BONUS | Screentime: Mortal Kombat 2

Unknown Speaker (0:05): Mortal Podcast.

Unknown Speaker (0:08): Brian, Kyle, Mike,

Unknown Speaker (0:13): Jaybo.

Unknown Speaker (0:19): Mortal podcast. Wow. Oh, that's great. Round one.

Jaymo (0:26): Fight because it's time for the old switcheroo where we're talking gaming retro with Mike and J Mo.

Unknown Speaker (0:32): I'm Mike. And I'm

Jaymo (0:34): J Mo. We're the often imitated, never emulated gaming podcast that researches, reviews, and playfully ribs every game in the Nintendo classics catalog. But in this special screen time episode, we're throwing hands over the 2026 live action blockbuster Mortal Kombat two starring Carl Urban and Adeline Rudolph in an episode we are calling

Unknown Speaker (0:53): Mortal Podcast.

Jaymo (0:55): If you like what you hear, don't forget to like, subscribe, and give your thoughts in the comments below. Here today to defend Earthrealm in the is the easiest man to corner trap. Instagram's brian.s.lee. Brian, did you ever manage to break free from those tiny kicks?

Bryan Lee (1:12): I'm still working on how to figure that out. It's I'm I'm a button masher. I'm sorry. I haven't I haven't learned all the tricks.

Unknown Speaker (1:20): Got a lot of tricks.

Unknown Speaker (1:21): He's got a lot of tricks. Exactly.

Jaymo (1:23): And returning from the Netherrealm, it's mister cheese dick himself, Kyle Horny for Takartans Ford. Kyle, before we get into today's topic, I wanted to commend you for launching ByDoom, the world's first anti social media RSS scrubber. Before we get into today's topic, would you like to give your pitch to anyone who might be listening?

Kyle Ford (1:43): Sure. Yeah. Just a little service if you want to follow social media sites without having to give them your eyeballs or emails. Just a way to take public social media sites and turn them into RSS feeds automatically if they don't support it. So can you follow them elsewhere, build your own thing, and and stop doom scrolling.

Kyle Ford (1:58): So just Baidu, byedoom.com. Check it out.

Jaymo (2:01): Yeah. Stay connected, but not to all the bad stuff. Like, it's a pretty ingenious idea. And everyone, if you do want to avoid liking and subscribing, please don't do Baidum to us. We really, really need the engagement.

Unknown Speaker (2:14): That's right. It might have been a bad idea.

Unknown Speaker (2:16): We are already in RSS feed.

Unknown Speaker (2:19): There we go. You know what?

Kyle Ford (2:20): There we go. You guys are already ahead of the game. Yeah.

Jaymo (2:21): Mike Well, let's be clear. Mike's ahead of the game.

Unknown Speaker (2:25): I mean, you know, there's nothing toxic about what you guys put out there. I think people people would love to see that kind of content unless of some other stuff on the

Jaymo (2:31): Challenge accepted.

Unknown Speaker (2:34): There you go.

Jaymo (2:35): Alright, guys. So with no further time at the start menu, are you guys ready to fight to the death? Yep.

Unknown Speaker (2:42): To the death? Know. How about some of these then clearly, you saw the movie. Right? Sometimes the fights can just end in defeat and not death.

Unknown Speaker (2:50): So Okay.

Bryan Lee (2:50): I I would like if we could all come out of this alive. Fine. I can request that.

Unknown Speaker (2:56): Okay. Brian always the optimist.

Unknown Speaker (2:57): I like that.

Unknown Speaker (2:58): I like life. So Yeah.

Jaymo (3:01): Let's punch our way into mortal combat two released in theaters worldwide 2020 As described on imdb.com, the fan favorite champions now joined by Johnny Cage himself are pitted against one another in the ultimate battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and all its defenders. Let's take a quick look at the poster since it's sometimes people's first impressions. You got pretty much the entire cast or at least every fighter in the movie staring at the potential audience member, brandishing their various weapons and supernatural abilities. Mike, we liking this poster?

Mike (3:40): Honestly, for me, it doesn't do anything. No?

Unknown Speaker (3:45): Okay.

Mike (3:46): I mean, I don't really know who anyone is in that photo.

Jaymo (3:50): So Okay. So if you don't know the characters, it's kinda not really like, oh, Baracka's in it. And you're like, Barack Obama, like, what are you talking about? Obama. I feel like I feel like Kyle likes it though.

Unknown Speaker (4:03): I like I like it.

Unknown Speaker (4:04): I kinda like that style of the, you know, like, Star Wars style or large ensemble style, everyone looking at different which is interesting. But, yeah, I'm kinda with Mike in that though I don't

Kyle Ford (4:12): know that any of the characters, aside from a giant Karl Urban, which is, you know, rightly giant. I don't know that any of them also have kinda justified their spot. I'm just like, okay. I recognize a few. There's Sonya, whatever.

Kyle Ford (4:23): The rest are all kind of I I don't know that that this this franchise, having had the previous installments we'll talk about that later, obviously. But I'm not sure that

Unknown Speaker (4:31): they've earned their place to

Kyle Ford (4:32): have a a poster that diverse.

Jaymo (4:34): Okay. Yeah. Like because, like, Jared King Jared is on there, and you're like, hell, yeah. Who? Brian, any thoughts on the poster?

Bryan Lee (4:43): I I'm in the camp that I I dig it. I mean, look. It's not there are greater artworks of movie posters. It's a it's a standard, you know, floating head poster that just is trying to advertise as many stars and as many characters as possible. Given that, I feel like the the the it's got a nice symmetry to it.

Bryan Lee (5:02): It's got a nice, like I mean, each of the individual I I know I'm in the camp of somebody who who who dug the first one and which I hesitate to call the first one because to me, the first one's always a nineteen nine nineteen ninety one, I think, of what you know, that that one. But but, yeah, somebody who dug the previous movie and is familiar with these incarnations of these characters, I was like, right on. This it's nice to see. I mean, it's very much the the like, advertising the roster of who's all in this thing. Very much like a like like a a fighting video game movie, I feel like ought to be.

Bryan Lee (5:36): So I dig it.

Jaymo (5:37): Yeah. I I do think this style of poster can be a bit lazy sometimes, but in a fighting game, you kinda wanna advertise all the fighters. Mhmm. Because, like, in a fighting game you know, when you play fighting games, you, like, have your favorite. And so I imagine for a lot of people who, you know, aren't so nerdy as to have a whole podcast about video games.

Jaymo (5:54): Oh, you know, Johnny Cage was my favorite. I always played as him. I'm totally gonna see this one. You know? Sure.

Bryan Lee (6:00): And But clearly, it also, like, sets aside who who who's in in this one. If you already know the previous one, who's new? Like, obviously, like, the the movie focuses on introducing Johnny Cage and Kitana, and they're and they're they're big in this one to be like, hey. Now yeah. Now they're in this one.

Jaymo (6:14): So And you you mentioned the symmetry of it. And I do think they did kind of a neat thing where it's, like, on the right hand side of the poster is our heroes, and on the left hand side is, like, the the Shao Kahn army. And then the characters who are kinda have a gray area are right down the middle. You got Johnny Cage, Katana, Baraka, like, all of the sort of antiheroesque characters

Unknown Speaker (6:35): Yeah.

Jaymo (6:35): In the center. And then and then King Jared, though, kinda throws it off. He's over to the left for some reason. Like, you almost had something really neat there. Sure.

Jaymo (6:44): So Mortal Kombat two produced by New Line Cinema and distributed by Warner Brothers with a budget of $80,000,000. According to IMDb behind the scenes trivia, early in the film, Johnny Cage mistakes rye Raiden as a cosplayer for the film big trouble little China excuse me, big trouble in little China, which in fact was the inspiration for the character back when the first game was being developed in 1992. So it's kind of a fun little tongue in cheek. I've never seen that movie. Is it good?

Unknown Speaker (7:09): No. Yes.

Unknown Speaker (7:10): Oh, yeah. It's a classic. And it's obviously

Mike (7:12): good good, and part of it is realizing that the premise of the movie is the main character is the useless sidekick.

Unknown Speaker (7:20): Right. Oh, true.

Bryan Lee (7:21): Yeah. It's a lot of what makes it yeah. No. Absolutely. Exactly the way it might put it, but also, like, it's that iconic image of the characters are like, they're called rain, thunder, and lightning, I think.

Unknown Speaker (7:32): Those are

Unknown Speaker (7:33): That's right.

Bryan Lee (7:33): Yeah. The Raiden looking guys and, obviously, heavily influencing the look of Raiden himself. So that's it's a very on the nose and very very tongue in cheek kind of reference to to have him assume that he's one one of those characters. Mhmm.

Unknown Speaker (7:47): Is is Kurt Russell the Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (7:49): He's a star. Yeah.

Jaymo (7:50): But and so he's the sidekick, the useless sidekick? Yes.

Bryan Lee (7:52): He's the main character, but he's he's inconsequential to Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (7:58): That's right.

Jaymo (7:58): I guess sold me on this. I never knew that was premise. That is so much more interesting than I thought it was.

Unknown Speaker (8:04): They didn't know how to pitch it. And so part of it is it like, it is a thing called big trouble in little China where the main character of the movie is a white guy.

Unknown Speaker (8:10): Mhmm.

Unknown Speaker (8:11): Right. But and this I think it's just like the studio is just like, well, he's the main character. That's gotta be, like, totally the hero of the story. You watch it. It's like, no.

Unknown Speaker (8:20): He's not. He's not good at this. Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (8:24): I I would relate. I'm I'm intrigued.

Bryan Lee (8:26): But he works very much in the in the protagonist sense of, like, oh, he's the audience. Mhmm. But he's, like, he's not the one who like, he's he's he's hardly a much of a fighter at all, and he's Right. Yeah. That's I love that.

Bryan Lee (8:37): Part of the fun it's very much part of the fun of Jack Burton's character. It's yeah. Yeah. Check it out. I mean, it's a John Carpenter classic.

Bryan Lee (8:44): The things about it definitely haven't aged well, but also a lot of it, like, remarkably holds up well. So, yeah, it's, yeah, it's good fun.

Jaymo (8:53): But you know what has aged well? Kurt Russell. Am I right, Kyle? Monarch. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (8:56): That's a handsome guy still.

Unknown Speaker (8:57): That's right. That's right.

