Raiden to fight. Now if someone from NRS or Threshold Entertainment wants to pull something out their backside and claim one of them was Komodai or Chameleon, then maybe I'll put them in.
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Mortal Kombat: Conquest post
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Do you all remember the serialized fantasy action-adventure TV boom of the 90s? It was an interesting time, quite possibly the only time we could get a project like this on network television with an actual budget. Mortal Kombat: Conquest was a 22-episode series that took place hundreds of years before the events of the two films, chronicling the life of the Great Kung Lao after he became a Champion of Mortal Kombat. Produced by Threshold Entertainment, the series would feature many actors from the prior two films, often portraying kharacters different from the ones they portrayed before.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NIKmSnAf8Q
The Great Kung Lao...
While his descendant was a nonentity for most of the non-comic expanded universe material produced in this era, the Great Kung Lao makes his first voiced appearance in this show. Since the series covers his early years, he's not fully grown into the warrior of legend yet (though he does wear the iconic sawblade hat at one point). As such, he's largely dressed in the simple garb of a traveling monk: a white changshan and yellowish pants.
Shang Tsung...
A younger Shang Tsung (now portrayed by Bruce Locke) appears in this series, sporting facial hair at last. He's dressed in a black vest and a pair of pants, clothes not too dissimilar from what movie Shang wore in the final battle against Liu Kang. It works and is probably the least out-there young Shang Tsung we'll see in any form of media.
Shang also appears as an old man, wearing all-black robes in contrast to the navy and gold robes he was known for.
Raiden...
Jeff Meek took over as Raiden in this series, giving the Thunder God a more affable persona as he mentored Kung Lao and his allies. He dons the straw hat from time to time but usually sticks to just his white robes. Though this version of Raiden actually has blue on his kostume, loosely mimicking his appearance from Mythologies: Sub-Zero.
Scorpion...
Scorpion appears in four episodes, serving as an evil spirit with the powers of body possession (including the body of a man named Takeda, no relation to the canon Scorpion's apprentice). Scorpion has reverted in both actor and attire, with Chris Casamassa donning the leather overtunic once more. The ninja masks have also gone back to the dark gray designs, though they notably look more ill-fitting in this series.
Sub-Zero(s)...
This Sub-Zero (played by Annihilation Scorpion J.J. Perry) is presumably an ancestor of the brothers, and he effectively co-initiates the blood feud between him and Scorpion partway through the series. He wears an outfit similar to Bi-Han's. His mask lacks the permafrost and is a duller tone of gray.
Reptile...
Reptile is largely unchanged, save for his overtunic possibly taking on a different shade of green.
Kitana...
A younger Kitana shows up in a handful of episodes, portrayed by two different actresses wearing two different variations of the movie kostume. Dara Tomanovich (seen in the middle picture above) wears a pretty similar get-up as Talisa Soto's Kitana, though with a portion of the bodice hollowed out with mesh. She also has a necklace with a golden pendant. Audie England's Kitana opts for a look closer to the princess' UMK3 design, with the plunging neckline and cross-stitching. Kitana's also retained her fans from Annihilation. Not bad reworks, though I again yearn for blue.
Mileena...
Audie England also does double duty as Mileena, being the first actress outside of the games to portray both Edenian princesses. Mileena here is more accurate to her game counterpart, courting Shao Kahn's favor, openly scheming to get Kitana killed, and even impersonating her "sister." She basically wears a pink version of Kitana's second Conquest outfit. Again, it works. Though I'm bemused that the two fighters known for not wearing bras or pants in the games are dressed far more conservatively than the vast majority of women on this show.
Smoke...
Smoke has been retooled into a literal CG smoke demon in this show who tries to kill Sub-Zero (wait, what) in his one appearance. I believe you can still make out a normal ninja cowl with gray overtunic. He's also got red eyes, which I'm going to pretend is foreshadowing for Cyber Smoke's appearance in Deception and you can't stop me.
Noob Saibot...
Conquest premiered when the franchise had only been in existence for six years, which meant by necessity it had to play fast and loose with the lore at points. Noob Saibot is not a newly resurrected Bi-Han but an ancient entity spawned to wreak havoc. He also looks like a kabuki actor dropped in tar. They got the whole shadow man aesthetic down pat, though I weep for actor Sultan Uddin's eyes during the makeup application. Speaking of eyes, Noob's aren't actually white in the show. The desktop wallpaper that I got the above image from just added them as an edit, but it was one of the few full-body shots I could get of him, so here it stays.
Shao Kahn...
Jeff Meek also played Shao Kahn in Conquest, the tyrant wearing far more than he usually does. In the pilot, he even wears a modified version of his skull helmet before it's discarded. The back of the helmet really is that boxy, making him look like he has a high-raised collar. For most of the series proper, Shao Kahn goes for a skull helmet that's notably lacking a crest. It's weird, but the prop looks less unwieldy if nothing else. The rest of the outfit itself notably retains the game counterpart's penchant for spiked accessories, and it seems this version of Shao Kahn even has some jewelry on one of his hands. Not a bad retooling, though his robes make him look like a heavy metal version of Quan Chi.
Rain...
Since every ninja in this series wears a less elaborate uniform, Rain basically looks like he walked out of the '95 film and that's okay.
Lin Kuei Grandmaster(s)...
A Grandmaster appears in this series, looking not too different from the one seen in Mythologies: Sub-Zero. Though we've got a bit of an inversion going on here. Instead of visible eyes and a mask around the mouth, Conquest has a visible mouth and a mask around the eyes for its Grandmaster. His overtunic is also made of a shinier fabric, weirdly evoking the UMK3 Lin Kuei with the black bordering and segmenting.
Alright, I am only counting these three because the kostume influences are too notable for me to ignore. In Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Armageddon, Sareena, Kia, and Jataaka are three Netherrealm demons serving under Quan Chi. In Conquest, their roughly respective counterparts Siann, Mika, and Sora are resurrected corpses given the forms of human women to serve under Quan Chi. They're effectively filling the same niche as someone like Komodai in Defenders of the Realm, i.e., being the legally distinct replacement for a canon kharacter. Though Komodai only existed because DOTR is a quasi-sequel to the '95 film where Reptile was dead. Quan Chi's triple threat could've feasibly been around in the old days before Liu Kang, so I do wonder why the names just weren't used. Perhaps these substitutes would die permanently and Quan Chi would have to recruit their actual game counterparts to replenish his forces, but Conquest got canceled on the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers so we'll never know. As it stands, they're cosplaying as themselves, though with Siann wearing the hip guards featured in Sareena's concept art. And yes, that is DOA: Dead or Alive's Jaime Pressly as Mika.
