[Released] Mortal Kombat (1995) - Open Matte Komposite

Cortical Systems is back to celebrate the new 2021 Mortal Kombat movie release by going back and painstakingly blending and aligning a fullscreen DVD version of the original 1995 film with the north american blu ray 1080p resolution to create this new open matte edition without sacrificing on the quality where it counts most.

The SD source was treated with a detail preserving upscale as well as colour matched to the blu ray source. Each shot was then re-positioned to the new aspect ratio. In some shots the colour may pop ever so slightly but I'm out of steam for this project and believe this version is good to release for now.

Like a lot of older movies, many of the digital effects and matte painting shots were not completed with the full open matte. In these cases, I've opted to use the widescreen 1080p source since it looks much nicer and in most cases the jump in ratio works fine for this kind of martial arts movie. 
See more of Sub Zero's freezing particles! More beautiful Kitana! SLIGHTLY more rubber trees in Sorpion's forest! A C-stand base left uncovered...and more! This edition doesn't fix any of the cheesey writing, acting or Christopher Lambert's voice but hopefully it will be a treasured edition of the childhood classic movie we all grew up with.

Stay tuned for future Cortical System releases.
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FIND IT ON THE SPEEN! .... OR MESSAGE ME IF YOU WANT TO CHAT






Screenshots:

[Booshman]

Just watching this now and there is a brief error when Johnny Cage looks at the invitation to the tournament. The aspect ratio switches mid shot. It's just a frame or 2 by the look of it.

Just watching this now and there is a brief error when Johnny Cage looks at the invitation to the tournament. The aspect ratio switches mid shot. It's just a frame or 2 by the look of it.

Yeah unfortunately you're right and its possible there are 1 or 2 other places that happens. My eyes have been bleeding for the last few weeks QC-ing everything

There's also a few places where try I as might - the alignment was slightyyyy off. But it is what it is.

Is there any way to get a hold of this if you don't have a Myspleen account? I'm REALLY interested!

[spoRv]

First post, and already broken rule...

Today I feel good, just one day ban, but YOU HAVE to read rules first, got it?

It looks very curious. Somebody told me that there are 1.85: 1 aspect ratio scenes here that have black bars not only at the top / bottom but also on the left / right.
Tell me, have you used the AutoOverlay AviSynth plugin to combine sources?

It looks very curious. Somebody told me that there are 1.85: 1 aspect ratio scenes here that have black bars not only at the top / bottom but also on the left / right.
Tell me, have you used the AutoOverlay AviSynth plugin to combine sources?

AviSynth isn't my jam. This project was done all manually on a per shot basis over the course of around 2 months.

you did a brilliant job with this! Signed up just to congratulate on this. It's so cool to see more of the original MK! It makes complete (komplete!) sense that they'd film in 4:3 to protect it for home video release. The swift aspect ratio changes with CGI blend really well too. You should be very proud mate. Rock on!

[alexpeden2000]

you did a brilliant job with this! Signed up just to congratulate on this. It's so cool to see more of the original MK! It makes complete (komplete!) sense that they'd film in 4:3 to protect it for home video release. The swift aspect ratio changes with CGI blend really well too. You should be very proud mate. Rock on!

Great to have you here Jay, love your guys work (you’re clearly a dab hand at editing). Why not post a little introduction to yourself?

I’m trying to get one thing clear. Does there exist an official version of something like this, with the full picture intact? I have a DVD with MK and MKA on the same disc, and they both have the full-screen 1.33 version. The Blu-ray set I bought with each movie on its own disc, plus a third disc with MKLS1, has both movies at 1.85. These are the versions that are available on HBOMax (MK) and YouTube (MKA). But NEITHER of the DVD or Blu-ray versions for either movie have the full image. Comparing the 1.33-1.85, the image has been added to on the sides, but cut off on the top and bottom. Why did they do that? If I buy different editions of of the DVD or Blu-ray, will any of them have the full image (i.e. combo packs, individual movies, etc.)? Or is there only one DVD version and one Blu-ray version for each movie, with each new edition or combo pack just using the same image again? I know many DVDs said they contained the 1.85, or even both versions, but from what I can tell on the internet, the packaging was always wrong, and only these two versions exist for both movies. Is that why you created this project in the first place? Or was it just for fun to see if you could do it better?

Btw, here are the different editions I have found, and which ones I have. I certainly don’t want to buy all of them to find the one I want, if it actually exists outside of your fan-made edit:
- MK DVD
- MK Blu-ray
- MKA DVD
- MKA Blu-ray
- MK + MKA DVD on single disc (I own this one, packaging says 1.85 but only contains 1.33 for both movies. Special features listed on package also not present.)
- MK + MKA + MKLS1 DVD
- MK + MKA + MKLS1 Blu-ray (I own this one and the packaging accurately says 1.85. But the picture is both ADDED TO AND TAKEN AWAY FROM as described above for both movies.)
There may also obviously be more editions than I’m aware of, but these are the main ones I could find.

Thoughts? Happy to hear input from all posters, including OP. Thanks!