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Episode 7 - MORTAL KOMBAT REVIEW & gatekeeping anime
8 Plays4 years ago
Originally recorded live @ twitch.tv/addtoparty
Mortal Kombat 2021 Spoilers start @ 12:50 and end @ 36:00
The boys give their spoiler free and spoiler filled review of Mortal Kombat and discuss Demon Slayer Mugen train's opening totals.. Also some rhythm game recommendations.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Add to Party'
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host James Hartwell, and that was the sound of
00:00:30
Speaker
Ramping alcoholism enabled by many friends. Just couldn't have timed that better.
00:00:45
Speaker
You have a COVID safe intervention. That's the question. I don't know what you have in the back of their heads. Oh, yeah. Listen. All right. You only drink in a glass. But yes, I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I've I'm joined by Charles followed by Andy K.
Tomb Raider Action Figures Bidding
00:01:06
Speaker
And I'm trying to. Oh, I was going to say, I was going to say you're nicely refreshed.
00:01:12
Speaker
Oh, I am. Well, I'm trying to drink enough so that I know how much to bid on these Tomb Raider figures right now. How much would you bid on three aptly named playmate Tomb Raider, Lara Croft action figures? They have some of my favorite outfits. So I'm debating if I should. What's that? No triangles. Well, one's from Tomb Raider one. Two are from Tomb Raider two. One is from Tomb Raider three. Oh, by the way, I'm going to be buying six action figures. There's actually two lots.
00:01:41
Speaker
and oh this is this is he used to to to tremble in in doubt for one figure six figures
00:01:51
Speaker
This is birthday boy Andy. This is birthday boy Andy. This is pertinent because the bid's gonna end in like 10 minutes. So I'm trying to figure out how much I should spend. I think I might go up to 75. That's reasonable. There you go. Throw it on each one. Okay. I'm gonna put in 75.
Auction Strategies and Market Value
00:02:10
Speaker
I'll keep you in tune. Right now it's at 30, but it's already had 11 bidders. So people care. They should stop. I want these.
00:02:19
Speaker
Listen for things that I want in an auction. It's what it is. What is its market value then multiply it by 1.5. Oh, I can't. I want these for me. Okay. You asked the question. I don't care. I don't care about your actual answer. Let's just
00:02:40
Speaker
Do whatever. That's a fair call out. I'm sorry about that. Yours is a very reasonable approach so that I don't overspend. I just I just spend enough to make the sadness go away.
00:02:55
Speaker
Hey, that's your legacy. Yeah. Grabbing consumerism. That's right.
The PS5 Hunt
00:03:01
Speaker
Listen, you know, every day that I read, I'm trying to get, uh, another friend of mine, a PS five right now. Let me tell you, it's not easy. No. Isn't that funny where like it's in none of our friend groups, uh, thought process whatsoever.
00:03:20
Speaker
about the need and the toughness of finding a new PS5 or Xbox Series X. Oh, I know. Yes. I don't know what those are. I don't know. I don't know. That doesn't keep me up at night. I was like, why didn't you tell me you wanted one? He's like, I just figured I could buy one. I was like, oh. One day, maybe in two years. Doesn't deserve it if that's if he's not aware. There are people that fucking just stay up at night trawling for shit.
Mortal Kombat Movie Review
00:03:50
Speaker
that guy's not getting one hell he's gonna get one because i'm gonna help him but what's that is that the sound of a new mortal combat
00:04:09
Speaker
So Mortal Kombat released to reasonable fanfare, I want to say over the weekend. It sounds like it was number one at the box office box office, but I was number one. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker
so so those those aren't no uh uh which which we call it mortal combat 2021 uh we're released to theaters and hbo max if you have such a thing and uh we watched it and i think i want to give my review
00:04:42
Speaker
Pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. All right. I watched that movie and I went this is great. A couple of hot takes I saw around the Internet that really spoke to me as a person, one of which was this is like if the Power Rangers movie was an R rated movie and I and recontextualizing this entire movie and that thought process made it all the better. They just needed a scene where they all skydived together.
00:05:09
Speaker
Maybe Kano had a had a snowboard for some reason. That would have been fun. Yeah. Oh, no, I mean, I just want to understand here. Are we are we adding spoilers? Is this a spoiler free review? So why don't we why don't we let's do spoiler free for like maybe five, 10 minutes and then we'll go into spoiler territory. OK.
00:05:32
Speaker
All right. I will I will notate it in the notes if you want to skip. Oh, oh. Well, you like to change. What were your thoughts, Charles? I found it a perfectly OK. Here's what I want to say. First, I want to clarify. There's such a thing as a there's a difference between an enjoyable movie and a good movie. This was this was a very this was an enjoyable movie that I enjoyed watching.
00:06:00
Speaker
Were there problems? Absolutely. We'll get into those, but but I feel like the problems were it's really just plot related. And, you know, I don't I'm not necessarily here for the Game of Thrones esque.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, granted in the in the actual proper Mortal Kombat game lore, it does get really deep. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to see some people get cut apart. Man, exactly. They delivered that. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I will say if you if people do love that Mortal Kombat game, Lord M.K. Ice a fire on YouTube as fucking for Mortal Kombat 9, 10 and 11 has a super compilation, all the cutscenes, five hour long movie.
00:06:49
Speaker
And it's fucking gripping. The Mortal Kombat got so good at telling a story, you forget it's a fucking fighting game. But yeah, let's go back to this movie. And how it's inferior to the actual game, but still good. Andy, what did you think? I'm on the fence. Okay. Because I agree. All right. Calling out the distinction now. There's a difference between a good movie and a fun movie.