Quan Chi...
Quan Chi has a near-perfect recreation of his game look here, right down to the red on the armor and the brown belt. I'm kind of surprised they didn't just refit the Annihilation kostume onto Adoni Maropis, but this works as well. Main differences here are the hole studs on the kilt(?) and the darker fabric on the robes. They're still blue, mind you, just not the striking turquoise they were before.
Reiko...
And finally, an MK4 kharacter (that wasn't shared with Mythologies) makes their first leap beyond the games and comics. Reiko is just wearing a maskless variant of the series' ninja kostume, matching his game counterpart to a tee. His spiked gloves have sadly been replaced with maroon arm wrappings, but his tattoos have thankfully been retained.
And that's it. Conquest's mission statement was to basically take the wuxia action of the films and marry it to the high-flying TV fantasy of something like Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. As far as the kostumes of the games' fighters are concerned, I think it worked. Everyone looks like themselves and the show erred closer to the first film's faux-Eastern fantasy design (which means erring closer to the first two games' faux-Eastern fantasy design), so most of the outfits don't look too overly busy. Mind you, this post doesn't cover the vast amount of original kharacters whose designs had to be made wholesale and ranged from great to trashy in that 90s genre TV way. While Conquest would be canceled after one season, several of its actors would be carried over to another project as producer Lawrence Kasanoff continued his journey to make Mortal Kombat the ultimate multimedia franchise.
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This thread is a treasure OP. I have no idea how I have completely missed it, but I'm all kaught up and ready for more.
Is on HBO Max, by the way... like everything not Defenders of the Realm.
For what is worth, the show was cancelled because the studio was going to focus on the third movie...Devastation...which was then cancelled because of Hurricane Katrina.
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I didn't hear about Conquest until around 2016 or 2017. It definitely took me by surprise that there was a high-budget live-action Mortal Kombat television series and more people didn't talk about it when bringing up the series' non-gaming endeavors.
I will say that nothing about Conquest was high budget, it did put more effort into the martial arts than did contemporaries like Hercules and Xena... but still not as much effort as it put into getting d-tier actresses to show up in bikinis for nonsensical reasons.
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Also as two bits of trivia from Conquest: the brown haired servant of Quan Chi was played by Dana Hee; who played Mileena in Annihilation; and the actor that played Reiko said during an interview that once he got the role he studied everything about him and even printed pictures of him but when he arrived on set noone knew Reiko even had makeup on his face; so he gave them the printouts and stuff he had.
Fantastic work as usual. I actually watched like 2 or 3 episodes of conquest the other week on hbo since I always wanted to see it when I was a kid and missed it. Holy fuck the show is awful and porn tier acting at times. I had to tap out.
Mortal Kombat: Federation of Martial Arts post
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In the year 2000, around the time Mortal Kombat: Special Forces would see release, Threshold Entertainment debuted Mortal Kombat: Federation of Martial Arts. This was a web series and interactive stock-trading "game" where people on the official MK website could bet with fake digital money on a series of fights between returning and newly created kharacters featured in the franchise. Several actors from prior MK media would reprise their roles for this project.
For fun, here's a list of some of the reprisals:
From the games
- Kerri Hoskins Branson as Sonya
- Chris Casamassa as Scorpion
- Lynn "Red" Williams as Jax
- John Medlen as Ermac
- J.J. Perry as Sub-Zero
- Percy "Spitfire" Brown as Rain
- Dana Hee as Siann
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRxbWs63F4k
Liu Kang...
He's gone for a barefoot warrior look this time around, and also gotten red armbands to finally make some strides toward his MKII design palette.
Sonya...
Kerri Hoskins dons the headband in official MK media for the last time here, and her get-up looks like a retooled version of Sandra Hess' Sonya from Annihilation. She also seems to be wearing camo paint on her face.
Scorpion...
The ninjas in this web series hew closer to the sleeveless ninjas of the games, though retaining the color-coded and layered Annihilation masks. Scorpion's mask is actually not 1:1 with the mask seen in the second movie, with the gray "venting" being oriented in a different pattern.
Sub-Zero...
Sub-Zero -- presumably Kuai Liang given this series' status as a followup to Annihilation -- gets a sleeveless version of the ribbon overtunic look. Strangely enough, he seems to be wearing a mask from the first movie. Not Bi-Han's mask, but Reptile's mask.
Shang Tsung...
Shang Tsung appears, possibly played by the same actor portraying Liu Kang here. He wears a similar vest/pants combo that Shang had in the first movie, and one episode even features him wearing the overcoat with the animal design seen in the film as well.
Kitana...
After five years, Kitana finally gets to have a mask. It looks a little flimsy, and more like a veil which retroactively makes me think it would fit Mileena better, but it's here. And purple, like her Batman gloves. The rest of the kostume itself is closer to the one seen in the movies, though with some cross-stitching to expose some of the sides of the torso.
Jax...
Jax returns sans dog tag and metal arms, the latter of which is actually in line with his kharacter arc in Annihilation. I imagine the people in charge of budgeting for outfits probably breathed a sigh of relief on that front.
Nightwolf...
Nightwolf wears a slightly more colorful kostume, with brown boots instead of black boots. The bands around his upper arms are also gone.
Ermac...
Ermac's looking like he walked out of MK1, fitting given his origin as a playground rumor. His Annihilation mask is retained.
Rain...
Rain just looks like a retooled version of his Conquest self, with new armguards and his Annihilation mask thrown on.
Siann...
Siann appears for a few fights and has the dubious honor of being the only nominally important fighter to actually get killed. It looks like her wardrobe was lifted straight from Conquest, with the fingerless gloves removed for whatever reason.
It should also be noted that Raiden, Shao Kahn, Quan Chi, and non-game kharacter Omegis would make appearances in this series via archive footage from Conquest, further establishing connections between this web series and the wider live-action continuity laid out from 1995-99.