Jaymo (8:58): So got more trivia here. Although only referred to as Bhan in the film, the shadow mancing ghost of Sub Zero is called noob Saibot in the game series, which is the reversed names of series creators John Tobias and Ed Boone, the latter of which makes a cameo in the movie as a diet bartender.

Unknown Speaker (9:14): And he's still called Ed.

Unknown Speaker (9:16): Yeah. He calls

Unknown Speaker (9:16): him, like, Johnny calls him a Ed, like well, I don't know. Forgot what the line is, but it's just I love that he's playing himself as a bartender.

Jaymo (9:23): Making it very clear. Which, I mean, you could argue, like, maybe this is all some weird drunken fantasy because, like, Ed Boone is creating it with the alco

Unknown Speaker (9:29): I don't know. This is all in his head?

Jaymo (9:32): Yeah. It's all a dream. And then the in universe Johnny Cage film, uncaged fury, played on a VHS at a comic book convention in in universe in this movie, shows a copyright date of 1996, but features a rendition of rock you like a hurricane that the scorpions did not record until 2011. So literally unwatchable. What a mistake.

Jaymo (9:55): Hope someone got fired for that one. Right, Mike? They they could

Mike (9:59): they coulda added the the music for a later version. You can still make you can still get movies on VHS now.

Jaymo (10:04): I suppose. I suppose. And that is a very, like, WonderCon kind

Unknown Speaker (10:08): of thing

Unknown Speaker (10:08): to do.

Bryan Lee (10:08): And how many people are gonna notice that kind of thing? Well, I mean, I say that. I I know Mike and I, you know, we've we've like, we've we know and love fanboys, the the movie about Star Wars fans. Set in 1999. But I remember watching going like, those are power of the four Star Wars figures.

Unknown Speaker (10:23): That didn't come out for, like, three years.

Unknown Speaker (10:25): Inaccurate Pez dispensers too.

Unknown Speaker (10:27): Ah, see? You see? And, you know, we noticed that stuff.

Unknown Speaker (10:30): Yeah. And, honestly, the tip-off in this is in the credits. It is credited as that version with the year in it.

Unknown Speaker (10:37): Right? Oh,

Unknown Speaker (10:37): yeah. So they knew.

Unknown Speaker (10:38): Yeah. Yeah. When you see it in the soundtrack, it lists the year that it was recorded.

Jaymo (10:43): Inaccurate says dispenser, new band name. I love that. So before we get started, I thought we could play a little mini game minute that we're gonna call choose your fighter. I'm gonna ask you for your history with the Mortal Kombat franchise both as a film and a game series, and then I'm gonna give you a choice between two characters, and the rest of the combatants are gonna guess which one you're gonna pick. Okay?

Jaymo (11:05): So, Kyle, let's start with you. Mortal Kombat the games, Mortal Kombat the movie. Yeah. What's your experience?

Kyle Ford (11:10): My I grew up, obviously, as a decrepit old man.

Unknown Speaker (11:14): I grew up with both of the games, but was definitely more of a Street loyalist than

Kyle Ford (11:18): a Mortal Kombat, but I was just certainly around for it. I had a Super Nintendo at the time, but I did not have the sweat sweatified version instead of blood. And I didn't have a Genesis till later just to see the the pure Genesis blood version. And but then after that, kind of maybe I played two, but really kinda dropped off after that. And then I saw the original film back in the day,

Unknown Speaker (11:37): the nineties film. Did not see the sequel. Did see the

Kyle Ford (11:39): COVID reboot, but kind of had lost memory of it. But just this past week before seeing this, I rewatched all of them again, including annihilation, which is unwatchable. It's the sequel to the nineties one. That's horrible. Anyway, that's my history of the franchise.

Kyle Ford (11:54): Was there oh, am I choosing a fighter? I forgot what

Jaymo (11:56): was Yeah. I I love that. So we we picked up Kyle to go to the the movies, and he had just finished annihilation, like, probably, like, twenty minutes before getting in the car. And then you go Right. No.

Unknown Speaker (12:09): But it's funny, though, because he went from that movie to this movie. And it's like the pure quality whiplash must have

Unknown Speaker (12:16): been insane.

Unknown Speaker (12:17): Was wild. Yeah.

Jaymo (12:18): Alright. So Kyle's gonna choose between the washed up action star Johnny Cage or the blade armed Tarkatan war chief Baraka. And don't tell us, Kyle, because we're gonna guess which one you're gonna pick first. Okay. I think Kyle is is gonna go with Johnny Cage.

Jaymo (12:35): I think he really vibed with that character. What do you think, Brian? What's what's what's Kyle gonna pick?

Bryan Lee (12:40): I can't say based off well, I'm not I mean, I I guess I gotta go by sort of my own choice of society, and assuming that Kyle might prefer Johnny Cates as well. I mean, Baraka is great. Come on. But, I mean, Johnny Johnny is a little bit more of a staple of this franchise, I feel like. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (12:58): Yeah. So I'm gonna go with Johnny.

Unknown Speaker (13:00): Alright. And, Mike, I know you haven't hung out with Kyle that many times, but what's the vibe? What are you thinking? Well, Johnny Cage, Baraka?

Unknown Speaker (13:05): Baraka doesn't wear glasses, so I'll go Johnny Cage. Okay.

Jaymo (13:10): Clean sweep or no points for anyone. Kyle, what's your choice?

Unknown Speaker (13:13): Clean sweep, it's Johnny.

Unknown Speaker (13:15): Of course.

Unknown Speaker (13:15): It's Johnny. Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (13:17): He was so good. He was amazing. Alright. One point for J Mo, Brian, and Mike. Alright.

Jaymo (13:23): Brian, history with the games, history with the movies. What is your Mortal Kombat lore?

Bryan Lee (13:29): So I never owned any of the Mortal Kombat games, but I did definitely got a lot of play from me, especially just in arcades. I I mostly when I think nostalgically about Mortal Kombat, I think about playing at the the the COC cafeteria when I would go there for orchestra practice, and they they had Mortal Kombat. I mean, it's just actually, no. Oh my god. I almost just forgot that.

Bryan Lee (13:54): I remember going to some, like, computer fair right when, like, Mortal Kombat three was about to come out and getting it was on a ridiculous number of floppy disks, the demo of Mortal Kombat three, which only had Jax and Shiva. And I remember playing the hell out of that on my PC. But I definitely played, like, the like, I played the whole series in in the arcade a lot. And and and if anything, I I'm much more nostalgic of the films, especially that original original film. I I I know roasted in glasses and everything, and we're millennials, and they were they were absolutely kind of for our generation.

Bryan Lee (14:34): But, like, I legit think that movie is just one of the you know? And I'm I know I'm not alone in this. One of the greatest, like, video game adaptations. And and an early era when, like, adaptations of that kind, much like the first Mario game, were often made by people who maybe didn't have as much reference for the source material and were constantly trying to change it, whereas the the OG Mortal Kombat really felt like it was made by people who who who really dig this game and want the characters who look like the characters they know from the from the relatively new games back then. You know?

Bryan Lee (15:02): So we don't talk about annihilation. You know? Annihilation was so bad. But but that o g one, I I love so much still to to still. And, I mean, I mean, I could talk forever about the movie, but also the great Carrie Hiroyuki Tagawa, who only just passed away last year, who played Sheng Sung, rest in rest in power.

Bryan Lee (15:25): He was great. And and then, yeah, the the one that came out that this one was a sequel to, dug that one too. So yeah.

Jaymo (15:34): More hits than misses for you.

Unknown Speaker (15:36): Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (15:36): Yeah. Okay. So, Brian, your characters to choose from. We have this is a tough one. Katana, the warrior princess with the fan blade weapons, or Shao Kahn, the hammer wielding warlord.

Jaymo (15:51): I think that Brian really likes Adeline Rudolph. So I am pretty confident he's gonna go team Katana. Mike, what do you think?

Unknown Speaker (16:00): I will go Shao Kahn.

Unknown Speaker (16:02): Okay. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (16:03): I'm going Katana as well.

Unknown Speaker (16:05): Mhmm. Brian?

Bryan Lee (16:06): Well, you guys, two out of three ain't bad. Absolutely, Katana. I gotta go with the yeah. Well, especially since, like well, I especially like, I think I told J Mo, you know, like, that although I never I didn't until in his car yesterday, I had never actually played Mortal Kombat one, the the latest game that was the reboot to the franchise. But because I I dig these characters a lot, like, even though I didn't buy the game, I I was curious at the story that they were developing for these characters.

Bryan Lee (16:37): So I actually went and watched via some YouTube channel, like, the entire the the the all the cinematics for the single player story of of of that game just because I was just mostly intrigued by how the, you know, the story behind Liu Kang becoming becoming a becoming a demigod in the same way that that Raiden does. But Kitana is very front and center in that story, and it's I mean, I don't know. I there's a lot I think that they did in that game that made me made me really appreciate her in a way that I didn't have before. So all that said, that's why I was also really excited to see that she was becoming one of the main character because she wasn't in the the last the previous one at all, And that she and Johnny are kinda the main characters of this one.

Jaymo (17:18): So Yeah. She's arguably more of a central character than Johnny.

Unknown Speaker (17:23): Yeah. Opening scene is about her.

Unknown Speaker (17:24): That's right.

Jaymo (17:25): And I I didn't know that going in. Like, it's another one of these situations where, like, I'm glad I avoid trailers and, you know, promotional content because that was a very pleasant surprise.

Unknown Speaker (17:34): Yeah.

Jaymo (17:36): Alright. Mike, you're up, and I believe not much experience with the games.

Mike (17:42): I know that I I'm almost positive that I played it on Genesis a little bit enough to have sort of try tried it out. Because I think I I think I remember having to try to like, figure out how to do moves for it. But, otherwise, not really a fan of the game. Didn't didn't play anything after that. Yeah.

Mike (18:06): I do like both of the fur the first two movies. Both of them?

Unknown Speaker (18:10): Oh, yes. Alright. I respect.

Mike (18:12): I'm not I I wouldn't call annihilation a good movie. I I I wouldn't call it a bad movie either.

Unknown Speaker (18:20): Oh, okay.

Mike (18:23): It's in the middle area there, but I like it. You know, I like things like, hey. They're going around in those giant balls from American Wires. That was wild. As a travel mechanism.

