I do agree that the cast was mostly better in the 1995 film. Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, and Bridgette Wilson nailed their roles and were pretty dead on with their video game counterparts. Christopher Lambert was a little hammy but still very enjoyable to watch and more interesting than the guy who played Raiden here. And Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa from the original film was a way better Shang Tsung, just delightfully evil and menacing. That actor looked naturally wicked anyway, even when he wasn't playing a villain. The new guy was kind of boring and didn't put much emotion into his lines.
Sub Zero and Scorpion were a lot better in the newest film, they were more fleshed out and accurate to the source material. I really liked Kano in this one too, he was one of the best parts. But the 1995 version of him was pretty good as well and may have even influenced this new one somewhat. Most of the heroes in this new one were kind of bland and far too serious. Cole was pretty weak and uninteresting. If they wanted an "outsider" character who more or less represented the perspective of the audience, they should have just used Johnny Cage instead. I wish Cole didn't have to keep interrupting the fight between Scorpion and Sub Zero, it should have just been the two of them. Cole's "power" was lame too, as was Jax's arms being magically grown instead of being cybernetic implants.
They did indeed spend WAY too much time setting up the story in this one, most of the movie was just exposition with some fight scenes spread throughout. And how did Sonya know so much about the tournament, couldn't it have been Raiden who told Cole the backstory?
I do find the 1995 film more fun overall. But where the 2021 adaption improves on it is the blood and violence (which were sorely missing from the old one with its PG-13 rating), better special effects (the CGI in the old one is very dated and looks almost as bad as the 1997 Spawn film), and the fact that it included the whole backstory with Scorpion's character and his rivalry with Sub Zero (they were just mindless pawns of Shang Tsung in the original). Goro was great in both versions but I respect the practical effects of the old film a little more.
I can't decide which one I like better at this point, both of them have their strengths and weaknesses. But I probably lean more towards the original overall. And of course it had that epic and badass theme song. We hear a variation of it here, but it's pretty watered down and underwhelming.
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