And with that, we have concluded our coverage of a rather tumultuous chapter in the franchise's history. While Threshold Entertainment would try to continue the
movie side of the series (even signing several actors to return), outside factors would put the kibosh on that, thus leaving Federation of Martial Arts as the last Mortal Kombat project released under the company. Outside of a scant few comic adaptations, the IP's non-game media would largely stall for the remainder of the 2000s until a fan-film-turned-pitch-film came from the mind of Kevin Tancharoen.
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Mortal Kombat: Rebirth post
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In the late Spring of 2010, two days before MK9 would be officially revealed to the world, Kevin Tancharoen dropped Mortal Kombat: Rebirth onto an unsuspecting populace. Initially assumed by many to be a WB-sanctioned cross-marketing stunt, Rebirth was a short fan-film and proof of concept for a feature-length Mortal Kombat movie that Tancharoen was trying to pitch. The short film would reinterpret several of the franchise's fighters as denizens of a more grounded world, with many of their fantastical elements peeled away. As such, everyone dresses like people. Take a trip down memory lane with the video linked below and enjoy me talking about regular clothes.
WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS VIOLENT SCENES AND IMAGERY
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNLND7Hs818
Sonya...
Sonya has been recast as a police officer helping Jax get cooperation from Hanzo. Here, she simply wears a beige pantsuit and a black shirt.
Johnny Cage...
Johnny is still a washed-up actor in this continuity, albeit one who takes a job as an undercover cop to see who's the man behind the serial killers of Deacon City. He dresses in a simple white shirt and jeans for the majority of his screentime, not even wearing his trademark shades in the short's flashback scenes.
Scorpion...
Hanzo Hasashi is still a Japanese assassin, albeit one we never get to see in full regalia for the duration of this short. He spends most of his screentime in voluntary police custody, listening to Jax explain the backstories of his future tournament rivals. As such, he's just wearing a yellowish prison jumpsuit.
Sub-Zero...
No version of Sub-Zero is actually seen in Rebirth, Kuai Liang's file photos never being shown on screen to focus on Hanzo's reaction at realizing his dead enemy had a brother bearing his title. A simple (possibly CG) headshot of a masked Sub-Zero flashes on-screen in the short, either to visualize the file photos, or to visualize Hanzo's memories of the elder brother. Nonetheless, it's an interesting interpretation. The mask looks far more mechanized, as if it needs to double as some sort of respirator to modulate the ice powers without killing the Cryomancer.
Reptile...
Shang Tsung...
Shang only shows up in a file photo as Jax reveals him to be the boss behind Reptile and Baraka. In this short, he's still the tournament organizer of Mortal Kombat, reenvisioned as a one-realm underground fight club. For this take, he is only seen in a simple dark suit.
Jax...
Jax is captain of Deacon City's police force, and is played by Michael Jai White, who had twice been approached to portray Jax in the film series. This version lacks the metal arms for obvious reasons and dresses in a maroon shirt with black suspenders and a hyperdetailed tie.
Baraka...
And finally, we have Baraka, played by Lateef Crowder, who keeps his Eddy Gordo locs on proud display here. Like Reptile, Baraka is a human, in his case, a former surgeon. After a surgery he performed on someone else went wrong, he began mutilating his own body, sharpening his teeth into fangs and implanting surgical tools into his arms to match his game counterpart's Tarkatan blades. He basically feels like a less sympathetic version of Guilty Gear's Dr. Baldhead/Faust, and his white jacket evokes a medical coat just enough for me to say that Tancharoen and co. were going for a mad doctor look.
Rebirth would not get Tancharoen the film he so clearly wanted to direct, but it did get enough attention to spur Warner Bros. to let him head a separate Mortal Kombat web series that saw release in the following year...which I have not seen yet, so this may take a while. Stay tuned.
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Mortal Kombat: Legacy post
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In April of 2011, less than a month before Mortal Kombat 9 was released, Kevin Tancharoen and his team collaborated with Machinima to debut Mortal Kombat: Legacy. A web series given the backing of Warner Bros. and the blessing of Ed Boon himself, it would build off of the foundation laid by Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, though adhering to the games' aesthetics far more openly. While set in a different continuity from Rebirth, several actors from that project would reprise their roles. The series' first season consists of nine episodes aired anachronistically, with each serving as a vignette for one or more fighters before they participated in the Mortal Kombat tournament. As this show was meant to be a happy medium between the more grounded take offered by Rebirth and the more fantastical elements seen in the games, the kostume design follows suit.
Here's a full playlist for the first season. Warning: Strong language, intense violence, mistreatment of the mentally ill (and those presumed to be mentally ill), and depictions of gore ahead.
Raiden...
Raiden spends his one focus episode as a prisoner of an asylum after he crash-lands in their backyard. He sticks to ungarnished white robes for the entirety of his screentime, only getting his straw hat after he snatches it from a pedestrian once he escapes.
Sonya...
Sonya takes a more active role in Legacy, performing a recon mission to scope out Kano's weapons-laundering depot. As such, she's dressed in all-black tactical gear, and it actually looks like tactical gear!
Johnny Cage...
Johnny is somehow more of a washed-up action star here than he is in the games, having suffered a full-on career slump. He does wear his shades for some in-universe interviews, though given he's mostly indoors or seen at night for his focus episode, he has no need for them otherwise. For his episode's final fight scene, he's just dressed in a red T-shirt and jeans.
Scorpion...
Hanzo Hasashi gets the penultimate episode, where we see much of his life in Japan before the Lin Kuei (allegedly) murdered his clan. He seems to be more of a samurai than a ninja in this continuity, actively teaching his son about the ways of the warrior. When Hanzo suits up, his iconic uniform's silhouette is maintained, though with the overtunic having a more folded look akin to a kimono. Most notable is the screaming mask worn over an additional cloth mask. Yeah, I'm admittedly not too fond of the hard mask worn here. Anything that mimics human teeth without actually being human teeth will always look a little weird to me without proper context on what authentic Japanese warrior custom was. I have a similar problem with Taki's various masks in Soulcalibur, though Hanzo's mask at least provides a bit more protection.
Sub-Zero...
Bi-Han shares a focus episode with Scorpion, and dons a multi-toned blue get-up. I like the leg wrappings and the fact that the overtunic is almost like a poncho. Though, I must admit that the mask, while cool and pretty game-accurate, looks a bit oversized, especially when Bi-Han actually talks.
