The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Swedish vs American Films, Pt. 2

THERE WILL BE HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE FILMS HERE, SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIES OR READ THE BOOKS, BEWARE

Daniel Craig (right) and Michael Nyqvist (left) as Mikael Blomkvist

And here we go with part two of this.  This one is going to be a bit shorter than the last, as there's less differences in the back half of the movie.

First off, there's not enough time given to build Lisbeth and Mikael's relationship in the original version.  The new one waited until after Mikael had been shot for them to go to bed together, when he was in a vulnerable position.  Another note here is that the sex scenes show again that Noomi isn't physically right for the role.  She's much too muscular for it, and that shows even more when she has her top off.

I do enjoy the original, more active Inspector Morell.  The actor who plays him in the new one is also good, but isn't given a whole lot to do.  Him still being on the police force, and involved with Mikael's investigation is kind of fun.  Points to the Swedish version for it.

The scene with Harald Vanger in the original is much different than the scene in the American version, but I think both work just as well.  The original is intense, and shows that Harald is still a crazy nazi through and through, while the new one paints him as a much more down to earth character, while still being kind of a scumbag.  But an honest scumbag.

I prefer Mikael and Lisbeth concurrently figuring out that Martin Vanger is a serial killer following in his fathers footsteps in the American version more than Lisbeth figuring it out and Mikael being caught with his pants down in the original.  The American film shows him as being more competent, while he comes off as kind of a dope in the original due to this.

Martin's kill room in the new one is a more interesting set, visually, but the original seems more real, like an actual room converted for this purpose as opposed to a room built specifically for it.  The scene that plays out there is better in the American film though, thanks to the performances of Craig, who seems bewildered and in shock, Skaragard, who seems more affable although evil, and better writing for the dialogue all around.  Lisbeth's rescue via hitting Martin upside the head with a golf club is also done better in the new one, where it's a single shot that visible breaks and dislocates Martin's jaw, as opposed to several, weaker looking shots in the original.  It's also missing the great "May I kill him?" line from her directed at Mikael before she gives chase.

The car chase is better in the American film, but the outcome is better in the Swedish one.  Martin and Lisbeth coming face to face as he lays in his wrecked truck, begging for help, as she has flashbacks to burning her father alive in his car when she was 12 works very well.  The shrieks as the truck catches fire, and Martin burns alive are also a nice touch.

Anita being dead in the original, and her death being something that is common knowledge, isn't as good as the American version where Harriet has in fact come face to face with Mikael while posing as Anita.  It's a nice set up and pay off that works really well, and is missing in the original.

The new film also goes more in depth on how exactly Lisbeth stole the millions of dollars from Wennerstrom in the epilogue sequence.  This is much better than her showing up in the very last scene, now blonde for some reason or another, that the original does.

In conclusion, the Swedish version is not a bad film by any means, but it is missing certain things that the American version does have.  The American version also does more things better than the Swedish version than it does worse.  The original is certainly worth watching, and I'm looking forward to watching the two sequels that are included in the set I bought in the coming days, but I'm also hopeful that David Fincher and Co. will get to do American version of the last two books as well.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Swedish vs American Films, Pt. 1

THERE WILL BE HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO WITHIN, READER BEWARE.

Over Christmas I got some money, and having just seen, and enjoyed, the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I decided to order the original, uncut Swedish trilogy on blu ray.  Today those films arrived, and I have just finished watching Part 1 of the original TGWTDT.  I've seen a lot of people saying that the original is superior to the American version, but after watching this first hour and a half, I already have to disagree with that sentiment.  The original is good, but the American version (which you will notice I am not calling a remake, as it's not, it's simply a new adaptation of the book) seems to not only be a better film, but from what I have read of the book so far, a better adaptation as well.  In the service of transparency, I will say that I have not read the entire book yet, and am only about a third of the way through, so  I can only make that last assumption based on what I have read.

To start, let's talk about the titular character, Lisbeth Salander.  Physically, Rooney Mara in the American version has a much better screen presence, and matches the look of the character as described in the book much more than Noomi Rapace does in the original.  Noomi isn't thin enough, and doesn't look nearly as psychologically fucked up as Rooney does.

Rooney Mara (left) and Noomi Rapace (right) in the role of Lisbeth.

