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We Rewatched Mortal Kombat Annihilation So You Don't Have To · Project Geekology

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to episode 182 of Project Geekology.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this week we are going to be covering Mortal Kombat Annihilation, the sequel to the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely not as good as the first one, even though the first one wasn't great, but I cannot do that alone because I am joined with Anthony.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: You are joined by Dakota.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or as I'm being called on this call, Shao Dak.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not Shao Khan, Shao Dak.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just because I'm the son of an elder god.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or I wish I was.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I I I love those powers that they have.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But um I just wish those powers looked a little bit better on on video.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting ahead of myself.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're covering Mortal Kombat Annihilation, and this is gonna be uh doozy, but uh we we can't do it alone.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: We uh have to round out this trio with Johnny Uncaged, and I'm gonna be done with this podcast in three minutes, just like I was in the movie.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I won't be gone in three minutes, guys, but I will have a lot of bad stuff to say.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Rich rounding out the trio.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: A uh salute and a tip of the cap to uh Queen Sindel Gendell, who couldn't make it this week.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: Cause she's uh making sure all the portals are staying open.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is referring to my wife.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not entirely sure.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: She is usually the fourth person on this podcast.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: She watched about 20 minutes of this movie and thought this is nonsense and left.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't blame her.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I did watch the entire movie.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, before we get into any of that, let's get into what we've been up to this week.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony, what have you been up?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: What have you been up to?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing too crazy.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have been playing World of Warcraft forever, um, just messing around with different uh classes and and races to see what I really want to main in the what when it re like when it does its full release in November.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I want to I'm thinking, you know, maybe Mage.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm thinking that I might stick with that.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm trying, you know, I'm trying different things out, you know, seeing seeing what I like.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean I did mess around with the priest.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've done like a DPS priest before.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm doing like a a healer focused one, so it's a good it's been a good time.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Folks, by World of Warcraft Forever.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't mean that he's been playing for a long time.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the new version of World of Warcraft, which is an alternate history version of the original 2004 game with updated graphics and everything.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting idea, you know.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've been really excited to jump into it myself.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know it comes out in early November, and it'll be interesting to see what they do with it because World of Warcraft has such a long and established history.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of know what's coming next all at all times, at least in early WoW.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is gonna be different.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be like uh they're they're taking it in an alternate direction, they're adding new uh regions, new races, and uh basically they're altering the history so that the stuff that you thought you were gonna be doing is not what you're doing.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're doing different raids, you're the the world is uh a little bit different, but um the basic starting point is exactly the same as like base world of warcraft.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like at day one, that's where the history diverges.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's gonna be really cool to experience.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm gonna be right there with you, Anthony.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not currently playing the beta, but um, I did download a Battlene account and I'm I'm excited to jump in.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I do have a question though.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: To play Wow Forever, do I need to I just all I need is the World of Warcraft subscription, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you would need the the subscription and then so the new race is behind like a$40 payroll paywall though.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think you get some other things added to it.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so they're treating they're treating the new race.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So like play the Skyborne expansion, basically.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, got it, got it, got it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um that's awesome.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm excited to jump in with uh with you at some point.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, uh, what have I been up to?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I feel you know, I was literally thinking about this very topic this morning.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh man, I hope I remember to say this.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And now I don't actually remember what I was gonna say.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I do remember that I finished uh I finished reading Halo the Flood, which is an uh novelization of the original game, and I really struggled through it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was just uh it's a first-person shooter with minimal like cutscenes and dialogue, so it's just a lot of like and then and then the chief drove over here, and then he was guided down these staircases, and then there was this mob, and then there was that mob, and then he found this gun, and then he found that.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was really hard to get through, but I I pushed my way through, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue into the next book, but I got it anyway.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the next book is not a novelization, it is like an intermediate book between Halo 1 and 2.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to get into that, and it'll it'll hopefully be a little bit more meat on the bone for me.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: That one's first strike, right?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that one takes place in space on a covenant ship if I remember correctly.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm all for it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I did start the first the beginning, and it's it's going through like the the battle over Reach, but in the Spartans or the other the other Spartans uh viewpoint instead of Master Chief.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm excited to see what happens to them because I I know that they must some of them must must have lived.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just Master Chief after after that.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, been into that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm excited to jump into uh Galactic Racer.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard a lot of good things about Star Wars Galactic Racer.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have not gotten it yet, but everyone that has played it seems to really love it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Rich, Rich, you look eager to talk to the camera about something.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's up?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh let's see.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so I when I went to I went to Comic-Con last week, I I got some reading material.