Mike (18:35): Exactly like in the games. Yeah. I I have a fond memory of relatively out shortly after 09:11, whenever it was still a bit, like, on edge about the World Trade Center, watching annihilation

Unknown Speaker (18:49): on TV.

Mike (18:51): And when everything else was like, we don't wanna show the World Trade Center right now. Emotions are raw. No one remembered that annihilation exists to have a scene.

Unknown Speaker (19:01): With the Trade Center too.

Unknown Speaker (19:02): The World Trade Center gets, like, restored. I don't even remember this story. That yesterday. Was like, woah. Okay.

Mike (19:08): Yeah. Yeah. And I was I was watch it's just like, They didn't even care about this movie enough to go, maybe we shouldn't.

Unknown Speaker (19:14): Yeah. But

Mike (19:17): yeah. So, like, I I greatly enjoy those. I do think the first one is, I think, one of the most solid entries for video game movies.

Bryan Lee (19:27): Oh,

Mike (19:27): yeah. And, obviously, the song is absolutely amazing. Peak. Peak. Like, I know characters primarily through just, like, remembering that song.

Unknown Speaker (19:41): Yeah. It's a good song. It's

Mike (19:44): a good thing. Good song. Never saw the newer movie and forgot that it existed and didn't realize we were seeing a sequel till partway through these plans.

Unknown Speaker (19:53): Got it. Got it.

Bryan Lee (19:54): Okay. I realized that while watching the movie with you because I know sometimes you have issues with the with, like, a bit of facial blindness. So I thought maybe that's why you didn't recognize Hiroyuki's Hanada. But, like, when I mentioned, like, oh, yeah. Scorpion's back.

Unknown Speaker (20:07): It's like, oh, that's who that is. Like, yeah. You didn't alright. I think that that that guy's scorpion.

Unknown Speaker (20:11): You know, my Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (20:13): The the only ones that I could recognize was if they did something where it's like, honestly, I did recognize characters off of like, oh, that looks like the character in annihilation. I know who I know who that is.

Jaymo (20:22): Nice. Nice. I Mike, you'll appreciate this. I can't judge you too much because after we went to Mario Land with Derek, he and I went to the movies at CityWalk to see Ready or Not two. Right.

Jaymo (20:37): It was really fun. That movie's wacky. But the movie starts up and about, like, three minutes in, I turned to Derek and I go, I've made a huge mistake. And he goes, what? And I go, I never saw Ready or Not.

Jaymo (20:49): And he's like, what do you mean? You told me you didn't. I said, I thought Ready or Not was your next. I confused the two, like, rich people trying to kill a woman stories. You know?

Unknown Speaker (21:00): There's lot more

Unknown Speaker (21:00): than two. There's a genre. More than two. A genre.

Mike (21:03): Yeah. I mean, I I watched all the Karate Kid movies, not only not in order, but I I didn't watch consecutive orders consecutively in either order.

Unknown Speaker (21:13): That that was quite the sentence.

Unknown Speaker (21:15): Wow. Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (21:16): But you know what? Started four. Got it. Oh, damn.

Unknown Speaker (21:20): Well, this much like Star Wars. Maybe that's the way it's meant to be.

Unknown Speaker (21:23): That's right. Yeah.

Bryan Lee (21:24): But, I mean but and I feel like a lot of us fanboys will feel like, well, you you gotta you know? And it's true. You'll better appreciate something if you've seen all the entries and understand all the references. But we also have to remind ourselves, you know, as I'm sure the people who make these movies know, like, there's all you're always gonna have people seeing this thing for the first time.

Unknown Speaker (21:41): Right.

Bryan Lee (21:41): You know? And and I think it's I always remember our our friend Crystal. Her first Star Wars movie was the last Jedi. And I tell that to people and they're like, how does she understand what's going on? It's like, well, you can figure out that Luke Skywalker was this great hero, but now he's reclusive.

Unknown Speaker (21:55): I'm like, you you, yeah, you can you're not gonna sit there going like, I don't understand who are the bad guys. You know? So it's just come on.

Jaymo (22:02): I just I love I love that movie. And Oh, yeah. That's my that's favorite Star Wars movie. And so it's crazy that it's my

Unknown Speaker (22:08): favorite favorite. Yeah.

Jaymo (22:09): It's my favorite and her first. Those are both very rare things. So Mike's is a real wild card. I wanna guess last because I do have an academic process to this guess. But, Mike, your two characters chosen at random.

Jaymo (22:23): You can choose between Sindel, the banshee like queen of Shao Kahn, the one who does the Oh, yeah. Scream attacks, or Bi Han, the shadow mancing ghost of Sub Zero.

Unknown Speaker (22:35): Both zombies.

Jaymo (22:37): Both zombies. Both nether realm fighters. Brian, what do you think Mike's gonna pick?

Bryan Lee (22:46): I mean, he just talked about the being being able to recognize them

Unknown Speaker (22:50): Right.

Bryan Lee (22:50): From from you know, and I know Cyndel was pretty front and center, very memeable in some of some of her lines from annihilation. So I'm leaning maybe Cyndell, maybe just from the from the recognition from from that. Yeah.

Jaymo (23:05): Yeah. See, the thing though is we just also reviewed Ninja Gaiden too with Timmy Williams, and there's this cool shadow mechanic where, like, you make a clone of your ninja self and it fights alongside you. Mhmm. And so I feel like Mike really liked the the shadow fight scenes with Bhan and his, like, shadow clone. So just so we get some different movement here on the scoreboard, I'm gonna guess Bhan.

Jaymo (23:31): Kyle, what do you think?

Kyle Ford (23:32): I'm also gonna guess Bhan. Judging by what Brian said, how he recognized Scorpion later, maybe that latched onto him, so I'm going with Beyond.

Jaymo (23:38): Alright, Mike. What's your what's your answer?

Mike (23:41): I'm actually going with Beyond because it kinda reminds me of, like, a Peter Pan with his own shadow.

Jaymo (23:47): Yeah. Yeah. Or Shadow Link from the underrated adventure of Link, Zumba two. No. Because that doesn't

Mike (23:53): that that doesn't have the separation escaping kind of vibe.

Jaymo (23:58): Right. Yeah. I just wanted to upset Butch. Okay. So I'll go last here.

Jaymo (24:03): Much to the fury of everyone else in the Zoom, I've never seen the nineties Mortal Kombat. Brian Brian, my mom raised us right. She we did not get to play violent video games until we were much, much older. And in fact

Unknown Speaker (24:17): You're much older. I'll you've been much, much older.

Jaymo (24:19): Yeah. I'm a busy guy. Okay? You're teacher of the year here. Come on.

Jaymo (24:23): I'm busy. I'm I'm not avoiding it. I've never, like, declined the you know, it's just never really come up in my adult life.

Bryan Lee (24:30): Well, I think as I've told you, I'm game to be there for your first experience of it. And, also, kinda curious to see how you would approach it from not having the roasting the glasses the rest of us do. So

Jaymo (24:39): Yeah. And I can finally play Mortal Kombat one because you guys are playing it in the backseat of my car on the way to the movie, but I haven't played that game yet. So I'm like, oh, Mortal Kombat night out of it. And the games, I was also a Street Fighter kid. I didn't really like the old two d Mortal Kombats because in my mind, they played so much worse than Street Fighter.

Jaymo (24:59): So I kind of, you know, snubbed my nose to whatever turned up my nose to them. I was obsessed with Mortal Kombat nine on Xbox three sixty and PlayStation three. That is a great game, and that was the first game to have a cinematic story that has now become staple of Mortal Kombat games. It's like you do these cool fights, and then you watch a really dope three minute cut scene that will lead, you know, to the next fight, and this movie very much borrows from that.

Unknown Speaker (25:26): Look aside, because we're not we haven't mentioned it before yet, but the Mortal Kombat versus DC

Unknown Speaker (25:31): Yes.

Bryan Lee (25:31): Yeah. I believe you're also I mean, I know you and I have also talked about how, like, they the storyline for that game is interesting, the way they actually also incorporate it and made it a way to also nerf Superman in a way. Yeah. Because it's always been established in the DC universe that Superman is susceptible, not just to Kryptonite, of course, but magic. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (25:50): Yeah. And everybody in Mortal Kombat is basically magic. Yeah. So yeah.

Unknown Speaker (25:55): Well and it's it's it's I'm

Unknown Speaker (25:57): just imagining him getting defeated by a guy playing three card Monty.

Unknown Speaker (26:00): Yeah. Like, oh

Unknown Speaker (26:04): my god. Heads explode.

Jaymo (26:05): Heads explode. Crazy fatality. No. I I love Mortal Kombat versus DC. I mean, I guess, you know, Bran, I think you're right.

Jaymo (26:11): That was that was probably one of the first story thing. But, like, the story in that one is regarded as fun, but not necessarily, like, a good emotional story.

Unknown Speaker (26:18): You know?

Jaymo (26:18): But I always remember in that in that game, like, you know, Shao Kahn gifts magical abilities to all of the evil fighters. And, like, there's a scene where Joker, like, is kiss kicking Deathstroke's ass, and he's like, since when can you fight? Like, it was, like, a real thing, you know. So I acknowledge the absurdity of it. I my neighbor played Nightwolf in Mortal Kombat on the March.

Jaymo (26:44): Pretty cool. He's a he's a he's a cruise ship comedian named Larry Omaha. So that's just a fun little tidbit. And then I played all of Mortal Kombat 11 and the DLC. So I'm more of a modern Mortal Kombat player.

Jaymo (26:58): And yeah. So my choices are it's another tough one, but Jame will pick Jade, the bo staff battling bodyguard, or Kwan Chee, the nefarious necromancer, or as Kano calls him, Voldemort scrotum. Right. What am I gonna pick? I guess Mike should go last since we've spent the most time together.

Jaymo (27:19): I'm gonna make Brian guess first.

Unknown Speaker (27:23): I don't know anyone who's a big fan. So I feel like I don't know. I mean, because I know he's the big necromancer. I know he's the playable character in a lot of these games, but often, at least in the case of this movie, he's just more or less the guy who just sort of brings people, you know, back from the dead. And Jade has more interesting things to do in this.

Unknown Speaker (27:43): You know, she's one of the sisters, so to speak. I got you know, I feel like you'd be in a Jade.

Unknown Speaker (27:48): Okay. Yep. Kyle?

