#the zack part is in the original series toward the beginning if i remember correctly

[aliciaevers]

Either the manga explained it poorly or I read way too fast but why did Levius hate his dad?

It's been a minute since I've read through and I don't have it with me at the moment, but I think it was primarily 2 things:

First, Levius felt abandoned by his father. Daniel chose to go to war despite the fact that his wife was seriously ill and he had a young child. Daniel also appears not to have even kept in contact considering levius was writing letters to his mom pretending to be his father.

Second, he defected part of the way through the war. This whole part is horribly explained in the manga tbh. I think Zack mentions that they were treated like traitors in their country because of daniel, and it was probably worse for levius and his mom.

Plus Daniel got a lot of people killed.

I think the first point is actually the most important, given levius's closeness with his mother.

[phantom-le6]

Film Review - Mortal Kombat (2021 reboot)

To kick off my between-series break of film reviews, I’ve decided to start by looking at a live-action film released earlier this year that is a reboot of a live-action film franchise based on an iconic series of fighting games.  In other words, this will be my take on the recent live-action film reboot of Mortal Kombat.

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In 17th-century Japan, Lin Kuei assassins led by Bi-Han kill the warriors of the rival Shirai Ryu ninja clan led by Hanzo Hasashi, including Hanzo's wife and son. Hanzo kills the attackers before being killed by Bi-Han, resulting in his soul being condemned to the Netherrealm. Raiden, god of thunder, arrives and takes Hanzo's surviving infant daughter to safety.

 In the present, the realm of Outworld has defeated Earthrealm in nine of ten tournaments known as "Mortal Kombat"; if Earthrealm loses the tenth tournament, the rules state it will be conquered by Outworld. However, an ancient prophecy states that the "blood of Hanzo Hasashi" will unite a new generation of Earthrealm's champions to prevent Outworld's victory. Aware of this, soul-eating sorcerer Shang Tsung, who has overseen the last nine victories, sends his warriors to kill Earthrealm's champions, identified by a dragon mark, before the next tournament begins. One such champion, a former professional MMA fighter named Cole Young, is attacked alongside his family by Bi-Han, who now calls himself Sub-Zero. However, Special Forces Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs rescues the Youngs, directing them to find his partner, Sonya Blade. Jax stays to battle Sub-Zero but loses his arms in the process.

 Cole tracks Sonya to her hideout, where she is interrogating a captive Australian mercenary named Kano. She reveals that she and Jax have been investigating Mortal Kombat's existence and that the dragon mark can be transferred to anyone who kills the original bearer. They are attacked by Shang Tsung's assassin, Syzoth, but Kano kills him with Cole and Sonya's help. They travel to Raiden's temple and meet current Earthrealm champions Liu Kang and Kung Lao before being brought to Raiden, who is critical of the newcomers. They are joined by Jax, whom Raiden rescued and fitted with a set of mechanical arms. Shang Tsung attempts to attack the temple, but is stopped when Raiden shields it from intrusion. While Sonya helps Jax recover, Cole and Kano train with Kang and Lao to unlock their "arcana", a special power unique to all dragon mark bearers.

 During an argument, Kano awakens his arcana, the ability to shoot a laser out of his right eye. Cole is unable to awaken his despite his persistence. Disappointed with Cole, Raiden sends him back to his family, while revealing that he is a descendant of Hasashi. Shang Tsung gathers his warriors, including Kano's former ally, Kabal, to attack the temple. Kabal convinces Kano to defect and sabotage the shield. During the fray, Jax awakens his arcana, granting him strength and upgraded arms. Concurrently, the Youngs are attacked by Goro. Cole rouses his arcana, giving him a suit of armour and a set of tonfas derived from a strength bracelet made by Cole’s daughter. He kills Goro and helps repel the attack on the temple. Shang Tsung and Sub-Zero are infuriated when Raiden discloses Cole's bloodline before he teleports most of the Earthrealm fighters to the Void, a safe space between realms. Lao, however, sacrifices himself defending Cole.

 Cole proposes a plan to force Outworld's champions into a single combat with those from the Earthrealm before neutralizing Sub-Zero together, forcing the tournament that Shang Tsung tried to prevent. Agreeing with the plan, Raiden gives Cole Hanzo's kunai, which still has Hanzo's blood on it, telling him that using it would get Hanzo's spirit to fight alongside him. Raiden transports Cole and his allies to their targets. While defeating Outworld's champions, Sonya kills Kano and acquires his dragon mark, while also getting the ability to fire purple energy blasts as her own arcana, which she also uses to kill Mileena. Sub-Zero abducts Cole's family to lure him into a one-on-one fight. Overpowered by Sub-Zero, Cole uses the kunai and drains Hanzo's blood left on it, releasing Hanzo as the vengeful specter, Scorpion. Recognizing Cole as his descendant, Scorpion helps him defeat Sub-Zero and free his family before immolating Sub-Zero with hellfire. Thanking Cole for freeing him and requesting that he take care of the Hasashi bloodline, Scorpion departs as Raiden, the other champions, and Shang Tsung arrive.

 Shang Tsung vows revenge as he sends his champions' corpses back to Outworld before Raiden banishes him. Raiden declares his intention to train new warriors in preparation for the next tournament and assigns his current champions to recruit them. Cole then departs to Los Angeles in search of Hollywood martial artist and movie star, Johnny Cage.

