Mortal Kombat Kollection - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mortal Kombat Kollection



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM BOTH FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW

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Movie
Just in time for Warner’s Mortal Kombat II (the sequel to the 2021 reboot, not a sequel to the 1995 film), Arrow gets access to Warner’s back catalog and releases both original 90s films in a glorious 4K UHD boxset (and a complimentary Blu-ray set) with a ton of new extras, new encodes, and some classy physical swag as well. And for fans of the long-lived fighting game series, this is going to be a treat to watch…..that is….if you can make it through Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Mortal Kombat
For those of you old enough to have been kids or teens during the 90s, you all remember just what a big deal the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie was. It wasn’t just another video game movie (this was right about the time video game movies started making it big); it was a whole EVENT. Teens and kids came out of the woodwork with their parents to go see it. Everyone is excited to see the blood, gore, and fatalities on screen while cheering along Liu Kang and the rest of Earthrealm against the evil Shang Tsung. I still remember my entire Karate Dojo setting up a movie event for the 30+ of us to go out and watch it in theaters, and I can still hear that pulse-pounding techno score to this day.

Let's not get too into the plot of the film, as back then there wasn’t all the lore and backstory that we have for the Mortal Kombat universe today. Back then, only the first two games were out when production started, and “Mortal Kombat III” was being worked on and was released earlier in that same year. So during this time period, all we had to go on was the original characters and the loose structure of Earthrealm having to fend off Shang Tsung and the introduction of Shao Khan as the mystical baddie that we might have to face one day. No deep lore of the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei, Shinnock wasn’t fully fleshed out, and we didn’t even have an inkling of Quan Chi or the battle between the gods. Instead, this was a simple tournament film from beginning to end.

Lord Raiden (Christopher Lambert) assembles a cadre of fighters to defend Earthrealm from the evil world of Outworld, which needs to win 10 tournaments of Mortal Kombat to invade our world, and so far they’ve won 9 tournaments. Now Raiden must pull from the best of the best and choose wisely so that they don’t win a 10th generation. After the death of his brother by the Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Liu Kang (Robin Shou) follows Raiden willingly to exact his vengeance. But martial arts actor Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and special forces operative Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) are less than eager to come and fight for what they think is nothing but a big joke. But as we all know, when you’re chosen by a god to fight, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start kicking butt.

Mortal Kombat isn’t a great movie, and not even a really good one from a technical standpoint. But by golly, it is a FUN movie. The flick is a kinetic action ride from beginning to end, with tons of humor, some awesome fights (for the day), and an insane techno-based soundtrack that would actually influence future games and movies going forward (seriously, that techno beat is so iconic that even the newest reboots had to incorporate variations of the theme as fan service). Linden Ashby surprisingly steals the show every chance he gets as Johnny Cage, despite not really knowing any martial arts in real life (I believe he was a low-level Blue Belt at the time of the movie), alongside Cary Tagawa, who is so iconic as Shang Tsung that he was begged by fans to voice the character in later video game sequels.

On the flip side, Bridgette Wilson supposedly had a horrible time on set, and her performance shows just how disconnected she is from the movie. She looks sour and dour throughout the entire filming, and her action scenes are painfully bad as she couldn’t pull off the stunts very well. But let's face it. We’re not here for high-class acting and Shakespearean dialogue. We’re here to scream “GET OVER HERE!!” at the top of our lungs and watch our heroes beat up Ninjas.

While the movie is light-years better than the 1997 sequel, there are some distinct flaws in the movie. Mostly due to the fact that it wasn’t nearly so bloody and gory as the games intimated, and there were really no powers for the most part. Except for Scorpion and Sub Zero, who both are used as side show fights before the finale between Shang Tsung and Liu Kang. It’s kind of sad as the powers and fatalities are what really made the game, but I assume that New Line Cinema thought that going full R-rated for the movie would turn off parents from taking their kids to see it. So we instead get a mostly sanitized version with no blood and Shang Tsung sucking souls as the only real attempts at the infamous deaths in the movie. But hey, I can still watch that Liu Kang vs. Reptile fight over and over again, so I’ll give it some slack.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation:
Ah man, where do I begin with this one? After the success of Mortal Kombat in 1995, the creative minds behind the film were hot on the heels of making a sequel. Given a budget 50% higher to as much as double the amount as the first film, Paul W.S. Anderson was replaced by John R. Leonetti, and production was underway. I honestly don’t know whether the script was dog crap or whether there were some other issues behind the scenes, but it is insanely telling when literally the only people returning were Talisa Soto as Princess Kitana and Robin Shou as Liu Kang. EVERYONE else (outside of stunt men) bailed on the production, leaving New Line scrambling to replace everyone with new actors. Now, instead of Christopher Lambert, we get James Remar as Raiden, Sandras Hell as Sonya, and Chris Conrad as Johnny Cage. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