Rooney also plays the role with a more vulnerable side, just underneath the hard, calloused surface that she projects with her appearance and attitude.  A good example of this is when her first legal guardian, Palmgren, suffers a stroke, causing her to be put into the care of a different, less scrupulous man.  In the original version, she only finds out about his stroke via a phone call, and is then angry about it, going to his hospital room and yelling for him to "go ahead and die."  In the American version she finds him herself, while bringing him a Christmas present during one of their regular chess matches, and seems devastated by it.  This glimpse into a more human side of her is incredibly important for making her relatable, and the original misses it completely.  Instead of being a broken, hurt person who does want to have human contact, she seems like...well, a cold hearted bitch.

She is of course put into the care of Bjurman, her second guardian, after this stroke, and this is another point of divergence between the two.  I have to say I like the way that the actor in the original plays the role more than the actor in the American version.  He's much more aggressively evil and sleazy.  The first scene of him taking advantage of Lisbeth is better in the American version.  Both are effective, but the sound design is superior, with the wet, choking sounds during the forced oral sex.  The main rape scene is also effective in both, but once again superior in the American version.  The detached, defeated silence that falls over Lisbeth by the end of the scene is better than the animalistic screams that occur throughout in the Swedish version.  The comment made by Bjurman as he puts on the condom in the American version ("I forgot to ask...do you like anal sex?") sells what is happening to her much better than his Swedish counterparts comment about teaching her the rules.

The post-rape reactions of Lisbeth are also better in the American version.  Both films have her limping away, but the American one adds in a brief scene of her taking her check from Bjurman, and him asking her if she needs a ride home.  That little touch, showing that he doesn't really even consider what he just did as being wrong, and is treating her like he would anyone else, sells how horrible of a person he is.  The American film also adds in a shower scene, with blood running down her leg, which helps further sell the trauma that she's just experienced.

The revenge taken upon him is done better in the American film as well.  The outfit with the dark make up on her eyes, almost resembling a domino mask, as she ties him up and shows him the video she had taken of the entire thing, her speech about being insane, and the intensity of her actions are all sold much better.  The Swedish version also shows her watching the tape herself immediately after the rape occurs, which takes away some of the punch of her revealing that she had a camera in her bag, and showing him the footage.

One last note about Lisbeth in this section of the film.  There is a scene where she is mugged and has her lap top broken.  In the American version it is a simple thief who grabs her bag and makes off with it, causing her to give chase, and the lap top is broken during the scuffle.  In the Swedish version she bumps into a group of men in the subway, who then accost her, causing her bag to be thrown into a wall and she only escapes with minor injuries thanks to fending them off with a broken bottle.  The Swedish version is better in this case, as it adds to the overall theme of violence towards women.  This is one of many reasons why I think that the original Swedish title should have been kept for all printings of the book and the films. Men Who Hate Women is what this is all about, in almost every way.

Now let's talk about Mikael Blomkqvist, and in relation to him, the role of Millennium Magazine in the film.  From what I understand, the role of both Millennium and his court case against Hans Erik Wennerstrom was much larger in the book.  The American film cut it down to almost book ends, with it also being a part of his motivation to take on the Vanger case in the first place.  The Swedish version has more of it, but from what I have read, it's different than the book, and is relegated to being a B plot line, which doesn't really add much to the film when the scenes are inserted.  They both made a smart move in cutting it down from the book, but the Swedish version didn't go far enough in what it cut.  The issues between Mikael and Erika, his business partner and lover, are also done better in the American version, being elaborated upon but not to the point of slowing down the movie.  I will say that the physical side of their relationship is more effective in the Swedish version though.

Speaking of Mikael's personal life, I am torn about the complete removal of his daughter in the Swedish version.  She is almost a non-character in the American version as well, but the few conversations that she and Mikael have about religion, and how he feels like he hasn't been a great father to her, give a bit more insight into Mikael.  She also solves an important piece of the case, thanks to her knowledge of the bible, which is relegated to Lisbeth in the Swedish version, which seems out of character for an almost nihilistic punk rock girl.

In the book, Mikael was in fact on the island as a child, as he was in the Swedish version of the film, but no mention of this is made in the American version.  I have to agree with the American versions decision to cut it, rather than the Swedish versions decision to expand on it. In the book, he was only 2 when he was there, and had no recollection of it.  In the Swedish film he has vivid memories of both being on the island, and being baby sat by Harriet Vanger, the girl who's disappearance is the subject of his current investigation.  It seems to me that this was done to make the case more personal to him, but it is unnecessary.