00:07:14
Speaker
I want out of a moral combat people to you know to I want the fatalities I want you know people to look dumb in their costumes and they really delivered on that it's I guess when you say when it came to the the way they tried to package it.
00:07:32
Speaker
And with the story and moving through it and eventually resolving it, I thought it was I mainly hated the main character. Is he a real Mortal Kombat character? No, he is. He is a brand new character. Oh, he's terrible. They had gotten rid of him and just focused on like Sonya and Jax or whatever and moved through the plot that way. It would have been so much better. I wasn't being honest.
00:07:58
Speaker
I was going to be honest with you through 90 percent or at least 50 percent of this movie. I was kind of going, oh, they're going to get to the wherever and they're going to reveal he's actually Lou Kang was like his birth name and then. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. And then Lou Kang appeared and I was like, oh, I guess not. It was hilarious. I thought they ramped up the camp on him.
00:08:20
Speaker
They, and it really did, there was like little drops, right? Little, little, a size. There was a ton of references. And I thought that was really nice. I just hated the main character. I could see the writer's room, right? I could see them sitting around saying like, we have all this violence, right? And all this action and all this stuff. How do we add humanity to a story, right? Well, we add a guy, okay?
00:08:49
Speaker
And he has a family. Dedicated father Cole Young. Dedicated father. You know, he's just an underdog. Much, much like one. Charles, what's what scorpions? Real name.
00:09:04
Speaker
Hanzo Hisashi. Thank you. Yeah, much like Hanzo Hisashi also dedicated family man No, I Listen no one's saying this movies deserving of Oscars But if you want to watch a movie where people fight and say dumb lines
00:09:21
Speaker
And it's all done with the right amount of tongue in cheek, where it's not too serious, but it's also just serious enough. Big shout out to Cabal's Brooklyn accent.
00:09:36
Speaker
I will fucking say there were two characters that were dragging down this movie. It was Liu Kang and Cabal. Cabal talking was one of the worst things that took me out of that movie so bad.
00:09:53
Speaker
because they didn't balance his audio and just they just gave that guy like heavy access. Apparently, apparently he's like he's he's like a stunt. He's a stunt guy. And they were going to get someone to redo his audio. But then they're just like, hey, screw it. Yeah. Oh, my God. It was so off putting.
00:10:17
Speaker
Tohoff pudding. I was like, Jesus Christ, Cabal to stop talking. Stop talking. I mean, it was fun. I think if you at any way enjoy Mortal Kombat, it's actually this is the argument I've seen online.
Analyzing Mortal Kombat Characters
00:10:32
Speaker
Mortal Kombat fans love this movie. Oh, at least the one at least the ones who aren't up their own ass. But that's fair.
00:10:40
Speaker
The but people who are just like don't really know anything about Mortal Kombat Low or Lore are like this is kind of a mediocre action movie. Are we going into? Not yet. Well, so I was just trying to wrap that up before we go into spoilers. So. OK. Yeah. So I was just saying, I think if you have any interest in Mortal Kombat, it's it's a fun movie to watch.
00:11:02
Speaker
Um, if you don't know about moral combat at all, I mean, go in with low enough, low enough expectations. I remember when I went to see the first Thor movie, I just once said it was terrible. I thought it was going to be so awful that I was like, Hey, wasn't bad. I will say too, it respects your time. It is a clean, like 90 or a hundred minutes. Like they are, they're not sticking around, right? They jump from scene to scene with little to.
00:11:32
Speaker
at break breakneck pace. I will say as a non-spoiler critique of this movie all the money of the great choreography of fight choreography was in the beginning and the end for when it involves like like really they knew who were the experienced martial arts stunt actors and were like we'll give them the good stuff everyone else will do whatever because
00:12:01
Speaker
If you try to follow the fight in the middle, all the fights in the middle, you'll see some cuts where you're like, he didn't have that. He wasn't holding this at all. And then the next scene, he's holding an item. And you're just like, where'd they jump from? These characters are moving around.
00:12:19
Speaker
They're not showing the movement on screen. We'll talk about whatever. We'll talk about this more in a minute. But I would say Cole Young's fight against a certain character was pretty good, especially how they worked in his MMA fighting style. But neither here nor there. Yeah, I think it's a movie worth seeing if you have any interest in seeing it, which is something I can't say about a lot of movies. But now we will go into spoiler territory. Spoiler territory. I will put it a note here to say when you should skip ahead.
00:12:49
Speaker
Mm hmm. No. Yeah. So, man. That main character is awful. Here's the thing. You guys hate him too. Am I am I. Well, no, no, the problem with the problem with Cole is they were they they didn't know what to really do with them for because the rest of the cast is already outlandish. Yeah. How are you making?
00:13:16
Speaker
Yeah. How do you introduce a person, a normal person to this outlandish care? Like, and cause here's the thing, all those outlandish people, so much more interesting, so much more like you want to know more about them. Who's Cole?
00:13:31
Speaker
He's a down on his luck fighter down on his luck fighter. And you're like, so I freezes people over there. I thought the direction they were going to go was that it was like Cole keeps losing an MMA because he is meant to fight to kill and in like fights to not kill. He is not well suited to them. Oh, that would have been kind of cool.
00:13:57
Speaker
Because that plays into like the ultra violence, right? Right. Yeah, exactly. Oh, he's always holding back because he doesn't want to inflict fatal harm on his opponents. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Also, very mortal combat. Yeah. Also, also, he should have just been scorpion, right? They should have just made him a ancestor. They should have just made him go. Yes, he is the ancestor. Well,
00:14:25
Speaker
Scorpion is his ancestor and he learned all the same techniques and that would have been it. Not even that. I really, I really thought when he got that fucking armor that he would have just like, his special move is just to become Scorpion. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, that's it. There you go. That's like, that's an easy way to add him in. Because the funniest fucking thing, right, is one, it's a, you know, of course they were going to, they had to do it was they had Scorpion yell, get over here.
