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Mortal Kombat should be no stranger to anyone as it has lived on for almost two decades since its inception in October of 1992.

MK History

Creators Ed Boon and John Tobias have crafted the game with just a handful of employees under Midway. When it hit the arcades, it was a massive success and teens all over America kept throwing in coins to play more rounds. They were particularly attracted to it because no other fighting game at the time could do what Mortal Kombat did; add blood, gore and the infamous “fatality” to its gameplay. While the fanbase kept growing, parents were becoming aware of the game and tried to ban it from arcades nationwide, but that didn’t stop the creators from making more sequels. Due to the parental complaints of the game, the creators have made other sequels on Sega Genesis more child friendly, so instead of having blood and gore, fans who purchased the games would find out that they would need to unlock a code to have only drops of blood from each hit. Later on as the sequels became more dominant in the 90’s, New Line Cinema struck a deal with Ed Boon and John Tobias to make a movie on the game. In 1995, director Paul W.S. Anderson made Mortal Kombat, the movie. Two years later, another director took over and made the sequel, Moral Kombat: Annihilation. Two things were missing from the movies that made the games what they were when they were critically acclaimed; blood and gore. The movies were missing that because of a PG-13 rating. For that, it received a backlash of hatred from early fans of the series and never got taken seriously anymore. Even, the TV show, Mortal Kombat: Conquest ended prematurely only after the 1st season due to ratings and budget cuts.

Mortal Kombat: Rebirth

While the creative team at Midway Games had a bigger staff, they decided to take the games in a new direction. In 3D, with millions of polygons on screen. Fans again did not approve of the 3D sequels and more movie rumors of a third Mortal Kombat kept surfacing, but never had any truth to them. It wasn’t until the beginning of June 2010, that director Kevin Tancharoen provided YouTube a “proof of concept” on what he thinks Mortal Kombat: Rebirth should like when re-imagined. Kevin Tancharoen has done previous work before as a choreographer for a Britney Spears and Madonna concert/tour, as a producer for an MTV reality show called “DanceLIfe” and as a director for the 1980’s remake of the cult classic, Fame. His 8-minute short film served as a demo that he wants to show at Warner Brothers so that he can get approvals and a greenlight to shoot it. Many fans and non-fans of the Mortal Kombat series have given positive comments on it, while a small fan base on IMDB.com has tried to degrade the film in every way by saying that its realism ruins the canon storylines and characters that have spawned fans of the series in the first place. The positive group of fans and critics compared the look and feel to it with movies such as, Saw and Se7en because of its dark, gritty and brutally gory story.

Trailer For Mortal Kombat:Rebirth



The only opposition the film faces is Threshold Entertainment’s lawsuit allegations that a breach-of-contract has been reached with Warner Bros, but there remains speculation as one of the actresses, Jeri Ryan tweeted that she doing a favor for a friend and that it’s really just a demo to show Warner Bros as no one was actually aware that this short was being made.

Mortal Kombat 9 (videogame)
If that’s not enough news for you MK fans, then prepare to be in even more awe as Mortal Kombat 9 (videogame) has been announced at E3 with a release date of Spring 2011. Mortal Kombat 9 is made at Warner Bros studios after Midway went bankrupt last year. Fans have flooded the forums with ecstatic responses on how the game will go back to its roots. TONS of blood and gore are back, the fighting is 2D style and Ed Boon even supports the short movie to be made. This is a good sign for the director if it goes to a vote at WB. I will leave you with a 10-minute gameplay features and interview shown at E3, and with two words: FINISH HIM!