The Vanger family was also drastically reduced in size in the American film, which I feel is a good idea.  It keeps Mikael's board with all their pictures and personal information on it cleaner, and easier for the audience to read.  It also cuts out a lot of unneeded family history that isn't really relevant to the story.  The way that the family is gone over for the first time in the Swedish version if done much more artfully though, shown through Mikael's own investigations instead of just an exposition dump from Henrik Vanger when Mikael is hired.

As a final note about part one of this, I will say that the original takes too long in getting Mikael and Lisbeth working together, and it's not done as well as the American version.  Mikael tracking her via her employer, and being able to see his reaction to the report she prepared on him is much better than Vanger's lawyer mentioning her to him, and then him going straight to her apartment.  And this doesn't happen until halfway through the movie, which is 3 hours long.  So for the first hour and a half the two main characters have not even met.  It takes a while in the American version as well, but not half of the movie.

When I finish watching Part 2 of the original (I wonder why they split it up like that for the blu rays, when the whole movie is on a single disc anyway?) I'll make another post like this and wrap it up, if there are many other differences that are either better or worse.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

I'm going to keep this post pretty short, and spoiler free.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, is probably the best action movie I've seen all year.  It's better than Thor, Captain America, X-Men, etc.  It took everything good about the first film, turned the volume up to 11, and out did it in every way possible.

Let's start with the obvious point here, and talk about Moriarty.  Jared Harris, who some of you might know as Lane Pryce from Mad Men, was phenomenal.  Was he quite as good as Andrew Scott on the current BBC show Sherlock?  Well, that's a tough act to beat, but damned if he doesn't at least come close.  He's intimidating, evil, and is every bit Sherlock Holmes equal and opposite.  There's also a lot of nice little nods to the books, such as his book The Dynamics Of An Asteroid making a few appearances.  He's every bit the villain that you need Moriarty to be in a Holmes movie.

Another new addition to this film is Sherlock Holmes brother, Mycroft, as played by Stephen Fry.  I'm a huge Stephen Fry fan, and had somehow missed that he was going to be in this before seeing it, so his presence was a great treat.  Like most modern things that feature him, it plays up the few bits from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original  stories about him working for the government into him being a full on MI5 agent.  It, unlike most other modern adaptations, also extrapolated from the few lines about the Diogenes Club that he belongs to only allowing men who prefer the company of other men into him being gay, which makes for one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

While we're still on actors, let's talk about the returning leads, Downey, Jr. as Holmes and Law as Watson.  I think they both did a fine job in the first film, even though Law wasn't really given all that much to do.  They are both better in this, by far, and Law has a much more active role.  The chemistry between the two of them is great, and as natural as could be.  I don't want to go too much into this as describing scenes is a little bit too spoilery, but the comedic bits that they do together work wonderfully.

The action scenes in this are breathtaking.  I've seen a lot of people starting to complain about the Zach Snyder pioneered slow it down, speed it up style of action that Guy Ritchie employs in this, and the previous Holmes film, but...I think those people are wrong.  I will take slow motion over the MTV quick cut action that most films shovel out any day of the week.  It makes the scenes easy to follow, exciting, and visually beautiful all at the same time.  I loved the action scenes in this movie so much that picking one of them to talk about here is simply not possible, they were all fantastic.

In conclusion, you should see this movie, for reals.

Mortal Marathon Part 1: Warrior Eternal

(Yes I know I said Friday but I was busy damn it, from now on they'll probably be on time.)

Mortal Kombat was huge in the 90′s. In the nearly 20 years since the first game in the series was released in arcades, it’s easy to forget that. Some readers may not have even been born yet in it’s heyday. But make no mistake, Mortal Kombat was one of the first video games to really hit the big time as far as multimedia blitzes go. In fact, it was able to accomplish a few things that even today’s biggest video games, such as Halo or the Call of Duty series, haven’t. Like those series there were action figures, a novel, t-shirts, and other such merchandise, but there were also movies and TV series. Sure, the first movie is a guilty pleasure, the second is awful, and neither of the series lasted longer than a season, but the fact remains that the MK brand was strong enough to justify their existence.

