Movies Mortal Kombat Legends Animated Films - Anyone Seen These?

[Greatoneshere]

Somehow despite being a big MK fan I somehow missed that WB Animation has been putting out one short Mortal Kombat "Legends" animated film each year for the past three years? First was Scorpion's Revenge, then Battle for the Realms, and last year was Snow Blind. A fourth one is coming out this year - Cage Match. Jennifer Carpenter from Dexter voices Sonya Blade and Joel McHale voices Johnny Cage (works great in the role). Anyone else seen these? I finally watched all three recently and they are all a lot of fun - but of varying quality. The first one, Scorpion's Revenge, is genuinely good. It mixes the Scorpion/Sub-Zero story well with the normal final MK tournament storyline, I'd give it a 7/10. The second one, Battle for the Realms, had a lot of potential to be good but it is overstuffed, rushing both a Shinnok/Scorpion/Sub-Zero plotline with a truly final MK tournament plotline, I'd give the second one a 6/10. The final one so far, Snow Blind, is pretty good but just a little too standard as a Mad Max-type film starring Sub-Zero, Kenshi, and Kano. While all three films are written by the same guy (Jeremy Adams), the switch in director from the first two (Ethan Spaulding) to the third one (Rick Morales) is noticeable, with a slight decline in animation quality and not as good fight scenes so I'd give the third one a 6.5/10. All three movies are connected, with Battle for the Realms being pretty much a direct sequel to Scorpion's Revenge. 

 

All three are super violent, hard R-rated animated films (as they should be) with plenty of blood, gore, and fatalities. You primarily watch these for the fights and in that regard all three films deliver while actually having fun with the MK mythos. These films are in their own universe, not connected to any other MK media. While I'm still sad that Kevin Tancharoen's live-action web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy got cancelled after 2 seasons, this has helped (and the recent MK live-action reboot film, which was okay/solid). If you've seen any of these, what did you think? Cage Match, the upcoming fourth one, will probably be pretty funny, is my guess, so looking forward to that one.

 

 

[silentbob]

I’ve seen the first 2 and enjoyed them for their violent animation and Hale nails it as Cage. Plus I really like Carpenter’s job for Sonya Blade. She did a fantastic job as Selina/Catwoman in the Gotham by Gaslight movie. Will hopefully see the 3rd one soon, as my local Cartoon Network has them up usually in a couple months.

[Greatoneshere]

3 hours ago, silentbob said:

I’ve seen the first 2 and enjoyed them for their violent animation and Hale nails it as Cage. Plus I really like Carpenter’s job for Sonya Blade. She did a fantastic job as Selina/Catwoman in the Gotham by Gaslight movie. Will hopefully see the 3rd one soon, as my local Cartoon Network has them up usually in a couple months.

 

I'm surprised there's going to be a 4th one given all the recent cuts at WB, especially in the animation department.

[silentbob]

23 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I'm surprised there's going to be a 4th one given all the recent cuts at WB, especially in the animation department.

didn’t know a 4th was on the way. Thanks for the info

[Greatoneshere]

9 minutes ago, silentbob said:

didn’t know a 4th was on the way. Thanks for the info

 

I mention it twice in my opening post!  

[silentbob]

2 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I mention it twice in my opening post!  

I’ve barely slept and just saw “Cage Match” and assumed we were still talking about one of the many Cage fights from the movies. 

[Greatoneshere]

I saw therockdltj make a new thread about this but I figured it's better going into an already existing thread: 

 

 

[Greatoneshere]

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match just dropped this past week - I'll be watching it soon and I'll report back - I hope it's as fun as the first three!

[Greatoneshere]

Finally watched Cage Match - it was a lot of fun! This is a prequel that actually takes place in the 80's and this movie goes FULL 80's in style, color scheme, animation style, humor, etc. It was fun and funny and Joel McHale makes a great Johnny Cage, who basically functions as the Deadpool of the Mortal Kombat universe here. Another solid entry in the series, it's only downside was that weirdly enough there isn't a lot of fighting compared to the other movies, this is much more of an homage to 80's style and films (whilst skewering Hollywood and B-tier action stars throughout), which probably explains why MK fans don't seem to have liked this one as much as the previous three. Recommended. It was nice to see the same writer back for the fourth time, Jeremy Adams, and having Ethan Spaulding returning to direct (he did the first two, with producer Rick Morales stepping in to direct the third one, Snow Blind) was a step up as he's better than Rick Morales. I really hope we get a fifth film next year (as we've been getting one a year since the first film came out in 2020) but I'm not hopeful since this series seems to have been having diminishing returns in terms of success with each subsequent entry. But I'd like to see another. I don't play the new MK 1 game that recently dropped but I would hope there'd be a lot of cross promotion with this to help it succeed.

 

@silentbob

[silentbob]

I’ve enjoyed the first 3 but not enough to want and purchase them. Lately these movies have been appearing on our Canadian AdultSwim in little as 3-4 months. So I’ll wait it out or watch if on one of my streaming services for free

[Greatoneshere]

31 minutes ago, silentbob said:

I’ve enjoyed the first 3 but not enough to want and purchase them. Lately these movies have been appearing on our Canadian AdultSwim in little as 3-4 months. So I’ll wait it out or watch if on one of my streaming services for free

 

Makes total sense to me - I don't think they're worth buying, watching online is the way to go. When it is available for you lemme know what you thought here once you see it!