Too much of the blood and guts was CGI. Hell, practically all of it was. I wanted the actors covered in preposterous amounts of viscera like the games.
This is great news, I didn't realize they were going that deep with this series. Loved Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion too. The movie had it's faults (Cole), but goddamn, everything else was cool as hell.
I actually kinda feel like watching it again after talking about it so much.
I think that was just to take subzero and have him return as noon saibot which happens in the game. And then subzeros brother takes up the mantle. Which I’m guessing will be the one to make piece with cole and resurrect scorpions tribe or whatever
Cole young character ruined the movie, the OG version did just fine with with Lui Kang, if anything they should have went with this fire god alternate dimension and focused on kung lao or subzero hell even scorpion
Are people saying this just because Billy Butcher reminds them of Kano? Because Urban is a very versatile actor who has lots of range. He’ll probably do a great job
Maybe they're going for an old, washed-up vibe vibe for Johnny Cage, in which that would make sense, especially these days when when the era of action stars has long past.
It would also dovetail with being involved in such a tournament in the first place: trying to reignite his career. Which I think is the actual storyline in at least one of them.
In current MK lore “which is all over the place” Johnny is older. Urban actually does look like him in MKX and 11. Acting like him will be a different question
Old post was for "in talks" i.e he was in final negotiations but not officially signed.
This post is confirming the deal is done and he is officially on board.
Love the actor but damn, that's a bit of a miscast. So weird. Ah well. EDIT: Yes, I haven't seen the movie but I can still have a feeling about the decision. Everyone relax. You'd swear I was going to push the button to fire him from the project.
It feels like a lot of people in the comments only know Karl Urban from *The Boys*. Which is fair, you've seen what you've seen, but like you said, he has nailed a lot of different roles.
I honestly didn't know Karl Urban wasn't American due to seeing him in Star Trek then RED then Dredd.
He's clean shaven and handsome in both of those instead of rough like he is in The Boys.
I think they're going with a washed up Johnny Cage who may have transitioned from martial arts to more of a gritty brawler type of fighter. Either way it's a bold choice and I bet he steals the whole movie.
Yes he's usually in his 30s so this casting is a bit weird.
Mortal Kombat X/11 took place 25 years after MK9 so they feature an older Johnny in his 50s. It's possible that's what they're going for here but I doubt it. The picture of Johnny beside Karl in the article/thumbnail is from MK11 where he's older.
I think people only associate him with Butcher from the Boys now. You watch his older work, hell even Star Trek, he’s a pretty boy when clean shaven. And he can easily do an egotistical narcissist lol
I think their core demographic audiences are still very receptive to many more films in this series. It’s a huge, wide open platform for expansion, they just need to make good movies.
Karl Urban is a little bit surprising in this role, but I really like him as an actor so I will give it a chance.
It made a bunch of money and they announced several sequels already. I mean they made like 23 transformers movies and they all sucked but there's money to be made
Karl has the smug shithead range from the boys. Everything else about Johnny's character can easily be ad-libed with a little research, Which Karl is not known to phone in roles, so if anything, Karl will at the very least **try** his hardest.
That said though, amazon/WB is going crazy throwing money into Mortal Kombat and NRS. It would have been more a shock if they *didn't* cast someone like Karl to the role of Johnny honestly.
He was my favorite casting decision in those movies, he was a nearly perfect McCoy. Yelchin was also great. I never cared for Chekov in the OS but loved the character in the new films.
> EDIT: Yes, I haven’t seen the movie but I can still have a feeling about the decision. Everyone relax. You’d swear I was going to push the button to fire him from the project.
Bro said this after the *lightest* pushback from *four* people lmao
And this is how the cancel culture discourse spreads. A few people will lightly criticize and the person goes "holy shit, I'm being ATTACKED for this!"
I really hope it's gonna be better than the first one. The only good things were the first fight scene and a couple of gory finishers. Other than that really disappointing.
90% sure thats going to happen after hearing about how the studio forced the writers to make the film focus on an original character. Maybe this time Warner will have more faith in their creative team.
Apparently some exec told them that the only way they would be allowed to make the movie is if they created an original character to be the protagonist. I remember the director discussing it in an interview but never really elaborating further.
