Mortal Kombat is a martial arts tournement of mystical adventure. I can remember when the first video game version came out. Mortal Kombat was constantly competing with Street Fighter 2. I’ve seen it in “Gamepro” magazine all the time. Almost to the annoying point, like seeing Hannah Montana ads everywhere you go… almost. The main difference was that the gore level on Mortal Kombat was higher. And for that, I much preferred Street Fighter 2.

After seeing Mortal Kombat, I’ve grown to like the franchise more. All of the characters from the original video game are in it, including Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), Kano (Trevor Goddard), Sonja Blade (Bridgette Wilson), and Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto). She’s 10,000 years old? Kitana must know Joan Rivers’s secret. Heck, Goro is only 2000 years old and he doesn’t look a day over 500.

Bridgette Wilson plays Sonja Blade. I mostly remember her as Miss Vaughn, the third grade teacher from Billy Madison. As tough as Sonja is, I’m a little surprised that she didn’t attack anyone’s ears, like Miss Vaughn would. Then again, that move was not in the video game. But can you image if it was?

The tournament has a great setup. The challenges can happen anywhere on the island. The only downside is that each match is a fight to the death, courtesy of Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). “Fatality.” This film is as humorous as it is action packed. Although Liu Kang participates in most of the match ups, Shang Tsung enjoyed watching Sonja kick Kano’s butt. And of course, there’s Johnny Cage. He is hilarious. Who’d have thought that Scorpion (Chris Casamassa) was his greatest fan.

Goro is a tough advisory. He easily defeats a whole bunch of great fighters like, “Next. Next. Next…” I think I counted 20 before seeing a real match up. It isn’t fair that Goro has four arms with ninja turtle hands and feet. That’s probably why he wins all the time. The tournament becomes more intense after that. New surprises await the heroes. Including a nice dress.

The musical score that plays during the matches makes them more enjoyable. Although the soundtrack isn’t accurate, it’s still good. Come to think of it. There were several Mortal Kombat soundtracks, which doesn’t include the one for the sequel. I’ll tell ya. They’re all good.

I can also remember that back when I was in high school, my best friend and I used to watch this movie all the time. I still find Mortal Kombat a definate classic. I think fighting games with colorful characters make good films. Kind of makes you wonder what Killer Instinct would’ve been like as a movie.

There was also a Mortal Kombat animated feature that went straight to video called Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins that helped explain the story line more. Not to mention, one on one battles with computer animation. I enjoyed that also.