Kyle Ford (27:50): I concur. I think you're a Jade man.

Unknown Speaker (27:52): Oh, Jade man. Okay. Mike?

Unknown Speaker (27:54): I I would also go Jade.

Jaymo (27:56): Yeah. I'd it I so, honestly, like, I I thought the actors who played Jade was great. And in fact, her interactions with Katana were one of the first moments where I'm like, oh, they're acting well in this movie. Like, this is gonna be okay. Like, this is gonna be a a good time because I enjoyed, like, the intensity in her emotions, in her eyes, in her face.

Jaymo (28:21): I really bought her friendship with Katana.

Bryan Lee (28:23): Have you guys watched Last of Us? Because I blanked on the actress's name, but she's so good in Last of Us.

Jaymo (28:29): So I have only seen the first three episodes of last of us. Okay. Last of us is a weird series for me because even with the games, like, I recognize quality.

Unknown Speaker (28:38): Yeah.

Jaymo (28:38): But I can only watch and play those if, like, things are going great because they're so emotional emotional that that if if I'm I'm at at all all vulnerable or had a rough day, I just don't need to see Joel go through that. You know what I mean? I get you.

Unknown Speaker (28:53): And if you said

Unknown Speaker (28:54): you saw the first three episodes Yes.

Unknown Speaker (28:56): You saw the best episode.

Unknown Speaker (28:58): Yes. Number three.

Unknown Speaker (28:58): You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Exactly.

Jaymo (29:00): So A 100%. Yeah. Well, it is it is Jade, though. And it's mostly because in the games, I would love using the glowing bo staff. I loved in this movie when she, like full spoilers going forward, by the way, but, like, she breaks her bo staff and these Shao Kahn markings fly off, and it's like this green uranium rod that she's gonna use to go kick Bijan's ass.

Jaymo (29:22): But it's like

Bryan Lee (29:23): No. Just I just wanted because, I remember Mike leaning over and saying, like, it's the inanimate carbon rod. It's the green rod that saves, Homer and Buzz Aldrin and

Unknown Speaker (29:33): Don't fake me. Fake the rod.

Unknown Speaker (29:36): There you go. Nice. Good joke, Mike. See, yeah, this is why we have Brian sit to you. That's that's that's all I know.

Jaymo (29:41): Okay. So before we go through the actually, I think we just did. I think we're gonna go over the joy pros and joy cons of each story beat as we work our way through the Wikipedia plot summary. It is a tie for choose your fighter. Kyle and J Mo each got three points.

Jaymo (29:59): So we're gonna settle this in the octagon, Kyle. We're gonna hang out, play mortal combat one. We'll record it and post it.

Unknown Speaker (30:05): Love it.

Jaymo (30:05): That way. Yeah. So I'm gonna read here each little section, and then we'll say what we liked or didn't like about it. Starting with the beginning of the film, the tournament begins, and the first round has Sonya nope. I skipped a part.

Jaymo (30:18): Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Let's flashback to the flashback that actually starts this movie.

Unknown Speaker (30:24): The ending of a tournament. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (30:26): Oh, go ahead.

Jaymo (30:27): Yeah. The ending of the previous tournament. In a flashback, emperor Shao Kahn kills king Jared in mortal combat, taking over Edenia in the name of the outworld, as well as queen Sindel and Katana as his consort and daughter, respectively. Years later, with the tenth mortal combat tournament on the horizon, Kuan Qi, on Shao Kahn's orders, revives Kung Lao. While back in nether earth realm, lord Raiden and Sonya Blave retrieve the washed up actor Johnny Cage to fight as their fifth champion alongside Sonya, Liu Kang, Jax Briggs, and Cole Young, but Johnny refuses to participate.

Jaymo (31:01): Kyle, what'd the beginning of this movie for you?

Kyle Ford (31:05): I liked I I was immediately kind of shocked at the quality level of the opener. I was like, wait a minute. Is this a Mortal Kombat movie? And then also just the expansive scope that we started seeing, you know, scenery wise, etcetera, it felt like the the the reboot first motor combat, the COVID motor combat, I'll call it. I felt it felt like very enclosed and dark, lots of, like, things happening in caves and things like that.

Kyle Ford (31:27): This felt like it blew it wide open right out the gate, which I and then, of course, like, the Johnny the Johnny VHS intro movie was incredible, like, an incredible intro to Johnny. So I would I would watch that entire short. Like, the entire intro they put it out would be great.

Unknown Speaker (31:39): So Didn't they like, that was one of the early promotional materials. Right?

Unknown Speaker (31:42): Oh, was it? Nice. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (31:44): They released that at least that that clip of

Unknown Speaker (31:47): I don't

Unknown Speaker (31:47): know that was uncaged fury, but that was Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A great way to at least give us our first look at Carl Urban as as Johnny.

Jaymo (31:53): Well and I and I think that that that comedic element is what was sorely missing from the previous one. Yeah.

Kyle Ford (31:59): Yeah. Felt very serious. Yeah.

Jaymo (32:01): Yeah. And, like, with Johnny being so funny and kinda being self self referential, he's more of, like, for the audience and people who like, love the line where he's like, 90% chance I just had some aneurysm, and this is all some weird stroke dream. But I'm just gonna go with it. You know? But I think making him, like, a washed up action star was absolutely the right call.

Jaymo (32:22): Yeah. And because then you also have that redemption arc of, like, I like the moments where they say, like, oh, no. Like, you were, like, as a young kid, one of the best martial artists. And I I was I was surprised we never got an explanation of what exactly happened

Unknown Speaker (32:34): Right.

Jaymo (32:35): And why he hung it up. I thought for sure there's gonna be some part where, like, he got hurt or he hurt somebody. Yeah. But we just kinda know that he just his career kinda just petered into this action stuff that, you know, seemed beloved at the time, but he's kind of fighting to stay relevant.

Mike (32:50): I I don't think petered is even the right thing. Like, I don't think there was there there would have been the money for what he was doing. And if you had the opportunity to go make movies, like, he would have may made relatively good money for that at that point.

Bryan Lee (33:05): Yeah. Yeah. And not too unlike a lot of martial arts stars who got their start learning martial actual martial arts, but then when they went Hollywood, you know, they're not doing formal tournaments anymore. They're doing what make what brings them the the brings them the money. So that's sorta how I pictured it too.

Bryan Lee (33:22): It's not so much that he left martial arts so much as he focused on making these big movies and, you know, and obviously, like you said, Jeremy, like, he's at least when we visit this version of Johnny, he's past his prime of that. And I know we talked before too about and as many fans noticed too, like Carl Urban is a fan favorite of so many franchises, but we all kinda thought the same thing when he was cast as Johnny. He's like, oh, it's a little bit older than we've ever really Mhmm. Seen Johnny. And I loved that this movie embraced that right from the get go when you when you when you you see him in his prime in that in in his in uncaged fury, and then and then it pulls back and you see him at this at this Comic Con, essentially.

Bryan Lee (34:01): I'm like and you the first thing you hear is somebody go, like, man, Johnny Cage got old.

Jaymo (34:06): That's brutal. And I love the little touches of, like, some furry artist has, like, 20 people taking pictures with him. He kinda just looks over, you know, and it just it all felt really authentic and, like, kind of got you on his side right at the beginning. And, you know, that first fight between Shao Kahn and Katana's dad, I immediately noticed what they were doing with, like, okay. The start of each fight, we are seeing them in profile like it's in the video game.

Jaymo (34:35): Mhmm. You hear that gong. They have all these people in robes in the background kneeling like in the video games. But the the immersion that I thought was a big gamble, and I think it worked, was the giant win counters floating in the sky. Mhmm.

Jaymo (34:50): So you knew how many matches each side had left because it's very video gamey. It's reminiscent of, like, a life bar, but it's also a good plot device. It adds tension, and you go like, oh, they're running out of, like, combatants. And you realize, like, when the heroes are up against the odds. So it's a good simple way.

Jaymo (35:08): It creates tension in the game in the same way that it creates tension in the movie. Mhmm. And so I was like, I see what you did there. And although this is probably the least memorable fight scene, I I also had the, you know, reaction of Kyle being like, oh, is this gonna be good? And, like, the fight scenes are so well choreographed.

Jaymo (35:27): The way that they incorporate the weapons and the acrobatics, and it felt very, like, retro, like, kinda crouching tiger, hidden dragon style wire work, but I was in for it. I I dug it.

Bryan Lee (35:38): And you to piggyback off of what you were saying about those little life counter type of things, like, it it's a it's it was interesting to see because, know, even though this is the second film of this rebooted Mortal Kombat, as as our friend Lisa loves to kind of point out about who didn't love the first one, it's like, never actually had the tournament. You know? I always I always picture her as, like, Millhouse going like, when are they gonna get to the fireworks factory? Because all the fighting in the first movie is is unsanctioned fighting. And it was like most of us are like, we don't care.

Mike (36:08): They're fighting. They should have called that one street fighter.

Bryan Lee (36:12): Yeah. There you go. But then this is the first time we ever like, and pretty much from that first scene, which is the flashback to seeing the ending of that tournament. Like, most of the fighting in this is for the first time in this rebooted franchise seeing actual tournament play. So so we got to see kinda how how it works.

Bryan Lee (36:32): And sure enough, yeah, they have those little counters. It felt, yeah, it felt very true to the game, but also in a way that would make sense for this universe. Mhmm. Everyone in Earthrealm and and Outer World, well, they they they they would be able to see it's almost like a scoreboard for them. Know?

Unknown Speaker (36:47): Yeah.

Jaymo (36:47): For their freedom. Like, it's it's wild how high the rates are. Alright. Let's go on to the next part here. The go.

Mike (36:56): I'm say this. I have, mostly back to Johnny Cage perspectives on this. Like, first of all, I gonna say that pathway from successful athlete, but that's not really a way to make money into into a film career has been going on, like, since the thirties. Like, the first Tarzan was an Olympic Olympic swimmer.

Unknown Speaker (37:17): Oh,

Unknown Speaker (37:17): okay. Yeah. Like, he he had a bunch of medals and stuff, but, like, I think his career thing that made him money was being Tarzan. Mhmm. Right.

Mike (37:25): And I think saw solidly, and this will come up to the very end, I guess, as well. But, like, uncaged fury, by far my favorite part of this movie because I would watch that movie.

