I’ve just been dying to see Mortal Kombat: Rebirth--that high-end fanfilm/movie proposal from Fame director Kevin Tancharoen--continue past its goosebump-inducing final shot where Scorpion turns to the camera, all blank-eyed. Finally, demand for something like this actually leads to results. Bloody Disgusting says Trancharoen is turning the short into what I imagine must be an officially-sanctioned 10-part web series and it’ll start shooting again in Vancouver next month.
As a hardcore fan who's dealt out fatalities since '93, I'm still intrigued by the number of coincidences that piled on to this alternate reality MK. See, Rebirth is exactly what Ed Boon was saying he wanted the eighth or ninth MK game to be like for years. Armageddon, the seventh game, was supposed to be a Crisis on Infinite Earths-style last hurrah for the characters and their realms, clearing the slate for a new, gritty, more realistic game with only a couple returning characters like Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Then, MK Vs. DC came out, and it seemed like that idea had been held back in lieu of a big cross-company deal.
Rebirth appeared a week before MK9 debuted at last year’s E3 (and stole most of the game's thunder, in my opinion) while rumors of an R-rated MK movie reboot were also percolating. It’d be very easy to see this as a move on Boon's part to get buzz going on his new idea while the company had to go back to basics with MK9. Boon, however, has always claimed he had nothing to do with the short so, I don't know... maybe Trancharoen just got the idea to do this after reading those interviews?Regardless, I still think it's much more interesting than a game that's basically a remake of MK2.
I had the complete opposite reaction, it was a huge relief for me. Making MK "real" seemed as stupid as making the Smurfs "real". MK is supposed to be fantastical, grounding it in any sort of reality would've been stupid.
I'm with you on the first one. Second one was an unmitigated fiasco.
i stopped paying attention the second they killed Cage. He was the soul of the first movie, and the punk@$$ chump of the second. booooo.
Ryan sums up my thoughts on the two MKs just fine in the two episodes of TANG.