00:14:54
Speaker
And in every other line he just speaks Japanese because he's from 1600s or whatever. But for one line he yells in English and they just don't acknowledge it again.
Mortal Kombat Plot and Character Dynamics
00:15:09
Speaker
Okay, I guess does this but like it would have been fine if he was possessed by scorpion as his ultimate power where he just merges in yeah, I was like I Mean we're talking about the end of the movie, right? Well, so I guess we'll circle back around to all the other parts but this is probably the most egregious piece because it's like
00:15:31
Speaker
he gets scorpions like uh little dagger right that he used to fight when he died back in 1600s japan when uh and is this canon like is sub zero um yeah is this clay is the link quay clan kills uh finishes off the shirai you oh not that i knew that but i mean were they that they were chinese i never really knew that
00:15:55
Speaker
That one, that one I didn't realize, but then I was like reading the language and I was like, wait, that is more Chinese than Japanese. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I was like.
00:16:08
Speaker
That makes sense. Yeah, it was interesting. I was like, are they just implying that? Because they don't say it outright ever. They just go. I was like, huh, OK. But yeah, so it it was just very unnecessary because then you have this whole scene where Sub-Zero and Scorpion are having this amazing fight. What's Cole doing? He's punching the ice trying to see. That was so fucking dumb.
00:16:35
Speaker
Like, okay, and see, that was one of the things I thought was like even worse during that choreography, where they go, we have cool shit to do for Scorpion Sub-Zero. And like, even when Sub-Zero and Scorpion are fighting in the ring with Cole, and they show Scorpion being thrown to the ground, what does Cole do? Does he help Scorpion?
00:16:55
Speaker
No, he runs back to and starts punching the ice again. You're like, why is he still doing that? He's either two feet away fighting from him and he's got to punch this ice. Oh, such a good job with Sub-Zero. Oh, yeah. Zero was so good.
00:17:12
Speaker
although i do have to say like the beginning of the movie when they reintroduce him with shank soon he calls him he calls him like his chinese name he goes no my name is sub-zero now
00:17:31
Speaker
And I was like, are you sure, bud? I loved that point because when they said that, it felt like, yes, this movie knows what it is. It knows it's stupid. Right. Right. It understands. But then you have this stupid, like, you know, just focus group plot of this guy and his family.
00:17:56
Speaker
And I loved how and Charles, I'm going to consider you the Mortal Kombat lore expert. I liked in the film how they like you needed to have the birthmark to unleash like power or whatever. I don't know if that's in the show. No, the games.
00:18:14
Speaker
But I thought that was kind of a cool thing was Sonya trying to, you know, she wants to help, but she has to kill. Does she feel comfortable killing? Right. Like that was really cool. And it gives, you know, just a fun throwaway reason for people to, you know, shoot stuff out of their arms or whatever. I thought that was great. Explaining how they got their injuries like like all this cool stuff, seeing all the fatalities. I thought it was very thoughtful and well done. I was so impressed with it.
00:18:43
Speaker
And then that stupid main character and his awful ability. Oh my God. It's literally just lets him continue to be bad. Like he is a bad fighter. He doesn't get better. He's just allowed to be bad.
00:18:59
Speaker
Andy, Andy, I want to be very clear with you. I may sue the director of Mortal Kombat for ripping off what has been my OC character power in the walkest time, which is to take damage and then redirect that energy. I was like, no, they stole it.
00:19:20
Speaker
It's so bad. It's so. Well, he also made tons out of nowhere. So that's kind of I was setting up for me a kind of scenario where he was like, oh, he can make weapons. He'll make the he could make the the chain blade and shoot it out of his own. No, it's just tons. And it's strange because like they're like they give him a bleeding top and then a normal top. And you're like,
00:19:48
Speaker
Oh, okay. He'll show some really interesting choreography with it. And he gets to cut off Goro's arm and then stab the blunt todva into Goro's eye.
00:19:59
Speaker
And they're like, and that's all, that's the only time it becomes relevant that those are two different weapons. Yeah. He did do like some cool MMA takedown moves on him, which I thought was like a nice nod to his fighting style. I like that Goro fight. I mean, it's weird to me to like send Goro after him.
00:20:19
Speaker
Yes. There's like Goro has like. Yeah. He had to leave his family to protect them and go train. He finds out he's bad at it. So his solution is to go back to his family and then Goro goes to get this. Oh, it's so bad. They had such a good thing going. This little combat movie had such a good thing going. Let's let's talk about
00:20:46
Speaker
the whole problem with going, okay, well, Liu Kang is no longer the main character. What can he do now in this movie? And he becomes this mentor figure that, for some reason, doesn't like how his sash keeps swinging. I love that. All right, so everyone that's listening, right? So I don't know if you've watched this movie, you notice that for no reason,
00:21:16
Speaker
Liu Kang has a very long sash on his on his waist and he could be standing still with no wind and then he'd pick it up he'd pick it up and flip it flick it forward like as if it's in his way I thought but he's standing
00:21:33
Speaker
You're like, Liu Kang, what was that about? And that was the movie bringing the camp, right? Because he's such an exaggerated character. I don't know how to explain it, but it seems like he's very about process and ritual and all this stuff.
00:21:53
Speaker
He's just flipping his thing everywhere. And I thought it was great. It was weird to not have him as a main character. And I kept trying to figure out, James, kind of like what you were saying is like, how is he going to be the descendant of that person in the beginning? But then I was just like, Andy, the person in the beginning is Japanese. Is it Liu Kang Chinese? And then in my mind, I was like, is the movie going to be racist?