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: I picked up uh This Land is our land.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: It was a blue beetle story written by uh uh Julio Anta.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I think it's Salcedo is on the artwork here.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: So it's uh it's a little bit kind of off it's it's definitely not a I don't think like completely canon.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's a little bit of an origin story for him, but it's uh it's got a little political stuff with like a border dispute, like it's set in Texas, and there's kind of like some issues with immigrant experience down there.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so I finished that in the last couple of days since we kind of came together.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I um you know I I legitimately go to Comic-Con to find material to teach in the classroom.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I I also picked up another book by Julio Anta, which is a good thing.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing the blue beetle in question is not Ted Cord, but Jamie Reyes, the second blue beetle, right?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: Jim Jamie Reyes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: So it's definitely got a like a you know, I teach in a school that's predominantly Hispanic, so uh sometimes I I lean to works like that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that one I I liked, I thought it was it was definitely trying to deliver a message, and I thought it was a little heavy-handed, if I have to be honest.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: Almost in a way that I don't know if I could teach it because it's so bare.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: It almost seems like it's more appropriate for my son to read, who's 11 or 12, than it is for like 17-year-olds.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: I also picked up another book, uh, or another graphic novel, Second Generation Blues.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: This one is about a Cuban American uh who's kind of trying to go between the world of his parents and also kind of assimilating.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: So I just started that one.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: I like the artwork a lot.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's kind of an easy read.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: So it feels a little it's this one is called second generation blues.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: This is definitely not a DC, this is not a DC work.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: This is like separate from there.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: But um, I'm I'm excited to dive into that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: I that's one of my favorite things about Comic-Con at this point.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: It used to be trying to finish collecting, you know, Wolverine Volume 2, and now it's finding kind of things that are off the beaten path and and seeing what I like about that.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: So excited about that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I beat Wolverine since we last spoke.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know it was really difficult.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was really difficult.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was so hard, guys.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: Guys, find that there were a couple of scenes where literally like I I actually paused the game and I said to my like I said to my wife, Laura, and I was like, hey, could you I have to search for something?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: Could you figure out what it is?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: And like she just looked at the screen, she goes, the whole screen is red, and there's one blue glowing blue object.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, I'm pretty sure that's what it has to be.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: I did I won't lie though, there were a couple of boss battles that I found to be a little difficult where I was surprised.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Like I was almost disappointed in myself.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: Also, if I finished a level and I didn't find all the collectibles, I was like, what kind of a failure are you?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but I I turned uh also I turned off the uh the blood and the dismemberment uh and some of the extra gore just to see the the way the gameplay would be because Charlie is my son, he's 11.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'd like to see if he could play it as well.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: My wife watched those portions that I had turned it off, and she said it's not terribly diff different from Spider-Man.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: Then three seconds later, she's like, Oh, but Spider-Man doesn't stab somebody in the head with knives.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I don't know if I still am unsure.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like even with the restrictions, I don't know if one, if you're queasy, it's definitely not for you.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: And two, I don't I don't even like my son as a 12-year-old is a pretty mature gamer, I would say.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: We still stop him from like straight up death, you know, and like mostly it's like the games aren't that gory.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: But I I'm still a little bit on the fence about this one, so that's unfortunate.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I guess to round out the week, I uh very excited to find out that the NHL 2024 community is still vibrant and alive, meaning that they are the people who are playing that game still are actually creating the rosters, upgrading the players, and uh making everything new like it's 2027 or 2026.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I went on take a step back or two.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um NHL meaning hockey, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: National Hockey League.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the the video the EA video game.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: I had gotten it for free a couple years ago, and on a lark I looked up to see if people are still updating rosters, and they are is there a newer buying the new version haven't done that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's the 2027.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: So this this game is three years old, but people are still updating the rosters, and the nice part about it is that there's still support to be able to actually download the roster from the person who created it, you know, like they they still have the servers up and things like that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: So uh as much as I I love to insult big gaming and EA sports in general, I am pleasantly surprised that I can kind of play what I feel like is the same game, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: Which is most of the sports games are, but with a new roster without paying any money out of my pocket.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, well.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: How the turntables.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um guys, we gotta jump into this.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to say it.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um It has been interesting listening to what you guys have been up to this past week.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we did, I I'm to blame for this one.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I will take uh responsibility.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I threw it out there into the ether.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: You guys immediately snatched it up, so it's partially your fault as well.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, we decided we were gonna cover the second Mortal Kombat movie.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: As uh anyone who listened to our first Mortal Kombat review for the 1995 Paul WS Anderson movie remembers.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of liked it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was surprised.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was surprised by how much I liked it, and I thought, you know what, second one can't be that different.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a step or two down.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there there are some things that are positive, I guess.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are some things that are kind of cool, but uh overall, this is this is one of the movies that I've ever seen.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the movies that I've ever seen.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony, I'm I'm gonna throw it over to you.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: You've been you've been silent for a while.