Youngsters were introduced to the Mortal Kombat games that became a sensation soon enough with people lining up in arcades to play the coveted game. In its formative years, fans showed a greater interest in the backstories and lores related to the creatures.
With time, Boon and Tobias started expanding on the existing back stories which created the opportunity for live-actions and animated adaptations of the games. A few characters including Sub Zero, Mileena, Shang Tsung, Scorpion had such tragic backstories that they were immediately able to induce sympathy for themselves, creating an appeal amongst players and audience alike.
To the audience, the film felt like a lengthy sequence from its commenecement to the end but that did not stop fans from wishing for more blood, bones, and gore. Credit goes to Director Paul Anderson and writer Kevin Droney who maintained the delicate balance between excellently choreographed martial arts sequences and a good storyline.
Around the 80-90s there was a trend to convert adult content into child-friendly cartoon like we saw in the adaptations of RoboCop and Conan, Mortal Kombat wasn’t far off either. The animated show Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm was released in 1996.
Lacking the violence that were staple in this games, children loved this. The next to be released was the live-action film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in 1997. This however turned out to be a massive flop in the absence of a coherent plot to bind points related to Johnny Cage and Kuai Liang.
The Mortal Kombat fever is far from being gone and has even led to the creation of the live-action serial Mortal Kombat Conquest the events of which date back to 500 years prior to Liu Kang when the Earth was bustling with life and had an abundance of resources.
Shao Kahn, the megalomaniac ruler of the Outworld , wanted take control of Earth and thus came into picture the Mortal Kombat games to decide the fate of the planet. This was to be a battle between the heroes of Earth and the Outworld. A major reason behind Conquest’s success was the improvement in technology and a budget that suited the effective use of such technology.
The first episode sets the stage for a battle between the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, working on the behest of the brutal ruler of Outworld, and the warrior monk Kung Lao, from the city of Zhu Zin living in the Temple of the Order of Light, fighting to save the Earthrealm. This breathtaking fight between the two greatest warriors in the universe was to determine the fate of Earth and humanity.
Shang Tsung’s victory would lead the Earth to fall into the hands of the Outworld ruler Shao Kahn. The fight began and Shang Tsung was able to pin down Kung Lao, but he fought his way back and defeated Shang. However, Kung Lao didn’t use his fatality blow and showed mercy to Shang Tsung.
Humiliated by the defeat of his minion, Shao Kahn banished Shang Tsung to the Cobalt mines: as a result, Tsung pledged revenge on Kung Lao. Throughout, Kung Lao was being helped and overseen by the thunder god Raiden. After the fight, Raiden and Kung Lao return to the Temple of Light so that Kung Lao could be together with Geneviere Reyland, his forbidden love interest and daughter of the Baron.
However, he is told by Raiden that the win was only the beginning of a long struggle and not the end. Kung Lao was meant to train new champions on Earth who would ultimately go on fighting the forces of evil.
We are introduced to the concept of Mortal Kombat, its main characters, and the purpose of the show in the initial minutes of the pilot episode. The episode also builds a strong background of Kung Lao’s dilemma and plight.
Although his true happiness lies in uniting with his girlfriend, he can not do so because his responsibilities as Earth’s champion restrict him. Fun fact: actor Jeffrey Meek played the roles of Shao Kahn and Raiden which is fascinating given how both characters hail from different realms and have diametrically opposite intentions.
Shang Tsung was far from resting in his Cobalt Mines prison. He further instigated a seductress named Vorpax, with her own agenda, to further his plan. He created a scorpion using sorcery and sent it to the Zhu Zin. It bit Takeda, a guard, who was brainwashed into becoming a warrior of Shang Tsung.
The Baron who was against Kung Lao marrying his daughter, caught the latter with the help of the Scorpion and sentenced him to death. However, Geneviere’s guard Siro and an ex-thief Taja are met by a disguised Raiden who promises to help them free Kung Lao from Baron’s clutches.