00:22:22
Speaker
I was like, ooh, 2021. No, you can't do that. Actually, isn't isn't Liu Kang like a Hong Konger actually? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Like the character Liu Kang or the actor? The character Liu Kang. Oh, I don't remember. Yeah, neither. I know. I know he's not from China. Well, let's see.
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's it only lists Earthrealm. It's the only the only origin that matters.
00:22:58
Speaker
Oh, gosh. So, yeah, so there's Liu Kang, right? And he's a he's a Shaolin guy who has martial arts powers. He knows how to spam down B. Yeah, that was a great. That was probably the is that his bicycle kick down? No, that's what I was asleep. Everybody kept kicking Kano down with that leg sweep. Oh, that was the leg sweep. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because that's how I play.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was a nice little crazy. Was this a dig in the beginning when that character I hate? What's his name? Cole Young. Cole Young. He he's in the ring and his daughter screaming at him. Do an uppercut. Do an uppercut. Was she saying that because that's the easiest move to pull off in Mortal Kombat?
00:23:45
Speaker
Like, that's all I could think. I mean, that's true. Actually sweep and uppercut. And I can do the teleport with Kung Lao. I think Andy, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't think about that. But yeah, actually, I think that might be a reference to that. I was just wondering, is that is that a dig at how bad he is? And he wouldn't even do an uppercut. Come on. Yeah. You know, I will say I did like all those references, right? That, you know, the sweep reference, the the uppercut thing, that's pretty cool.
00:24:15
Speaker
If you guys notice, too, in the Sub-Zero versus Jax fight, there's a combo in the front, which is a down-forward punch, which is how you do the freeze move for Sub-Zero.
00:24:33
Speaker
When did he do the duplicate? That was a cool one. When did he do the duplicate? I don't know. But I remember I was able to pull off that move too. That's in Mortal Kombat 3, making the freezing duplicate. Yeah, the movie. Yeah, it had so many really wonderful references. It seemed like they really did care. And like even the fatalities and stuff like how cool.
00:24:54
Speaker
Kung Lao's fatality was the best one. Yeah! That was pretty great. How cool was that? Now tell me, where is that harpy girl from? I have no idea. She's in after becoming Annihilation.
00:25:09
Speaker
It's when the it's when the Dragon King gets introduced as a bad guy. I Unfortunately, I don't know much of me on three. Yeah. Oh, don't worry. I Mean Mortal Kombat like three to ten kind of sucks Andy. So you're you're pretty safe Yeah, that's why in nine they reboot the entire thing
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah, I I there were so many things that did right. There's no Shao Kahn. I don't know why. But Charles, you want to do you want to know what? Oh, go. Do you want to know what what game she made her appearance in? Yeah. Or more Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. What a what a what a what a legacy.
00:25:54
Speaker
Is that the one with Kung Lao and Liu Kang to go? No, that's Mortal Kombat Sheldon which is actually a good game. Yeah, people enjoy that one. Yeah, go ahead. Were you saying about Shang Tsung? I only meant to say because Shang Tsung, again, you know, reference, reference, blah, blah, blah. But isn't Shang Tsung's ability to take someone's soul and then turn into them?
00:26:20
Speaker
Yep. Turn. He did not do that too much here. No. Yeah. He took his soul. He even your soul is mine. And then he didn't turn into Kung Lao. Yeah. Well, that's. I don't understand what that was. Well, I think you're you're hitting on maybe perhaps the the biggest issue of the movie, Andy, which is called mortal. Yeah, I was going to say it's called Mortal Kombat. And we spend not one moment in the tournament.
00:26:47
Speaker
Right. Oh, my God. You're right. Which is, you know, it's it was a neat idea to to to keep it outside or at least kill them ahead of it. But the movie's plot very much had like, you know, a four forty five on a Friday feel right. Like everybody was ready to go home and they were just going through it like the very last part, too. They were just done. They were over it.
00:27:16
Speaker
Well, I like to imagine like, how can we make a movie that's different than the original Mortal Kombat movie? It's perfect. We have to do it outside of the tournament. You know what? That's that's honestly, I bet that was a huge drive of it. That makes sense. How do we differentiate ourselves? Because are we just going to go on a boat to an island and then, you know, they fight on the sand a couple of times? I was I was kind of wondering about that. I'm like,
00:27:44
Speaker
Why are they going to Gary, Indiana? How are they going to take a boat to Shakespeare's Island? That's when my dreams were dashed. I gave up on the idea of going to the island when they were like, Gary, Indiana, blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh, well.
00:28:04
Speaker
I guess we're not having a tournament anymore. They didn't have a budget for it. I was like, well, maybe it's like a thing where you just have to sail on any body of water so they'd go on like a great lake and sail. Right. And the mist engulfs the ship and just come out and you're at the island. Yeah. So I was I was grasping for straws trying to improve this plot.
00:28:29
Speaker
Where was I in the writers room train to Sweden? There was such a lot of love put into parts of it Yeah, you could at least tell there were some people that really enjoyed the chance And I don't know if those people talked to the other people
Actors' Performances and Sequel Potential
00:28:47
Speaker
Making the plot because this was this was not low effort I'll say and I think that's what made it fun to watch through But it was extremely anticlimactic climatic There was a hint up for the the sequel like an immediate sequel it literally felt like it was a Netflix episode that was going to play next right and
00:29:08
Speaker
Like, it was so nonchalantly dropping the cliffhanger that it just seemed I'd roll right into the next one. But we don't even know if there's a confirmed sequel, right? Well, I mean, it's done very well. I think the HBO max numbers have done very well. Also, the actor who plays Sub-Zero has said he's basically been signed to like three or four sequels. Doesn't mean they're going to get made. Please.