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think you've been holding back your uh vitriol towards this film.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you did you look back on this fondly, like when you were a kid?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I because I know you grew up on it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is so whenever I look back fondly on the Mortal Kombat movie, it's only ever the first one because like I I forget about the second one and I'm like, you know, oh uh it's been a while since I haven't seen this.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then every time I go back to that second one, I am like, yeah, this one sucks, but like my mind dumps it.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like after a while, it dumps whatever was in it.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: It it's just there's so much going on that like I can't keep track, so like my brain eventually just like dumps everything at some point.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So like every time I re-watch it, it's almost like watching it again for the first time.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, there there is a lot that happens very early on in this movie.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess a little recap, they save they save the world uh from some contests, some Mortal Kombat contests that they that they did in the first movie.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um they s it's a once-in-a-generation fight uh that they beat, and the moment they get back home, if you remember at the end of the movie, uh storm clouds roll up and a new threat materializes, and we realize that Shao Kahn, the brother of Raiden, and uh Whoa, spoilers Okay, um Is it just for this movie?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's it's just that's it's just a thing that they threw in there.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, Shao Kahn decided you know what?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: These people uh weren't supposed to win, so I'm gonna cheat.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I have my elder goddaddy to help me.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's uh that's basically what happened, and he started throwing ninjas out of the sky like immediately.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is like two minutes into the movie.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure what happened to Johnny Cage.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think we need to talk a little bit about like there's a mass recasting in this movie except for Lutan.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Raiding gets recast, uh, Sonya Blade gets recast.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Luke Lu Kang.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: What did I say?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Luton?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Lu Kang.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lutan, yes.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, Luke Lu Kang is the only actor that actually remains if I rem Oh no, and wait, isn't Jax the same action?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think so.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I think Jax wasn't in the first one.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, he wasn't.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Jax is is essentially like the replacement for Johnny Cage.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I wanna like I feel like they killed him off early because he's just like, I don't want to kill him.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it wasn't even the same actor, anyway.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was like Harrison Ford was the Force Awakens.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: No, it was.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was the same actor.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's the crazy thing.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like they brought him in.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just killing it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: He had to have not wanted to do that movie, and they probably asked, like, hey, can we kill you off?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I just thought what he had, what else did he have going on in his life?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this this movie So Johnny Johnny Cleage felt like Lyndon Ashby was replaced with Chris Conrad.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was a different actor.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a different actor.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sonia Sonia Blai was a different actor, Scorpion Sub-Zero.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, apparently Jax was in the first movie.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who the heck was oh, briefly, yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: They at the very beginning, yes.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I think like it might have been a scene where they were Kano.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um but Shao Kahn was replaced, Raiden was replaced.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was really disappointed with the Raiden displacement.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wasn't disappointed that James Ramar took over the role, but I just thought that Christopher Lambert had such an odd look and sound to him that it was just like an You must rescue the mortals, don't you understand?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: Because he's got a fake Asian accent as a white dude.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what Christopher Lambert made his career.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is based off of his like Brooklyn origins after being abroad in Europe for 10 years.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most crazy accent ever.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they ditched it for James Ramar.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And James Lamar actually was a pleasant face.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: You you might know him from Dexter and stuff.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: It was weird.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen Warriors, so I don't know.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was very rich would know.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was very weird for me because I pr I most know him, I think, or like most associate him as Dexter's dad.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I just also like while we've been watching all this stuff, I squeezed in like the episode of like Dexter, like uh Born uh not Born Again, uh it's whatever the latest one that they came out with.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: I watched the full season.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I've just been listening to James Rimar as Dexter's dad, and suddenly like I'm not looking at the screen, I was looking at the screen, but like my somebody came into the room and I heard his voice, and I'm like, that's not Christopher Lambert.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, what?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I looked over and I was like, oh boy.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't I didn't see that coming.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: I love Christopher Lambert, like he's so corny.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: He was in you know the Highlander movies, and I think he's just perfect in this style of movie, but um, this was a step down in every like it the thing is, like it's like the first one was good-ish, and then this was like a really long episode of the Power Rangers, yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like this that right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: It felt like like that there were even times where I felt like the actors read the line for the first time, never saw it on paper, and then they were like, We got it so good, wow, great acting.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like he was like, You are an insufferable child?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how common says something like that?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, insufferable child?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like, he doesn't know what the hell he's saying.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: It it doesn't make any sense.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: Who is the is it the same director?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: It is actually a different director this time.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: I forget the name of the director.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um Mino give a shit.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: How how is it that um the like CGI got worse?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: John R.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Leonetti.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: John R.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Leonetti.