Kano...
Kano is just a contemporary crime boss and as such he dresses like a dude, though he keeps a shark tooth necklace because of course he does. He gets the metal faceplate and prosthetic eye at the end of the second episode after Jax punches him so hard his real eye flies out.
Shang Tsung...
Shang Tsung appears sporadically throughout the first season, first offering Johnny a chance for redemption at the tournament. There, he dons a business suit to keep up appearances despite having already paused time and space to make his Faustian offer to Johnny. His more recurring kostume is wizard's robes with the expected gold detailing. It also has a red sash that I like. Shame the viewer gets so few good shots of him in it.
Kitana and Mileena...
Kitana and Mileena's shared episodes are called "Kitana & Mileena" and are about Kitana and Mileena who hate each other because they're Kitana and Mileena. They wear multiple ninja outfits in this episode. The picture seen above on the right is a behind-the-scenes shot of the actors sparring for Shao Kahn's favor. Their uniforms are identical color-coded training gis. I like the idea of the sisters going for flowier cloth "ninja" attire over spandex, though I wish it didn't have to come with patented holed ninja pants.
Jax...
Jax again serves as a member of Deacon City's police force and suits up in tactical gear to extract Sonya when she's caught by the Black Dragon. By the end of the second episode, Stryker informs Sonya that Jax is getting prosthetics for his injured arms and back courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Baraka...
Kitana and Mileena's first focus episode also features Baraka leading his Tarkatan soldiers against the Edenian royal family's stronghold. Baraka looks like a rougher take on his Deception design, wearing a metal chestplate over a black shirt. It works. What I personally take more notice of though is just how wrinkly Baraka looks in this show. My word, prosthetics for this franchise have come far. The wispy white hair trailing behind him is a nice touch too.
Shao Kahn...
Shao Kahn goes helmetless for all of his appearances, donning dark short-sleeved armor. It's alright, though the loss of any notable skull motif kind of takes the oomph out of the emperor.
Stryker...
Stryker appears in the first two episodes, working as a fellow detective of Jax's. For his appearances at the precinct, he dresses in a suit, wearing tactical gear when he accompanies Jax to save Sonya.
Sindel...
Sindel appears pre-resurrection in Kitana and Mileena's backstory, her penchant for purple maintained in a rather lovely aristocratic dress with a...petticoat? Overcoat. It's a coat. Seen above on the right is an on-set picture with Sindel and Jerrod's actors due to ease of access and a better view of the color of the dress, which pops far more when this show's gritty 2010s reboot filter isn't applied.
Cyrax...
The final episode of season one focuses on the Lin Kuei's Cyber Initiative and the abject horrors that such a process entails. The cyborgs are rendered via CGI and motion capture, with Cyrax looking largely as he did in MK9 (though with more green lights around his waist area).
Sektor...
Sektor is largely a palette swap of Cyrax, retaining the same shoulder pads, hazard symbol pectorals, and faceplate.
And once again, here are the two's human forms:
Yeah, it's just black attire with some admittedly cool masks. They're ninjas, I guess.
Lin Kuei Grandmaster...
And we get to see Sektor's father as well, dressed in a simple business suit since he's out of the lair and actually has to interact with non-assassins for once. At least his color scheme is maintained via the red tie and handkerchief.
Quan Chi...
Quan Chi shows up to enlist Hanzo's services for the Mortal Kombat tournament after having mortally wounded Hanzo himself in the guise of Bi-Han. He wears a black overcoat with leather shoulder pads, with his facial markings centered around his right cheek instead of his forehead. Honestly, it's a little freaky to not have Quan Chi wearing spikes all over, though the wannabe biker jacket is pretty metal in its own right.
Kana and Jubei...
Hanzo Hasashi's wife and son, Harumi "Kana" Hasashi and Satoshi "Jubei" Hasashi, were frequently mentioned in Arcade endings and supplementary material related to Scorpion. They would make their first visual appearance in MK9, as a vision induced by Quan Chi to spur Scorpion to kill Bi-Han. They appear in this show not immediately terrorized, Kana wearing a lovely kimono of multiple shades of purple and Jubei wearing mustard yellow robes to highlight how much like his father he wants to be.
Jerrod...
And finally, Jerrod gets to have an actual voiced appearance in media, portrayed by voice actor Kirby Morrow. In Legacy, he dresses in far more westernized clothing compared to the faux-Eastern attire of his daughter(s). He wouldn't be too out of place in Game of Thrones.
Jerrod spends most of Kitana and Mileena's focus episodes in hiding, using voluntarily disguised duplicates to stave off assassination attempts and live long enough to tell Kitana the truth of her heritage.
By the time Kitana finds the real deal, he's an old man in tattered robes, a far cry from the kingly statesman we saw even in Ermac's MK9 ending.
Hydro...
Hydro was a Lin Kuei and a friend of Bi-Han previously only seen in Malibu's Mortal Kombat comic series. He died at the hands of Scorpion in that series but became a fixture of fangames for years afterward. And it seems someone on the production crew of Legacy was enough of a fan to give him a nod in the season one finale. Here, he's a sort of prototype for the Cyber Initiative, let loose to test Cyrax and Sektor's powers. While Hydro in the comics was able to get a unique uniform to help him stand out from the other blue guy in the organization, in Legacy he's just a recolored Cyrax. CGI is expensive, y'all.
Season one of Legacy has now been talked about. All things considered, it was a decent enough take on the mythos with some outfit designs that didn't look like total trash. Sonya certainly looked better here than she had since Tobias left. Though there is something to be said about the power of a signature color. Power Rangers knows it and the Mortal Kombat games certainly know it. Really, it's only Shao Kahn and Stryker who suffer from color loss here -- relative to where they were circa 2011, anyways. Sonya and Jax had been moving to more muted colors since the 2000s, with only Jax really beginning to move away from that in MK11 nearly a decade after this show premiered. This is more so me on a soapbox squawking than any serious attempt to drag this show in particular, but I would say that even if you're in a "grounded" world, it's good to remember that people still wear clothes with bright hues.
Anyway, Legacy was a success and would receive a sequel two years later that would cover the tournament proper and feature more fan favorites.