00:29:31
Speaker
oh god he was so good i will say joe taslin's gonna get his chance to be keep being so zero yeah so yeah well just the special effects around him the creativity of of the moves and the environment and uh so impressed i was so impressed with parts of it and then he got this terrible main character i just killed him in the beginning
00:29:56
Speaker
Here's my problem, right? It feels like there's two separate casts, which is there's Raiden, Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion, who all feel like they're movie actors. And then there's Cole, Sonya, Jax, Liu Kang, all the other Outworld people. They feel like they're from a sci-fi original series.
00:30:19
Speaker
You know, oh my gosh, I feel it. I that is I get it. They are. They are. Kato straddles that, but he's the kind of, you know, he he's the fan favorite in the sci-fi original series because he can kind of act and he gets the good lines, much like Jason, much like Jason Momoa was in Stargate Atlantis. Yeah, they really made you know.
00:30:44
Speaker
Like the more interesting character in the middle, in the middle part of the movie, because they're like, God, do I, cold is not has no personality.
00:30:53
Speaker
That's it. And, you know, and he has a lot more funny stuff and he's more, his, this character, yet you love to see get beaten up, but he's also not that bad, but he's funny. Oh, I was going to say, you just, another thing about Cole that I, I loved that I hated, um, was all these wide shots or like interior scenes where, you know, there are people in like, you know,
00:31:19
Speaker
geeze or they're in their combat fatigues or whatever. And then Cole's just there in like some jeans and a nice crew neck. He it's it's so obviously bad. It really feels like someone stepped into the plot and said, no, you need this. No, the audience won't connect. You know, no, there's no humanity. It would. So who would you make the main character of the story, then?
00:31:49
Speaker
fair call out. I'm going to keep calling it dumb, but where's my good ideas? Right. Well, do we do Lou Kang as the main character again? But to your point, James, they got to differentiate themselves. They're not going to that island. They rented a cave for a week. I think so. It's all going to be in the cave. Yeah, that's right. So I'll give you. Yeah, I'll tell you about the surprising direction they went in the latest Mortal Kombat games character.
00:32:19
Speaker
Johnny Cage. Really? Johnny Cage would have been interesting.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, so I was like, Stoney, our Jax could have been the main character. They were. Yeah, I think Sonya was probably your best bet, but also it was the real main character as an actress. Sonya, yeah. So Sonya as an axis also left some things to be desired, I would say. Sonya as a what? Actress. Oh, yeah, I thought she was fine. Yeah, she was, Andy, fine.
00:32:51
Speaker
That's a so is Cole. That's how I would describe Cole's performance. Fine. Oh, Cole, I thought was I'm not blaming the actor himself. I am. It's I mean, blame is a strong word. I mean, it's just, yeah, they're not strong actors. No. Well, sci fi original. Yeah. And I think that was a really good way to put it. Yeah, I'll say that, you know, watching the movie made me go.
00:33:17
Speaker
Let me rewatch a good Mortal Kombat movie and pulled up the giant cutscene to violation of Mortal Kombat. Yeah, this is a good story that weaves together everything pretty well. I'm looking up Louis Tan because I want to see what else he was in. That's Cole, by the way. So I have to wonder about Louis Tan here. He's half Asian, half white, right?
00:33:44
Speaker
You know, it doesn't he doesn't have it written here. He was born. He's British. He was born in England. Yeah. So. OK. I'm the same age as him. That's very depressing to me because he's ripped. I was just going to say, yeah, he's.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah, well, don't worry. Taylor Swift is the same age as me and she is done much more in life. So wildly. Look at all these people. All these people in this movie are our age or older and they're all healthy, fit and successful. See, I want to say I want to say his first acting role was in Deadpool 2. He played Shatterstar.
00:34:22
Speaker
Do you remember the guy who fell into the the the the garbage disposal and had green blood or the garbage struck the white Deadpool. Oh, oh, I haven't. Yeah. Yeah. That was him. That's that's I'm I'm I'm an alien. My name's Shatterstar.
00:34:46
Speaker
Listen, and he had about three lines and that's all he needed, which was great. Here. There's a little more opportunity to us to see the gaps in his ability. Good fighter though. His fight scenes are good. I'm not going to argue against that.
00:35:03
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I guess I guess that sounds like they were really onto something great. And I think they hit expectations that if they if they did a better job handling the main character readjusting that plot, I think it could have been better. But maybe Sonder and everybody else wants a thread or a motivation to be saving your family. Maybe that works for people. But for me, I don't care.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah, I well, here's the thing, right? It's not like it was done well. If you're gonna do that, that's true. Barely focused on it really. That's fair. It wasn't that it existed. It's that it wasn't done well. But also it shouldn't be in there. That's not what Mortal Kombat's about. Yeah, you know, if it was done well, it would have been we would have thought of it as an interesting direction for a Mortal Kombat movie to go. But so you know, they feel
00:36:02
Speaker
is in a very, a very smooth transition. I just wanted to bring up. So we talked about how they did well at the box office.
Anime in Mainstream Cinema
00:36:10
Speaker
So Mortal Kombat opened to 23 million dollars. I think the budget was like 90 million, which, you know, basically I looked it up and it's 55 million. Well, you got to double that for marketing costs, but good call. Actually, I don't know if Wiki incorporates marketing costs.