Bryan Lee (37:42): Oh, yeah. Yeah. They they should do, like, a mid cool. That's just an in universe version of that movie. And

Mike (37:49): and then I think, ultimately, I kind of agree with him with Johnny Cage that, like, I don't get why they don't have the concept of alternates in this and everything else in sport like, all sports do. Like, the idea of, like, well, someone's been killed, and that's apparently allowed, and now we need to get a new person right before the turn tournament. Like, that feels like a whole deal where it's like, shouldn't you have, like, a few substitutes ready to go in case something happens?

Jaymo (38:21): Well, I mean, they do make a point to say that the elder gods are choosing the fighters. So it's not Elder gods

Unknown Speaker (38:27): can also have a few substitutes ready to go or treat that as a forfeit.

Jaymo (38:34): Oh my gosh. Mike's getting hung up on the tournament. You know, it's funny. I was in my research for this episode. The director is saying that he's you know, I mean, they wanna do a third movie, and he sees it as a trilogy of pre tournament, tournament, post tournament.

Jaymo (38:48): So in theory, this is the only movie Lisa can watch. So, Lisa, if you're listening, pause it. Watch this movie and then listen to the rest of it.

Unknown Speaker (38:56): I told her last night as soon as I got home. I was like, Lisa, you're gonna love that. I hope you love that this movie is almost all tournaments.

Unknown Speaker (39:03): So much tournament, Lisa. There's more tournament that you can handle. Mhmm.

Unknown Speaker (39:06): Is the problem that there wasn't tournament or that the fighting was not sanctioned within the tournament? Because from what know, the third movie may not have fighting. It will just be dealing with the after effects of the tournament.

Unknown Speaker (39:15): Mhmm.

Bryan Lee (39:16): That'd be a weird take. It will be. But, yeah, I I mean, at the same time, like, it's it's meant to be a little questionable how this tournament is run. And not to jump too far ahead, but, like, Shao Kahn clearly cheats innocence by Yeah. You know, becoming immortal, basically.

Unknown Speaker (39:33): So, yeah, there's there's this is this is not a can think of this as FIFA. You know? It is it is very corrupt organization running this, and they are not following rules. It's just corrupt as hell.

Unknown Speaker (39:45): Zhao Khan gets the, FIFA peace prize. Yeah. That's That's our reason.

Unknown Speaker (39:50): Yeah. I guess it at that point, if you can remove the mortal part of mortal combat, surely you can remove the combat part, and it's equally fine.

Jaymo (39:56): I I I can't believe Mike is pitching a third Mortal Kombat movie with no combat, and I imagine the poster says combat in quotes.

Unknown Speaker (40:03): That's right.

Unknown Speaker (40:04): It's like a

Unknown Speaker (40:04): Mortal don't

Mike (40:05): think I don't think a movie or thriller. For Star Trek two where it was just the entire crew of the Enterprise road tripping across Europe to celebrate graduation, and

Jaymo (40:13): you fake out everybody. I'm I'm I'm bringing back one of the old cuts catchphrases. Stay on topic, Mike. Alright. Here we go.

Jaymo (40:21): The tournament begins, and the first round has Sonya fighting a corrupted Sindel while Johnny is forcefully forcefully teleported to fight Katana. Sonya manages to kill Sindel while Katana defeats Johnny but spares him against Shao Kahn's direct orders. Katana reveals she is a spy for Raiden in the tournament, but her bodyguard Jade confronts her for betraying Shao Kahn. Kwanchi recovers Shinnok's stolen amulet from the freshly revived and ironically uncorruptible Kano. He and revenant Kung Lao attack and steal most of Raiden for the power amulet, Most of Raiden's power for the amulet, excuse me, which they bind to Shao Kahn, making him immortal, as Mike and Brian alluded to.

Jaymo (41:01): Raiden is barely alive yet incapacitated as a result. The second round begins where Liu Kang and Kung Lao face off. Despite his efforts to redeem Kung Lao, Liu Kang is forced to kill him. Jack's fights against Jade and defeats defeats her, but spares her to repay for what Katana did for Johnny. That was a clunky sentence, Wikipedia.

Jaymo (41:19): Cole fights and manages to mortally wound Xiao Khan, but his wound instant but his wounds heal instantly, and Shao kills Cole. So I do want credit for turning to Kyle five minutes into this movie and being like, Cole's not making it out alive.

Unknown Speaker (41:32): Yeah. He did. He called

Unknown Speaker (41:33): it. I

Unknown Speaker (41:35): didn't know who that was in the part where he's like, I said goodbye to my wife and kid, and I Yeah. May never see them again. It's like, oh, that person's dead. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Bryan Lee (41:43): Well, I was I was telling Mike too that that famously because Cole Cole was essentially the main character of the first movie.

Unknown Speaker (41:49): Yeah.

Bryan Lee (41:50): And, I mean, much left of Louis I I I love Louis Tan. I think he's great. But I think it it was not surprising that many of the people, even fans of that first movie, were like, you guys are just trying to make Cola think. Because Cola's original character to that movie. And and, yeah, I think a lot of people, as soon as they saw that the movie was gonna shift to different main characters rather than Cole.

Bryan Lee (42:14): And then even just when that poster came out and Cole is just kinda the main character of the first movie is kinda smaller now on the slide. And he's, you know, he's the original character, then everyone's like, stop trying to make Cole happen. It's like, this guy's not gonna survive, is he? And pretty much right at the beginning because it was right after Shao Kahn becomes immortal, his first fight is with Cole. I was thinking of him like like, he Cole is not gonna survive this.

Bryan Lee (42:38): Not

Jaymo (42:38): looking good, Cole. I am a Cole apologist. Like, I actually think it's neat that they made an original character for the movie because video game movies don't tend to do that. Mhmm.

Unknown Speaker (42:49): Right? Especially fanservice y ones like this. Yeah.

Jaymo (42:51): Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so, you know, I I just think, like, his powers are just not cool enough to keep that character around. Like, he has, like, a super sweater like that like a zoorest.

Unknown Speaker (43:02): That's what I feel like

Bryan Lee (43:03): is as superficial as this, that's what I feel like people didn't really respond to that much is just that his power but the power and design just didn't seem that interesting. He's basically got, like mean, it's yeah. It's like a super sweater, but it's like I mean, I like the it's a little bit like Black Panther suit, essentially, that it absorbs energy and he can redirect it, but it's just it not it didn't come off as cinematic. And

Jaymo (43:27): Well, I I actually really liked his fight scene with Shao Kahn because, you know, it's like Shao Kahn has this hammer, this blunt weapon. Yeah. So his he he's kind of the perfect thing to fight against that because every time the hammer hits him, he gets that energy. And he does, like, a really cool, like, mystic Hadouken thing, and he, like, is slicing up Shao Kahn. And, like, you know, Shao Kahn wins because he's a cheater.

Jaymo (43:49): Right. Has he has the amulet at this point, so he just heals. But I like that they they Cole put up a fight. It wasn't like, you know, the American Godzilla in final wars where they make a joke about how easy he is to kill. I was like, okay.

Jaymo (44:02): You didn't really do him dirty. And one of my favorite fatalities in the movie because Shao Kahn crushes Gallagher's his head with the hammer. And and you're like, okay. But I kinda wish he used the acid. And then he dragged the headless body and yeets it into the acid.

Unknown Speaker (44:17): And I was like

Unknown Speaker (44:17): so brutal.

Jaymo (44:18): Okay. We're doing things with this movie.

Bryan Lee (44:22): And the abruptness of that too. I'll give you this was, like, despite the fact that he was a main character last one and he fought a lot in the last one, this was Cole's best fight. It was the the way they use him in it, it's just and and I love especially now, obviously, Cole was the up and comer in the first one and and the and the protagonist who didn't feel, like, fully like like, the the seeing this was the one time I feel like we saw Cole fight confidently. Yeah. And it was he he came off as a badass for they they sent him off, I don't wanna say beautifully, but, like, in in in in in in very thrilling fashion as as brutal as it was to see him go and as expected as that was too.

Bryan Lee (45:03): But yeah. And and, again, no knocking Louis Tan. Louis Tan's great. I think it's just it's just Cole and the nature of his power, at least in the first movie, didn't didn't really go like, oh, man. He was such he was so cool in this.

Bryan Lee (45:16): You know?

Unknown Speaker (45:17): The dial. Yeah.

Bryan Lee (45:18): Yeah. There was a reason why nobody without watching anything, people were like, yeah. He's not gonna survive this one to see.

Unknown Speaker (45:23): So so, Mike, doesn't he have an entire suit made of his shirt?

Jaymo (45:29): Yeah. Yeah. It really looks like a super sweater, and it's even just like a clean neckline. And, like, you know, and it's it's a strange it's strange. It doesn't seem to fit aesthetically or logically.

Bryan Lee (45:43): It's like when Lex Luthor wears his power suit. It's like, why doesn't he have a helmet? You know? You could take him out just just with a cue ball to the thing.

Jaymo (45:52): So, Kyle, having recently watched Annihilation, Cyndell is apparently pretty pretty awful in that movie. Yeah. Did the fight scene between her and Sonya at the bottom of the spike pit do anything for you?

Kyle Ford (46:06): It did a bit. I thought it was an interesting fight scene between the two. I I do that it's interesting. Like, Sindel, I think, was one of the bright points of annihilation, I would say.

Jaymo (46:14): Okay.

Kyle Ford (46:15): Like, I liked her over the top ridiculous sneering performance in that.

Unknown Speaker (46:19): So

Unknown Speaker (46:19): Very troll too.

Kyle Ford (46:21): Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So but, yeah, I I think I might have preferred her there, but I like this character as well. I didn't realize having watched or in annihilation that that was the relationship between her and the daughter.

Unknown Speaker (46:32): I I was maybe it was

Unknown Speaker (46:33): clear in annihilation. Maybe it was attempted to be made clear, and

Kyle Ford (46:36): I totally missed it, but I had no idea that the two of them are related. So

Jaymo (46:39): Yeah. I I think it is. What I liked about this fight is that first of all, I just love that stage in the games because, like, the pit is such an iconic stage from the first Mortal Kombat. You fought on a bridge and if you killed someone with, like, an uppercut, they go, oh, and fall in the spike pit. But then Mortal Kombat two had the bottom of the spike pit as a stage, and it was disgusting because there's, like, heads on spikes and you see people who fell down and have been left down here.