And that’s what I’m here to talk to you about today. In this series I plan on going through both films, and both TV series on an episode-by-episode basis. I’ll take a look at their similarities and differences to the games that inspired them, and review each movie, each episode, and each series as a whole.
The first of these to be released was the feature film in 1995. But that’s not where I’m going to start. Instead, we flash forward to 1998, and Mortal Kombat: Conquest. By this time the end of the Mortal Kombat boom was already almost over, and this series failure may have been the first real indicator of that. As I said, it only lasted a single season, and was largely ignored, even by fans. I will admit that when it first aired, I never even watched a full episode of it, and I was a pretty big MK fan. The only reason I even know it exists was due to the fact that it aired either right before or right after (I honestly can’t recall which, but if you told me I had to choose I’d pick before) WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, and was advertised pretty heavily on it.

The reason we’re going to start with this series instead of the first film is because, chronologically, it comes first. It takes place 500 years before the film (which I assume was set in 1995, meaning this takes place in 1495) and focuses on The Great Kung Lao, ancestor of the Kung Lao we all know from the games. In the canon of the games, he was killed by Goro in the tournament after Shang Tsung was dethroned as champion. If you’ve read Gavok’s short write up of weird things that the MK brand spawned, you know it doesn’t quite end that way for him in this series already, but we’ll get to that later. I should also mention that the first episode is actually a two-parter, and one that packs a ton of set up and action into it, at that, so this might take a while.

This starts off, like a lot of MK media, with a voice over by Raiden (played by Jeffrey Meek) that sets up the basic premise of the show, and of the MK tournament itself. During this, Kung Lao is shown practicing for his match against Shang Tsung, where he is the last Earthrealm fighter. Shang Tsung is also shown finishing the previous fight, where he dominates his opponent and steals his soul. Shao Kahn (also played by Meek) watches over this, pleased. Shang looks pretty close to his MK2 look (minus the silly Devo hat), as does Kahn. Kahn’s helmet looks kind of cheap, by the way, but still much, much better than he did in the second film.

The show also sets up a couple of locations here, using a mix of CGI and stock footage from the movies. Outworld is mainly CGI, with a couple shots from the movie of statues, and the Temple of the Order of Light is entirely stock footage for establishing shots. In fact, it seems to use the same three second clip every time for this, where you can pick out Liu Kang and Raiden standing between the towers of the temple, in the same spot, every single time. Even for night shots all they do is lower the brightness and put a blue filter on it.

Kung Lao enters the arena to fight Shang Tsung wearing an outfit that is very close to what his namesake in MK2 wears, right down to the hat. Unfortunately, he throws the hat down seconds later, and I have a feeling that’s the last time it’s going to be brought up. There’s some brief dialogue between Shang and Kahn where it’s revealed that Shang is a bit too ambitious for the emperor’s liking, and has aspirations of ruling the realms himself. Kahn yells “fight!” to signal the beginning of the match, and we’re off.

Don’t get too used to that hat.  The fight itself here is pretty good, with some pretty tight choreography and decent camera work. It does rely a bit too much on quick cuts, as do all the fights in this episode, but with the possible exception of the last fight, it’s easily the strongest and most interesting to watch. It really helps that the whole episode seems to be moving at lighting pace so far, and the energy going into the fight is very high. It follows the standard pro-wrestling formula of the good guy starting strong, the tide of battle turning towards the bad guy, who gets close to victory (Kahn even yells “finish him!” it’s looking so bleak for Kung), and then the good guy makes a startling recovery and gets the win. The reason for this recovery is Kung has a vision of a half-naked blonde chick, with a lot of gratuitous cleavage shots. Get used to those, by the way, cause there’s going to be a lot of them.

Do get used to things like this.  So Kung Lao wins the fight, but refuses to finish Shang off, to show that people from Earthrealm aren’t murderers like Outworlders. Kahn has Shang drug away to be punished for his failure, and Shang tells Kung that he should have killed him when he had the chance. Kung and Raiden head back to Earthrealm, and the temple, where a much cheaper looking version of the celebration from the end of the first movie awaits them.