00:36:28
Speaker
But anyway, but either way, right. You know, they did pretty well. But you know, it came in second. Mm hmm. Little movie called Demon Slayer Infinite Train. Actually, that's not the name, but it's called Infinite Train. Well, actually, it is. It's called Mugen Train. So I'm right. Oh, is Mugen mean infinite? I didn't. Yeah, Charles. Charles, you know Japanese. Don't you dare Google it. Sure. Mugen means infinite. Yeah, it says infinite.
00:36:58
Speaker
uh it also means uh it also means dreams as another different it depends on the kanji that's actually very interesting for how the story goes um yeah that's crazy sounds like it's dreamed
00:37:17
Speaker
No, it's both actually because in the, in the official, in the official arc translations, it's listed as infinite train. I think I'm shown in jump, but neither here nor there. It's, it's just always nice to see anime movies really coming in. It's, it was really a nerd weekend, right? Mortal Kombat and demon Slayer just coming out punching, beating coronavirus back.
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. Beaten it back. Yeah, I was impressed. And you know, it's even cooler, though, is that, you know, anime would have its release within the states, but they usually be like limited runs or special evenings. But, um, it's every day. No, it's every day. Multiple showings. So in a pandemic, anime thrives. And I am very excited to see this film.
00:38:05
Speaker
I heard it is very good. I'm still a little taken aback, though, that was Demon Slayer that good? Well, people people saw this as like this was good. You could argue if it's overrated, but.
00:38:23
Speaker
It is absolutely one of it was one of the most popular things that overtook the season it airs. Yeah. Who did the animation? And it was also near Main Street. That's true. It was Ufotable. Yeah, it was the Fates Day Night guys. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was gorgeously animated. A fun show. It caught on.
00:38:48
Speaker
really, it really, really caught on. I'm glad it resulted in what sounds like an excellent movie. But it's just it's again, the saunter in me is just I'm trying to understand the hype of it. But why should I? It was a good show. Can't that be enough? Right? Why can't a show being good be enough for people to enjoy it?
00:39:09
Speaker
Well, I can so I can tie this back in ever so slightly into gaming news. So it did so well. But also if you heard the the Demon Slayer movie was available on the PS4 store this weekend for for purchase and download. And there are several people who are claiming to have gotten it. Oh, weird. Yeah.
00:39:32
Speaker
That must have been on accident for a bit. Yeah. I mean, who's Sony going to be mad at themselves? Yeah, exactly. What? Yeah. So that was interesting. But does mean there might be some very glossy rips on the high seas if you don't want to go into the theater. Glossy. You know what I hope this means that we get the Ava movie.
Evangelion's Cultural Impact
00:39:53
Speaker
,
00:40:09
Speaker
And that's how I've interacted with all of these rebuild movies is I've just read about them online. Oh, I haven't seen them. I've not seen a single one, but I know everything that happens in the hot garbage. Oh, that's right. I'm excited to see the fourth to see if it can pick up that mass. I think it based on what I read seemed like a satisfying conclusion to me. And that's fine. That's and well, and I guess what to take away from this is Demon Slayer, you know, pulled in 20 some million Ava is
00:40:40
Speaker
Iconic. I don't know if it caught on with the kids. Yeah. I was going to say this. That's old man. Old man anime. Ava is iconic. Old man anime. Perfect Blue got a showing in theaters. I went to go see it. And how many people under the age of 20 were there, Andy? None. All right.
00:41:03
Speaker
It was all as old farts. I would love to see Ava in a theater, though. I would love that. That's what that was my hope walking away from this, too, is that let's get more anime in theater. What's up?
00:41:16
Speaker
I don't get it. Do people love Ava? Sad thing. No one likes Ava. I think Ava, I think is a touchstone for a lot of people where they realized animation could be for adults. Right. Because it very much had it started in a very typical manner to like adult like, you know, normal shown in kind of tropes and then turned about on set. And I think that turned a lot of people on to go,
00:41:45
Speaker
Oh, I understand anime can be more than just this. And I think that has a place in people's heart. You don't have to explain it to me. I was just making fun of Andy and his belief that if he doesn't believe it, it can't be true. That's also true. I just I love Ava. It's still good. I love Ava so much. The rebuilds, we didn't need them. But Ava's excellent. I think Andy, I'll be curious to see your opinion when finally get to see it. But I do think it was a satisfying conclusion.
00:42:15
Speaker
I thought what they did, and then we can wrap it up. But I thought what they did in the third one was such an interesting, like a take, and then it just turned into garbage. So we'll see how it works. So bad. But yeah, anime is doing well. People like anime, you guys.
00:42:30
Speaker
Right. I didn't add this in as a as a topic. I had a moment of gatekeeping the other day. Oh, in which was on tick tock. Oh, the youths, the youth, the youths have discovered that Dear Maria by all time low is basically just an anime song.
00:42:56
Speaker
Wait, I don't know this. I can't. I can't play it because of DMCA, but essentially, you know, I got your picture. I'm coming with you, dear Maria. You know that song, Andy? No. All right. Well, it's if you heard it, you would know it. So they basically have been doing taking dear Maria and cutting it in front of anime openings and going, it works so well. And old man James is looking at this and goes, yeah, it's called AMV's.
00:43:28
Speaker
contemporary music go with anime and then I immediately took it back and I went that's that's that's that's gatekeeping James allow the kids to find out but also in my mind I'm like I was there did they lip sync it though no no no no yeah I did that's hard that's hard work
00:43:52
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Piano tie. Lip syncing and piano tiles, Andy. Piano tiles. I don't know what those are. That's when you have like just a little vertical cross section of a scene that comes in on piano keys. Oh, OK. No, but that's it. Yeah, it's just in terms of anime. So now there's just a lot of videos. Look how this song. This song is one, two. I'm just like, he's fucking kids killing me.