Unknown Speaker (47:09): And I

Bryan Lee (47:09): I was about to say my favorite bit of that was when Sonya uses somebody else's corpse.

Unknown Speaker (47:14): Right.

Jaymo (47:15): Yeah. So good. Yeah. So Sindel has like, her power is banshee like screams, and Sonya Blade is shielding herself with a corpse, then all the pieces are flying off in chunks, and she's getting closer. It was like Hulk and, like, the sonic attack, holding up the pieces of the tank, getting closer to it, an Incredible Hulk.

Jaymo (47:36): But then, you know, at one point, Sonya is, like, pounding on her, and she's sliding around the floor from the force of her screams. Spikes are coming in and out of the floor. And so that it was like, they were really cooking with, like, the environment. And the later Mortal Kombat games have that where you can grab spectators and body parts that are part of the background and, like, whack your opponent with it. So this this was a standout moment for me.

Jaymo (48:01): I think, though, shot of the movie is Raiden's neck getting slit. Right? Kyle, do you remember the shot?

Unknown Speaker (48:10): Like

Kyle Ford (48:10): I forgot what the shot was. I remember the neck getting slit.

Jaymo (48:12): The power of him comes out and emanates across the whole land, but it's just a sliver of light because it's where his neck has been cut.

Unknown Speaker (48:21): Right.

Unknown Speaker (48:21): Right.

Jaymo (48:22): And it's just so like, it felt so, like, eighties and neon, but also, like, really kinda horrifying. And in a great moment of tension building, your the heroes are teleported away to fight in the next round right as zombified Kung Lao slashes his throat. Mhmm. So it's like that that gut wrenching moment of reaching out to help, and then you're gone. And it's like it's almost like the snap.

Unknown Speaker (48:47): I I just I I really, really like that.

Unknown Speaker (48:50): There was something really shot. Oh, go ahead, Mike.

Unknown Speaker (48:53): The exterior shot also really reminds me of I guess, I got introduced, like, ten years back to haunted houses. The idea of you put you have fog machines, and then you just set up lasers to create, like Mhmm. A flat line.

Unknown Speaker (49:07): Mhmm.

Bryan Lee (49:08): Yeah. Yeah. It was a really interesting visual way to show that Raiden was severely injured. You know? And and and just just a really I mean, knowing that he's, a demigod too, it's just interesting to just show, like, without any blood that he was, yeah, that he was mortally wounded, and he was he was not okay.

Bryan Lee (49:29): You could tell he was, like it's like that that injury was devastating to him and just beams of light coming from his neck. It was it was a very cool effect.

Jaymo (49:39): Yeah. I feel it sold his, like, power because, like, there's a sun inside of him. Yeah.

Bryan Lee (49:45): They did that it in in both seeing how how injured he is, it also just goes it it illustrates his his power. Yeah. How much the how much is their what's really the the the energy. It's all it's like as if his godlike energy is just leaking or something. You know?

Bryan Lee (50:02): And and, yeah, to my to what Mike said, like, it it was an interesting effect that it was so narrow, you know, like, just almost like that laser kind of look. So, yeah, it was a it was a cool effect.

Mike (50:13): Plot wise, it's also the point where up until that point, I was like, okay. So Johnny Cage is out. Why is he still here?

Unknown Speaker (50:20): It's in the movie. But,

Jaymo (50:23): you know, it's funny. I actually, some of my favorite fights were the ones that didn't end in fatalities because it's like both you know, the the hero characters don't wanna do the fatalities. And, you know, there's a great moment when Katana defeats Johnny Cage, and he's staggering like in the games. You know? And and, you know, we've all been there where we don't know how to do the fatalities.

Unknown Speaker (50:45): Right. And Shao comes over.

Unknown Speaker (50:47): Finish him.

Jaymo (50:48): Yeah. And it's like, he he didn't finish him. Yeah. But fight of the movie for me, Liu Kang versus Kang Lao zombified Kang Lao with the the that blade his bladed hat, like, circling them.

Kyle Ford (51:01): Right.

Jaymo (51:01): And it's coming back. And they're fighting, but also having to remember where the hat is because it can't, like, hit either of them. And it's buzzsawing, and it's bouncing off the pillars, and it's bedding in the floor. And then the fatality is very good visual storytelling because Kung Lao has thrown his buzzsaw hat wedged in the floor. So it's like a buzzsaw in the floor between them.

Jaymo (51:26): And he punches Liu Kang and all Liu Kang does is hold on to him because he's his friend. He doesn't wanna let his friend go. So since he's holding on to Kung Lao, the force of Kung Lao's own hit pulls Kung Lao's body onto the blade and he becomes Sonic the Hedgehog, Mike. He gets, like, the the the blade going right through his back, and Kung Lao is promising, like, I'm going to save you. I'm going to get you back from this A

Unknown Speaker (51:49): weak English. Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (51:50): Yeah. So it's just everything about that fight. The fact that it's, like, two friends and they you know, one doesn't wanna hurt the other, the gorgeous portal background

Unknown Speaker (52:01): Yeah.

Jaymo (52:02): That's changing from blue to red as the fight's going worse for Liu Kang.

Unknown Speaker (52:06): Where you are right now.

Jaymo (52:07): Exactly. So it's just I don't know. Kyle, this was the fight for of the movie for you too. Right?

Kyle Ford (52:13): No. Yeah. Visually, it was unbelievable. Yeah.

Jaymo (52:15): Yeah. For sure. And the choreography was just chef's kiss.

Bryan Lee (52:18): And maybe, yeah, one of the I mean, I'm not sure. I had to think I mean, I had to look and list all the fights or anything, but it's definitely one of the the it's the most, I feel like, emotionally charged fight Yeah. In that movie. And that's saying a lot even given, like, the emotional charge behind, like and the the setup behind Kitana and Shao Kahn later. But it's also just because and I know a lot of this is because it was well set up in the in the in the first film.

Bryan Lee (52:43): These guys were like, they call each other brothers. You know? And, like, and he feel still feels, like, guilt over over losing him. And, you know yeah, I mean, every and everything about that cinematic last moment too. Was even Liu Kang knows about the buzz saw right behind him, but I was even like, I was sitting there with Michael and, like, dude, look out right behind you.

Unknown Speaker (53:03): You know? And and, like, the fake out too, like, when when when Kung Lao hits him, Liu Kang doesn't grab him immediately. Like, it's almost like he's going right for the blade and then, like, got their arms pulling you onto it. You know? Like, ugh.

Bryan Lee (53:17): It was a yeah. That was a that was a badass fight. That was I feel like the yeah. The the the one that you were most emotionally drawn into, which makes for a good fight. You

Mike (53:27): know? Mhmm. Interesting. Because I I was having the opposite thing of right for that setup, I was like, how is he go I in not knowing what powers he have, I'm like, does he have the power to just, like, teleport out or something? Because I was expecting a lunge that would lead to ending up on there.

Unknown Speaker (53:44): Mhmm.

Mike (53:44): Like, I was like, he's ending up it's like, he's ending up on his own hat one way or the other. Mhmm. I just wasn't sure how it was gonna do it.

Unknown Speaker (53:53): Chekhov's hat. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (53:55): There's a lot of Chekhov items in

Jaymo (53:57): this. Yeah. Alright. So let's get to the next part here. Realizing they cannot defeat Shao while he has the amulet, Liu Kang, Jack, Sonia, and Johnny travel to the home of the Tarkatans.

Jaymo (54:08): Johnny fights and defeats their leader Baraka, earning his trust as he guides them to a hidden entrance below Shao Kahn's palace. Katana is captured by Jade, and Shao Kahn has Katana tied up in the public square. The four Earthrealm champions try and get the amulet, but Jax is killed by Shao Kahn while Liu Kang and Sonya are taken away for the next round of the tournament. Liu Kang kills his former best friend, Kung Lao. He already got that.

Jaymo (54:29): Kano preferring nature's beauty of earth over of of Earthrealm over Outworld betrays Shao Kahn and reveals to Johnny what a revived Bhihan excuse me. Reveals to Johnny that a revived Bhihan has the amulet and is currently hiding it in the nether realm. Raiden, using what little power he has left, sends Kano and Johnny to nether realm to destroy the amulet. So I am so happy that the mortal combat series deals with, like, the afterlife and zombies and ghosts. And we get these fun ways to bring characters back because Kano was my favorite character in the first movie.

Jaymo (55:07): He is such a good cartman where it's like, you're you're terrible. The stuff you're saying is terrible Yeah. But I want you on screen as much as possible. He is so fun. I love him harassing Kwon Chi to give him a new eyeball.

Jaymo (55:26): I love the I love the fact that he is not zombified and brainwashed by evil power because he has no soul to steal. Right. And he's like, fucking loophole. It's just like it's so funny. But what his scene for me was when he comes up to Johnny Cage and goes like, I think I want you guys to win.

Jaymo (55:46): And he's like, yeah. Right? He's like, no. I love everything about Earth. Like, threesomes, foursomes, Jack and Coke, just Jack, just Coke.

Jaymo (55:56): It's so I loved every moment he was on there. And so him becoming an unexpected ally, I thought was so fun. And then Baraka being an unexpected ally. That was, I think, the biggest, happiest twist for me. Because if if the scary looking monster guy is just a scary looking monster, then you are predictable.

Jaymo (56:22): You know? But the we we were been talking about how excited we were to see a Johnny Cage nut punch. And there it is. He he is fighting Baraka. He's flailing around just because Johnny Cage was too annoying for Baraka to let live anymore.

Unknown Speaker (56:36): And Johnny Cage punches him in the shnuts, and Baraka is thrilled. And he's, like, amazed. And he's, you had so you are the greatest fighter.

Unknown Speaker (56:47): He's, like, that was so cool what you did with that.

Jaymo (56:49): And then you punch me in the I'm, like, I just love the the bait and switch. Has there ever been a nut punch on screen where the reaction was joy? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (57:01): Depends on what you watch.

Unknown Speaker (57:02): I Mike? You know, classy Mike. I don't know. I don't know.

Bryan Lee (57:09): But I also love that, like I mean, I I I've cited this before, but you guys get a chance to Carl Urban's interview on Seth Meyers, I think it was, like, a week or two ago, obviously promoting this movie, was just hilarious because because he brings up and shows a screenshot of the OG game with, like, the signature move of him doing the splits and hitting it in the nuts. And it's like, yeah. And and they kinda joke about, like, is that is that you actually doing this? Like, yeah. Of course.