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Mortal Kombat: Legacy II post
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More than two years after Mortal Kombat: Legacy aired online, a second season (aptly titled Mortal Kombat: Legacy II) was dropped all at once in September of 2013. This season covered the Mortal Kombat tournament itself while still also detailing backstories for (more) fighters and explaining what they were up to in the interim. Most of the returning kharacters from the first season have been recast, with only Kitana and Scorpion retaining their season one actors. With that said, one actor from the 1995 film would return as part of the batch of recast actors.
This season is available to watch on HBO Max and was formerly officially uploaded to YouTube, though I imagine Machinima's dissolution left the episodes in a sort of limbo.
Here is a production photo of the actors on set to provide a general idea of what they looked like without the show's specific lighting:
And since I can't rip any music from the show for you to listen to, enjoy the Utah Saints' take on the original film's theme.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7gPxDsFjE
Liu Kang...
Immoral Champion of Mortal Kombat...I'm sorry, I meant to say immortal Champion of Mortal Kombat. Liu Kang here has lived a hard life. Left the White Lotus Society to pursue love in the outside world, lost said love, committed murder to avenge said love, then got excommunicated from his Shaolin brethren which led him down a neverending spiral of violence and self-loathing. And he didn't even have to become a Revenant for any of this to happen. Anyways, this is Liu Kang if he were plopped into Final Fight: Streetwise, so he dresses in hoodies and jeans. While on Shang Tsung's Island, he's got a leather hoodie with a red shirt underneath to tap into his inner Jin Kazama. Points for keeping the color scheme if nothing else.
Raiden...
Raiden arrives to summon the Warriors of Light, seeming to be in a far better place than he was when we last saw him. He's even found more traditional robes with a blue sash. I like the very sage shrine overseer look Raiden's got going on here.
Johnny Cage...
Johnny dresses like a dude off the street still, though we actually get to see him wear his expensive sunglasses a little more this time. While at the tournament, he dresses in a black jacket, yellow/black/gray shirt, and jeans. Not bad, though the silver jacket he had in prison when Raiden recruited him looked cooler to me.
Scorpion...
After Hanzo's rebirth into the hellspawn Scorpion, he...didn't really change all that much. His overtunic is far more worn out, faded, and burnt-looking, which is an obvious but cool signifier that he's basically been reborn in the fires of hatred. His waist sash looks more leathery, and his mask has been swapped out for a sneering gold mask with human teeth again. The mask looks alright in some shots, but oddly offputting in others.
Sub-Zero (Bi-Han)...
One of the big twists of this season was revealing that Bi-Han is the far more honorable of the Sub-Zero brothers in this continuity, living to become head of his clan and trying to honor a truce with his childhood friend Hanzo. Hearing of Scorpion's resurrection, he arrives at the tournament in new garb. On a tangential note, I'll admit I was thrown off by the timeline in this show because I have no idea how old Hanzo and Bi-Han are supposed to be. Anyways, Bi-Han gets newer gear and I think he looks like a professional paintball player. Is this what the kids call "tacticool" armor? Because that's admittedly what I was thinking of. While Bi-Han in this show is definitely more forward-thinking than his game counterpart, the suit looks almost too modern, if that makes any sense. Like, yeah, a group of clandestine assassins who also like bright colors would update their gear (see: Sektor), but I guess I think it looks too basic for a Mortal Kombat clandestine assassin. To their credit, they kept the blue all around the uniform, but this is just FPS gear. Sub-Zero looks more like a terrorist mook in a shooter when he's supposed to look like cheap enemy fodder in a Ninja Gaiden game. I really shouldn't be belaboring this given game Sub-Zero and Legacy II Sub-Zero are both just divergent ideas of what an Eastern foot soldier is supposed to look like. Neither is really accurate, which is maybe a point of discussion we should have before Mortal Kombat 12 becomes a thing, but I digress. This one is odd, and it's even odder because of the egg mask.
Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang)...
Kuai Liang does appear in this show, though he is not long for this world. He appears in a flashback, wearing what was then the standard Lin Kuei uniform, looking like a maskless dark blue palette swap of Scorpion. It works, and despite being the biggest proponent for diversifying the recolors' designs, I admittedly wish they had just given Bi-Han a lightly modified version of it in the present-day sequences.
Shang Tsung...
While Shang Tsung wound up getting probably the most notable actor switch, his actual "wizard" attire isn't too different. Dark browns and gold are still his forte here, and his cuffs even seem to have layered frills like they're dragon scales. I approve. This is basically the edgy dark version of his Deadly Alliance default and it works.
Kitana and Mileena...
The sisters return, now wearing more form-fitting pants and taller heavy-looking boots. Both continue to go maskless, Mileena sporting some scars around her mouth to signify her Tarkatan features coming in fully. Seriously, though, can we go back to the boots? I'm not used to either of them wearing what are basically military stomping boots. They're certainly no more out of place than the battle stilettos they usually wear, but seeing them just took me by surprise. The parameters of a 3D game are not the parameters of reality*. The kostumes look fine, and they definitely maintain a duality better than Bi-Han and Scorpion's do. The pants aren't even really pants, though, they're just spats with irregularly shaped stockings and faux-garter belts. I have no idea what to make of them.
*Please ignore that any other production would've likely given them wedge heels instead.
Kung Lao...
The non-Great Kung Lao finally gets to make his show debut. He's apparently become the head of the White Lotus Society, and he's a far calmer presence here than he is in most of the games post-Shaolin Monks. The designers even got around the issue of him wearing an unsheathed sawblade for a hat and bound it in straw to help him blend in with a crowd more easily. This Kung Lao upholds his Shaolin teachings pretty diligently, so it works. His battle kostume on the island is not too different from his game counterpart. The red has been downplayed and his pants are a darker shade of blue, akin to his ancestor's appearance in The Journey Begins.
Stryker...
Stryker returns without Sonya and Jax, dressed in all-black tactical gear. He's summoned to the island like that, so he at least had the good sense to prepare when Raiden gave him a warning.
Ermac...
Ermac is a weird one. He's a demon who guards the sword Sento in the year 1199. He arrives at the tournament in the present day to challenge Kenshi, all the while still looking like a mystic cave troll. He does wear red, but it's so downplayed you wouldn't be blamed for not noticing. Ermac wears a hood at all times in lieu of a mask or any facial wrappings, and dresses in dark rags. Were it not for the voice and exposition that he steals souls, I would not have known this was Ermac at all.