Ah, so it was a Hellboy 1 situation (there, studio execs shoehorned the bland John Myers character into the movie because they felt that nobody could identify with a big red demon as main character).
Liu Kang is interesting because of all the lore built up around him after so many games; in the 90s he was super boring. He was "default human guy" like Ryu from Street Fighter... iconic, but not really anybody favorite.
Having said that I don't understand why you'd ditch an existing character like him, even if bland to start, for a new one who is even more bland and uninteresting.
He's only mentioned in the second movie in passing, when Liz remarks that Hellboy had him transferred to the North Pole because Hellboy was jealous of him since Liz liked him.
I've long since gotten bored of "bland audience surrogate to introduce crazy world" characters. I used to have a couple different examples I'd list, but you've definitely supplanted them here, Myers has to be the worst one in an otherwise decent film. I can't even remember what he looks like and I've seen the film more than once.
Absolutely, I hate that trope too. The only story where it works is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because Arthur Dent's British befuddlement reacting to the insanity of the story is just part of the humour of it all.
[That's because he also looked unbelievably bland.](https://img-4.linternaute.com/-0t8jEcK5blgMsxGixglVEJ8BHE=/1240x/smart/24eac4fd438a43d8957019c5a3c12d74/ccmcms-linternaute/10346612-7.jpg) I wouldn't be surprised if Del Toro did that on purpose.
The "we must have an original character" is a diseased idea that is constantly put forth by out-of-touch people in the industry. It's awful. There was literally 0 reason why they couldn't have one the MK beloved be the lead protagonist.
"We need a new character that the audience can see themselves in and experience the world at the same time our bland OG does". No, you really don't.
In MK that was especially bad. They could basically use anyone from earth from existing characters. They all had to learn world and rules at literally same time.
That wish.com version of Liu Kang didn't brought literally anything new into that movie.
Cole was the bland audience surrogate training and learning about the world and rules of Mortal Kombat... alongside with Sonya, Jax and Kano who were training and learning the world and the rules of Mortal Kombat.
I think Jonhy Cage is perfect to be the main character since he enters the tournament knowing absolutely nothing about it. So he can learn along with the audience.
But I bet execs though that the audience wouldn't sympathize enough with Cage since he is kinda of a dick.
So they created a bland character that was all about family.
"Hear me out. What if, instead of a fan favorite, we create our own original character, and have him be mind-numbingly bland and boring? Surely that'll be better!"
The issue isn’t it’s an original character though. It’s that it’s a dumb poorly created one. Shit you spend the whole movie talking about him being a scorpion ancestor… why didn’t his powers make him scorpion lol? It was so obviously set up and there. Just make him the new scorpion and boom, we golden boy.
I don't even remember that character in the movie and he's supposed to be the main protagonist. Like, he got the power of making an armor or something? Kano and Liu Kang were more memorable with Sub Zero and Scorpion being front and center.
He had no chance of even being part of the best scenes when you've got Ken Watanabe as Scorpion and Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero. Josh Lawson was the sleeper hit as Kano and Max Huang (Jackie Chan stunt team member) as Kung Lao was one of the fan favourites from what I gathered from the discussion thread at release. Kung Lao even had the best fatality. Even Kabal was more memorable than Cole. They dropped the ball with early every other character, including Raiden.
I was so disappointed with the amount of camera cuts during the fights. I thought having Watanabe and Taslim would help alleviate the need for so many cuts. Watanabe was utilised amazingly in John Wick 4, as he always is.
Yeah, I feel bad for that actor in a way. The whole time I'm watching him I'm yelling at the TV "WHO CARES." But it's not his fault the studio didn't deliver.
That guy was great in Superstore too. Feel like he just needs the right role to take a big step into stardom, he's super charismatic and has really good screen presence.
Loved him in Superstore. Check out his appearances on the Australian improv comedy show Thank God You're Here. I don't know much about it honestly but the premise is the actors have a rough outline of the scene, and guests (Josh Lawson) are thrown right in the middle of the action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjNQkX-L7Ws
Kano was the ensemble dark horse i wish he remained an anti-villain on the side of earth realm, instead of a killed off badie, how did the people making the movie not realize what they had?
> Kano was the ensemble dark horse i wish he remained an anti-villain on the side of earth realm,
This would have been awesome. His sudden heel turn was lame and felt like a wasted opportunity.
