I was really excited for Battle of the Realms after watching Scorpions Revenge. The first film shocked me, I am a life long Mortal Kombat fan & had never seen anything that nailed the great story & fit it into a perfect package. I knew there had to be a sequel & had assumed it would be a hybrid of 2 & 3's story. This is mainly due to 2 having a somewhat barebones story while the third game gets interesting again. Well I was somewhat correct...
Mortal Kombat Legends starts out strong, immediately following the 2nd game & bringing back Johnny Cage, right off the bat. His humor in the first movie was perfect & while its not as strong in this one he remains the most enjoyable character. Very early on we are shown Stryker, so I had assumed I was correct 2/3 hybrid guess. This made me look forward to hopefully seeing more beloved characters soon...
Similar to the first, this film jumps around in its plot. Scorpion, who took center stage last time, is back. However this is where problems begin for me. Scorpion's mission in this one is pursuing and running from Shinnok, the main villain from the 4th game. Shinnok does appear in the first movie but I had guessed what they were planning is to setup Shinnok into a Thanos role....making possibly the 4th film the big finale at least for awhile. Sadly this isn't the case.
*Spoilers ahead*
I noticed in the opening fights the animation felt a bit more choppy than the first movie, I dismissed this as I wanted to continue feeling the pure joy I still had from the first movie, but I shouldn't have ignored it. About halfway through the movie I noticed this movie's biggest issue. It's rushed, very rushed. Looking into it, this film was completed in roughly a years time, that is insane considering not only are they combining the plots of 2 & 3, but also throwing in 4 for some reason. My guess is they wanted to keep fan favorite Scorpion for sales, but needed to give him a separate story since he can't really fight for either team in the tournament. While the choppiness shows this early on, it is glaring halfway through the movie when you begin to notice every single tournament fight takes place in Shao Kahn's.arena. This is really where I began to feel let down, the arena is great but there are so many great locations from 2...no living forest, no.dead pool, none of that. It seems to me that the sequel got greenlit but only if they got it out asap & it unfortunately shows.
I really wish they had taken their time more. As the Scorpion subplot progresses, it becomes clear this isn't just a 2 & 3 hybrid, but 2, 3 & 4. Again why? Were they told they weren't allowed to make another film, so Shinnok has to be finished off & everything wrapped up now? Shao Kahn is considered the biggest villain in Mortal Kombat, so to see him defeated & quickly brushed aside for Shinnok is disappointing. This isn't even mentioning how quickly Kintaro & Shang Tsung are wiped out, which brings me to my final complaint..
This movie is only a little over an hour & combines 3 major storylines. By deciding to do this, forget about arenas, you are missing great characters & their stories. Sindel is skipped, Milenna is skipped therefore Jade & Kitana are missing lots of their character story elements as well...come to think of it I don't think Jade says a single word in the whole movie. Kabal is skipped, Ermac, Nightwolf, Sheeva, you get the point. This was a big let down by the time the film finishes & you realize how much they are cutting out. One of the few disappointing things of the first movie was how little Kano we got, which seems like nothing compared to what we've lost now. I am reminded of my feelings of loving the original live action films: While fun to watch, newcomers have no clue how much great stuff they are missing.
In the end its still a good watch. The characters we do get are great, the violence I am pretty sure exceeds the first film, the costume designs are top notch, carefully taking their most iconic looks & seeing respect to MK lore is still a breath of fresh air. I just can't help but feel somewhat let down after the first movie. I really think this is an unfortunate case of producers rushing it along when it could've been magic once again. I would've happily waited years for a film that could sit at the same level as Scorpion's Revenge, but I guess the Warner Bros Elder Gods did not have faith in our patience.
Mortal Kombat Legends starts out strong, immediately following the 2nd game & bringing back Johnny Cage, right off the bat. His humor in the first movie was perfect & while its not as strong in this one he remains the most enjoyable character. Very early on we are shown Stryker, so I had assumed I was correct 2/3 hybrid guess. This made me look forward to hopefully seeing more beloved characters soon...
Similar to the first, this film jumps around in its plot. Scorpion, who took center stage last time, is back. However this is where problems begin for me. Scorpion's mission in this one is pursuing and running from Shinnok, the main villain from the 4th game. Shinnok does appear in the first movie but I had guessed what they were planning is to setup Shinnok into a Thanos role....making possibly the 4th film the big finale at least for awhile. Sadly this isn't the case.
*Spoilers ahead*
I noticed in the opening fights the animation felt a bit more choppy than the first movie, I dismissed this as I wanted to continue feeling the pure joy I still had from the first movie, but I shouldn't have ignored it. About halfway through the movie I noticed this movie's biggest issue. It's rushed, very rushed. Looking into it, this film was completed in roughly a years time, that is insane considering not only are they combining the plots of 2 & 3, but also throwing in 4 for some reason. My guess is they wanted to keep fan favorite Scorpion for sales, but needed to give him a separate story since he can't really fight for either team in the tournament. While the choppiness shows this early on, it is glaring halfway through the movie when you begin to notice every single tournament fight takes place in Shao Kahn's.arena. This is really where I began to feel let down, the arena is great but there are so many great locations from 2...no living forest, no.dead pool, none of that. It seems to me that the sequel got greenlit but only if they got it out asap & it unfortunately shows.
I really wish they had taken their time more. As the Scorpion subplot progresses, it becomes clear this isn't just a 2 & 3 hybrid, but 2, 3 & 4. Again why? Were they told they weren't allowed to make another film, so Shinnok has to be finished off & everything wrapped up now? Shao Kahn is considered the biggest villain in Mortal Kombat, so to see him defeated & quickly brushed aside for Shinnok is disappointing. This isn't even mentioning how quickly Kintaro & Shang Tsung are wiped out, which brings me to my final complaint..
This movie is only a little over an hour & combines 3 major storylines. By deciding to do this, forget about arenas, you are missing great characters & their stories. Sindel is skipped, Milenna is skipped therefore Jade & Kitana are missing lots of their character story elements as well...come to think of it I don't think Jade says a single word in the whole movie. Kabal is skipped, Ermac, Nightwolf, Sheeva, you get the point. This was a big let down by the time the film finishes & you realize how much they are cutting out. One of the few disappointing things of the first movie was how little Kano we got, which seems like nothing compared to what we've lost now. I am reminded of my feelings of loving the original live action films: While fun to watch, newcomers have no clue how much great stuff they are missing.
In the end its still a good watch. The characters we do get are great, the violence I am pretty sure exceeds the first film, the costume designs are top notch, carefully taking their most iconic looks & seeing respect to MK lore is still a breath of fresh air. I just can't help but feel somewhat let down after the first movie. I really think this is an unfortunate case of producers rushing it along when it could've been magic once again. I would've happily waited years for a film that could sit at the same level as Scorpion's Revenge, but I guess the Warner Bros Elder Gods did not have faith in our patience.