Whenever an artistic medium dares to cheat on its loyal fanbase by scurrying over to another, anger and thinkpieces likely follow. Technology has amped up an uncanny-valley-sort of realism in video games. Movies have added more CGI to its blockbuster spectacles and animation. Thus, the previously distinct media have drawn blurrier lines with consumers none too pleased.
After Street Fighter laid the groundwork for the fighting game, Mortal Kombat hit the scene, setting a high water mark for realistic digitized graphics and pushing boundaries with its high levels of bloody violence, including, most notably, its Fatalities. It sparked so much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore, it led to the creation of the ESRB (the video game rating system).
Almost nothing about this movie makes a lick of sense. Choosing where to begin in explaining what ails the picture in actually poses a problem for it’s a perverted embarrassment of riches, a seemingly endless pit of strange inconsistencies, bone headed dialogue exchanges and a general lack of cohesion to hold anything together.
Three significant events have occurred in 2013 that lend credence to the claim sci-fi is on its death bed as far as mainstream moviemaking goes. Star Trek Into Darkness continued to drive its franchise further and further away from its ideological roots in pursuit of money spinning breakneck action with a loose plot better suited to the Mission: Impossible series; the announcement that Star Wars will be revamped under the tutelage of the very same J.J. Abrams shows that rather than create new iconic franchises the executives would rather bleed dry the old ones; and Avatar will be graced by three sequels, suggesting a lack of faith in fresh ideas on the part of James ‘Mr. Innovation’ Cameron.