Kung Lao has started having visions of death, both of his fellow monks at the temple, and his own. He tells Raiden about them, who tells him that he is having them because he has yet to accept his destiny, which is to train other humans for the next tournament, as he’s the only one left alive who can. Kung doesn’t accept this, and storms off in a huff, saying he wants to write his own future. I’m sure this is going to work out just great for Kung, and nothing bad at all is going to happen because of his refusal to accept what fate has in store for him.

It then cuts to the city of Zhu Zin, which is rendered in CGI much like Outworld, and there are a lot of shots of women wandering around in skimpy outfits, including thongs and fishnet stockings, which I don’t think were really commonly worn out in public in the 1400′s, but oh well. Siro and Jen, the girl from Kung Lao’s vision, are both introduced here, and a bit of background is given on them. Jen is the daughter of the Baron, who runs the trading post in Zhu Zin along with seemingly being it’s de facto ruler, and Siro is her bodyguard. The Baron doesn’t want Jen and Kung Lao to be married, despite the fact that they are in love. This is the reason that Kung Lao doesn’t want to spend his time training other warriors to fight. Nothing too interesting here, as it’s all just set up, but I’m not bored yet.

The duo make their way to the temple, where they’re ambushed by a group of thieves who have disguised themselves as monks, and we get the second fight scene of the episode. This one is pretty boring compared to the first, and consists mainly of Siro beating up two of the masked thieves, and then finally their female leader, Taja (a pre-Terminator 3 Kristanna Loken). There’s lots of slow motion and quick cuts used here, and there’s never any real sense that Siro is in danger, even from Taja. He is about to run her through with her own blade when Kung Lao shows up and stops him from doing so on sacred ground. Kung and Jen then run off to be alone, where Jen shows off some of the martial arts moves she’s been practicing, and Kung tries to tell her about his visions. I say tries to because she cuts him off by guessing that he was having visions of them growing old together, and he doesn’t seem to have the heart to correct her.

Kung then makes his way to see the Baron, to ask for Jen’s hand in marriage. This guy is a total asshole. He doesn’t care about anything but money, going so far as to call his own daughter his property, and makes it clear that he is going to sell her for a profit, and throws Kung Lao out under the threat of death if he should ever return. The Baron also has Taja in chains, working as a servant girl. The actor playing the Baron uses a very William Shatneresque inflection on all of his lines, which just adds to my hatred of the character, because this guy is no William Shatner.

We get another scene of Raiden trying to tell Kung Lao that he needs to accept his destiny, or all that lies in front of him is betrayal and tragedy. He stubbornly refuses to listen, and storms off again, this time to try and get Jen and escape the city. At the gates he tries to convince a guard he is friendly with by the name of Takeda to let him in. Takeda refuses, and Kung knocks him out in one hit, and goes into the trading post to get Jen.

Meanwhile, back in Outworld, Shang Tsung is sentenced to work in the cobalt mines of Shokan, which are a concept taken from the deeper lore of the game, and I’m actually pretty surprised to even hear mentioned, let alone end up as a major location for the series. In the mines, Shang is confronted by a big bald guy, who taunts him about not having powers in the mine, and being just like everyone else. Shang promptly turns him to a pile of dust just by touching him, because as a human, his powers aren’t canceled out by the cobalt.

The bald guys female companion, who I thought was Jade due to her dressing in an all green outfit until I looked it up and found out she’s a new character named Vorpax, tries to seduce Shang, and gets pimp slapped to the ground for her efforts. She then gets serious, and proposes a deal: She’ll help Shang get revenge on Kung Lao if he helps her escape. With his hand around her throat, he proposes a counter offer of letting her live to see tomorrow if she helps him get his revenge. She promptly accepts.

Vorpax… You know what? That name is really, really dumb. I’m just going to call her Jade from now on, because there is no reason that they shouldn’t have named her that to begin with. So Jade leads Shang to a chamber where a cage hanging from the ceiling contains a black and yellow scorpion, which she explains is said to hold the spirit of a great warrior. Shang makes a deal with the warrior spirit, releasing it from it’s prison on the terms that it goes to Earthrealm and takes care of Kung Lao for him. The scorpion is transported out of it’s cage, and onto the passed out body of Takeda, who it takes possession of.

