There is a new Mortal Kombat movie coming, and it appears to be a closer match to the original game than some of the later installments in the series. The first Mortal Kombat movie arrived in 1995, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. This film was based on the arcade game, which itself came out in 1992 for the first time.

That movie played well within the storyline of the Mortal Kombat video game, which drew in the game’s fans. While mainly a cult classic today, the original Mortal Kombat film worked well by keeping the focus on the tournament of warriors brought in to fight to protect Earth from malevolent outside forces.

However, over the years, the Mortal Kombat video games arrived on consoles, which shifted their focus towards one-on-one fighting action, largely overlooking the tournament aspect of the storyline. As expected, the movie sequels also ignored the tournament, but it seems the new Mortal Kombat movie is getting back to basics.

The First Mortal Kombat Movie Keeps The Focus On The Tournament

While there have been three big-screen Mortal Kombat movies, only the first one featured the actual tournament around which the source video game was based. That movie was the first one, released in 1995. Christopher Lambert stars as Raiden, a mystical warrior who gathers Earth’s best fighters for the tournament to protect the world.

The name of the franchise is what the tournament is called, with the Mortal Kombat Tournament held once a generation between the Earthrealm, Outworld, and Netherrealm. If one of those worlds wins 10 tournaments in a row, it can conquer another realm, which was the focal point of the 1995 film.

In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Shao Khan broke the rules and invaded Earth. In the 2021 reboot, Shang Tsung also attacked Earthrealm before the tournament started, making it the second movie in a row to have the same overall plot.

Not only that, but the Mortal Kombat games stopped being about the tournament a long time ago. The last time the tournament served as the focus was the original Mortal Kombat game, and the franchise has primarily involved time travel and multiverses since then, devolving into a simple one-on-one fighting game.

It Looks Like Mortal Kombat 2 Is Taking A Page From The Original Film

The upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 movie will finally return to the idea of making a movie based on the tournament. The first film in this new run mentioned the tournament, but when it was time to fight, betrayals and turns occurred, and the tournament never took place. Like the games, it was just about regular fights.

While most of the game’s sequels focused on a story of good vs. evil, they overlooked the tournament the series is named after. It doesn’t make sense that every game should have a tournament. It would become repeтιтive and never explain why each tournament is more important than the last. However, the rebooted movie needed it.

Without seeing the tournament, the film made it clear that it never really mattered. If the Mortal Kombat Tournament isn’t important, and anyone can invade if they want to, there is no purpose for the franchise. Thankfully, Mortal Kombat 2 is bringing the tournament back, which should offer higher stakes and what the original game’s fans loved.