Kenshi...
The sole kharacter in this season to hail from the 3D era, Kenshi is largely himself, just without his sash. Or any red. Okay, he wears a red and black kimono in a flashback sequence, but for the tournament proper after he's acquired the blindfold he's dressed in black athleisure wear. I can obviously still tell it's Kenshi because the sword and the blindfold are his most recurring aesthetic elements, but come on. He's played by a Red Ranger for crying out loud. Give my man some color.
Kana and Jubei...
Scorpion's wife and son return in another flashback sequence, recast just like pretty much everyone else. Their respective color schemes of purple and mustard yellow are retained, Kana even getting a floral pattern added to her kimono that I like a lot.
And that is the end of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Some design retools that worked wonderfully, some that didn't, pretty much all not looking as good as they could have due to this show's insistence on a grayer palette for its cinematography.
A third season of sorts titled Mortal Kombat X: Generations was in the works years ago and was apparently even filmed, but it's never been released. As you could guess, it was meant to take kharacters from Mortal Kombat X and bring them into live-action. Johnny, Shang Tsung, and Kung Lao's actors from Legacy II were apparently set to return for this series and there are set photos showing a few kharacters, but still no official release. As such, Legacy II would be the last live-action Mortal Kombat project for nearly a decade as Warner Bros. quietly worked to get its big-budget movie reboot off the ground. But before we get to that, we'll take another look at Mortal Kombat's animated side.
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Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge post
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WARNING! OPEN SPOILERS FOR THIS FILM BELOW! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Released in 2020, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge is the first of a series of animated MK films focusing on the litany of fighters seen in the franchise throughout the years. The film retells the events of the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, utilizing much of the narrative structure of the 1995 film, which itself borrowed heavily from Enter the Dragon. And as you can guess from the subtitle, Scorpion's Revenge also gives us the first extensive visual depiction of the death of Hanzo Hasashi and the birth of Scorpion. While the film was released roughly a year after Mortal Kombat 11, its kharacter designs are largely based on the outfits seen in MKX.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrASFAjHTrk
Liu Kang...
Liu Kang is once again one of the chosen saviors of Earthrealm, accompanying Raiden, Sonya, and Johnny to Shang Tsung's Island. He's basically MK9 Liu Kang in terms of looks but with MKX Liu Kang's outfit (albeit with shorter sleeves).
Raiden...
Raiden guides the Warriors of Light in a non-participatory role, as has usually been the case since 1995. His outfit is a less detailed version of his MKX default, removing the storm cloud patterning on the overtunic and giving said overtunic a more curved look to evoke shoulder pads, likely MK9 Raiden's shoulder pads. His hat also seems to be just sitting atop his head without the interior brace that was featured in MKX.
Sonya...
Sonya arrives on the island in green and black military wear. Seems to largely be a loose recolor of her MKX and MK11 military wear, just with a brighter color. I'm okay with this.
Johnny Cage...
Johnny notably does not pull from MKX for his design in this movie. Instead, it seems the art team looked at his Miami Vice-inspired alternate kostume from MK9 for his get-up here. It makes sense; Johnny's under the impression that he's on-location for a movie shoot and not an interdimensional tournament to decide the fate of the human race, so of course he's going to just dress like a dude. Johnny opted for a blue suit and pink shirt with a loosened tie in the ninth mainline game, while here he goes for a white jacket, blue shirt, and gray pants with a belt buckle that's either a "G" or a very stylized "C." Also, a gold necklace in place of the tie. And as you saw in Raiden's section above, Johnny also sports a pair of tinted shades. It's a simple "Hollywood business casual" design befitting the younger, more arrogant Johnny.
Scorpion...
And now we can discuss the (ninja throwing) star of the show. Scorpion, after pledging his allegiance to Quan Chi in the Netherrealm, is given a new outfit and his first mission. Said new outfit is just the MKX default that he never even wore in the story mode. I'm happy we get to see the MKX designs in a work with brighter colors, it certainly helps them pop more. The mask is a lighter shade of gold, and the overtunic is less worn out due to the fact that it's brand new.
Hanzo Hasashi...
...And for the film's prologue depicting a younger, less skeletal Hanzo, the filmmakers opted to give the uniform worn by his older counterpart in MKX to his younger self here. The black lining around the overtunic is more solid here, foregoing the game version's more segmented, faded-out stripes.
Sub-Zero (Bi-Han)...
Bi-Han serves as Scorpion's primary adversary yet again, wearing his younger brother's MKX default outfit for some reason. I guess in this continuity, Kuai Liang inherited all of his brother's stuff. Makes me wonder if the suspenders were actually day clothes from Bi-Han that Kuai Liang just happened to take a liking to.
Reptile...
MKX Reptile and Scorpion's Revenge Reptile are not all that different, though most of the gold trim from the former has been removed in the latter. The movie's Reptile's mask also seems to be a darker, duller shade of black.
Kano...
Kano's a loose hodgepodge of influences in this movie. His camo pants, chest straps, and wristguards are taken from MKX (though the former are green now), his chest reactor is closer to the MK11 version in terms of size and shape, and his hair also seems to be closer to the MK11 default Kano. Kano usually comes in three general varieties: Shirtless, wearing a vest (openness optional), and MK3. The movie settled on variety #1, and that's okay.
Goro...
Goro again serves as Shang Tsung's four-hand right-hand man and unlike the '95 film, gets the chance to actually fight Liu Kang this time around. His appearance is largely MKX-inspired with a few minor deviations here and there. The yin-yang symbol on the (now-darkened) belt is notably gone, replaced with a simple red circle, while his loincloth has a far less tattered look to it. Again, this movie's color palette does wonders for the MKX kostumes.
Shang Tsung...
The elder Shang Tsung reverts back to the MK9 look, with the green skull design on the belt made more clear now. The snake patterning on his robes has also been changed up, making them appear more like demonic versions of Pac-Man munching about. His robes are also more spiked at the shoulders, because the evil B-movie wizard look wasn't apparent enough already, I suppose. He's also sporting some gold shinguards whereas MK9 Old Man Tsung went for black boots with gold binding. Not a bad redesign for the sorcerer.
And in a flashback sequence, we get to see Shang in his younger days as a Mortal Kombat Champion.