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: Grock could do better job of making like CGI, right?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean at this point.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Unpinking, yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's like I I get it's a sequel.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it did this go to theaters.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like a direct to to no no, it went to theaters, man.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: It w it was I believe you, I do.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it feels like a direct uh direct-to-video uh type of movie, it does.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, because like the quality of it doesn't feel like a major production, it feels like one of those just home video ones.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I there's so many questions.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: There is it it starts so bizarrely.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: They Johnny Cage gets his neck snapped without a fight.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's just he's done.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's a different actor.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sonja's a different actor too.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: They they replaced Sonia's actor for an actress named Sandra Hess, who actually I thought was a better actress than the first, than the first Sonia, but uh it was still just a terrible script and performance and role.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I feel like this probably was the reason the actress kind of like went away from acting, because uh I would be I would be upset about it too.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But um okay, so yeah, because dude, look at the IMDBs of some of these like actors that they pulled in.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel bad for them.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is what they're known for, and it's not it's not dude.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we uh we get a bunch of stuff really quickly.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Shao Kahn is back, he's got a uh a posse of evil dudes.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a centaur guy that has devil horns.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's a guy, there's a girl named uh Shiva that has four arms and is like scantily clad.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, in my mind, I was thinking that's gonna be a cool fight.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever they do with her, that's that's gonna be a cool fight.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: She gets uh like rocks fall on her, and that's the end of her before she even throws a punch.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I guess it would be really hard to like fight with uh an extra set of limbs uh in a in a movie this low budget.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I I whatever.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: But it doesn't have to be low budget.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: What's crazy is like the CGI they spent on like There is the one where Jade just gets eaten by like a demon that comes out of the wall for no reason.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like Shao Kahn is surprised that the demon comes out.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's about to kill her, and the demon comes out and eats her, and then and then goes back into the wall.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then goes back into the wall for no reason.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like the transition is poor.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like you could have actually had some what is it called?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um like you know, real uh real like uh I'm sorry.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like a stop motion thing?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: What are you talking about?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like stop motion or or like like uh some sort of animatronic the way that the Odyssey used like actual like uh you know props and everything to to to make things happen.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like the there's just that they made choices that they didn't have to make.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Early on in the movie, they they go they go to this place where there's like these gyrosphere things that are vehicles to other spots.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh Jesus.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I actually thought it was a cool idea.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was terrible, like uh just the science was terrible.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the but like I I liked the idea and the visuals were kind of cool, you know?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: You just get you just get two people who stand really close to one another to the point where they're hugging and breathing on each other, and you go really fast.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: For what purpose?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know because they they say they have six days before like the worlds collide, but we only actually ever see two days elapse before they they're fighting with the the big dude, and it's so so Raiden takes Sonya to some laboratory, how they knew to get there, because like last time she spoke to Jax was like on the pier before she got into a ship, right?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the in the first movie.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm assuming.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did they know that he was there?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the idea that he was just alone in this laboratory, he was one guy alone in a laboratory, tied down, getting metal arms, is the most bizarre way to introduce a character I've ever seen.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so and then we find out it wasn't even like attached to his body.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: He just like I thought he had like cybernetic arms, but no, he just had a he had just had armor on.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like this does nothing.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: The first time in the games, in the games, he is like um, like his arms are are cybernetic, but yeah, I remember later in the fight when he pulls his arm off.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, bro, this is it's it's I think it's a budget thing.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is just so low budget that they they instead of making it cybernetic, they um they they made it to where it was like enhancements that slid over the arms.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: But to be fair, Ant, to be fair, they did foreshadowing fair with this movie.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: They did foreshadow that he was gonna take them off when Raiden looked at him.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, they did.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: They did.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like, like, you don't need those arms, like you're more than those arms.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: And like I I was I was so surprised that they did one storytelling thing where they're like, we're gonna actually predict this.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I actually watched the movie the first time and it was late at night, and I assumed the next morning that I had just drank too much.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I put the movie on in the morning.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Is this like is this like or like Yeah, no, no, this was like literally like last night I watched it, and I was like, oh no, man.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: I woke up this morning, I was like, you must have been drunk.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what what do you mean?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like he was just in the room, you know?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't like my brain didn't make sense, so I put it back on this morning.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I messaged you guys like at eight o'clock, and I was like, This is terrible, because I watched it again, and I was like, no, I wasn't under the influence, like like he he was just in that room, like, and it was just like that there was nobody around, and like I and then I love that he's like chained.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: What was his goal?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what was the goal there?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like he was there voluntarily, but why was he like why was he bolted down like that?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he move?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: Why had he been there for so long?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: What and also why didn't like why wasn't Sonya like you have strong arms, break the locks?