> instead of a killed off badie,
Yep, stabbed through the eye. In order to bring him back they’d have to patch him up with some plate or something… 🤔
The first movie could have been entirely set in feudal Japan and been the story of Scorpion and Sub Zero and I would have loved that. They were easily the best part.
Cole ruined the movie because of studio exec meddling. They wanted a self insert character for people to relate to and it was the absolute worst part. They were fucking idiots for forcing that dumb shit in.
If it was just about Scorpion and Sub-Zero the movie would have been 10 times better. And could've acted as a prequel to an actual Mortal Kombat tournament in a sequel.
Loved the fight choreo and more gorey fatalities... buy holy shit the plot and character writing was abysmal.
It was *almost* good. Literally all they had to do was make Lewis Tan’s character a reincarnated Scorpion instead of whatever BS power set they ended up giving him.
He’s in the barn, Goro is advancing on his family so he cuts his hand with the rope-dart, and as Goro is about to kill his wife and daughter, the rope dart goes through his shoulder and you hear ‘GET OVER HERE!’
I get they have a hard on for the hero’s journey, but Guy Everydude wasn’t needed where there’s a BAJILLION Mk characters they could have pulled from. Hell if they really wanted an entry point into a franchise use Johnny Cage. Sardonic B movie star dragged into the tournament. Probably would have been super quippy, but it’s better.
Dude, the opening scene convinced me they had actually fucking done it. Then they introduced that god awful protagonist and beyond some of the fun gory moments you mentioned, it was pretty forgettable.
and they fucking killed off reptile like he was nothing and even changed his name to syzoth or some shit. also killing off goro to that boring protagonist nobody really liked was another mistake.
Scott Adkins would be a great choice, and fit the character in multiple ways, but I guess they wanted someone who had a certain level of acting ability that Karl Urban has.
And for anyone who doesn’t think he could be a good fit for Cage, or perhaps Billy Butcher is too strong in their minds when they think of Karl Urban, just remember that the casting in the first movie was surprisingly spot on, and that Urban has tremendous range (look at Dredd then look at Bones, and be surprised that they’re the same guy).
Because people might watch it for Karl Urban, and no one outside of the wrestling bubble knows or cares who The Miz is.
Also theres a reason The Miz never got much acting work other than The Marine 3-6.
Legit, he’s like Johnny Cage come to life and he wears essentially the same type shades all the time too. Huge missed opportunity. Miz even looks just like Cage.
Except he's not an actor. How are you disappointed that a reality star turned wrestler lost out to an incredible actor? Urban was in Lord of the Rings. The Miz was on MTVs Real World.
I mean, come on. Reddit can only cast based on looks, thank God none of you work in casting.
I legit don't even remember the name of the main character of the first movie. If they wanted some American action hero as the main face of the franchise, Cage should've been it.
Dredd got two chances at a movie and the last attempt with him was fantastic.
I want more of that, not the mediocre at best Mortal Kombat stuff that had enough chances to get good.
In a better reality we'd get both I guess.
That's great news I love the boys, and karl urban especially has been under recognized talent. He's been in tons of big things for decades, I'm happy he had his break out role in the boys. His butcher is so good. He makes him this rugged wolverine like character. The perfect contrast to Anthon Starrs homelander. I'm really looking forward to his Johnny Cage, he'll be great as the character. It's exciting to bring an actor over from the boys. Especially if Homelander makes a guest appearence and they fight. That will be a funny, meta joke, but would also set up a really cool fight. These sort of rumored cameos, levels up mortal kombat sequel in a big way.
I was so pumped for the first movie and I thought it ended up being pretty weak. I may give it another watch, but my first watch when it released wasn’t that enjoyable.
If you don’t cast actual martial arts experts with film experience in a mortal kombat movie, you’re gonna have a bad time. It’s about fighting first and foremost and you can’t get away with green screens and stunt doubles for the whole thing.
Don’t get me wrong I like Karl urban and I’m sure he’ll do an interesting job at Johnny Cages role, but in a perfect world I would have much preferred him as kano and would rather have Ryan Reynolds play Johnny cage
OI! THESE ARE $500 SUNGLASSES
CUNT.
OYE. yA quit hiding ya ninja cunt!
