The past couple of months have been tough for all of us with the COVID-19 outbreak. Every day we keep hearing news of people’s lives being endangered or taken away because of this virus and hearing news of cities shutting down, which comes with the closings of movie theaters, music venues, and unessential shops that we all love to go to. But there was one light that shone in this tunnel, and that light was the release of Warner Brothers’ new animated feature, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge.
Scorpion’s Revenge was the first Mortal Kombat animated project produced since the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders Of The Realm, so this film had a lot of anticipation from fans, and boy, did it deliver! The title of this film gives off the vibe that it is heavy on Scorpion and his story, but that wasn’t the only story it told - anyone remember 1995’s Mortal Kombat? We get the classic story of Lord Raiden gathering his team of Earthrealm’s Defenders to compete in Mortal Kombat, the tournament that happens once a generation where the best warriors from all the realms gather to compete in the tournament and get a win for their realm. If one realm wins ten tournaments in a row, that realm lifts the veil between realms and gains full power of all. For the past nine tournaments, Shang Tsung and Outworld have won and if they win this one, its emperor, Shao Kahn, will rule over all realms. Lord Raiden recruits the Shaolin Monk Liu Kang, Special Forces Agent Sonya Blade, and Hollywood actor and champion martial artist Johnny Cage to battle for Earthrealm and to defeat Outworlds champion Goro and save Earthrealm from being destroyed.
Now let’s get back to the title of this film, Scorpion’s Revenge. Before Scorpion ended up in Netherrealm he was known as Hanzo Hasashi, Grandmaster of the Shirai Ryu. Following an ambush by the Lin Kuei Clan, the entire Shirai Ryu clan was murdered except for Hanzo, who finds his wife murdered and then later has to watch Lin Kuei leader Sub Zero kill his son right before he kills Hanzo. Hanzo wakes up trapped in Netherrealm and takes down an army of monsters to get to Shinnok, emperor of Netherrealm, but when he gets there he finds a temporary placeholder leader, Quan Chi. Hanzo demands to go home so he can seek his revenge, but Quan Chi has other plans for him. He transforms Hanzo into Scorpion and sends him to fight in the tournament to get back the key that was holding Shinnok and as an added bonus, Sub Zero would be fighting in the tournament too. With the aid of Lord Raiden, Scorpion starts to realize there is more to Quan Chi than he thinks and soon finds out the truth about the murders of his clan and family.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is laid out perfectly and tells a great story. It’s the classic tale with some added twists to give us the movie we always wanted the original live action film to be. The film has an awesome cast voicing the characters that compliment each other so well, such as Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade, Joel McHale as Johnny Cage, Patrick Seitz as Scorpion, Jordan Rodrigues as Liu Kang, and Steve Blum as Sub Zero, just to name a few. To go with that great cast of voices is beautiful animation that really has that classic Warner Brothers feel to it. If you love the DC animated films you’ll adore this. The only flaw the film has is the runtime, I felt it could have continued on for maybe twenty more minutes or so on top of the one hour and twenty-minute length.
Scorpion’s Revenge was absolutely fantastic and I can only hope that this marks the beginning of a series of Mortal Kombat animated films.
RORSCHACH RATING:
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Victims and Villains is written and produced by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey. Music by Yuriy Bespalov & Beggars. This post was edited by Cam Smith. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is property of Warner Brothers Pictures. We do not own nor claim any rights. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions’s Revenge is available now on Blu-Ray, Digital and VOD.
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