00:44:22
Speaker
Hey, is what what what did you used to post on? Oh, it forms or some anime music videos dot org. It's still alive. It's still there. I was just going to ask, is it still alive? Yeah, I put my head in every now and then.
00:44:34
Speaker
Oh, I used to watch a lot of anime music videos. Well, it's kind of the only way to see like it would be like a good way to see anime. You know, it's very true. We didn't have the ability to just have every hand available. Yeah. So it's just kind of like, well, where's that cool fight scene from? Yeah, exactly. Check out that anime. Exactly. Wow. I never really thought about that, but that was completely true.
00:44:59
Speaker
Well, you have 15 minutes left.
Andy Discovers Friday Night Funkin'
00:45:02
Speaker
You guys want to talk about a game? You know what I discovered? What's that? Someone messaged me. I had a friend message me yesterday and he was like, Andy, I found a game made for you. I was like, oh, this is great. Thank you very much. It was a it's called Friday Night Freakin. Have you guys heard of this old game? Well, I'll tell you.
00:45:26
Speaker
Oh, I have another rhythm game to recommend to both of you after you talk about this one. So I bring this up because I had never heard of it. He had never heard of it. But for those not familiar, it's basically just like DDR input just up down left right and entering the patterns to music. And I was really into DDR and he and I would play DDR in college. But
00:45:48
Speaker
I was always this game. I know. And then I googled it and there's just YouTube videos with millions and millions of you. Holy shit. Yeah. This this this one has eight million views. Hold on. Hugely popular, hugely popular.
00:46:06
Speaker
And to he and I, we had just heard of it. And it felt like something just walked by. Like it was something escaped me that I never even knew about. It was so weird to stumble upon what seems like a pretty large, well-known rhythm game and to have never heard of it. And what's even more incredible is that it's on new grounds.
00:46:30
Speaker
Oh, is it a day? I played a new grounds game for probably the first time in 15 years. It's still going. I'm strong, you guys. Newgrounds is still a thing. It's a new. I didn't even know that. I was going to say, how is this different than beat mania?
00:46:46
Speaker
Um, it's wait is beat mania uses the like the two black, three white and then the disk, right? Yeah. This is this is just up down left, right? It is a literal one to one to DDR, except it's the one that everyone played in high school where you just use DDR in your keyboard, which works. And the songs are catchy. It's kind of like a rap battle kind of format.
00:47:14
Speaker
And but I'm old. A rhythm game escaped me and I love rhythm games. I love. So that's it. Let me provide you yet another rhythm game you may have missed. I with millions of views on YouTube. Yeah, this one, this video I'm showing right now is eight point four. Yeah, I highly suggest Rhythm Doctor. Oh, that's not heard of that. It's a very good game. It's a one button rhythm game. Oh, you only use the spacebar.
00:47:43
Speaker
But I've watched people play it. And one, the songs are great. And the levels are imaginative. And the way they increase difficulty in the game, it's actually pretty hard. Like even me, if I tried to follow along and try to understand the beat on what depressed space, I miss it because I'm like, Jesus, I'm not sure. But the game is really clever. There's a story, but it's very loose.
00:48:12
Speaker
Basically, you're a doctor with new technology of curing people's illness using music. That sounds beautiful. And it is quite good. But the game is very good in terms of music design. There's a lot of flashing lights. So if you have a tendency towards epilepsy or seizures, you probably can't play this game.
00:48:40
Speaker
But it is a delight in your for your ears and your eyes and I can't spoil for you what happens for your eyes because It is Too much of a treat for you to really oh, how cool. I'll check it out. Yeah now now I've been thinking of rhythm games. Did you ever play? Crypt of the Necro dancer or cadence of Hyrule Andy? Oh, yeah, I love Crypt of the Necro dancers. Probably one of my favorite games ever Did you play cadence of Hyrule?
00:49:07
Speaker
I did. And to it's going to sound really petty, but I thought the game was too easy. It was it seemed like a match made in heaven and then I played it and it just felt too easy. But this is, you know, being that I had beaten Crypt of the Necro dancer in that last area in the Crypt of the Necro answer is brutal. But I love those games. I love them so much.
00:49:32
Speaker
Now, since we're talking about rhythm games, did you hear about the about the Guitar Hero streamer who got the 100 percent full clear on a level that is basically a joke? No. What's the level?
Gaming Achievements and Records
00:49:46
Speaker
It's called Soul of Six. I'll bring it up on stream here so you can see it. But essentially, if you watch it, he's playing what is essentially insanity. I'm just going to skip out here.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, so he he full cleared a guitar hero song that I can't remember what the beat per second is, but it's something ridiculous. And they kind of more or less assume that no human being could ever do it. Oh, my God.
00:50:18
Speaker
No Yeah, I mean it for if you're looking at chat I mean or if you're excuse me if you're listening through a podcast Yes, it's it's something like every half a second. There's a there's a full four to five beats on every line Even probably faster than that. I think he was strumming with his elbow. I
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah, he was. He's strumming his elbows, strumming on downbeats. Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous. He did it, though. Good on him. Oh, he's so excited. Yeah. I mean, he's the first person to ever do that. So.
00:50:50
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. Rhythm games are great. They are. Remember when the Prappa guy tried to make another rhythm game and no one kickstarted it? I do. And I didn't kickstart it, so I'm part of the problem. It's also funny because Prappa the Rapper is actually a meme on TikTok right now.
00:51:09
Speaker
Is it really? Yeah. Well, this don't know what perap. They know what the music is. Yeah. What is it? Kick, punch, whatever. It's the driving one. Oh, step on the gas. Step on the gas.
00:51:26
Speaker
I guess it sounds like such a fun, creative platform.