Unknown Speaker (57:32): And he kinda roused at the audience like, you guys wanna see me do the splits? And you hear the audience, of course, it's like, yeah. And then he just turns to Seth. I would have done it, but they I guess they don't wanna see it. You know?

Bryan Lee (57:45): But, obviously, him implying that, yeah, most of that is stunt doubles. But you know? Yeah. I just and they I'm I'm I'm just it's a big crowd pleasing moment that he that he does it. And then even even just like you said, even Baraka's like, yeah.

Bryan Lee (57:59): That was rude. And,

Jaymo (58:01): you know, this this movie gets kind of Indiana Jones y at this point because they have to, like, sneak into Shao Kahn's temple, you know, and it's felt very, like, adventure y. And I I thought that was kind of fun. The Jack's death surprised me, Kyle. Did he feel safe? Do I he felt safe to me.

Unknown Speaker (58:17): Yeah. I felt he felt like he was becoming like, he

Unknown Speaker (58:19): was kind of I think

Unknown Speaker (58:20): it was the last movie. I'm getting him all confused.

Unknown Speaker (58:22): It was. He was

Kyle Ford (58:23): kind of lightly in the last movie a little bit, but they were, like, keying him up for being a big part of this. So, yeah, it was a little surprising.

Unknown Speaker (58:28): Yeah. Because

Unknown Speaker (58:30): he was mostly just in the backstory for Sonya. Right? Because they

Unknown Speaker (58:33): were part

Unknown Speaker (58:33): of the movie. Yeah. But I don't think he was in the fighting or anything. Yeah. Even, like, on dubbed yet.

Unknown Speaker (58:37): So yeah. That was a big somebody's somebody's gotta die. I mean, a lot of these characters died in the previous movie too. It doesn't mean we we're not gonna True. See them

Unknown Speaker (58:46): then. Yeah.

Mike (58:47): That's kinda why I figured he would. Like, I was I do find it weird that they split up to search, and, like, forty five seconds later, they're all in the same room again.

Unknown Speaker (58:57): Right. Quick search. Very quick search. Well, they split up. They save time, Mike.

Jaymo (59:01): The the plan worked. Mhmm. Alright, guys. So final round, Shao Kahn fatally wounds Liu Kang with the with the latter realizing that he himself is not the chosen one. Liu Kang evaporates into fire as he declares that he will rescue the fallen.

Jaymo (59:15): Sonya frees Katana before being knocked out by Shao Kahn, who wins the tournament for Outworld. But Katana denounces Shao Kahn and formally switches allegiances to Earthrealm, giving them one more champion and fights Shao Kahn one on one. Johnny and Kano team up with the spirit of Hanzo Hasashi and a reformed jade to fight Bi Han and then destroy the amulet during which Johnny's powers are finally unlocked. Now mortal, Shao Kahn is unmasked and killed by Katana, freeing Edenia as she becomes its queen. Shang Tsung attempts to kill Raiden in his deprived state, but the analyst destruction restores his power and repels the attack.

Jaymo (59:54): Sometime later, Johnny, Sonya, Raiden, Katana, Jade, Kano, and Baraka prepare to use a captured Kwon Chi to revive the other fallen champions. Queue up Technosyndrome's Mortal Kombat theme. I that's the needle drop. We're Mortal Kombat. You're waiting for it the whole movie.

Jaymo (1:00:13): But, like, confident to wait till the credits. Yeah.

Bryan Lee (1:00:16): I would I did wanna mention the music because I love the the I the score for this is great, but also, like, I respect like, I feel like much like the first movie. It's been a while since I've seen the the the the COVID Mortal Kombat. But but I respected the and if anything, because they've they've withheld the theme or even any any notions of the theme until a couple of key moments, it just made it feels like almost like you were you're building up to it and you earn it. Like, there there's I think that I feel like the first time you hear, and I obviously, you don't hear the full techno syndrome song until the end credits begin, but you the first time you hear the notes of is is in a really badass moment with between Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Mhmm.

Bryan Lee (1:01:02): And that's I mean, just it gets your blood running as a fan just to hear just those note just the hint of those notes. I wanna say it's, like, just one other moment that that they that they hint at it, but just, you know, they're they were very restrained in giving us the full theme essentially until until the end. So

Jaymo (1:01:19): The the other moment you're thinking of is when Baraka has challenged Johnny Cage. And Johnny Cage is like, I'm gonna die. I'm an actor.

Unknown Speaker (1:01:26): Oh, that's right.

Jaymo (1:01:27): And Sonya's like, okay. Then act. Like, act like you can fight. And he's like, okay. He's like, It's oh, he's like, it's it's hype.

Jaymo (1:01:36): It's so hype. This movie somehow is so silly and so epic at the same time. I feel like they they they did the impossible with this one. I really loved Scorpion, aka Hanzo, being trapped in hell. But just through the the power of his loving memories of his wife and his child, he turns hell into this beautiful, like, sakura garden.

Jaymo (1:02:05): You know? It's like peaches. With great peaches. Yeah. But, like, what a good metaphor, right, for, like, you know, taking hell and finding the good in it.

Jaymo (1:02:17): And so I I I just really loved the Netherrealm as, like, a setting that it was sort of this metaphysical metaphysical place place that that could could change change based based on on the the the aura of whoever you were around.

Unknown Speaker (1:02:30): And it's also right also that the one the one thing that gets him to convince him to help him, Bihan's back. Oh, that Yeah. There

Jaymo (1:02:41): there was there were so many, like, dope lines of, like, characters. They're just like,

Unknown Speaker (1:02:45): I'm here for your head

Jaymo (1:02:46): or something. I don't even know. Like, there's too many to count, but I just kept turning to Kyle like, that was so metal. Like, oh oh, I love when Shao Kahn so okay. Okay.

Jaymo (1:02:55): So Katana is chained up. I'm watching Sonya and Shao Kahn fight, which is another image straight out of the games. I think it was Mortal Kombat three or maybe two where it had characters you couldn't play chained up. And you saw them in the background, but so Sonya is getting her ass kicked, and she uses her last bit of strength to fire one of her, like, Hadoukens to break Katana free. And then the actress who plays Sonya looks at her and says, fight.

Jaymo (1:03:19): Right? And it's like and but that line, I guess, they were they're considering cutting. They thought it was too on the nose, but it's so good. And then and then Katana, this whole movie has been, like, you know, training and building up to avenge her father. And the Katana Shao Kahn fight is so epic.

Jaymo (1:03:38): And, like, you really feel like you don't know how it's gonna go. And, you know, just the dual planes of action of they need to break the amulet in time to make Shao Kahn vulnerable for Katana.

Unknown Speaker (1:03:51): Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (1:03:51): And so Johnny getting his first shadow kick, that's his signature move from the game to break it. And it's like, yeah. Fuck yeah. Johnny Cage. And I don't know.

Jaymo (1:04:00): I'm always just a sucker whenever beams converge on one bad guy. And, like, it's just this movie sticks the landing for me. I don't know.

Bryan Lee (1:04:09): And it was great to have those in tandem too because otherwise, presumably, if they weren't able to succeed, she wouldn't be able to hurt him at all. Right.

Unknown Speaker (1:04:17): Right.

Bryan Lee (1:04:17): You know? So it's just a matter of just giving her a chance to defeat him, you know, and how it that they do it just in time for her to do it right at the end of the fight. You know? So

Jaymo (1:04:27): And I love what when Shao Khan I remember the the metal line I was thinking of where Khan goes like, he doesn't have to be this way. You don't need to die. And she goes, one of us does. Yeah. Oh my god.

Unknown Speaker (1:04:40): I felt that in my whole body.

Bryan Lee (1:04:42): Yeah. And not and the implication that this is the first time she's ever really defied him. The guy who killed her father

Kyle Ford (1:04:49): Right.

Bryan Lee (1:04:49): But assumed her father's place. He considers her his daughter, you know, which it it kind of implies this whole time she's had to grit her teeth at her father's killer and call him father. Yeah. And then now in this final moment, like, I'm betraying you. I'm fighting for Earthrealm.

Unknown Speaker (1:05:06): Bring it on. Just yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:05:08): Yeah. And the

Unknown Speaker (1:05:08): love I mean, you know what? Liu Kang and Kung never mind. No. I'm sorry. Katana versus versus Xiao Kang

Unknown Speaker (1:05:13): And then

Unknown Speaker (1:05:14): what was due to emotion the most emotionally charged.

Jaymo (1:05:15): That's what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, mean, Kung Lao and Lu Kang is, I think, a close second, but, you know, the the the backstory with Kung Lao was the previous movie. So, like, I imagine it didn't hit as much for Mike. But when when the outworld wins and the final good guy light goes out and you're like, oh, crap. Like, is this gonna have, like, a infinity war style bummer ending?

Jaymo (1:05:37): You know? I actually thought there was I thought there was a world where Shao Kahn wins and the next movie is the next tournament to win back Earth. Because Mortal Kombat three, like, a lot of the demons come to Earth. So I kinda thought there was a decent chance. But then when when her light switches from the bad side to the good side, it's so hype.

Jaymo (1:05:57): It's so good. Ugh. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (1:05:59): You see, now I wish that it

Unknown Speaker (1:06:01): had just gone to a game over screen when that happened and then credits and just no no route resolution.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:06): That would be amazing.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:08): Incredible. Incredible. Anything else to say about the end of the movie before we go to our verdicts?

Unknown Speaker (1:06:12): I don't think so. The

Bryan Lee (1:06:15): the end credits were very cool. And if anything, I I mean, I love that they use that visual, like I don't know how else to describe other than, like, the the ending of playing solitaire when you see all the cards just kind of repeating it and kind of that. And so right away, you like, when it's when it shows, like, Carl Urban, it shows his Showtime license plate that's, like, repeated and everything. And I'm assuming it's when they showed the name of the actor who played King Jared that I was kinda horrified. It was all, like, severed fingered.

Bryan Lee (1:06:47): Like, it was like

Unknown Speaker (1:06:49): The fingies. Derek, if you're listening.

Unknown Speaker (1:06:50): The fingies. Oh, god. That's kinda horrifying. Yeah.