After Paul W.S. Anderson moved on, the original director of photography (John R. Leonetti) was promoted to director, and that’s when things went south fast. The script was super rushed, to the point where Linden Ashby dropped out because of how bad it looked. And to top it off, Johnny gets killed off in the first 5 minutes of the film as a result. The studio execs rushed the filming as fast as they possibly could, which only dive bombed the production even further, as the movie is chock-full of CGI that even the first film couldn’t come close to. Filming locations were constantly being changed thanks to weather issues, and a HUGE lawsuit over the franchise rights threw a monkey wrench into things. The end result? A movie that featured a slapdash script, unfinished CGI, and fight choreography so bad that you could literally rename the movie “Front flip the movie” (seriously, there are so many front flips in the film that I honestly thought they were trolling us).

The film picks up seconds after the end of the first film, with Shao Khan (now played by Brian Thompson) invades Earthrealm by opening portals and trying to merge the two realms against the wishes of the Elder Gods. Killing Johnny Cage in the opening scene (with a horrible send-off for the character), Shao Khan twirls his proverbial mustache and lets Raiden and the rest of the tournament survivors know that he’s going to wipe the floor with them too and destroy all of Earth. Now it’s up to Raiden, Liu Kang and Sonya to figure out a way to stop Shao and his generals. While Raiden consults the Elder Gods to figure out a way to mitigate his brother’s advances (in this timeline, Shao Khan is Raiden’s brother, both sons of the fallen Elder God Shinnock), Liu Kang seeks out Nightwolf, where he can unlock his animality and use that power to go toe to toe with the immortal emperor of Outworld.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a hilarious mess of a film that simply utilizes the spaghetti approach to plot. And by that I mean they throw everything at the wall like one big plate of spaghetti, hoping SOMETHING sticks. We have tons of new character additions, ranging from Ermac, Rain, Sheeva, Baraka, Noob Saibot, and many more. Most of whom are simply there in name only, getting killed off in seconds, or simply making a 3-minute cameo before heading out to pasture. Nightwolf is only there to instruct Liu on his animality, and most of the cool generals like Mortaro and Sheeva are badly underutilized due to how expensive it was to see them on screen. Other characters like Baraka are hilariously bad, looking like a bad Halloween costume rather than the Tarkatan warrior.

And let's not forget the horrible dialogue. Annihilation has such bad dialogue that it is absolutely legendary for cringe-inducing one-liners (you know, the all-famous “too bad….you...will die!!” line from Sindel at the beginning) and shots being re-used over and over again because of budgetary concerns (Baraka dying re-uses Rain’s death as he falls into a pit). About the only cool moments in the film are the Introduction of Kuai Liang as the new Sub-Zero and his subsequent fight with Scorpion (who is only in the movie for that one scene, and then kidnaps Kitana and vanishes, never to be seen again). The movie ends up being so ridiculous that some find the movie strangely endearing. It’s a mess of a film that is so over the top that you almost can’t help but laugh yourself silly watching it. Either that, or it is so cringeworthy that you nearly give yourself alcohol poisoning trying to watch it. Either way, Annihilation is a film that is so bad that I don’t think any other film in the franchise can come CLOSE to dipping this low. Not even the cheesy TV show Mortal Kombat: Conquest can touch it.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for non-stop martial arts action and some violence / Rated PG-13 for non-stop martial arts violence




Video:

Mortal Kombat:
The same 4K remaster was used for the Blu-ray release as well, and while it’s not as perfect as the 4K UHD disc, it still blows the doors off of the old Warner Bro’s disc for sure. The 35mm film looks great in 1080p, looking very similar in color grading and clarity as the 4K UHD, just without as much fine detail, and I noticed the grain is a bit thicker and heavier here. There’s also some slight banding in the sky during that opening dream sequence where Shang Tsung kills Liu Kang’s brother, but that quickly resolves itself only to crop up once or twice in the rest of the film. I also noticed that the 1080p disc is lightly brighter than the 4K disc, especially when it comes to really brightly lit outdoor shots such as the celebration scene at in the final chapter. But overall this is a great looking disc that is a substantial upgrade over the aging Warner disc. Especially with how cleaned up and print damage free this master is.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation:
The difference between the 4K and the Blu-ray for Annihilation is a bit less noticeable thanks to the softness that is inherent in the film, but it still looks a heck of a lot nicer than that horrible 2011 disc. Gone is all the compression artifacts, the crushed blacks, and the nasty banding. In its place is a slightly trimmed down version of the 4K disc, with much cleaner detail levels, no real banding to speak of, and a richer color palette. I did notice that the film is a good bit softer than even the 4K, and the CGI stands out a bit less as a result, but detail levels are a bit skimpier, and actually look VERY similar to the 4K. That’s not to say that this disc is equal to the 4K UHD disc, but rather than differences are slight enough in terms of clarity and detail level that it’s more of a fine tuning of the 1080p disc rather than a massive upgrade to this one. But once more, it handily outclasses the old Blu-ray and is probably the best the film has looked.