While the plan succeeds, a fully transformed Scorpion abducts Geneviere and despite the best efforts of Kung Lao, Taja, and Siro he manages to kill her. Kung Lao accepts his fate as the protector of Earth against Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn while Tajo and Siro also continue to assist him in his quests. The original name of Scorpion in Mortal Kombat Conquest is interesting because, in the game Mortal Kombat X, Takeda is the protégé of Scorpion himself.
Nevertheless, we welcome the character because Mortal Kombat Conquest introduced a well-known game icon into the series without ruining the established lore and backstory. They were creative enough to think of a new method of bringing Scorpion’s persona to life, and what better way than Shang Tsung’s sorcery!
There’s just one hiccup. The great Kung Lao is the original Earthrealm champion and placing him in the same timeline as Scorpion and Sub Zero seems a bit dodgy.
After a minor setback because of the Scorpion, Shang Tsung comes up with another plan to extract revenge. He combines forces with Lin Kuei Clan to look for a crystal that allows inter-realm travel. Kung Lao, Siro and Taja have been protecting the crystal and fighting the ninjas of the Lin Kuei. Upon facing repeated defeats, the evil brotherhood sent its most powerful fighter, who had the power to control water and its temperatures.
This powerful warrior was Sub Zero. Sub Zero would give all three protectors of the crystal a hard time, but none would back down. Ultimately, Raiden intervened and intimidated Sub Zero into retreating. However, the ice prince didn’t accept defeat yet and was prepared to fight another day. However, it turns out that Sub Zero is neither Bi Han nor his brother Kuai Liang. It turns out to be a new person with the ability to shape, transform, and control ice.
This helps us to estimate that Sub Zero was more of a mantle than a person. The fight sequence is extremely well choreographed riddled with some issues pertaining to picturizing body doubles and some dodgy effects.
In the meantime, Shao Kahn went on a rampage to invade the heaven-like realm of Edenia killing off the rightful ruler. Once he was through annihilating Edenia, he took Princess Kitana as his stepdaughter.
However, the filthy Shao Kahn always saw Kitana with lustful eyes. Kitana understands this and hopes to rebuild her great home planet, but in order to do this, she would need the Essence of Edenia, which is an orb of pure energy. The whereabouts of the Essence are unknown and Shao Kahn allows Kitana to go look for it.
While Shao Kahn wants to destroy the Essence and stop Edenians from reviving, Kitana wishes to use it to bring Edenia to its former glory. Kitana arrives at the Earthrealm and meets Kung Lao.
They find a warrior with the knowledge of the Essence. No sooner than that Shang Tsung reveals his presence with the help of sorcery. What makes matters worse is that Qali is also after the Essence.
Qali works for Shao Kahn and Vorpax, who works for Shang Tsung. After a tenacious battle Kung Lao and Kitana were able to retrieve the Essence of Edenia while secretly developing romantic feelings for each other. This marked the end of the first chapter from whereon, we notice some grave issues.
Siro, in the battle to save the crystal that allowed inter-realm travel, incurred severe injuries. His ego was further hurt when the Lin Kuei clan’s thieves subdued him. Siro learns from a seductress named Kiri that if he could defeat two warriors living in the depths of Zhu Zin, then he could gain unimaginable powers and strength.
Unfortunately, he is beaten to a pulp once again, only to be saved by Taja, who kills the two warriors but their death released a diabolic warrior named Noob Saibot. Shao Kahn once banished this warrior into the depths of darkness and now he sought to gain the king’s favor by killing Kung Lao.
The battle between the two ensues, but Noob Saibot is taken down with the combined forces of Kung Lao and Siro. If you have even a passing knowledge of Mortal Kombat, then you’d know that Noob Saibot was actually Bi Han, but in this show, he’s shown as a servant to Shao Kahn.
Another contrast is that the show’s Noob Saibot seems to be made out of some sort of oil and looks far from ferocious. So, he’s a new character with his own backstory and history; while some of us appreciate this version of Saibot, others are of the opinion that it’s a blatant attack on the continuity and lore of the games.
The following episodes introduce the audience to the famous Mortal Kombat characters and clans one of them being The Black Dragon. It is shown that the evil clan wished to plunder Kung Lao’s city and take whatever it deemed fit.