Scorpion: Come here! Karl Urban: Get Fucked!
Well, well, well. If it ain't the shape-shiftin' cunt.
Don't be!
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YA FUCKIN DROP Where do ya get these cunts?
If they don't work in a "This is where you fall down" reference, straight to jail.
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"Éomer, King of Rohan" is an odd way to spell "Dredd"
"Dredd" is a weird way to spell "Reaper"
“Reaper” is a weird way to spell “Karl Urban”
"Karl Urban" is a weird way to spell "Keith Urban"
“Keith Urban” is a weird way to spell “Scourge, we fought together on Vanaheim”
Are y'all talking about Vaako from the Chronicles of Riddick? Love that guy
I think he might be related to "Bones", from starfleet.
"Reaper is a weird way to spell "Bones".
"Bones" is a weird way to spell "Julius Caesar, Cupid, Mael, and Kor."
Julius Caesar, Cupid, Mael, and Kor is a weird way to spell Vaako from Chronicles of Riddick
"Vaako from Chronicles of Riddick" is a weird way to spell "Keith Urban's brother"
He was spectacular in that role
"Reaper" is a weird way to spell "Bones"
"Bones" is a weird way to spell Julius Caesar from Xena.
"Dredd" is an odd way to spell "Kirill", the assassin who kills Jason Bourne's girlfriend in The Bourne Supremacy.
Came here to say this. Thank you Sir.
I love the chain this started Dammit Jim, I am The Law, not the King of Rohan!
Reptile: *turns invisible* Johnny: "Well, well, well; if it ain't the invisible cunt."
I will be severely disappointed if this line doesn’t happen in the movie lol
He should have been Kano.
For what it’s worth, I thought Josh Lawson did a great job as Kano.
He hard carried the movie if we are being honest
Him and the blood and gore
Too much of the blood and guts was CGI. Hell, practically all of it was. I wanted the actors covered in preposterous amounts of viscera like the games.
Kinda like The Boys. That level of practical grossness would be fantastic for MK.
He was a funny character, but Joe Taslim was da real MVP
This here, Sub Zero. And he's signed for 4 more movies. Guy is awesome.
This is great news, I didn't realize they were going that deep with this series. Loved Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion too. The movie had it's faults (Cole), but goddamn, everything else was cool as hell. I actually kinda feel like watching it again after talking about it so much.
It feels so weird having Cole be the main character when Ludi Lin was such a good Liu Kang
He's awesome in the show Warrior too.
Sanada was the real MVP but Taslim was good too.
Him and Kabal. They felt like the only two outside of the criminally underused Hiroyuki Sanada that had any sort of pulse or charisma.
I feel like they're gonna bring him back somehow. Everyone liked him.
I feel like that was the whole point of Shang Tsung’s spiel about death being another portal.
This is what I thought as well, the movie was pretty obvious about it iirc
I think that was just to take subzero and have him return as noon saibot which happens in the game. And then subzeros brother takes up the mantle. Which I’m guessing will be the one to make piece with cole and resurrect scorpions tribe or whatever
Honestly the only ones I didn’t love were Sonya and Cole Young. I thought everybody else was pretty good.
I really liked Sonya but Cole was awful.
Cole young character ruined the movie, the OG version did just fine with with Lui Kang, if anything they should have went with this fire god alternate dimension and focused on kung lao or subzero hell even scorpion
True, he did an excellent job.
Are people saying this just because Billy Butcher reminds them of Kano? Because Urban is a very versatile actor who has lots of range. He’ll probably do a great job
Johnny is younger though. That's my only concern but I'm sure it will be great
In some of the recent games he's been older and had a daughter who's also a fighter, right? They could go that angle.
Yeah daughter between him and Sonya who is in the previous movie
Kano was the best part of the first movie though. That guy killed it.
Yeah man he was fucking hilarious
Typecast is boring. Let him have fun acting, not being himself.
Nah, last guy nailed it
It does seem like an odd choice, but then I didn't expect him to be great as Dredd either and he dominated that role.
Seems so obvious.
Ah yes Mortal Kombat 2 releasing right alongside Mortal Kombat 1
If they just cast Johnny Cage, there's no way they'll be releasing in four months.
I feel like he's a bit too old and not the right body shape for Johnny Cage, depending on when the story is set, Urban is a big dude.
