I'm not a huge Mortal Kombat fan, so when I first heard about the new Mortal Kombat movie coming to HBO Max, I shrugged it off as something that was sure to be a funny laugh. It didn't help that there were no big-name actors in the film.

But when I finally saw the trailer, I realized that the "Mortal Kombat" movie might actually be one of the best video game adaptations ever made. Why? A "Mortal Kombat" movie doesn't need to be a star-studded affair; in fact, it's better that way.

Highlander Christopher Lambert added tough star quality to the original "Mortal Kombat" film, but he is not the reason that film succeeded (in the sense that a film of this type should). neither "Mortal Kombat" nor "Mortal Kombat Annihilation, at least the lead actor, Robin Shu (Liu Kang), had a steady gait, and his martial arts background kept his presence grounded.

Unfortunately, these films were criticized for their lousy plots and low-budget special effects. And while the trailer for the film "Mortal Kombat" gives a small taste of its quality effects, the story and special effects will be known later.

For now, we can only hope for the best. These trailers at least give us reason to believe that a "Mortal Kombat" movie will be cool, which (I believe) is the most important thing when adapting a fighting video game to film.

More convincing is needed. If you look at the first seven minutes of "Mortal Kombat," the wild world of frozen fighters is brought to life, and there is no scene where you can tell the actors apart, and it works.

By all accounts, a good "Mortal Kombat" film should emphasize its fight scenes above all else. If you cast a bunch of big-name actors, you have to use the usual movie trick of patching together footage of stunt doubles with the roles played by the actual actors.

Instead, the movie Mortal Kombat features Luis Tan as Cole Young (a character created for the movie), and Tan has the serious credentials to perform the stunts himself. Not only has his father choreographed stunts and fights in films such as "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Batman"), but he has done all of his own stunts in "Deadpool 2," Netflix's "Wu's Assassins," and "Into the Badlands."

Max Fan as Kung Lao is another quality casting for the film Mortal Kombat. Huang, a member of Jackie Chan's stunt team, explains the importance of actors doing their own stunts in this "Meet the Kast" video.

Likewise, I am particularly excited about Joe Taslim's performance as Sub-Zero, or Bi Han. Action movie fans may recognize him from The Raid: Redemption, but many will recognize him from this performance because of his martial arts training in judo, martial arts, and taekwondo.

And then there is Scorpion, one of the iconic characters of "Mortal Kombat". He is played by Hiroyuki Sanada, a veteran actor familiar from "Westworld" and "The Avengers: Westworld" and "Avengers: Endgame." Sanada's time in the latter was brief, but it was action-packed as the head of a Japanese crime syndicate that Hawkeye hunts down. Again, Sanada has experience. In an interview with Kung Fu Magazine, he revealed that he grew up idolizing Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee, so he had to do his own stunt work. Sanada enrolled in Japan Action Club, the first stunt school in Japan.

And you must see the difference. Having recently watched all of the "Mission: Impossible" films, I was reminded of how insane Tom Cruise is at performing stunts. But when you know that an actor is doing his own stunts, you (or at least I) look at a movie differently.

I know "Mortal Kombat" is fiction - the ice-producing ninja Sub-Zero and the four-armed monster Goro speak for themselves - but the film feels more real when you consider how these same actors take blows and impacts. It's like watching professional wrestling, where everyone knows that despite their best efforts to stay healthy, they can still get hurt by falling or bumping into each other.

But even that can go wrong, and talking about his work on the 2020 film "The Swordsman," Haslim revealed that the fight choreography was too realistic. But Jang Hyuk said it was fine, and he got right back into the fight.

So while the "Mortal Kombat" movie may be a clichéd adventure (with a plot that has more holes than a cheese grater), its cast practically guarantees one thing. In speaking with several "Mortal Kombat" fans I know, they reaffirmed that "what matters is the fight."

Nevertheless, there is another, brutally obvious way for a "Mortal Kombat" movie to succeed, by all accounts. But with the right cast and CGI advancements, there is no longer any doubt that you will be shouting "MORTAL KOMBAT." along with the movie while watching it with your friends on a Discord call.