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Also, like there were things that he said that just it sounded like it was written in Japanese as a joke, but then when they translated it to English, it didn't work.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: It was like a a bad episode of Naruto, like from the first season.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like there there were terri like he just had some awful one-liners that didn't even make sense.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think another thing that really bothered me with him was just his reluctant, uh I mean I get it.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I understand why he was reluctant to like help do anything, because it didn't make any sense.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like Sonya was just like, no, we gotta go over here, and he's like, Why?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they did it, and there was a person to fight over there, I guess.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Lu Kang also has a bizarre storyline.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Was was there any like attraction there between him and Katana in the first movie?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or did that just happen because they were like in that gyrator, like right next like beside each other for a little bit?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, was that a spur-of-the-moment thing that they introduced to this plot?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is that like canon to the games at all, or was that like pre-introduced in the first movie that they're that they had some interest in each other?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because like all of a sudden I think they loved each other.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I I think there was like maybe s like small moments, but I don't think that they're I don't think that they did any anything to pursue it in the the first movie, so I think that they like really just like full on pursued it in the second one.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they did.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um just just so you guys uh my favorite line because I wanted to give you one line from the movie that Jack says.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: You got an incredible set of legs for kicking, I mean.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: Oh that's what he says to Jade.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got an incredible set of legs for kicking, I mean.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: After she like kicks the crap out of him when they when they first meet up.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jade's story, I mean, there's so many storylines that it just confused me.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there was no purpose, there was literally zero purpose for Jade uh like reneging on them and like being a double agent.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: There was like it added nothing to the story besides her getting eaten in the next scene.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, I did a good thing, I brought them to you.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: How dare you?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: He slaps her and then she gets eaten.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that was that was the culmination of her plot.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: But um Lu Lu Kang, he gets he I I was excited about Liu Kang's story because it sounded interesting.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna go into the desert, he's gonna meet some guy who's gonna like show him his animal instinct or something.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a it's a short conversation with a white guy in like face paint, and it was it was like I and it was and then Jade pops up and I was like, is this a hallucination?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because of whatever uh I forget what the night night wolf, night rider.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, night wing wolf, night wing, nightwing.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I thought that Jade was a hallucination for like maybe like 10 minutes.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I thought, like, wow, he's really like still walking around with this hallucination.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't realize it was an actual person.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot in this okay, I'll give you my favorite line.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is not a Jax line, this is a Shao Kahn line.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't have the the line verbatim, but like the worlds were colliding, and he's he's he's saying, We're going to build the greatest army ever! As you know, like because he's colliding both worlds and he's gonna create an army, but the the irony of the Eiffel Tower popping up in that scene and talking about creating the greatest army with their combined forces was very funny to me.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um just historically, you know, like uh He by the way, that guy who plays Shao Kahn in this movie is normally like the lieutenant bad guy in most 80s movies.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's not the lead bad guy, like he's always like the muscle.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, when I saw that he was the guy, I was like, oh geez.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: They've really they they've really just kind of gone down a couple rungs here.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like they they didn't even try.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's he's flat.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: He's not good as like a di like the Shao Kahn from the last movie, like he's way more dynamic as of an actor than this guy is.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's just very flat.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think that the father, the elder god, was supposed to maybe be more interesting, but he wasn't as either.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think they they they kind of failed to have a big bad that felt very threatening.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's in the X-Files.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: I guess he has a recurring role in the X-Files.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um that that's where I recognized him from, where he plays um, it's an unnamed character that's called like he's an alien bounty hunter, and he's he's literally an alien um who bounty hunt bounty hunts aliens and other things of alien descendant uh descendants um on Earth.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he actually does a pretty good job in the X-Files.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I I I like him there.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that his uh his weird m musculature on his face uh makes a good makes for a good alien, you know, a good alien bounty hunter.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he he has that like grizzled look about him that he could be human, he could be an alien.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he was uh it was an interesting choice for Xiao Kahn.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um Anthony, any any of the uh actors that they had replace another actor uh you enjoyed, or do you think it was it was all downhill?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just all jarring, you know.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think that because I I think because like the I don't know, it's it it's just weird because you know some of the characters from the first one I had seen them in like you know other things and it just felt like because of the way that this movie was and how low budget it felt.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: I felt I feel like whatever they could have brought to the table was just overshadowed by the fact that this movie was bad.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's incomprehensible.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's um it wasn't until maybe like the end, or like the I would say maybe once they get meet back up with Raiden, like then the movie starts to make sense, but it's just incomprehensible up until like that first hour is just this scene happens, they fight this person, this scene happens, they fight this person, oh ambush, oh okay, ninjas, uh sub-zero, and you know, there was there was just a bunch of stuff.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it didn't make any sense, and it wasn't cool fights either.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: There was uh there was occasionally a cool uh shot or two.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not gonna deny that, but um there there was a lot of like really bad shots too.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was there was a scene where Raiden was fighting two ninja dudes um under like in some cavern with pillars and everything, and like it was kind of in slow motion, and like they had like you know musical cues whenever like there was like a big jump or whatever, and one of the cues, it was just like a guy jumping outside of a uh a column, yeah, and it was like a ding, you know, like oh man, that's so threatening.