Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on August 30, 2021 to Blu-ray™ and August 31, 2021 to digital platforms.
Synopsis
Our team of heroes are besieged by the enemy forces of Shao Kahn – forcing Raiden and his group of warriors into a deal to compete in a final Mortal Kombat that will determine the fate of the realms. Now our heroes must travel to Outworld in order to defend Earthrealm and, simultaneously, Scorpion must find the ancient Kamidogu before it’s used to resurrect the One Being – which would mean certain destruction of all things in the universe. Time is short and the stakes are high in this action-packed continuation of the Mortal Kombat journey.
Review
I make no bones about the fact Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge was a blistering film. The perfect opening gambit for a world of animated storytelling set within the gaming franchise behemoth. With that film, Warner Bros. set about creating something unique to the gaming world: a potential franchise which feels akin to the DCAU over a simple beat-em-up.
Writer Jeremy Adams has carefully picked elements from the games in order to reflect 30 years of gameplay. In the first film that was the basic structure of the tournament and the characters of Scorpion (Patrick Seitz) and Sub-Zero (played in that film by Steve Blum). Of course there were supporting players. But Scorpion’s Revenge was just the opening gambit.
With Battle of the Realms Adams and director Ethan Spaulding have blown the Mortal Kombat world wide open. Expanding upon the mythology to bring in aspects like the Kamidogu and the old gods. But then also expanding the cast to include players from across the franchise.
Adams balances the script incredibly well. There’s moments for each of the cast to take centre stage. A format like Mortal Kombat does have the built in ability to pair characters off. But it’s more than that in Adams’ writing. It goes beyond the fighting to make characters like Johnny Cage (Joel McHale) feel well realised in the animated world.
Battle of the Realms suitably picks up the pace from Scorpion’s Revenge. There’s a sense that the foot is rapidly press on the gas throughout the film. A near constant escalation which hurtles the film to its conclusion.
This time around it’s Liu Kang (Jordan Rodrigues) to takes more of the spotlight. It’s not the same type of focus we saw in Scorpion’s Revenge. Instead Battle of the Realms plays him the hero rather than as the central figure. An opening flashback reflects similar scenes in the previous film and acts as the audience’s entry point. But whilst the journey hits familiar beats its still its own, unique entity.
Look between the action and you’ll realise that all of the central characters develop across the narrative. Any number of the players in this film could spin off in to individual movies or team up in different configurations. Every player in the real world has their favourite character. Now in the animated world those characters have taken on lives of their own.
The bigger story brings with it bigger visuals, building on the foundations of the first film. There’s plenty of extreme, bone crunching gore to enjoy. Taking cues from the contemporary games, Battle of the Realms includes plenty of x-ray style closeups of shattering skulls and spines. Surprisingly it really ups the ante when it comes to violence.
Whilst I do hope for more storytelling in this world, it’s important to point out that Battle of the Realms does feature a fully realised story. There are defined beginning, middle and end points. Whilst there are still avenues of storytelling to be explored, the film doesn’t exist purely to setup its own future. That in itself is incredibly refreshing.
Verdict
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms is the quintessentially perfect followup to Scorpion’s Revenge. Bigger, bolder and braver in every way it proves why a Mortal Kombat animated franchise deserves to exist.
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