It’s day two of Movie Week here on Another Castle. Today’s movies are entries from early 90s, which if you ask me was an absolutely classic period.
Movie 3: Super Mario Brothers
I think the only gaming movie worse than this may have been Street Fighter. Or maybe Bloodrayne. But unlike Street Fighter and Bloodrayne, Super Mario Brothers is actually watchable, and even funny (admittedly sometimes unintentionally). It was also the first game movie I actually when to see in theatres. In fact, I dragged my parents to it. I’m sure they appreciated that.
The most annoying thing about Super Mario Brothers is it’s deviation from the source material. In the games, everything is all happy and cheerfully colorful. Sure, King Koopa kidnapped the princess and there are creepy mushrooms and turtle-ducks running around all over the place, but look at the game compared to the movie. It’s as if they decided that the entire movie only takes place in the subterranean levels. Where the game is bright, colorful, and filled with catchy music, the movie is dark, dank, and steam-filled.
No, I take that back… the most annoying thing about Super Mario Brothers is what they did to the Goombas. Poor goombas. They don’t even look like goombas.
What makes this game a guilty pleasure for me, though, is what you see if you can look past how un-Mario it is at first glance. It’s hilariously bad. First of all, there are the sheer number of references to the various Mario games. They’re everywhere, and they’re not all blatant and in-your-face. Spotting them can be a lot of fun.
Then there are the scenes that are so horrible you can’t help but laugh at them. Case in point, the big “chase” scene, wherein Mario and the rescued damsels in distress escape though the frozen sewers riding on a mattress. Keeping in mind that this scene is intended to be one of the most intense and exciting bits in the movie, it’s funny because it looks like they’re moving at about half a mile an hour down a dressed up curly-slide, pursued by the creepy looking goombas.
In the end, I really do love this movie, not because it’s awesome, but because it’s awesomely bad. The movie gets an added bonus for utilizing John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper as well as it did. And also for the Bob-Ombs. I love the Bob-Ombs.
Movie 4: Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is one of the very few video game-based movies that actually does a decent job of capturing the spirit of the game… even if it one of the cheesiest game films out there. They even managed to do a good job with the casting. To be honest, though, they had a pretty easy title to work with, when you think about it.
Mortal Kombat is a fighting game, the object of which is to battle your opponents in a tournament and defeat the boss at the end. There isn’t much plot. The reason the movie works is that they wisely decided not to deviate too far from this basic formula. Mortal Kombat is a fighting movie, the object of which is to have the heros battle their opponents in a tournament and defeat the boss at the end. There isn’t much plot.
What little plot there is in the movie is really so shallow that it doesn’t interfere with the main point of the film… to show game-inspired martial arts battles to the death with cool special effects thrown in to wow the audience. Sure, they tried to work in a love story and a revenge plot, but hey… you’ve got to have at least some motivation for the hero in a movie. In the end, the whole thing really did turn out like a live action version of the game, right down to Scorpion shouting “Get over here!”, and Sub Zero freezing and shattering his opponent for a fatality.
In some respects its almost exactly like the game. You can watch it without thinking, just like you can button mash your way through the game… or you can pay attention and enjoy the subtle nuances. It’s really a pity that they went in completely the opposite direction for the sequel (and the god-awful, and thankfully short-lived live action TV show).
I like Mortal Kombat for it’s simplicity. It doesn’t do much, but it does it very well. It even has a few hearty laughs thrown in for good measure, and come on… it features Christopher Lambert as Rayden.
Stay tuned for Part 3, coming tomorrow.
Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.
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Nikki Blight
is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.