Millennials Embrace TikTok
00:51:31
Speaker
It is. Honestly, I mean, I there. Ironically enough, there was a tick tock I saw that basically went millennials in March 2020, which is like not going to download that app for children. Millennials in March 2021. You all got to see this tick tock.
00:51:51
Speaker
I've I've genuinely thought about downloading TikTok. You should, Andy. Because, yeah, I had H3 talks about it a lot and they find some really funny stuff on there. And it just it sounds it just seems like a really cool platform. I will just be a lurker. I will never post a TikTok. But we'll have to create a TikTok so that we can advertise this podcast.
00:52:17
Speaker
That's right. No, make I don't even know how to make a tick tock. I don't. I don't know. You just film a short video. But like, what if you can you like upload original? Let me retry that. Can I. OK. Mm hmm. Can I like make something heavily edited and then upload it? No, but you can do heavy editing in tick tock. I mean, OK. So the best way I heard it described to me once was tick tock is Windows Movie Maker for Gen Z.
00:52:47
Speaker
And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's just like not at all. Yeah, it's just like this is this is how they're getting into editing and learning about, you know, doing it. And like some people are discovering a real talent for it. How cool. Yeah, just really, really cool.
00:53:04
Speaker
more interesting on facebook uh one thing i did want to bring up before we ended was returnal which is well actually so we have two things we have to talk about one is pokemon snap comes out this weekend oh are we going to be reviewing that next week
00:53:21
Speaker
How much is it? It's going to be 60 dollars. And we have no idea how long it's going to be. The original one was 90 minutes. Maybe this one will be a good 180 minutes, but we'll find out. I'll wait for reviews. So got a review that we give. Yeah, that's not how this works, Andy. You know, that's a fair call out. But but also Returnal will be coming out this weekend as well. So you have. Oh, really? That's this weekend. Yep.
00:53:52
Speaker
And that's and for those who don't know, this is Housemarks new third person rogue light action game. Housemark of Resogun thing. Yep. Yep. And basically everyone said really good. Like it's been a lot of very a lot of really positive feedback. Yeah, especially tension. Like it's very the atmosphere is really good. The gameplay loop is fun.
00:54:17
Speaker
The you know, there's a good risk reward structure in terms of playing more risky to do more things. Yeah, everyone's just like, this is great. That's great. I I showed I only cared about it because of the developer, because I felt like they could make a game that felt good.
00:54:35
Speaker
And I was hoping that that could translate here. But the problem is that it's just rainy and dreary and sad.
Game Preview: Returnal
00:54:43
Speaker
Not not entirely. There's there's multiple biomes, as I understand it. Oh, they've only been able to talk about the first two so far. All right. All right.
00:54:53
Speaker
Yeah, give me some. It just it just reminds me when I was young, not young. Oh, God. Now young is my 20s. When I was like early 20s or whatever, there was a site that I remember was called it was called like Blue Skies or something. And it was just a site that would post pictures of games that actually had like color in them. Right. Or blue skies.
00:55:15
Speaker
Because it's so tired how many games do not have or at that time were just dreary and bland And that that came to mind as I was watching this trailer. I was just like
00:55:27
Speaker
Man, so dreary. But yeah, it's it's just it looks good. I like rogue lights or rogue likes in general, too. But yeah, there's progression in between deaths in this game. There's also this cool thing where you see your like the part of the mystery of this whole thing is that you keep coming back to life. But you see where you died, like you leave a body that you will eventually find as you go back in.
00:55:55
Speaker
Also, it kind of looks like a third person bullet hell game, too, a little a little near like almost. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it looks great. It's going to be 70 dollars. It is a 70 dollars PS5 exclusive. But, you know, a lot of people are saying it's it's worth it. Yeah, I'll spend it. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll have to discuss this offline. But yeah, we have Pokemon Snap and Returnal to talk about next week.
00:56:19
Speaker
Hmm. I got to think about and I'm almost done with like a dragon actually almost done. And at the finale, it's a great game. So that's only. Yeah, it's only the third time you said that. Oh, shut up, because now it's the actual finale, Charles. Not just my prediction. Did you get some millennium tower or not, Andy? Oh, shut up. Oh, come on. Then you're not at the finale, my friend. And now.
00:56:43
Speaker
Listen, it's a Yakuza game. It ends in Millennium Tower. I hate to break it to you. Oh, is that a thing? Yes. So I still love the game. So, Andy, not not at the end. Keep that tally up in your heads, Andy, at the end of like a dragon count. You tell us.
00:57:05
Speaker
I'm at the park called Finale. Mm hmm. I guess I got to go in the tower. We'll see. Also, you can also watch Falcon and Winter Soldier if you have it yet. This is just for everyone. It just wrapped up last week. Great show.
'Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Praise
00:57:20
Speaker
Did not pull any punches about racial tension. Very entertaining. It felt like a Marvel movie at times. Plot got a little weird at the end, but apparently I was reading about it and the original plot was about a virus. So Covid kind of fucked that up.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah. So they had to make some last minute changes there to the plot. And I think in the last episode, you kind of feel them. But overall, still a really good show. Mm hmm. I'm glad. I'm glad to hear especially Disney tackling race. Hmm. Yeah. That's why everyone was shocked. Yeah. Oh, good on them.
00:57:54
Speaker
All right. Well, John, I think this has been another episode of add to party a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I've been your host, James Hartwell. This is your other friend, Charles. And this is your other friend, Andy Kay. And just so you know, I lost that auction. It was at $30. I bid $75 and some stupid person came in and outbid me.
00:58:22
Speaker
If you outfit Andy, let us know and make sure to Lord it over him. It had my favorite outfit in it. I need a figure with a bomber jacket. Good night, everyone.