It's MK3 Shang Tsung.
Kitana...
MKX Kitana gets to assert her dominance with a shade of blue that people wouldn't mistake for gray, so that's nice. Seeing this design in animated form made me do a doubletake because certain elements look more fanservicey than I remember. Comparing the Legends design with the MKX design proper, there were a handful of liberties taken. Since this is a cartoon where fabric flow is far easier to depict, her pants look even more ill-fitting here than they did in the game; also her "leotard" is far tighter looking than it was in the game, to the point where she looks like she's got a wedgie. Her wooden "belt" is also shrunk down compared to the game, though she's actually exposing less cleavage than before due to the tube top being expanded. Minor changes can, well, change a design in noticeable ways when you compare them head-to-head.
Jax...
Jax dresses in a green version of his MKX garb of vest and pants. Guess who rips his arms off this time?
Baraka...
This movie commits so hard to the MKX aesthetic that even PC/console version NPK Baraka uses his outfit from that game here. The production crew even retained the rope straps for his armor.
Shao Kahn...
Shao Kahn appears at the end of the film to chide Shang Tsung for his failures and vows to set up the next phase of his plan to take over Earthrealm. He dresses in a mostly faithful reinterpretation of his MK9 attire, the most notable difference being the lack of a black stripe across his loincloth.
Motaro...
The sole kharacter from MK3 in this film, Motaro appears as part of a horde of Outworld monsters Johnny and Sonya have to fight to get to Kano. He has...I don't know what they are, actually. Really short shoulder pads? Whatever he has, he's got 'em.
Quan Chi...
Quan Chi looks about the same as we last saw him in the games: Hyper-edgy and one moment away from getting his teeth kicked in by Scorpion. Though his chest belts -- really, the whole lower half of his outfit -- aren't as ornate as they are in the games. Also, his shoulder blades actually look more decorative instead of deathly sharp, so points for practicality there.
Nitara...
Making her first appearance in the series since Armageddon over 13 years prior, Nitara shows up in the movie as another invited kombatant who gets a cameo at the banquet scene. Her design is quite similar to her Deadly Alliance default, though with her jacket lengthened and the non-sleeves portion turned black. Her bra also lacks the gold studs it had previously and her wings have no tattoos on them at all. Credit goes to YouTuber RebelTaxi for getting this (mostly) full-body shot that I could isolate.
Moloch...
Moloch, simply referred to as "Demon Torturer" by the film's credits, appears as Scorpion's designated tormentor when he awakens in the Netherrealm. He dons spiked shoulder pads and a skull belt befitting his evil orc from Hell cosplay. You know what he doesn't have? The ball and chain. Though really, Moloch's body shape is more of a departure than anything else. He's far stouter and doesn't crouch anymore.
The Great Kung Lao...
Old Kung Lao appears in the aforementioned flashback alongside Shang Tsung, looking as he did in MK9 and the early comics.
Kana and Jubei... Harumi and Satoshi...
Hanzo's wife and son make their animated debut, foregoing their color schemes from Legacy and settling on earthier tones.
Scorpion's Revenge seems to have been a success, garnering the highest Rotten Tomatoes score to date for the movie franchise. It embraces the over-the-top violence and colorful designs of the universe rather well, though hewing so closely to the games' outfits didn't give me much to talk about. I'd say next up is this film's sequel, but the new live-action film (after having been in the works on and off for about 10 years) finally clawed its way out of development hell and released in between the animated entries.
HEY, YOU! YES, YOU, PERSON SCROLLING UP FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! ABOVE BE SPOILERS FOR THE FILM SCORPION'S REVENGE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Released in 2020, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge is the first of a series of animated MK films focusing on the litany of fighters seen in the franchise throughout the years. The film retells the events of the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, utilizing much of the narrative structure of the 1995 film, which itself borrowed heavily from Enter the Dragon. And as you can guess from the subtitle, Scorpion's Revenge also gives us the first extensive visual depiction of the death of Hanzo Hasashi and the birth of Scorpion. While the film was released roughly a year after Mortal Kombat 11, its kharacter designs are largely based on the outfits seen in MKX.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrASFAjHTrk
Liu Kang...
Liu Kang is once again one of the chosen saviors of Earthrealm, accompanying Raiden, Sonya, and Johnny to Shang Tsung's Island. He's basically MK9 Liu Kang in terms of looks but with MKX Liu Kang's outfit (albeit with shorter sleeves).
Raiden...
Raiden guides the Warriors of Light in a non-participatory role, as has usually been the case since 1995. His outfit is a less detailed version of his MKX default, removing the storm cloud patterning on the overtunic and giving said overtunic a more curved look to evoke shoulder pads, likely MK9 Raiden's shoulder pads. His hat also seems to be just sitting atop his head without the interior brace that was featured in MKX.
Sonya...
Sonya arrives on the island in green and black military wear. Seems to largely be a loose recolor of her MKX and MK11 military wear, just with a brighter color. I'm okay with this.
Johnny Cage...
Johnny notably does not pull from MKX for his design in this movie. Instead, it seems the art team looked at his Miami Vice-inspired alternate kostume from MK9 for his get-up here. It makes sense; Johnny's under the impression that he's on-location for a movie shoot and not an interdimensional tournament to decide the fate of the human race, so of course he's going to just dress like a dude. Johnny opted for a blue suit and pink shirt with a loosened tie in the ninth mainline game, while here he goes for a white jacket, blue shirt, and gray pants with a belt buckle that's either a "G" or a very stylized "C." Also, a gold necklace in place of the tie. And as you saw in Raiden's section above, Johnny also sports a pair of tinted shades. It's a simple "Hollywood business casual" design befitting the younger, more arrogant Johnny.
Scorpion...
And now we can discuss the (ninja throwing) star of the show. Scorpion, after pledging his allegiance to Quan Chi in the Netherrealm, is given a new outfit and his first mission. Said new outfit is just the MKX default that he never even wore in the story mode. I'm happy we get to see the MKX designs in a work with brighter colors, it certainly helps them pop more. The mask is a lighter shade of gold, and the overtunic is less worn out due to the fact that it's brand new.
Hanzo Hasashi...