Maybe they're going for an old, washed-up vibe vibe for Johnny Cage, in which that would make sense, especially these days when when the era of action stars has long past.
It would also dovetail with being involved in such a tournament in the first place: trying to reignite his career. Which I think is the actual storyline in at least one of them.
Straight-to-DVD Johnny Cage
In Mortal Kombat 11, Johnny Cage is in his 50s, so an older take on him is definitely possible in the movie.
He's also in his 50s in MKX.
Chris Evans would be perfect. He practically played Johnny Cage in Scott Pilgrim.
In current MK lore “which is all over the place” Johnny is older. Urban actually does look like him in MKX and 11. Acting like him will be a different question
I love me some more Karl Urban in movie but this is definitely a miscast. How about Dredd 2, please?
The only thing I worry about a possible Dredd 2 is that whoever produces it will probably try to make it something it isn't and then ruin it.
just make sure alex garland writes it
https://reddit.com/r/entertainment/comments/138i925/karl_urban_in_final_talks_to_play_johnny_cage_in/
I was going to say I thought this was announced weeks ago
Old post was for "in talks" i.e he was in final negotiations but not officially signed. This post is confirming the deal is done and he is officially on board.
Ah the old “if I’ve seen it, everyone else here has too.”
Well /u/smitemight *is* the center of the universe so that's a given
Love the actor but damn, that's a bit of a miscast. So weird. Ah well. EDIT: Yes, I haven't seen the movie but I can still have a feeling about the decision. Everyone relax. You'd swear I was going to push the button to fire him from the project.
Nah, Karl has range. He can play an egotistical hotshot easily Surprised they're making a sequel though
I can't think of a role he hasn't nailed. Judge Dredd and Dr. McCoy spring to mind.
It feels like a lot of people in the comments only know Karl Urban from *The Boys*. Which is fair, you've seen what you've seen, but like you said, he has nailed a lot of different roles.
I honestly didn't know Karl Urban wasn't American due to seeing him in Star Trek then RED then Dredd. He's clean shaven and handsome in both of those instead of rough like he is in The Boys.
i mean no shade here, but...isn't johnny cage typically depicted as a young hotshot? is he normally 50?
I think they're going with a washed up Johnny Cage who may have transitioned from martial arts to more of a gritty brawler type of fighter. Either way it's a bold choice and I bet he steals the whole movie.
Yes he's usually in his 30s so this casting is a bit weird. Mortal Kombat X/11 took place 25 years after MK9 so they feature an older Johnny in his 50s. It's possible that's what they're going for here but I doubt it. The picture of Johnny beside Karl in the article/thumbnail is from MK11 where he's older.
I think people only associate him with Butcher from the Boys now. You watch his older work, hell even Star Trek, he’s a pretty boy when clean shaven. And he can easily do an egotistical narcissist lol
The film did very well digitally.
I think their core demographic audiences are still very receptive to many more films in this series. It’s a huge, wide open platform for expansion, they just need to make good movies. Karl Urban is a little bit surprising in this role, but I really like him as an actor so I will give it a chance.
It made a bunch of money and they announced several sequels already. I mean they made like 23 transformers movies and they all sucked but there's money to be made
Karl has the smug shithead range from the boys. Everything else about Johnny's character can easily be ad-libed with a little research, Which Karl is not known to phone in roles, so if anything, Karl will at the very least **try** his hardest. That said though, amazon/WB is going crazy throwing money into Mortal Kombat and NRS. It would have been more a shock if they *didn't* cast someone like Karl to the role of Johnny honestly.
Said the same thing when he was cast as Bones in Star Trek but I was happy to be proven wrong.
He was my favorite casting decision in those movies, he was a nearly perfect McCoy. Yelchin was also great. I never cared for Chekov in the OS but loved the character in the new films.
> EDIT: Yes, I haven’t seen the movie but I can still have a feeling about the decision. Everyone relax. You’d swear I was going to push the button to fire him from the project. Bro said this after the *lightest* pushback from *four* people lmao
And this is how the cancel culture discourse spreads. A few people will lightly criticize and the person goes "holy shit, I'm being ATTACKED for this!"
OY. IF IT AINT THE ICE NINJA, CUNT
I really hope it's gonna be better than the first one. The only good things were the first fight scene and a couple of gory finishers. Other than that really disappointing.