Review:

As someone who prefers PC games of the military strategy or simulator variety, it’s fair to say I don’t have the greatest familiarity with the Mortal Kombat franchise, but it’s not something I’m a stranger to, either.  I grew up playing Mortal Kombat II with my older brothers on our old Commodore Amiga despite being too young by the age-rating systems later introduced due largely to this game series, as like a lot of kids who grew up in the 90’s, I also watched the decidedly toned-down animated series that was Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.

 Based on this childhood nostalgia for the world of Mortal Kombat, the idea that films were being created in the here and now to reflect the franchise piqued my curiosity, so when this film came out on blu-ray, I bought it along with last year’s direct-to-home release animated Mortal Kombat films (which will be the next film I review after this one).  Given my relative lack of familiarity with the later incarnations of Mortal Kombat, I came to this film at a kind of tipping-point between the expert fan and the new audience member, trying as best I could to judge how the film would play to both groups while not really being in either myself.

 To my mind, a good first instalment in a Mortal Kombat film franchise needs to get three things in it and done right; the tournament itself and sufficient background exposition to explain it, a decent Fatality count to honour the very concept of the game, and accurate representation of the game’s longest-lasting and most iconic characters.  The first point is one the film only goes some way towards managing; the tournament of Mortal Kombat is mentioned and aspects of it are explained, but no origin is provided for it.  Game fans probably won’t mind this and may not need it, but the new fans coming into the lore through this film would need it.

 I imagine that like Star Wars, the powers-that-be probably think it’s not necessary to provide an origin for the whole concept within the continuity itself, but I disagree.  An origin, a proper backstory, adds context that better explains why the villains are villains.  Not every villain is meant to be like Batman’s Joker, a force of true evil and pure chaos that is best left unexplained to avoid humanising them and making them relatable.  In fact, most villains outside of a computer game fall flat, and it makes it difficult for new viewers to understand the stakes involved.  Ok, Shang Tsung and the Outworld crew want to enslave Earth – why? What does enslaving the Earth get them? Are they after it for our population, our resources, bragging rights – what?  This is often why adapting games into films is a bad idea; games can work without a lot of plot detail, films can’t.

 Second, the film seems to baulk at racking up much of a main character kill-count.  This is a problem that was also experienced in the DCEU when they did the first live-action Suicide Squad film.  Like this reboot, that film was also a Warner Brothers live-action film, and both are beaten in this department by counter-parts made by Warner Brothers Animation.  It feels like the studio’s live-action productions are being run by people who don’t get how to do adaptational work correctly.  If a franchise is defined by named characters dying, then you can’t be too squeamish about killing them.  There’s only about one death on the side of the good guys versus a lot of death, largely delayed, on the side of the villains (I discount what happens to the guy who becomes Scorpion from this as he’s very much an anti-hero by the standards of the franchise, and it’s the one “death” that’s never going to stick). I think the film needed more run-time for both exposition and a higher death-toll.

 Third, there’s the matter of character accuracy. In terms of the characters I know, most are faithfully handled, but I dislike the costume designs on the ninja outfits worn by Sub-Zero and Scorpion.  Remember how everyone hated Zack Snyder for toning down the costume colours for Superman in the DCEU?  Well at least you could still tell the colours were just toned-down versions of what Superman should look like.  In Sub-Zero’s case, there’s not a single iota of blue anywhere on his costume, and there’s no real attempt to honour the fact that the two characters were originally re-colours of one another.  Had I been making this film, I’d have given them outwardly similar costumes but worked differences into the details, and Sub-Zero would have sported the blue colour in his costume that he should do.

 Granted, I know the game series has tried to move away from the recolour concept for character creation, but to my mind it’s something that should be honoured for two reasons.  First, it’s an iconic part of the series’ history, especially for anyone who played the earliest games as I did.  Second, I think that while most character in the series look different outwardly, when you look at them more closely, they become a bit similar, almost to the point of being easily interchangeable.  If they have a very similar initial character design to start with, however, I think more work gets done to distinguish them from each other beneath the surface.  That, in turn, adds depth and resonance to their appearances and their fights that other characters lack.

 Beyond these issues, I’m also unimpressed with the audience-POV character of Cole Young.  At first, he seemed like a decent addition brought in as perhaps a more relatable character than some other existing candidates, and I thought the idea of him being descended from an original core character of the franchise was an interesting choice.  However, the moment I became thoroughly uninvested in the character was it turned out his powers were all derived from a little bracelet his daughter made for him. I mean seriously, how cliché, saccharine and just plain un-Mortal Kombat can you get?  The chap might as well grow fur and get a rainbow laser in his chest. If there’s one thing a Mortal Kombat film doesn’t need, it’s a bunch of touchy-feely b.s. like this.  The powers should have either been something else more in keeping with the brutality and seriousness Mortal Kombat demands, or they should have used another character that already exists within the franchise to act as the audience POV.

 All this said, the film does honour a lot of what the games are about, and the action is excellent, though I could do with the actor who plays Raiden diluting his accent a bit when speaking in English. At times he was impossible to understand without subtitles.  Overall, I think this is a half-decent start to a new live-action Mortal Kombat film franchise, but it has significant flaws to correct before it really nails the game in film format.  In other words, we need more colourful and similar-looking versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the sequel, Cole Young needs to be killed off, the death toll needs to be higher, and we need to both get to the tournament and learn about its origins.  Overall, this reboot as is just earns a modest 6 out of 10.