Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)

 6/10

Starring the voices of:

Manny Jacinto

David Wenham

Ron Yuan

Keith Silverstein

 

Directed by Rick Morales

 

I prefer this to Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realm. This direct-to-video addition to the Mortal Kombat animated world is better. Its plot is streamlined, which is one thing the last one lacked—a simple, focused story that follows a few characters from start to finish.

The animation isn’t something I’d jump out of my seat to watch again, and in the long run, it’ll probably end up being one of those things you’ve seen and forgotten. The action and gore will appeal to fans of the game, but at times, it felt unnecessary.

Another aspect, which could be seen as either a positive or a negative, is that the animation didn’t try anything new. It followed the A-to-Z formula for post-apocalyptic movies, a trend most movie watchers are already familiar with. The Mortal Kombat characters we’re used to seeing are fewer in number here, but it wasn’t bad to see some of the newer ones from the games brought to life. However, as someone who grew up in the early ’90s playing this game, the movie felt like it lacked the fun of seeing all the iconic characters from Mortal Kombat 2 fighting one another.

After the defeat of Shao Khan, Earth is raided by otherworldly beings, turning it into a complete wasteland. Kano, now calling himself king, goes around conquering outpost cities with his newly formed crew of Mortal Kombat characters known as the Black Dragon.

In one of these cities, we meet Kenshi, who is determined to become the best fighter there is. His encounter with a member of the Black Dragon faction makes him a target, and he’s quickly dealt with. Tricked by Shang Tsung, Kenshi loses his sight, while Tsung gains the power he needs to take on Kano.

The animation enters a dull phase during Kenshi’s training, where Sub-Zero finds him blind and helpless. Thank goodness for the skip-forward button. Sub-Zero trains Kenshi to be independent despite his blindness and helps him become a better fighter. From there, the story picks up as the characters prepare to take on the bad guys and stop the chaos.

I’m sure there will be more animated Mortal Kombat movies filled with gore and action. While some may enjoy the direction these animations are taking with events unfolding after the previous installment, I just miss the old crew.

Mortal Kombat is one IP I think is struggling to find a good constant flow of movies.