Upstairs, Kung Lao has reached Jen’s room, and big surprise, she’s half naked again, wearing nothing but underwear and a see through dress. Siro comes in, and momentarily tries to stop them, before letting them leave because he knows that’s what Jen wants. The couple retreat out the window, and Siro goes downstairs, to find that Takeda is nowhere to be found. If he had looked a bit harder, he would have seen Takeda was simply hiding in the shadows, which he emerges from with newly white eyes, and a brief overlay of a skull on his face. Takeda then jumps Kung and Jen as they’re on their way out of the building, slaps Jen (this is becoming a common theme) and so begins our third fight scene.

I’m not joking, there’s at least one shot like this every 15 minutes.  This one is better than the last, but still not as good as the first. There are some heavy illusions to Scorpion from the games, as Takeda yells “get over here!” in a fairly competent Ed Boon impression. There’s a lot of kicking during this fight.

Meanwhile, the Baron is in his office and is about to rape Taja, proving that this guy is pure scum, when Siro comes in and interrupts by telling him that his daughter has left with Kung Lao, and he allowed them to do so. The Baron is pissed, and seems to be close to killing Siro for it, when the sounds of the fight downstairs distracts him. He takes his other guards and rushes downstairs, where Kung is quickly overpowered and arrested. Siro is banished from the city, Kung Lao is sentenced to death, and Takeda is promoted to Siro’s old position of Jen’s bodyguard.

Down in the prison, Taja is having nightmares about nearly being killed and raped, both on the same day, which is understandable. At least I think it’s supposed to be on the same day, this show isn’t very good in showing the passage of time. Raiden appears to her in the guise of a thief who escaped while Kung Lao was being put in his cell, and manages to convince her to help free Kung before he can get his head chopped off. There’s also a brief scene with Siro out in the city, but I think it’s main purpose is to have more shots of scantily clad women.

Taja enlists the help of Jen to save Kung Lao, and they do so right before he’s about to be beheaded. There’s another fight scene here, with Taja fighting off guards while Kung Lao goes for round two with Takeda, who is getting more and more yellow on his previously all black costume every time he shows up. Taja’s side of the fight is pretty boring, but Kung vs. Takeda 2 is pretty good, with a lot of acrobatics and some cool stuff involving the multiple levels of the execution chamber.

Out in the woods, Raiden shows up in disguise as a beggar to talk to Siro, and convinces him into going back and helping Jen get away from her father, and doing his job as her guard to keep her safe. Raiden has his sense of humor from the first movie all through this, and while Meek is no Christopher Lambert, he’s miles ahead of James Remar, who played him in Annihilation. Meek is also entertaining as hell in his so far brief dual role as Shao Kahn, where he’s over the top almost to the point of comedy. If I didn’t know it was the same actor in both roles, I never would have been able to guess.
Kung and Taja are breaking back into the trading post to get Jen, and Taja tells a story about how one night, she sneaked out of her cell and into Jen’s room and tried on one of her silk gowns. I have no idea when this happened, because she seems to have been imprisoned her for about two days, but as I said, this show isn’t very good at establishing the passing of time. They meet up with Siro, and Kung Lao explains that the thief Taja met and the beggar Siro met were both Raiden, and neither of them believe him.

The trio get to Jen’s room, where she is tied up and gagged in her bed, and Takeda and the other guards are waiting. We get round three of Kung Lao vs. Takeda, which is brief and ends with Takeda trying to steal Kung’s soul for Shang Tsung. I’m not sure exactly how that is supposed to work, but I guess Shang gave him to the power to do it and relay the soul back to him. It doesn’t work out, as the Baron interrupts and gets stabbed by Takeda for his trouble. Takeda grabs Jen and jumps out the window, disappearing into the night. There’s a brief death scene with the Baron, where I guess we’re supposed to feel bad that he’s dead, but the guy was such an asshole through the whole episode that I’m happy to see him go.

Raiden meets up with the trio, and pulls Kung Lao aside to try and explain once more that he needs to fulfill his destiny. He seems to be making progress, but Kung still runs off to rescue Jen at the temple, where Takeda is holding her, in what is surely a trap. Siro and Taja go with him to help.
At the temple, Takeda brainwashes two of the monks to help him deal with Kung Lao when he arrives, which he does shortly thereafter. The two monks fight Siro and Taja, while Kung goes ahead to confront Takeda. The fight between Taja/Takeda and the monks is boring, and actually serves to do nothing but slow down the pace of the episode right at it’s climax.

