Mortal Kombat

Sure, the stories are tired out, juvenile, morality plays. Sure, they attach a 90's value system to people supposedly from times centuries past. Nevertheless, this thing has some of the coolest fight scenes ever shot. Besides, all the women look and dress like they just jumped out of an adolescent's daydream. Baywatch is nothing compared to these babes.

I am a very big Mortal Kombat fan. I love both movies and I thought this series was a good one. Back when this on TV I was a huge wrestling fan (I am not happy with today's wrestling but I still love the classic WWF & WCW days back in the 80s & early 90s) and I'd watch this right after WCW's Monday Nitro show. Mortal Kombat: Conquest had good actors and actresses which included the beautiful Kristanna Loken which her character looked so good looking and neat in this series. Fans of Terminator 3 should check her out because she is very good in this. There was notable good acting by the other cast members Bruce Locke, Daniel Bernhardt, Jeffrey Meek, Tracy Douglas, Paolo Montalban, and others. There was even guest stars in some good roles such as Eva Mendes and WCW's Bryan Clarke of Kronic (WWF's Adam Bomb) in some episodes. The series had some big time potential but it didn't air long on television. If you are able to watch this series and if you love Mortal Kombat then watch it!

Despite the disappointing beginnings, this series really picks up speed for a thrilling finale which certainly left me a bit stunned.

At the start of the series it seemed this was just another lame TV program which would be cancelled after five shows; the fight scenes and Taja were the only things which kept your interest while the stories tailed off half way through. However the more episodes you saw, more characters were added and as the acting improved, so did the plots.

By the end Conquest had made up for both the early episodes and the awful Annihilation. The only questions that remain are as to whether there will be another series and just why Taja was hardly ever involved in the fights after an impressive first bout.

As good as could be expected.

I'll be the first to admit that, when I first saw this series back in 1998 following WCW Monday Nitro on TNT, I did not like it. I watched the pilot episodes and a third one and thought "oh gawd!" I stopped watching until I happened to catch an episode near the end of the season. Something much bigger was happening in the show, on screen and off screen. The writing felt compelling and pulled me into the series, the acting improved ten fold, and the direction of the show was clever and complex. What started out as a rather tame and slow show developed into a deep character driven show. Conquest if it was filled the senseless violence and rest of the traits of the games would have made a poor show. It never would have made the light of day in a theater or on the small screen. Remember any fatalities in either of the movies? Me neither. When it comes to Conquest, despite a low, very low budget the writers and producers had enough faith to just focus on the show and not the politics at the network. The finale of the show proves how risky pays off and makes you wonder who was sick enough to pull off such a nihilistic ending. Have you caught Resident Evil (2002)? It was bold and frankly ballsy.

Anyone with an "all-region" dvd player the UK does have more than the one volume on dvd there. You just have to know where to look to get them. I got mine from the UK Amazon.com store. Type in Mortal Kombat and search the dvds, there are five dvd's in total. One of those has 6 episodes, the others are two a piece. These are all cut together into 1hr, 20 min. or better movies on each disc. It's very cool to see it done this way. The first disc with 6 episodes, pulls together the Scorpion and Subzero saga seamlessly. Final Battle is perhaps the most seamless entry on dvd as those two episodes are so tight you won't notice where the original cut off point was to jump to that final episode.

I missed 99% of Mortal Kombat: Conquest's episodes when they originally aired. I have been able to see what I missed on VCD... and I missed one truly cool show! The acting isn't great, the plot's are a little convoluted and the FX are weak. On the flip side, the characters are entertaining, Kristianna Loken is HOT (so is Audie Englund who plays Kitana in 'Shadow of a Doubt'), the fights are spectacular (better than the fights in the pathetic 'Mortal Kombat: Annihilation') and the music is kickin! A fun show that isn't serious in the slightest degree. Get a soda, sit back and enjoy the show. Too bad it never went past one season.