Of all the upcoming video game adaptations, from Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. movie to Sonic the Hedgehog to the director carousel that is Uncharted, it seems that the one people are most excited for is Mortal Kombat. Aquaman director James Wan is producing the film that's based on the fighting game, and now there’s another reason to get hyped. Mortal Kombat screenwriter Greg Russo has praised the film’s costumes and weapons, saying:
Forget the fact that I work on this. If I just stumbled in as a lifelong fan, my jaw would perm be on the floor. What I’ve seen so far is unreal. That goes for weapon design/makeup too.
Greg Russo is responding here to someone on Twitter who asked how the costumes look in Mortal Kombat, which is now filming, and his answer is highly encouraging. Although he may be biased because he’s working on the film, in his Twitter bio, Greg Russo brands himself as a “Lifelong Gamer,” and as such he says here that he’s a lifelong fan of the Mortal Kombat games. That gives him a fan’s perspective and scrutiny, and he’s still impressed with Mortal Kombat's costumes.
The writer, for whom this is his first feature film credit, praises Mortal Kombat’s costumes, basically saying that they are jaw-dropping for anyone who is a fan of this property. This implies that the costumes being used in Mortal Kombat are incredible, not just in terms of quality, but also in terms of faithfulness to the source material, which is hugely important for such an established property.
It’s not just the threads that look good either, Greg Russo also praises the makeup and the all-important design of the character’s weapons as well. The unreal quality of the costumes, weapons and makeup he describes makes it seem as though if you were a fan who did stumble on to set, you might feel like you were transported to Outworld and were surrounded by the likes of Raiden, Liu Kang and Sub-Zero. Mortal Kombat should look cool, and it sounds like it does.
This should all be hugely encouraging to fans and get everyone even more excited for Mortal Kombat. Video games and comic books are sometimes known for ridiculous or outlandish-looking characters, and those aesthetics don’t always translate to live-action if they’re attempted at all. That’s why the first X-Men movie went with black leather as opposed to the classic yellow and blue outfits.
But as proven by modern superhero movies, audiences are more accepting of comic-booky looks than they may have been previously, and that should extend to video game movies as well. The first Mortal Kombat movie from 1995 was already pretty good in this regard, as the character designs largely looked like their pixel counterparts. That also happens to be one of, if not the, best video game movies to date.
The Mortal Kombat characters have iconic designs. People know what Scorpion, Liu Kang and Jax look like, and they want to see that translated onscreen in a way that honors that. We haven’t seen any official images yet, but if Greg Russo’s feelings on the matter are any indication, director Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat is endeavoring to do that very thing.
The tournament begins when Mortal Kombat arrives in theaters on March 5, 2021. That’s a ways off, so test your might and check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see what movies you can look forward to the rest of this year.