Kyle Ford (1:06:53): I did like to have that part of thing with with the end credits where they're also just saying the name as of in the video game. When the actor's name played, they were like, Johnny Cage to announce it. Yeah.

Jaymo (1:07:02): Yeah. Yeah. Great touch. I I like this movie so much. I am almost tempted to go screen exit because I'm curious what the wide scenes would be.

Jaymo (1:07:11): My dream is that, like, if the fight you know, because I think you guys have done screen exits where they project extras Alright. On the walls of the theater to get you a wide, wide, wide screen. And it's like, would it be the spectators watching the fight? Like, that could be kinda neat. But I also feel like the Kung Lao and Liu Kang fight scene wrapped around you with that portal, that would be dope.

Jaymo (1:07:32): So I don't there's I might I might try to convince Jackie because we were laughing. Like, Kyle, Mike, and I, none of us could convince our wives to go. But you know what? They missed out. You know, something I had a good

Unknown Speaker (1:07:43): She would've hated

Unknown Speaker (1:07:44): it. Oh, really?

Mike (1:07:45): She doesn't like movies that have a lot of blood.

Unknown Speaker (1:07:48): Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:07:49): So I was like, there bloody Mortal Kombat?

Jaymo (1:07:52): Well, sweat if this is the Super Nintendo version.

Bryan Lee (1:07:55): I mean, historically, that's what made the first game so controversial and what led to the ESRB is, like, their kids are playing games with blood. You know? Like, yeah, it was a big deal.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:05): On the blood note, that is where, like, that last battle did hit a point where I'm like, this just feels dumb to me now. Because they've lost

Unknown Speaker (1:08:11): so much blood, how are they

Unknown Speaker (1:08:11): still fighting? You slit the throat. That, like, should do it.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:16): That's true. Shao Khan's throat was slit while he was after the amulet was his foot,

Unknown Speaker (1:08:22): and he was

Bryan Lee (1:08:22): still going. It's like, damn. Yeah. What's I

Mike (1:08:26): was ready for him to just kind of, like, realize his bleeding and then just slump.

Bryan Lee (1:08:30): Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, that would've worked too, but I think they were just driving home that he's just you know, because Cobb, obviously, he's not human. He's just basically like this hulk of a guy. So even slitting his throat, even when non not even when mortal is not enough.

Bryan Lee (1:08:45): And I I guess

Unknown Speaker (1:08:45): it's true. The throat was enough to to knock out Raiden out of commission.

Unknown Speaker (1:08:49): Yeah. Raiden's

Unknown Speaker (1:08:50): child. I'm sure, but Raiden's not dead. He just had to lie down for a bit. You know?

Unknown Speaker (1:08:53): Just take a little nappy poo.

Bryan Lee (1:08:54): Actually But but if anything, I love that it led to the the the reprisal of the of using her her father's ribbon. You know?

Jaymo (1:09:01): Yeah. And also, I think that was important too because if you have him die right when the amulet breaks, you're kind of taking away Katana's victory over him. Mhmm. And you and nerds could be well, no. He would she would have never beaten him with the amulet.

Jaymo (1:09:14): You know? And it's like, no. She she bested him when the terms were fair. You know what I mean?

Bryan Lee (1:09:19): And also compare that to her father's fight with him at the beginning of the movie. He was, like, winning. He stabbed him up into the armpit. Like, stabbed him multiple times, even kinda getting him in the neck, I think. Yeah.

Bryan Lee (1:09:29): Like, which is, I mean, the perfect way to make you feel like, oh, he's got this, but then suddenly, no. You know? So so she had done, I feel like, a similar level of damage to to Shao Kahn that her father did

Unknown Speaker (1:09:42): Yeah.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:42): Which we knew wasn't enough. Yeah. So in that vein, comparing it to that first fight, like, yeah. She need to do one more thing. Let me get that let me get that ribbon.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:51): And then, like, yeah. Just give him put him in a choke hold and yeah.

Jaymo (1:09:53): So and then a choke hold, and then I believe she uses the fans to cut his head into different deli slices.

Unknown Speaker (1:09:59): Yeah. Yeah.

Jaymo (1:10:00): So it's just like, oh, what a what a good you're only afraid works them. Yeah. Yeah. You're afraid they're gonna skimp on the gore, but this movie did not. Alright, guys.

Jaymo (1:10:12): So we've covered the joy pros, the joy cons, and every bit in between. It's time to declare Mortal Kombat two, the movie, as a Nintendoo or a Nintendon't. Kyle, can we start with you?

Kyle Ford (1:10:23): Yeah. Absolute Nintendo. I thought it was that the tone was great. It felt much more expansive and funny. So, yeah, I was a big fan.

Unknown Speaker (1:10:30): Yeah. Brian?

Bryan Lee (1:10:32): A Nintendo. Absolutely. It was a it cap it I I took what worked about the first reboot movie and and took it took it to another level. All the fighting was thrilling. It was much more engaging.

Bryan Lee (1:10:47): Yeah. All around Nintendo.

Mike (1:10:49): Mike? I think I would probably go relatively weak Nintendo. Like, six out of 10 for me. This felt too much was telegraphed. Okay.

Mike (1:11:02): Like or to give one example of this, we're just like where when they did it, like, you've even though I knew you were gonna do this, you did this the wrong time, was jade shattering, like, the stuff off the staff to represent the switch Raging from my mind, man. Should have happened in the netherworld when she showed up, and you realize at that point, for sure, it's like, okay. She has

Unknown Speaker (1:11:27): Mhmm.

Mike (1:11:28): Switched sides. But doing it early, it's like, it put it up it felt like it was at the wrong point. Like, the ribbon, they kept making too much of a point about that to be that. It's like, okay. I know we're gonna have to do that.

Mike (1:11:39): It's not the, oh, they're bringing this back. It's, of course, you said you're gonna do this so many times.

Bryan Lee (1:11:44): Times. I would get there, actually. It would have been like showing Han Solo going, like, let's turn the Falcon around. Like, it's more fun to see in the moment when it matters most that she has broken free from ShadowConsole. I'll you that.

Unknown Speaker (1:11:55): The movie

Mike (1:11:56): says that you don't know which way she's going yet, and then it's like by it's almost like she does a wink to the camera Mhmm. Before heading out to the other world. And it's like Mhmm. You could have left that ambiguity till the end to be like, oh, cool. She has changed sides, and now she's here.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:11): Yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:11): I mean, they like

Unknown Speaker (1:12:13): sorry. Go go ahead.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:14): No. I'm gonna wrap it up. Finished what you're gonna say.

Bryan Lee (1:12:16): Well, I was gonna say if there was any fight I was kind of gearing up and thought we were about to see, I thought we were about to see some real showdown between Raiden and Shang Tsung. I love that moment of the Shang Tsung realizing, you're supposed to be dead. Well, you or or or you should be dead. And then it's like, well, you should be running.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:33): Subtle. Subtle.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:34): But then ultimately afterwards, I was like, oh, you're not gonna show that well, but you know what? There there already was enough showing two climactic fights happening at the same time that directly relate to each other. And, you know, eventually, we're gonna see Rayden and Shang Song throw down again. So

Unknown Speaker (1:12:49): Yeah. Yeah. And I also like that.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:51): And then just interesting that the ending really did just open it up to, we can just bring back whoever we need.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:56): Whoever we want. Right. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker (1:12:58): We never really can come back. We got

Unknown Speaker (1:12:59): a necromancer. We're off to the races.

Jaymo (1:13:01): Yeah. After the races. I think I think this is an incredible movie. I think anyone with a passing interest in video games or just magical adventures, yeah, I think you need to see it. I think it's the best movie we've ever reviewed for this show, and it is my new favorite video game movie.

Unknown Speaker (1:13:17): Like, I

Jaymo (1:13:18): I love the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, but every Sonic the Hedgehog movie has a moment where you're like, well, this is dumb and could have been cut. And although I don't know that every scene was perfect, I never had that moment of like, okay. You're kinda missing the point here. This is kinda overly silly or overly dumb or, like, kinda slowing things down. I I thought this movie, like, it ripped.

Jaymo (1:13:39): I think the movie gave you as many fight scenes as you'd want. I think it gave you as many fatalities as you'd want. I loved all the iconography. I thought it was well acted. I had the costumes, practical sets.

Jaymo (1:13:50): Like, this is a Nintendo 64. Like, this is this is the peak for me. I am so high on this movie Yeah. Which is funny because before seeing this, Mike and I reviewed games, and I was very, very low on one of them. So well, I won't I won't spoil that episode, though.

Jaymo (1:14:13): Well, guys, I think we're gonna call that a game over for today. This concludes our final verdict, Mortal Kombat, a resounding Nintendo. Kyle, Brian, thank you so much for cheese dicking each other in my back seat on the way to the movies last night. That sounds weird. But before we leave this realm, let's have Brian remind our listeners where they can find his wonderful stuff.

Bryan Lee (1:14:34): So I am on Instagram and TikTok at brian dot s dot lee. That's brian with a y, and I'm on YouTube at, brian lee. No periods, no middle initials. I was able to claim that one.

Jaymo (1:14:46): Awesome. Link will be in the show notes. And, Kyle, where can people go to check out Buy Doom, Stream Team, and anything else you wanna plug?

Kyle Ford (1:14:52): You can go. Probably the best is just go to houseofkyle.com. That's my main blog, so everything will be linked there.

Jaymo (1:14:57): Alright. We'll definitely put that in the show notes. It all sounds n e excellent. Everyone join us next time. We'll be running and gunning through Contra Hardcore on the Sega Genesis.

Jaymo (1:15:06): Until next time, please remember to like, follow, or subscribe to the old switcheroo and rate or review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Also, you can visit www.theoldswitcheroo.com to find all our social media links. We'd love to hear what you thought of this episode or what you're hoping to hear in future episodes. And as always, thanks for listening to the old switcheroo. We've been talking gaming retro with Mike and J Mo.

Unknown Speaker (1:15:26): I've been Mike.

Jaymo (1:15:27): I've been J Mo. Game on, everyone. Continue. 9. 8.

Unknown Speaker (1:15:35): Fade to black. 6. I skipped 7. I skipped 7. What happened to 7?

Unknown Speaker (1:15:42): Sorry. Happened while you said favorite one? Thank you.

Unknown Speaker (1:15:44): This was fun, you guys. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker (1:15:47): Oh, yeah.