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it was there was a lot of um I couldn't believe this got made.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I mean I guess I can.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um I but I don't think this was meant to be watched by humans.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it was meant to be a B movie.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the like because there's certain like bad movies that are bad on purpose.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think this was that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think I you know, there's probably a couple actors in this movie who thought, I'm in a big motion picture.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be great.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's all gonna come together.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't make any sense to me in the moment, but this is all gonna come together, and it doesn't.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely first and last movie, it's trash.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I think it's one of the worst like I'm not I feel like people are gonna think that I'm being hyperbolic.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_03: And in tur like, I I really mean this though.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: In terms of movies that I would watch, right?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, is there a Hallmark Christmas movie that my wife watches that if I watch it, I'll be like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but like that's not my genre, right?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, this is supposed to be my wheelhouse, right?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's like video game movie, right?
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's like got like magic and stuff.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: I should like this, right?
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: I should like the premise a little bit.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: In terms of something that I want to watch, this is the worst movie I think I have ever seen.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in agreement with you.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like 100 I was thinking it while I was watching it.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking like, what are bad movies that I've like willingly sat through?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I watched a movie when I was younger called Chupacabra Terror, and it was it was an intentional bad B movie, but like when I was young, I didn't realize it was intentionally bad.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought this this was terrible.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: But this is this is a bad movie.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is I looked it up, even like aggregating it against reviews from 1997.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: This movie has a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's 4%.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: 4%.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I did not look it up before I I recommended it for this podcast.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is uh abysmal, it is abysmal.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even it doesn't make sense.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: The fight at the end with Liu Kang and Xiao Kahn is nonsense.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is bonkers nonsense with like PlayStation 1 like boss battle, not it was crazy.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, so I like that they have the whole the whole night wolf thing to to like teach him like to teach him like his inner like animal.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then um like once he gets to the to the point to where he like uses it to fight, it's like for like f a few minutes and like or like maybe a couple minutes and then that's it.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: They go back to fighting as humans again, and then it's just like why like what was the purpose of this?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like why why am I watching like you know Timu Kingador over here fighting a dragon?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was it's really rough, like um and it's not like they made the fight cool looking or anything, like it wasn't like a good attempt at CGI, like this was years after Jurassic Park.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like they could have they could have done something, you know, like you you think about like comparative um stuff around this time period, it doesn't it's so bad.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's uh like then the Knights of the Round Table Materia spell from Final Fantasy II from the second disc was better created than any of the CGI in this movie.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_03: Final Fantasy VII, sorry.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, like like and that was PlayStation 2, like PS1 this that was PS1.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: That was PS1, that was PS1, yeah, that was PS1, and I remember like that game brought me to tears because of how good the graphics were with uh Aer uh Aerrith or something like that.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like she got Aerith, she you know, and this is newer.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's embarrass it's honestly embarrassing.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like they they would have been better off with like a Mr.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_03: Rogers style puppet coming off a train in the land of make believe.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: I would have felt more scared than I was or stop anything.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Stop motion animation, um anything, yeah.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: There there was so many different ways to do this.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I can't Godzilla 1954 looks better than this.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they used real stuff, you know?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like why there was some interesting prop work in this movie.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: There was, um, and a lot of times it was overshadowed by just really poor CGI choices.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the one prop or costume that just killed it, knocked it out of the park, was the guy in the centaur outfit and like the devil horns.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I looked at him, I was like, that looks really good.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't tell for a little bit if it was CGI or real, and I was just like, of course it's not CGI.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything else that's CGI in this looks absolutely terrible.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this is practical, but like, and the the tail swishing in the background of him was practical for the most part until like the actual fight scene, and then it kind of dis like devolved into kind of like polygonal mush.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the look of the character made me believe, at least for a short period of time, that you know, this is a uh a foe to um you know be wary of.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and also like the the Shiva look, like the it I thought that they did a really cool job with the few scenes that she had because it did look like she had four arms.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was they like superimposed a second set of arms on her, and it wasn't necessarily CGI.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that that was pretty unique, you know.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: I looked great.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know what the the the one thing I think about is interesting about her is that like she's like it really the forearms really look great, but at the end of the day, you don't need four arms if you're going to take a delicious sip of the unofficial, official beer of this podcast, the Voodoo Ranger juicy IPA.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've actually I I have also been drinking um Rich has got me onto this stupid Voodoo Ranger juicy haze IPA.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually really good.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's unofficial.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um it just happens to it happened to be in my my local uh beer beer distributor and I picked up a I picked up a case.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: So And you guys don't need four arms to enjoy one delicious IPA.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you could use two hands to double fist it.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um I wouldn't though.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a sipper, it's not uh it's not a trouble.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um guys, uh you know, talking about juice, there's there's you want to know something insane?