...And for the film's prologue depicting a younger, less skeletal Hanzo, the filmmakers opted to give the uniform worn by his older counterpart in MKX to his younger self here. The black lining around the overtunic is more solid here, foregoing the game version's more segmented, faded-out stripes.
Sub-Zero (Bi-Han)...
Bi-Han serves as Scorpion's primary adversary yet again, wearing his younger brother's MKX default outfit for some reason. I guess in this continuity, Kuai Liang inherited all of his brother's stuff. Makes me wonder if the suspenders were actually day clothes from Bi-Han that Kuai Liang just happened to take a liking to.
Reptile...
MKX Reptile and Scorpion's Revenge Reptile are not all that different, though most of the gold trim from the former has been removed in the latter. The movie's Reptile's mask also seems to be a darker, duller shade of black.
Kano...
Kano's a loose hodgepodge of influences in this movie. His camo pants, chest straps, and wristguards are taken from MKX (though the former are green now), his chest reactor is closer to the MK11 version in terms of size and shape, and his hair also seems to be closer to the MK11 default Kano. Kano usually comes in three general varieties: Shirtless, wearing a vest (openness optional), and MK3. The movie settled on variety #1, and that's okay.
Goro...
Goro again serves as Shang Tsung's four-hand right-hand man and unlike the '95 film, gets the chance to actually fight Liu Kang this time around. His appearance is largely MKX-inspired with a few minor deviations here and there. The yin-yang symbol on the (now-darkened) belt is notably gone, replaced with a simple red circle, while his loincloth has a far less tattered look to it. Again, this movie's color palette does wonders for the MKX kostumes.
Shang Tsung...
The elder Shang Tsung reverts back to the MK9 look, with the green skull design on the belt made more clear now. The snake patterning on his robes has also been changed up, making them appear more like demonic versions of Pac-Man munching about. His robes are also more spiked at the shoulders, because the evil B-movie wizard look wasn't apparent enough already, I suppose. He's also sporting some gold shinguards whereas MK9 Old Man Tsung went for black boots with gold binding. Not a bad redesign for the sorcerer.
And in a flashback sequence, we get to see Shang in his younger days as a Mortal Kombat Champion.
It's MK3 Shang Tsung.
Kitana...
MKX Kitana gets to assert her dominance with a shade of blue that people wouldn't mistake for gray, so that's nice. Seeing this design in animated form made me do a doubletake because certain elements look more fanservicey than I remember. Comparing the Legends design with the MKX design proper, there were a handful of liberties taken. Since this is a cartoon where fabric flow is far easier to depict, her pants look even more ill-fitting here than they did in the game; also her "leotard" is far tighter looking than it was in the game, to the point where she looks like she's got a wedgie. Her wooden "belt" is also shrunk down compared to the game, though she's actually exposing less cleavage than before due to the tube top being expanded. Minor changes can, well, change a design in noticeable ways when you compare them head-to-head.
Jax...
Jax dresses in a green version of his MKX garb of vest and pants. Guess who rips his arms off this time?
Baraka...
This movie commits so hard to the MKX aesthetic that even PC/console version NPK Baraka uses his outfit from that game here. The production crew even retained the rope straps for his armor.
Shao Kahn...
Shao Kahn appears at the end of the film to chide Shang Tsung for his failures and vows to set up the next phase of his plan to take over Earthrealm. He dresses in a mostly faithful reinterpretation of his MK9 attire, the most notable difference being the lack of a black stripe across his loincloth.
Motaro...
The sole kharacter from MK3 in this film, Motaro appears as part of a horde of Outworld monsters Johnny and Sonya have to fight to get to Kano. He has...I don't know what they are, actually. Really short shoulder pads? Whatever he has, he's got 'em.
Quan Chi...
Quan Chi looks about the same as we last saw him in the games: Hyper-edgy and one moment away from getting his teeth kicked in by Scorpion. Though his chest belts -- really, the whole lower half of his outfit -- aren't as ornate as they are in the games. Also, his shoulder blades actually look more decorative instead of deathly sharp, so points for practicality there.
Nitara...
Making her first appearance in the series since Armageddon over 13 years prior, Nitara shows up in the movie as another invited kombatant who gets a cameo at the banquet scene. Her design is quite similar to her Deadly Alliance default, though with her jacket lengthened and the non-sleeves portion turned black. Her bra also lacks the gold studs it had previously and her wings have no tattoos on them at all. Credit goes to YouTuber RebelTaxi for getting this (mostly) full-body shot that I could isolate.
Moloch...
Moloch, simply referred to as "Demon Torturer" by the film's credits, appears as Scorpion's designated tormentor when he awakens in the Netherrealm. He dons spiked shoulder pads and a skull belt befitting his evil orc from Hell cosplay. You know what he doesn't have? The ball and chain. Though really, Moloch's body shape is more of a departure than anything else. He's far stouter and doesn't crouch anymore.
The Great Kung Lao...
Old Kung Lao appears in the aforementioned flashback alongside Shang Tsung, looking as he did in MK9 and the early comics.
Hanzo's wife and son make their animated debut, foregoing their color schemes from Legacy and settling on earthier tones.
Scorpion's Revenge seems to have been a success, garnering the highest Rotten Tomatoes score to date for the movie franchise. It embraces the over-the-top violence and colorful designs of the universe rather well, though hewing so closely to the games' outfits didn't give me much to talk about. I'd say next up is this film's sequel, but the new live-action film (after having been in the works on and off for about 10 years) finally clawed its way out of development hell and released in between the animated entries.
HEY, YOU! YES, YOU, PERSON SCROLLING UP FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! ABOVE BE SPOILERS FOR THE FILM SCORPION'S REVENGE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
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OP
OP
I feel like Deadly Alliance Reptile was at least halfway there story-wise, what with him devolving into a more bestial form and losing his mind at the idea that he failed to stop Shao Kahn's (seeming) assassination. The implications of his state of mind in that game are rather horrifying to break down. Really, I'd just like to see more of Reptile's day-to-day duties period. MK11 having Baraka actually get to do things beyond being a jobber with gnarly teeth endeared me to the kharacter in ways I didn't think were possible.
And thank you for ending the nearly 11-day streak of no one but me commenting in this thread. I thought I was losing my mind.
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I love your thread, doing the elder gods work my friend. Yeah I would like Reptile to kinda literally evolve again for sure.
Gimme dat tail.