Kung gets to Jen in the temple, and Takeda comes out, now in full Scorpion costume. He informs Kung that Takeda is no more, and now he is Scorpion. His voice is terrible, by the way, and changes every time he talks. At first he talks in a monotone that sounds like a voice over for the attract scene of a video game from the early 90′s, then when he yells “come here!” it’s a bad Ed Boon impression that is nowhere near the level of the “get over here!” from earlier, and then goes back into just sounding like Takeda. His spear is the one from the movie, that is a living entity itself that can chase it’s target around.

“I’m going to KEEL you Kuuung LAOW!”  This fight is easily the best since the first though, despite Scorpion’s voice issues. It helps having a character that is familiar in it, as opposed to nameless henchman. There is a lot of acrobatic stuff in this, especially from Scorpion who is always flipping or cartwheeling around. Jen tries to sneak up behind him and hit him with a candelabra, but he turns in time to blast her with a fireball, which is a move that Scorpion has never had in any of the games.

Siro and Taja arrive to find Jen on the ground, and Kung Lao kneeling over here. Siro offers to help Kung with his fight, but Kung insists he has to do it alone, and tells them to stay with Jen. From this point it’s pretty one sided, with Kung destroying Scorpion every step of the way. The ground then opens up to swallow Scorpion, who falls into a river of lava, before the crack closes itself. No one seems to find this odd at all, and Kung rushes back to Jen’s side. She dies in his arms, but not before giving him a mysterious key.

Raiden and Kung Lao have another talk the following day about his destiny, and it finally gets through to him. They figure out the key is for the trading post where the Baron and Jen used to live, which is now empty due to their deaths, and Kung decides to use it as his training facility for other warriors. Taja and Siro both join up with him, and they walk off into the sunset.

There’s one last scene with Shang Tsung and Not-Jade in the Cobalt mines, where she shows him a room full of other warriors that Shao Kahn has imprisoned there over the years. Shang decides to free them and build an army, which is where I’m guessing we’ll get our villains of the week from as the series continues.

As far as a pilot episode goes, this episode does pretty well. It has a lot of stuff to cram into it’s hour and twenty minute running time, and manages to juggle most of it without any one thing getting in the way of the other. The only exception with this is that there are too many fight scenes, which all last too long. Either two of them should have been cut, or all but the first and last should have been cut in half, because they drag. The music is another weak link. It’s all generic sounding techno, and none of it lives up to the main theme of the movie, which it is obviously trying to emulate.

The CGI for Outworld, Zhu Zin, and the final fight with Scorpion are all incredibly well done for a 90′s TV series that aired on TNT. None of it will fool you into thinking it’s real, but none of it hits Annihilation levels of fake either. The use of stock footage for the temple of light, on the other hand, is really repetitive, and really, really bad.

The acting is pretty solid, with the stand outs being Jeffery Meek in his dual roles as Raiden and Shao Kahn, and Bruce Locke as Shang Tsung. Locke, like Meek in his role as Kahn, plays the character just arch enough to border on being silly, which is the tone something like Mortal Kombat desperately needs, yet nothing but the first movie has ever gotten right.

I can’t end this before talking about the new origin for Scorpion here, which is the elephant in the room of this write up so far. It is nothing at all like the games. Either this is a different Scorpion, who just happens to have all the same abilities of the version from the game, or they retconned in this new origin to suit their needs. It’s weird, and may be a bit off putting to the hardcore fans of the games, but it’s not offensively bad either. The only part that comes off as ham-fisted is his soul being trapped inside a literal scorpion before Shang can release him.

Up next time- Episode 3: Cold Reality, featuring Sub Zero and the Lin Kuei.

Mortal Marathon Introduction

Mortal Marathon is a series of articles I started last year for 4thLetter! where I started to review the Mortal Kombat TV series and films in a lead up to the latest MK game (MK9).  I got 9 entries into it before my computer crashed, and I lost 2 other completed articles and rough outlines for 3 others.  I also wasn't able to access any of the videos of the series I was reviewing.  It wasn't until about 2 months ago that I finally got my HDD with all that stuff on it back up and running, but the reviews/outlines were simply gone.