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to know something insane.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you you guys are probably not gonna believe me.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or you might.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: This second movie had a so this second movie cost more than the first movie.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: How did it balloon that far out of it?
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because it wasn't even like you know, the there were some sets that were like really cool and everything, but was it it must have been like the on like the on-location filming, because they like went to like Petra or something.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: What what what was the issue with that?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like how how could it possibly have ballooned so high?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it it's it's so it's not uh so it's not as much, but the so the the budget for the first movie was twenty million, and the budget for the second one was thirty million, so it's like ten million more, but it's still but it did not so the first one made like a hundred and twenty two million at the box office.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: This one made like fifty.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: So so I mean so it it so they at least made back you know what they put in and a little bit more, but that's that's bad.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's still bad.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's uh diminishing returns there.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: That movie crashed, like honestly, it started so high.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Mortal Kombat!
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then it just went downhill.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like they did what they needed to do by starting the movie with this song.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: Good stuff, like like strong position, strong position, and then they just crashed and burned.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: There was uh The real Mortal Kombat was the combat for our attention because it was not holding it at all.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was some there was some interesting CGI shots uh intermixed with everything.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was there was I don't even know what was happening in this scene, but there there was like invisible ninjas that were like climbing on walls and they they like dropped down out of their invisibleness.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that that was kind of like a cool little effect, but a lot of it is just so and some of these act actors just like really hammed it up, like you could tell like they had no idea what was going on.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like um Katana's mom, whoever the actress was for that, had no clue where she was at any given moment.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: This was a paycheck.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, hold on.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: I actually looked her up today.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: She's like a bit actress or actor in a number of uh Musetta Van Dar.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um she wasn't in a lot of other stuff, to be honest with you.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_03: She Was in some Skittles commercials, uh and she basically did a lot of like one-shots on shows, but nothing uh I think just shockingly.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think this movie killed a lot of careers, to be honest.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just gonna throw it out there.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: All right alright, alright.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: So so you know, we're gonna put on the scale.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, R Rich was really like you know, fighting hard with the Resident Evil movie, right?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now that I've seen this movie, where are you at, Rich?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: No, man.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_03: This is the worst movie I've ever watched.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like, like I okay.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Resident Evil made me angry.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: Look, if I have to look, I got I got part of it's like I don't think that Mila Jovovich is like, you know, that the the bee's knees.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: So like I the fact that they changed the movie and then they centered around her and it wasn't the the the the story that I liked made me angry.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: This movie is just not good.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's poorly done.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's one of like I can't believe that that somebody watched it and said, Yeah, just publish it.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's good to go.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't understand that there should have been massive delays on this movie.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't like I said before.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to I would love to have seen the editors trying to piece together this masterpiece because like they must have at some point been like there's nothing here, there's nothing.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's it look like guys, I like the the Toxic Avenger movies from Troma.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I want to be clear, like there are bad movies that I like, all right?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like I like uh you know Wolfman's Gotten Ards, the the the monster team uh brigade, whatever.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's tons of bad movies that I like.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: This is just a poorly made movie.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the difference is that they're they're playing into the bad movie trope, but like what Dakota was saying was that this movie wasn't trying to be bad, it just came out really bad.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh like you know, it's it's a difference between making a movie and kind of like making fun of you.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're making fun of it, like you you know, you're just messing around making it bad on purpose, but you know, there's a difference between that and then trying and just getting it really, really wrong.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then just I I think that that's where the extra ten million came from, Dakota.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: The the the uh the editors like just trying to like patchwork this movie together, just re-jigger it in any way possible.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Cause uh man, there's so much that just happens in this movie that's nonsensical, and uh you just kind of like you're you're bombarded with the next scene that follows that has nothing to do with it.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's like watching it so it's like watching a YouTube video of cutscenes from a video game.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like watching YouTube shorts that just keep playing the next video.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's but it's like you're you're watching the cutscenes, you don't know what's going on because you haven't played in between the cutscenes.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so like that's almost like what it is.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're getting a bunch of like cutscenes, but like you don't know what happened in between the last scene and then the scene that you're on now.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I also like the obligatory like girl fight in the mud in a dry desert.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh they find the one they find the one uh muddy, muddy little spot on top of a mountain.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: They find the muddy spot.