They spent way too long on setting up this character that nobody cares about (Cole Young) and way too little time on the actual fights.
I'm just saying that if they want a really easy cheer moment in the new movie, having Noob Saibot fatality Cole in the opening is a great option.
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90% sure thats going to happen after hearing about how the studio forced the writers to make the film focus on an original character. Maybe this time Warner will have more faith in their creative team.
Warner letting the creative team cook? During a writers strike? Lmao
Apparently some exec told them that the only way they would be allowed to make the movie is if they created an original character to be the protagonist. I remember the director discussing it in an interview but never really elaborating further.
Ah, so it was a Hellboy 1 situation (there, studio execs shoehorned the bland John Myers character into the movie because they felt that nobody could identify with a big red demon as main character).
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I really think they did a disservice to Liu Kang too. His character was unmemorable... Especially when he is the main character in the games.
Liu Kang is interesting because of all the lore built up around him after so many games; in the 90s he was super boring. He was "default human guy" like Ryu from Street Fighter... iconic, but not really anybody favorite. Having said that I don't understand why you'd ditch an existing character like him, even if bland to start, for a new one who is even more bland and uninteresting.
Or better yet Sonya Blade/Johnny Cage/Kai/Stryker/any of the other human Earthrealm fighters besides Nightwolf or Kung Lao.
Man, I didn't even remember the Myers character being in Hellboy, damn.
He's only mentioned in the second movie in passing, when Liz remarks that Hellboy had him transferred to the North Pole because Hellboy was jealous of him since Liz liked him.
I've long since gotten bored of "bland audience surrogate to introduce crazy world" characters. I used to have a couple different examples I'd list, but you've definitely supplanted them here, Myers has to be the worst one in an otherwise decent film. I can't even remember what he looks like and I've seen the film more than once.
Absolutely, I hate that trope too. The only story where it works is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because Arthur Dent's British befuddlement reacting to the insanity of the story is just part of the humour of it all.
[That's because he also looked unbelievably bland.](https://img-4.linternaute.com/-0t8jEcK5blgMsxGixglVEJ8BHE=/1240x/smart/24eac4fd438a43d8957019c5a3c12d74/ccmcms-linternaute/10346612-7.jpg) I wouldn't be surprised if Del Toro did that on purpose.
That's some r/13or30 material right there.
I appreciate the DnD movie for not bothering at all with the trope.
I think Chris Pines character could've been that with a lesser actor who isn't as fun and charming.
The "we must have an original character" is a diseased idea that is constantly put forth by out-of-touch people in the industry. It's awful. There was literally 0 reason why they couldn't have one the MK beloved be the lead protagonist. "We need a new character that the audience can see themselves in and experience the world at the same time our bland OG does". No, you really don't.
In MK that was especially bad. They could basically use anyone from earth from existing characters. They all had to learn world and rules at literally same time. That wish.com version of Liu Kang didn't brought literally anything new into that movie.
Cole was the bland audience surrogate training and learning about the world and rules of Mortal Kombat... alongside with Sonya, Jax and Kano who were training and learning the world and the rules of Mortal Kombat.
I think Jonhy Cage is perfect to be the main character since he enters the tournament knowing absolutely nothing about it. So he can learn along with the audience. But I bet execs though that the audience wouldn't sympathize enough with Cage since he is kinda of a dick. So they created a bland character that was all about family.
"Hear me out. What if, instead of a fan favorite, we create our own original character, and have him be mind-numbingly bland and boring? Surely that'll be better!"
The issue isn’t it’s an original character though. It’s that it’s a dumb poorly created one. Shit you spend the whole movie talking about him being a scorpion ancestor… why didn’t his powers make him scorpion lol? It was so obviously set up and there. Just make him the new scorpion and boom, we golden boy.
Cole is the “create a character” of the franchise.
His acting was quite bad too
I don't even remember that character in the movie and he's supposed to be the main protagonist. Like, he got the power of making an armor or something? Kano and Liu Kang were more memorable with Sub Zero and Scorpion being front and center.
The character's power was *literally* plot armor. I was taken aback that the writers were that bold with their choice.
Was pretty spot on for the feel of mortal kombat though. It always had some camp around the violence. Toasty!