In this quest, the Black Dragon would not spare anyone and kill whoever crossed their path. Continuity-wise, the Black Dragon Clan came into existence after they split from the Red Dragon Clan. So, the Red Dragon precedes the Black Dragon, but there’s no mention of the Red Dragon in Mortal Kombat Conquest.
However, if we ignore this little issue here, everything seems rather fine and acceptable. In the very next episode, we are introduced to Quan Chi. Mortal Kombat Conquest makes it look like Kung Lao’s soul is the ultimate token to realizing all desires and wishes.
Quan Chi is an evil sorcerer who can travel between realms without being detected, and he comes to Earthrealm with Sian, Mika and Sora to take Lao’s soul and offer it to Shao Kahn in return for the desired price. These four use sorcery to bring out the worst in Taja, Siro, and Kung Lao.
Taja is turned into a kleptomaniac thief, Siro is turned into a drunken savage, and Kung Lao becomes a killing machine. The three of them almost fight each other to death but are intervened by Raiden, who puts sense into them, and a fight between Kung Lao and Quan Chi begins.
In the end, Kung Lao is able to force Quan Chi to retreat, though he planned on returning. This version of Quan Chi is a welcome move by the show’s creators and we simply loved the depiction. What’s fascinating is that Quan Chi’s demons Siann, Mika, and Sora seem like the show’s version of Sareena, Kia and Jataaka.
As the show proceeds, Kung Lao’s soul is once again under threat by Shang Tsung. This time he uses the purple warrior Rain, who can summon lightning from the skies. Rain surprises Kung Lao and lands fatal wounds on him, but is stopped by Taja, who forces him to flee.
Siro feels determined to take down Rain and ends up in a secluded temple but he is attacked and wounded by Rain. Before Rain can finish him off, Kitana comes into the picture and attacks. Rain flees once again because he can not dare to injure Shao Kahn’s stepdaughter.
When Kahn learns about the injury of the Earth’s greatest warrior, he feels like it was finally the time to land the final blow on the warrior monk and send Mileena to carry out the mission.
Mileena was a clone created on the lines of Kitana, and she possesses Tarkatan blood and Edenian physiology. So her face looks hideous but Shao Kahn temporarily makes her look exactly like Kitana. Mileena meets Kung Lao as Kitana and soon she starts falling in love with the man and her new looks.
However, when the real Kitana learns that an imposter in tendering to the fallen warrior monk, she rushes to Zhu Zin. An amazing battle ensues between the two sisters, and Kitana emerges victorious.
This portrayal of Mileena has several issues. As per the games, Mileena was created by Shang Tsung and was an ardent follower of Shao Kahn. In the show, however, she is shown attempting the evil king because she appeared to fall in love with Kung Lao. Secondly, she is supposed to be just another ugly Outworld girl who Shao Kahn chose to take down Kung Lao. If Kahn knew that this could work, then why didn’t he send her earlier! This only makes Kahn look silly, which he really isn’t. Anyway, this was where chapter two ended.
When it came to Shao Kahn pitting Shang Tsung against Kung Lao, he wanted to go beyond just controlling Earthrealm and also wanted to claim Kung Lao’s soul. Frustrated by constant failures, he summoned Sub Zero and Scorpion to Outworld and offered them control over half of the Earthrealm but also Kung Lao’s soul.
However, both Scorpion and Sub Zero desired the entire Earth for themselves. Naturally, they plot against each other as much as against Kung Lao, Siro and Taja. Raiden tells Kung Lao that the only way he can defeat the deadly ninjas is through gaining as much knowledge as possible.
Soon, one of the most epic battles of the show begins between the undead Scorpion and the ice ninja Sub Zero. They are an equal match for each other and fight without any restrictions. We have to agree that the fight was choreographed beautifully, but there are issues with continuity as the Shirai Ryu Clan hasn’t yet been formed. The show’s Scorpion is not Hanzo Hasashi and Sub Zero is not Bi Han. So, their rivalry doesn’t fit properly and it was done only to please the fans of Mortal Kombat.
