Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge along with Street Fighter holds a very dear place in my heart. They are the reasons I got into gaming. Every day after school, I made sure I had enough to grind one game. Over time it developed a following and became a culture on its own. Then came the movies and tv series. However unlike the counterpart, it is often compared to, it never produced any animated movies. This has been finally corrected.
It has Began
Mortal Kombat: Scorpions Revenge takes us back to the MK1 days. Where our beloved heroes, Lui Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage are headed to Shang Tsung’s island to fight in the tournament. MK has evolved over the many decades, and so too had Scorpion. Once a simple nemesis, his back story has been fleshed out. He has grown from vengeful wraith to anti-hero. I suppose much of that is due to his ever-growing popularity. I have no complaints, though I will admit I prefer Sub-Zero.
Brutality
The movie is given to the audience in very sharp lines and deep dark color palettes. This emphasizes the more mature tone. It does lean into anime considerably but that isn’t a bad thing. The darker shading techniques do bring these characters to life. They even found a beautiful way to incorporate the gory and gimmicky X-Ray vision from the recent games. I dare say they do it in a better, more realistic manner.
Make no mistake, this is a proper MK movie, with blood and gore coming at you from the get-go. The action sequences feel straight out of the game. Even the fatalities are cleverly placed in between battles and seamlessly inserted into the fight scenes.
Final Round
The film digs deep into Mortal Kombat lore and manages to bend it just enough to gives Scorpion his own story without fully altering the canon too much. More importantly, it does total justice to every single character appearing. Whether it is load mouth Cage or the tougher than nails Sonya, the creators are fully in tune with them. The only oddity was Raiden who seemed to lack the whimsical nature his predecessors had.
Scorpion: “Get Over Here!!!
Flawless Victory
It is a fantastic start to a potential series of animated movies, and with Warner Bro behind this could only get better. They are the king of animated movies west of the border. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge chooses a mature route which does mean it loses the younger target audience. A bold move, but proves to be the right one. The finished product is just what the real fans want. If this is indeed a taste of things to come, then we in for a great time.
Scorpion does what he does best…. Block, Up, Up…