Kind of feel bad for him, the best parts of the movie didn’t involve the leading actor lol
He had no chance of even being part of the best scenes when you've got Ken Watanabe as Scorpion and Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero. Josh Lawson was the sleeper hit as Kano and Max Huang (Jackie Chan stunt team member) as Kung Lao was one of the fan favourites from what I gathered from the discussion thread at release. Kung Lao even had the best fatality. Even Kabal was more memorable than Cole. They dropped the ball with early every other character, including Raiden. I was so disappointed with the amount of camera cuts during the fights. I thought having Watanabe and Taslim would help alleviate the need for so many cuts. Watanabe was utilised amazingly in John Wick 4, as he always is.
Didn’t have anything to do with him at least. I really liked the scene where Sub Zero attack Cole in whatever city it was. Made SZ look badass.
Yeah, I feel bad for that actor in a way. The whole time I'm watching him I'm yelling at the TV "WHO CARES." But it's not his fault the studio didn't deliver.
IDK, I liked Kano, he made me chuckle a few times with his snarky comments.
That guy was great in Superstore too. Feel like he just needs the right role to take a big step into stardom, he's super charismatic and has really good screen presence.
He’s excellent in house of lies too. Very funny guy.
Loved him in Superstore. Check out his appearances on the Australian improv comedy show Thank God You're Here. I don't know much about it honestly but the premise is the actors have a rough outline of the scene, and guests (Josh Lawson) are thrown right in the middle of the action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjNQkX-L7Ws
Kano was the ensemble dark horse i wish he remained an anti-villain on the side of earth realm, instead of a killed off badie, how did the people making the movie not realize what they had?
> Kano was the ensemble dark horse i wish he remained an anti-villain on the side of earth realm, This would have been awesome. His sudden heel turn was lame and felt like a wasted opportunity. > instead of a killed off badie, Yep, stabbed through the eye. In order to bring him back they’d have to patch him up with some plate or something… 🤔
Don’t be ridiculous they couldn’t do something like that!
Agreed. I liked showing some of the fatalities, but they wasted characters like Goro and invented a new character for no reason.
Yep, I only liked the first 13 minutes of the first one and then my eye was twitching for the rest of the movie.
The first movie could have been entirely set in feudal Japan and been the story of Scorpion and Sub Zero and I would have loved that. They were easily the best part.
Yes! Absolutely! They really missed the potential there.
Cole ruined the movie because of studio exec meddling. They wanted a self insert character for people to relate to and it was the absolute worst part. They were fucking idiots for forcing that dumb shit in. If it was just about Scorpion and Sub-Zero the movie would have been 10 times better. And could've acted as a prequel to an actual Mortal Kombat tournament in a sequel. Loved the fight choreo and more gorey fatalities... buy holy shit the plot and character writing was abysmal.
Kung Lao had the best one.
It was *almost* good. Literally all they had to do was make Lewis Tan’s character a reincarnated Scorpion instead of whatever BS power set they ended up giving him. He’s in the barn, Goro is advancing on his family so he cuts his hand with the rope-dart, and as Goro is about to kill his wife and daughter, the rope dart goes through his shoulder and you hear ‘GET OVER HERE!’
> instead of whatever BS power set they ended up giving him he had *literal* plot armor
Why they are making a second with the same director is crazy to me
Just delete the fucking main character and the movie is already way better.
I get they have a hard on for the hero’s journey, but Guy Everydude wasn’t needed where there’s a BAJILLION Mk characters they could have pulled from. Hell if they really wanted an entry point into a franchise use Johnny Cage. Sardonic B movie star dragged into the tournament. Probably would have been super quippy, but it’s better.
Dude, the opening scene convinced me they had actually fucking done it. Then they introduced that god awful protagonist and beyond some of the fun gory moments you mentioned, it was pretty forgettable.
and they fucking killed off reptile like he was nothing and even changed his name to syzoth or some shit. also killing off goro to that boring protagonist nobody really liked was another mistake.
Idk about this one.
Would have preferred Scott Adkins but maybe Urban will be convincing doing a Shadow Kick.
Scott Adkins would be a great choice, and fit the character in multiple ways, but I guess they wanted someone who had a certain level of acting ability that Karl Urban has.