Audio:

Mortal Kombat:
It seems that Arrow did a new mix for their remaster here, as the original 5.1 track from the Warner disc was notorious for being wildly unbalanced. This one is brutally aggressive, running about 1.5 DB’s hotter than most tracks, with a ton of LFE and absolutely crushing surround usage. You know you’re in for a treat the second that the Techno Syndrome theme starts blasting, and it doesn’t let you go till the very end. Surrounds get a ton of activity with the score, but also some good moments as bodies get thrown around the arena, or the crowd is screaming and chanting for Goro to kill Johnny Cage. The LFE is punishing with the soundtrack, but I did notice it gets a little soft outside of that. Dialog is strong and clean as expected, and overall this is a killer (pun intended) audio mix. I might dare say this is closer to a 4.25/5 rather than 4.5/5, but I'm erring on the side of exuberance for the mix, and going with 4.5/5 instead of 4/5

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation:
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is just as brash and brutal as the first film, but almost to its detriment. It’s bold and brutal, favoring a blunt force attack on the listener rather than a nuanced approach. The Techno-themed soundtrack blares and blasts you from every angle, and surrounds slam you back into your seat along with the LFE. The problem is, it’s brahs and uncontrolled, with no sense of direction or nuance. Instead, the mix simply encompasses you with a sonic assault that leaves the listener wondering WHERE everything was coming from, even though it is so loud and aggressive that you’re wondering whether you’re having fun or just getting pummeled. Don’t get me wrong, I find it better than the 2011 Blu-ray disc, but the mix was never one that favored nuance and precision, but rather is a wild ride that simply isn’t really that exciting outside of “loud noises!!!”. It's solid enough and does things well, but I feel it sort of loses its way with too many sounds without an attempt to differentiate them.












Extras:

Disc One: Mortal Kombat

• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Paul W.S. Anderson
• Brand new audio commentary with director Paul W.S. Anderson
• Brand new audio commentary with comic book expert and podcast host Dave Baxter
• Cage Match, a newly filmed interview with actor Linden Ashby
• Leveling Up, a newly filmed interview with cinematographer John R. Leonetti
• Quarters to Millions, a newly filmed interview with producer Lawrence Kasanoff
• The Heavyweight, a newly filmed interview with designer and suit performer Tom Woodruff
• Mortal Kombat: A Journey Behind the Scenes featurette
• On-set interview bites with the cast and director and B-roll footage
• Theatrical trailers
• Image gallery

Disc Two: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director John R. Leonetti
• Brand new audio commentary with director John R. Leonetti moderated by filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat
• Brand new audio commentary with comic book expert and podcast host Dave Baxter
• The Queen of the Night, a newly filmed interview with actor Musetta Vander
• Techno, Taiko, Orcho, a newly filmed interview with composer George S. Clinton
• The Man of a Thousand Deaths, a newly filmed interview with stunt performer J.J. Perry, who played Cyrax, Scorpion, and Noob Saibot
• On-set interview bites with the cast and director and B-roll footage
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Physical Extras
• Collectors' perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the films by Simon Ward and John Torrani
• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
• Two double-sided foldout posters featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin

Final Score: ​

The Mortal Kombat Kollection is an awesome treat for fans, with great new transfers and some solid re-encodes of the audio mixes, combined with some solid extras. The only problem is that Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is included in the mix, and it is easily considered one of the worst big-budget Hollywood movies ever made. And I’m not exaggerating either. The film is either so bad that it’s hilariously fun, or so bad that you want to walk into traffic just to end the nightmare, but it’s generally so bad that you can’t consider it in the same breath as the first one. But hey, completionists have to have it, and I still love the sequel as a drunk movie night sort of watch to MST3K it. So either way, this is a fun set, with a great new remaster, and even if you only get the first film, it’s still worth it just for that bit of classic 90s cheese alone. The Blu-ray set here is nearly IDENTICAL to the 4K UHD set from Arrow, with the same extras, same packaging, and same 4K remasters and audio. Just lacking the 2160p 4K UHD encode, and as such they're pretty stinking close except for the video scores. So depending on whether the 4K upgrade means anything to you will be the deciding factor whether to grab this set, or the 4K UHD one.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bridgette Wilson, Talisa Soto, James Remar, Brian Thompson
Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson / John R. Leonetti
Written by: Ed Boon, John Tobias, Kevin Droney / Ed Boon, Lawrence Kasanoff, Joshua Wexler
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (Both Films)
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow Films
Rated: PG-13 / PG-13
Runtime: 101 Minutes / 95 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 30th, 2026

Recommendation: Fan Favorite