At long last, one of the most hyped movies of a generation, a follow to one of the most loved, terrible movies ever made, has dropped. Today we finally get to see what the new Mortal Kombat will offer fans and movie goers. You want awesome design? You want faithfulness to the game? Do you want a great movie? If this Mortal Kombat trailer is any indication we will get all that and more!

Let’s face it folks. The 1995 Mortal Kombat movie sucked! It was terrible! Yet somehow, between a couple of incredibly good fight scenes, terrible yet endearing acting, and of course Christopher Lambert, it became a cult classic. It may suck but fans love it anyway. The follow-up somehow managed to be far worse. The television show, Mortal Kombat: Conquest may have been good, but it only lasted 22 episodes over two years. Add to it the curse of the video game movie and fans are right to question this remake. While trailers lie (Transformers: Age of Extinction anyone?), damn! if this trailer doesn’t look awesome!

Mortal Kombat Trailer – Who Invited Them?

This trailer showed off a ton of characters and they all look amazing. A quick roll call of the trailer and we see: Sonya, Jax, Subzero, Cole Young (newbie), Kung Lao, Kano (switching sides), Liu Kang, Raiden, Shang Tsung, Mileena, Scorpion, Goro, and I think one of the featureless men was Kabal. Of course the Emperor gets a brief shot, but you know he will show up somewhere.

Almost all of them wear clothing very similar to their video game counterparts, yet designers gave it all a realistic look that makes the feel totally believable. The costumes alone in movies like this can kill a movie before it even airs, and it looks to be a flawless victory for the costume department.

We get no glimpse of the story itself other than Cole learning about the tournament and the basics we already knew, but something about this trailer makes it look like Simon McQuoid may be hitting the mark. This will be Simon’s directorial debut, so let’s hope he learns fast.

Mortal Kombat Trailer – Sign Here

Since its inception as a video game in 1992, Mortal Kombat created a brand with many unique signatures, among them, character design, blood, phrases and fatalities. It looks as if Director McQuoid included every one of these in spades. Right off the bat we see how Jax goes from every day human to cybernetically enhanced bad-ass. The scene forgoes cut-aways and ‘suggested’ damage. We see his arms freeze up and get yanked off – Frozen blood and all!

Through out the trailer we see blood galore and attacks that rip their way through body, limbs and heads. I doubt we see outright gore, but expect plenty of ‘brutalities’. Kano even shows off his usual charm at the end when he rips a heart out and says “Kano Wins. A F**king beauty”). It looks like we even get a Scorpion vs. Subzero fight.

Talk about signature moves, we see Subzero freezing things, Scorpion uses his hard ropes with the signature “Get over here” (although it felt a bit forced), Mileena licks her blood soaked Sai and Liu fires up the old fists. We even get to see Liu form his fire dragon fatality. If you want classic Mortal Kombat moves and signatures, this film will no doubt deliver.

Mortal Kombat Trailer – Conspicuous By Absence

A few things stand out simply by their absence. The first being the most important and that is story. It appears this new movie focuses on the new character of Cole Young. Is he the new champion for this story instead of the traditional Liu Kang? How much story actually matters can be debated. If the fighting and effects are over the top awesome, story can be forgotten, no different than a monster movie or horror flic; However, should the story gel, make sense and flow with the actors, this film could be over the top amazing.

The second thing I wish they included that IS important are the fights. One does not tilt their hand and show the best fights in a trailer, but all we saw were some moves and killer fatalities. The original Mortal Kombat holds up because two of the fights were incredible, namely Cage vs. Scorpion and Kang vs. Reptile. Of all the things to worry about with this remake, fighting probably ranks among the bottom concerns. One does not make movies like this without great choreography.

The final missing piece does belong in the signature category, but may be left out with no problem and that is music. Will this version use the original Mortal Kombat music at any point? Or will it forge its own path. Either way, when done well, works. It would just be nice to hear that traditional techno at some point.

Mortal Kombat Trailer – Final Thoughts

This trailer kicks ass! I wanted to see this movie before simply because of the title, but now I am stoked for it to get here as fast as possible. Let’s hope the trailer delivers on all the bloody goodness it teases us with. My final question though is: What kind of movie will this be? Cheesy, convenient flic or Game of Thrones gut-wrenching?! Will they use a gimmick like the original movie to get a multitude of the cast to the finish line? Or will this be a horror style flic where our posse get whittled down fight by fight until there are only one or two people left standing, and if so, who dies?

Let us know what you thought of the Mortal Kombat trailer and it’s implications. The movie hits theaters April 16th.