Mortal Kombat stays true to the classic video game

To achieve a flawless victory, the director and stars of the new "Mortal Kombat" movie aimed to stay true to the classic video games.And that meant having constant conversations about how to incorporate elements of the popular fighting games into the live-action film, actor Chin Han, who portrays the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, told the Daily News."Viewers can expect to see a lot of their favorite characters in their favorite costumes, doing their favorite fatalities," he said.The film, out Friday in theaters and on HBO Max, is the latest entry to the sprawling "Mortal Kombat" franchise, which kicked off with a 1992 arcade game that allowed users to brawl with powerful characters.Like the games, the upcoming "Mortal Kombat" movie is full of intense fighting, with iconic characters such as Sonya Blade, Scorpion and Sub-Zero weaved into the plot.Chin Han's character is the central villain — a wicked wizard from the desolate Outworld who seeks to overtake the Earthrealm with his army of warriors."Shang Tsung is such an apex predator in a way," the 51-year-old Singaporean actor said. "The state of evolution that he's able to take on the forms of the people that he fights and take their souls, and the souls are the most important aspect of a human being. That was very interesting to get into. What compels a person to have such an appetite and bloodlust?"The movie was directed by filmmaker Simon McQuoid, who has worked on numerous ad campaigns for video games, including "Halo."It was important to McQuoid that each of the "Mortal Kombat" characters got their moments to shine in the movie."There were key ingredients and key aspects to the title that just simply couldn't change," McQuoid told The News. "It was really about bringing things that already existed out within the canon of 'Mortal Kombat' and elevating them. It wasn't about changing them."It was about, 'OK, how do we make that costume, or that hat, or that story point, or that fight or that fatality? How do we make that really powerful, believable, entertaining cinematic version of what people might know?'"The new movie reboots a "Mortal Kombat" film series that released two movies during the 1990s. There have also been 11 main video games in the franchise, in addition to numerous spinoffs."There is a great, enormous amount of history, and canon and detail that is built and built and built over the last couple of decades," McQuoid said. "It was understanding what mattered, what didn't matter so much, and really, I tried to immerse myself in the 'Mortal Kombat' world as much as I could. ... I also had people around me that really knew it, and I relied on them. It was something we talked about every day."For Chin Han, the rich history of "Mortal Kombat" was a major draw."The lore was so attractive," he said. "A battle of champions. How cool can you get? As human beings, we gravitate towards these kinds of spectacles, whether it's the '80s Boston Celtics, LA Lakers rivalry or John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. I think that kind of lore was so appealing."