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they they get they get all muddy.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jack shows up later.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: He he shows up after the fight's over.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just what where were you, buddy?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, what what about like like that monster that comes out and he's just like punching it like in the butt?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then it just goes down.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: Then it just like disappears so bad.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um like it's that scene just looks so it's just it look it it didn't look like he was doing any damage to this thing, but somehow like it retreated anyway.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere, somehow, this this is someone's favorite movie, and I'm I don't know how you do it.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry for that.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry for that one guy who's just like no, but there's there's something special about this.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that's like that's like uh one of my favorite Mets of all time was interviewed, and they're like, you know, they were doing this thing like during the game, you know, like what's your favorite movie?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: And and Jose Reyes' answer always floors me, he's like, Bad boys two, and I was like, wait, bad boys too?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, not bad boys one, like there's something about two that really moved you, you know, and uh like this this feels like the movie that somebody would be like Mortal Kombat 2, and you're like, wait, not one, like you like Mortal Kombat 2 for some reason.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: The lore.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a big lore guy.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I love getting lost in you know, like fictional worlds and stuff, but like this has nothing.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be lost here.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's I I haven't seen the new Mortal Kombat movies.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they're any better.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'm assuming they have to be, right?
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: The the first one, so I've seen them.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: The first one was decent, wasn't a big fan of the second one.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's fair.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: It it it's something about Mortal Kombat.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people gassed up that second one.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was all helium.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't gassed up for it.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was all helium.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um alright, yeah.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, just just like we like ourselves uh a Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA, which is not an official beer for this podcast.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we would also like you for the what a violent sneeze.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's because you tried to stop it.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was like, I was like, it's official, it's official.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just I don't even know what I'm saying.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, give us a five-star juicy review wherever you listen to your podcast.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I guarantee you nobody listened to this podcast.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why would it?
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is the worst movie I've ever seen.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's listen to it.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm curious.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like three minutes in, they're like, why bother?
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why bother?
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why bother?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're just gonna dump on my favorite movie.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually did have a fun time.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had more fun talking about this movie than I did actually watching it.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you guys enjoyed that as well.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: So please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to your podcast.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: And next next, well, yeah, it will be next week.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: We are covering Ghostbusters.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ghostbusters 2.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right, that's right.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Ghostbusters 2, guys.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you gonna call?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: Project Ecology?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys for listening to us here for episode 182 of Project Ecology.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a journey.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I'm not entirely sure.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't I'm not gonna remember this movie in a week.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how crazy this was.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I there's gonna be like scenes that I'm gonna like experience in my dreams that I'm just like, where is this from?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh final thoughts, guys.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: We we kind of bashed on it.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's end on a positive note.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's start with uh Anthony.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is in my um bottom 10 DCEU films.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's uh that's a good one.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can picture that.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Rich.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like this movie was a little bit lost in translation when you're if you're talking about it as uh as a her.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um but in terms of movies that we've covered for this podcast that I've been a part of, this is the absolute worst movie I've ever seen in my entire life.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: I I you know what?
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: Watch it.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_03: Watch it and then listen to this show again because that's how you enjoy it.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_03: You'll enjoy listening to us crap on it after you've watched it again.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, it's it's I I'd there there are a lot of bubbleg episodes that I'd rather watch um than watch this again.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first movie where I thought I would kill for like a 1.5 speed version of this.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would I would love to fast forward this, you know?
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm not that kind of guy.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't sometimes when I'm listening to audiobooks, I'll do that, especially if it's a slower reader.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: But film and TV is a different ballpark.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: I would never think to do that ever, but like this definitely is something that I wish I could have speed run.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it's it's uh I had a great time.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks guys.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_00: See you next week.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the portals open back in the worry.