I plan on one day continuing it, but that may not be until the Summer, after classes for the year are over and I have enough time to watch and write lengthy reviews of horrible, horrible TV shows and movies.  But until then, I'll be putting up, roughly, one of these every week.  I'm not going to edit them at all, so there will be some outdated references to the hype for the upcoming game.  I'll probably be posting the first one tomorrow, and every Friday after.  I hope you enjoy it, and if I get any kind of response to this at all I'll make doubly sure to finish it all off.

First Post

Welcome to my new blog.  This is the first post, and instead of a bunch of introductory crap I'll let you click the "about me" box over there > if you really care, and get right to the point.  I'll mainly be talking about movies on here (hence the title), but we might also get into some stuff about games, music, or just random stuff.  So let's start.

Last night I went to the advanced preview of the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises.  When The Dark Knight came out a couple years back I wasn't around anywhere that did the screenings of the prologue for it, so I missed it.  But living in the Twin Cities put me in a perfect spot for this one.

I got there about half an hour early, and the theater was about half full by the time it started.  There were free t-shirts, and I was able to snag one of each, the two designs being for Batman and Bane.  Here are some pictures of the designs:

The prologue started with a brief scene of James Gordon at Harvey Dent's funeral.  I'm not sure if this is going to actually start the film when it comes out, as it seems kind of random, and didn't really tie into anything else that was shown.

It then skips to the meat of the trailer, and our introduction to Bane.  A CIA agent in, what I'm assuming is Russia but doesn't really matter, boards a plane along with a scientist, Dr. Pavel, and three prisoners.  They take off, and he says that the first one of the prisoners to tell him information about who they work for gets to stay on the plane, and the other two will get tossed out.  He questions the first two, and the third one finally speaks up.  The third one turns out to be Bane.  The two of them have a brief conversation about what Bane's plan was, which involved getting himself caught to find out what Pavel had told them.

During this, another larger plane has positioned itself above the CIA plane.  Four of Bane's men repel down to the CIA plane, and hook several cables and explosives to it.  Bane busts out of his restraints, and starts pretty much fucking up everyone on board the CIA plane's shit.  The larger plane pulls up, ripping the CIA plane out of the air, causing it's wings to break off.  The explosives on the tail go off, and Bane grabs one of the cords, hooking it to his belt.  He grabs Dr. Pavel and hooks him up to some kind of device that draws his blood.  He takes a hold of him, and lets go of the CIA plane as it falls to the ground, hanging from the cable, attached to the larger plane.

Let's start with what I liked about the prologue.  The action was very well done, and certainly exciting, if not as exciting as the opening bank heist from The Dark Knight.  The IMAX presentation made it seem truly spectacular and larger than life.  As an action scene, it works very, very well.

Now with the things I didn't like.  First off, despite liking him The Wire, Aidan Gillen (who played the CIA agent) was not very good in this.  He was over acting to a large degree.  This seems to be a problem with a lot of cops/authority figures in Nolan's Batman movies though, so he's not the only one who's guilty of it.

Second, Bane's voice.  A lot of people have been saying he's "incomprehensible" due to the mask.  This isn't true, with the exception of two lines near the end which were made indecipherable to me by the mask in conjunction with the music and ambient sounds.  That's not really the issue.  The issue is he sounds...goofy.  Any sense of being intimidated or scared by him went right out the window when he opened his mouth and sounded kind of like Bela Lugosi as Dracula.  To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure what accent he was even trying to do.  Tom Hardy himself is British, but he didn't sound British here.  Some lines he sounded Russian, others German.  But most of the time he sounded, like Lugosi, Hungarian.  I'm not a fan.

After the actual prologue was over there was a brief sizzle reel, with shots of a confrontation between Bane's men and cops and civilians of Gotham, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Batman holding what appeared to be the plasma rifle from Doom, Batman's new flying vehicle, and Catwoman, both in costume and in an orange jumpsuit sitting in the back of a police car.  This was very, very brief but pretty much everything in it looked cool, and I don't have much to say about it due to it's length.

Overall, this hasn't really taken away any of my fears about the movie.  I still think that it just might not be a very good Batman movie, even if it is a good action movie that happens to contain a character named Batman in it.  Bane looked better in proper lighting than he did in all of the spy shots from the set, as did Catwoman.  His voice is bad though.  It's just bad, and not at all scary or tough or any of that.

Well, that's all I really have to talk about today, so I'll be back uh...next time I have something to talk about?