It was revealed later that Vorpax was the first born of Kreeya, a progenitor Queen. Kreeya mothered her race of gorgeous female warriors on the lines of the Amazonians. Kreeya seeks to take down Shao Kahn and meets Kung Lao and his team but she is not all that she seems.
Kreeya has other nefarious agendas behind her beauty, culture, and knowledge. She produces hives with thousands of fetuses that grow into adult warriors in a matter of days. When the Earthrealm warriors learn about this, they destroy whichever hives they come across.
Interestingly enough, a very peculiar alliance is formed between Kreeya and a reptilian. While Kreeya and reptilians form this alliance to take over Earth, Shao Kahn in Outworld gets restless.
He fears losing Earth to Kreeya. Kreeya and her race seem to function as bees, they don’t morph into insects but their reproductive habits and social setup is very similar to that of bees. Can you think of a Mortal Kombat character with such features?
Yes, D’Vorah! If we think about it, Mortal Kombat Conquest keeps on giving characters for future versions of the game. First, there was Takeda, who became Scorpion’s protégé, and now we have Kreeya, who seems like the foremother of the insectoid race. Kreeya herself would have been an excellent fighting character.
Meanwhile Shao Kahn grew restless bwhen Shang Tsung had failed to summon before him. Shao Kahn starts believing that Shang Tsung had started working with Kreeya to help her take control of Earth.
He summons Quan Chi to go to Earthrealm and bring him the traitor. On the other hand, Raiden instructs Kung Lao, Siro and Taja to look for Shang Tsung.
Meanwhile, there arises a brawl between Vorpax and her mother, Kreeya. Vorpax believes that too many of her soldiers have died for an unworthy cause and she confronts Kreeya. When Kreeya doesn’t pay heed to it, Vorpax tries to mobilize Kung Lao, Siro and Taja to kill her mother and save the race for good.
After initial hesitation, Kung Lao agrees to be someone else’s assassin as he believes that by killing Kreeya, he will be eliminating one of the greatest enemies of Earthrealm. Vorpax devises a plan to bring Kreeya to the Earthrealm heroes. She tells her mother that it was necessary to kill the three humans before they could do further harm.
Kreeya falls into the trap and goes to fight, but Kung Lao, Siro and Taja were already waiting for her. They kill Kreeya and Vorpax immediately absorbs Kreeya’s energy and leaves to find Shang Tsung so that he can seed her a new army of soldiers who would be half sorcerers.
It eventually culminated into a disastrous end when Shao Kahn made his final move by sending his Shadow Priests to Earthrealm to kill everyone who ever betrayed him or dared to stand against him.
By everyone, we mean everyone. However, the fight sequences are rather rushed and forced. What we mean is that powerful people like Vorpax, Kung Lao, and Shang Tsung couldn’t be killed with ease or within seconds. There should have been a greater level of tension and depth in the fight sequences.
We believe that everyone who called the show a blunder was clearly mistaken. Mortal Kombat Conquest build a decent storyline, it doesn’t always impede on the backstories of the characters: in fact, it introduced new and likable characters. Moreover, the fight sequences are great and do justice to the game itself.
Not only do we see stunts and flying kicks, but there’s also a sense of clarity in them- we can notice who is being beaten to a pulp and how. Yes, there’re undeniable flaws with the VFX, but then we are willing to let it go for the positive points of the show.
Having said that, the acting of almost the entire cast is pretty basic. We aren’t saying that they acted poorly, but no performances were worthy of winning awards either. But hey, the selling point of the show was martial arts and not really acting or story.
The creators made sure to use Daniel Bernhardt and Jeffrey Meek and their real-life martial arts skills in the show and the others were given stunt doubles. Conquest was considered a better spin off of the original Mortal Kombat film than Mortal Kombat Annihilation.
It would be cruel not to mention the plethora of amazing female guest stars like Angelica Bridges, Lee Sung Hi, and Dana Hee, all of whom have posed nude for Playboy and other magazines. It’s noteworthy that Mortal Kombat Conquest didn’t just have a male audience; it also attracted scores of female viewers.
The reasons were manifold and it will take another video to discuss that in length, but we’ll just say that, back in the day, people really loved it.