Well then animation fans it's not often that I get to review a new straight to DVD movie on the weekend (i'm writing this on Sunday) but tho what I believe to be the first ever animated Mortal Kombat film, which was due for digital release on Tuesday leaked out a few days early. So you can freaking bet that I was downloading this film the first chance that I got and well it's really something i'll tell you that much and so here is my review of "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge" enjoy.
The plot of the movie is an ageing warlock named Shang Tsung hosts a yearly tournbment called with the best fighters from this world and another fighting to win but sorcerer Quan Chi makes a deal with a lost soul by restoring him as a legendary fighter known simply as Scorpion. If i'm being frank the plot of the movie is pretty thin even what I just described to you is basically the premise of the movie rather then the story that's being told which is a shame because the premise is pretty interesting.
Starring in this movie is Joel McHale as Johnny Cage , Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade , Jordan Rodrigues as Liu Kang , Patrick Seitz as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion , Steve Blum as Kuai Liang / Sub-Zero , Artt Butler as Shang Tsung , Darin De Paul as Quan Chi , Robin Atkin Downes as Kano , Dave B. Mitchell as Raiden , Ike Amadi as Jackson "Jax" Briggs , Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro , Grey Griffin as Kitana and Satoshi Hasashi and Fred Tatasciore as Demon Torturer.
In terms of what I thought about the acting in the film it was honestly alot better then what I thought it was going to be simply because a few of these actors are actually reprising their roles from either the games of the 1995 live action movie i'll leave it up to you to work who's reprising their role and who isn't. I really cannot say who is the better actor in this film since alot of them really do deliver a good performance.
Now I can't find who did the animation for the film on the IMDB page but on the film's end credits it lists Studio Mir as doing the animation why the IMDB page couldn't tell me that I have no idea but then again the IMDB page also has DC Entertainment listed as being involved with the film. In terms of what I thought about the animation like the voice acting it was a lot better then what I thought it was going to be however it's not as good as I think that it could have been.
The film has a more anime inspired look to it like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend Of Kora which I do feel works well enough for this film. However not every piece of animation that's aimed at adults needs to look like an anime it just needs to be have adult themes this one tho does contain a more adult look with the anime visual style but it doesn't really have that many adult themes outside of Scorpions plot that is.
Now you might be wondering why i've got the poster for the animated film version of Batman: The Killing Joke well that's because both films are rated R. However unlike The Killing Joke film this film really does earn it heck it earn it even before the the opening credits start playing because my god is there some brutal scenes in this movie and I loved every single one of them and i'm not going to lie those scene were freaking cool as hell.
Incase you can't tell i'm trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible mostly because I want you guys to check it out but also because there's nothing to spoil whatsoever. Which to me says that the movie has nothing else to offer and is intended as a one time watch which i'm honestly fine with since not every film should be viewed multiple times but I will say that how the film ends is such sequel bait that they might as well end it with "Such And Such A Character Will Return" it's that obvious and yes that was me trying to make a joke spoiler free.
I want to take the time to do something that I very rarely do when I review an animated film and that's take the time very briefly to talk about the character designs. The designs for the characters in this movie look so freaking cool that's honestly the best word that I can use to describe them if you want proof of that all you need to do is look at the image of Kitana she looks so freaking bada*s in this movie and I like that they made Scorpions costume look like something that a samurai would wear which I thought was pretty sweet.
This film is an hour and twenty minuets long and may god do you feel it in alot of places and when I say alot I really freaking mean it. Alot of this does come down to the lack of story which does mean there's alot of stuff that ultimately adds nothing to the film and is there just to make the film as close to feature length as possible as such I feel that the film should have been at least an hour maybe even forty five minuets because that's how much actual story material they have this film didn't need to be an hour and twenty minuets long at all.
This film is an r rating and like I said before it really does earn it i'm not going to say how it earns it but if you've played the games you'll know exactly what i'm talking about. I'm honestly not that shocked that they made this film as violent as they did like there where somethings that caught me of guard but again i'm not going to spoil what they are but I will also say if you've played the games they do somethings known from the games in a really cool way.
Now this is an action film and that does mean that we need to talk about the action that's in the film itself. Even tho the franchise is indeed known for it's fighting for me personally the action in the film is very sub-par at best which is a shame because they do some really cool stuff in those action scenes it's just that they cool stuff that they do has been done better in other movies both animated or not.
Overall if your a fan of the Mortal Kombat games (of which I personally haven't played them but I have seen the two live action movies) then you'll find the movie entertaining. However if your like me and are pretty much just a casual fan then chances are your not going to find much entertainment in this film outside of some of the action and violence as such the film gets a 7 out of 10 from me and if you want to buy the film you can as it comes out on Digital release Tuesday April 14th and on DVD and Blu-Ray April 28th don't ask me how I saw it early let's just say "other methods" were used and I don't condone using those methods.