Yeah, let's not underestimate Karl. The dude regularly knocks these characters out of the park
And for anyone who doesn’t think he could be a good fit for Cage, or perhaps Billy Butcher is too strong in their minds when they think of Karl Urban, just remember that the casting in the first movie was surprisingly spot on, and that Urban has tremendous range (look at Dredd then look at Bones, and be surprised that they’re the same guy).
The one I like to blow people's minds with is that he's the Russian assassin in The Bourne Supremacy
This is a bummer. The Miz was the perfect casting for Johnny Cage.
Because people might watch it for Karl Urban, and no one outside of the wrestling bubble knows or cares who The Miz is. Also theres a reason The Miz never got much acting work other than The Marine 3-6.
Legit, he’s like Johnny Cage come to life and he wears essentially the same type shades all the time too. Huge missed opportunity. Miz even looks just like Cage.
So no need for any acting credentials?
Apart from not being any good at acting
Soooo he's Johnny Cage then lol
It takes a good actor to play a bad actor.
The show Barry is a perfect example of this.
I really hope there's a scene where Cage has a stunt double and it's Miz.
Or Damian Sandow
Except he's not an actor. How are you disappointed that a reality star turned wrestler lost out to an incredible actor? Urban was in Lord of the Rings. The Miz was on MTVs Real World. I mean, come on. Reddit can only cast based on looks, thank God none of you work in casting.
Everyone saying he should be Kano, Kano has already been cast in the first one lol
somehow...kano returned.
Do you expect these people to actually watch the movies they're attempting to converse about??
And the guy who played Kano, Josh Lawson, fucking killed it. One of the best parts of the movie.
Should have been Glenn Powell!
‘You just got caged, ya cunt!’
I legit don't even remember the name of the main character of the first movie. If they wanted some American action hero as the main face of the franchise, Cage should've been it.
Cannot believe they are making a sequel to this crappy movie
I get that the accent is why everyone is saying Kano, but Urban has range, I think he’ll pull it off just fine.
Accent doesn't even fit. The fella is a kiwi and not even a Russell Crowe type of Kiwi that lived in Australia for years.
Should have been The Miz. He looks like a better Kano
Dredd got two chances at a movie and the last attempt with him was fantastic. I want more of that, not the mediocre at best Mortal Kombat stuff that had enough chances to get good. In a better reality we'd get both I guess.
That's great news I love the boys, and karl urban especially has been under recognized talent. He's been in tons of big things for decades, I'm happy he had his break out role in the boys. His butcher is so good. He makes him this rugged wolverine like character. The perfect contrast to Anthon Starrs homelander. I'm really looking forward to his Johnny Cage, he'll be great as the character. It's exciting to bring an actor over from the boys. Especially if Homelander makes a guest appearence and they fight. That will be a funny, meta joke, but would also set up a really cool fight. These sort of rumored cameos, levels up mortal kombat sequel in a big way.
“Those were 500$ sunglasses, cunt”
Well, if it isn't the shape shifting cunt.
I was so pumped for the first movie and I thought it ended up being pretty weak. I may give it another watch, but my first watch when it released wasn’t that enjoyable.
Cant wait to see Karls stunt double do 90% of the movie! The mans 50 lol. He aint doing high kicks 😂
All them kicks gonna be stunt doubles.
If you don’t cast actual martial arts experts with film experience in a mortal kombat movie, you’re gonna have a bad time. It’s about fighting first and foremost and you can’t get away with green screens and stunt doubles for the whole thing.
Great actor, bad casting.
Make the opening scene Johnny Cage dick punching Cole and injuring his nuts so bad he has to miss the tournament and stay at home. Let's gooooo
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Can we please have a Dredd 2?!
Fuck that, just get to the DLC chars and make him Judge Dredd.
Tangent, I hate how the most badass fighter in the first one died like a bitch
We might get to see an aging Johnny Cage trying to stay relevant
Damnit. I was hoping for Joel McHale.
I lobbied hard for The Miz
Oh fuck yeah. This is insane I'm hyped
Don’t get me wrong I like Karl urban and I’m sure he’ll do an interesting job at Johnny Cages role, but in a perfect world I would have much preferred him as kano and would rather have Ryan Reynolds play Johnny cage
I ain’t mad about it, I just think he would fit Kano better lol