Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Review

In a bit of a surprise, the Mortal Kombat Legends series continues. Not with a story about how Ultra Instinct Shaggy smashes everyone at a new Mortal Kombat tournament, but with a brand new tale based on the new timeline brought about in 2011’s Mortal Kombat video game (which leads into Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11). Does this new tale expand upon something that the fans and casuals need to know? Or does it just add more mess to an already messy adaptation of Mortal Kombat stories?

Title: Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind
Production Company: Warner Bros. Animation & Studio Mir
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Directed by: Rick Morales
Produced by: Rock Morales, Sam Register, Ed Boon, & Jim Krieg
Written by: Jeremy Adams
Starring: Manny Jacinto, David Wenham, Ron Yuan, Keith Silverstein, Courtenay Taylor, Yuri Lowenthal, Artt Butler, Tremor, and Patrick Seitz.
Based on: Mortal Kombat by Ed Boon & John Tobias
Release dates: October 11, 2022
Running time: 82 minutes
Rating: PG13 (USA) / MA15+ (AUS)

 

In the Wastelands of Earthrealm… (Story)

Set after the ending to Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind tells the story of an Earthrealm defeated, with a bandit group called The Black Dragon roaming the wastelands, offering “protection” to those villages that are still left after the revenants destroyed Earthrealm. Kano, the cyborg leader of The Black Dragon, is looking to expand his control of the wastelands by sending his troops out to scout for the last remaining villages in the region. It’s one of these scouting teams, featuring Kabal, Kobra, and Kira, find a wagon with vegetables ridden by Kuai Liang, the former Sub-Zero. After robbing him of his vegetables, the trio follows Liang to a hidden village in the mountains where they come across Kenshi, an over-confident warrior looking for a challenge.

Reporting back to Kano, the trio has to lead Shang Tsung back to the village in order to get him to help them conquer the village. While at the village, Tsung learns of the Well of Souls and enlists Kenshi to help him activate it (Kenshi was beaten up by Kabal and Termor, with Tsung pretending to be a healer who could help Kenshi get great power to get revenge upon The Black Dragon with). Upon finding and activating the Well of Souls, Kenshi is betrayed by Tsung, leaving Kenshi blind and for dead at the bottom of the well. It’s here that Kenshi finds his sword, Sentō, and escapes, making his way to the land controlled by Kuai Liang.

After looking at the sword and Kenshi’s connection to it, Kuai Liang trains Kenshi on how to control the sword and develop his powers, telekinesis, in order to live. In a way, this helps the troubled Kuai Liang, who destroyed his own clan while fighting the revenant forces, and is haunted by the guilt. After a few days (weeks?), Kenshi smells smoke from the village nearby, which is set upon by Kano, making his push to control the village. Seeing Kano kill an old man, thus making the village submit to his rule, Kuai Liang begins to walk away with Kenshi lecturing him about Kuai’s own teachings before heading to the village alone, Kaui Liang waving the foolish warrior off to be killed.

As Kano and The Black Dragon celebrate in a local tavern, Kenshi sneaks his way to the tavern, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Kenshi uses his sword and his skills to take out Jarek and other Black Dragon members in a very bloody battle. Once Termor joins the battle, Kenshi starts to have a little bit of trouble taking him down, also thanks to the backup of other Black Dragon names like Erron Black, Kabal, and others. Facing defeat, Kenshi is captured by Kano, being taken to the Black Dragon’s main hideout. Back on the farm, Kuai Liang grabs a spear from his wall and plunges it into the ground, then sets fire to his whole farm, summoning Scorpion to Earthrealm once again… Reuniting Fire & Ice.

At the Black Dragon hideout, Kenshi is placed up on a big cross as an example to those who defy the Black Dragon. Kano orders Erron Black to kill Kenshi slowly, but a cold wind causes the Black Dragon to stop torturing Kenshi as Sub-Zero and Scorpion begin their assault on the Black Dragon hideout. Sub-Zero unleashes an ice storm, making a dramatic entrance. Sub-Zero begins to fight Kano and his minions, while Scorpion frees Kenshi to help Sub-Zero out. Kenshi manages to take down Kira easily, and Sub-Zero and Scorpion fight the rest, killing Ferra/Torr, Erron Black, and Drahmin. Together, the trio face off against Kano, but have a bit of a challenge against him due to all the robotic implants Kano has acquired over the years, even chopping Kano’s head off doesn’t stop him… Kano escapes from the battle and heads into the underground pits.

In the pits, Kenshi squares off against Termor, Scorpion faces off against Kabal, and Sub-Zero faces off against Kano. Kenshi and Termor fight their way to an MMA ring, with Termor blinding Kenshi’s senses by using his own lava abilities to create too much light. Kenshi drops his sword and ends up pulling it back to himself… through Termor’s skull, killing him. Scorpion makes light work of Kabal, using his hellfire finisher on the blade-wielding speedster. Sub-Zero chases Kano, entering a portal into the timelines, where Sub-Zero comes face to face with Kronika’s hourglass, seeing alternate timelines and outcomes of his own life. Kano explains that he has been using it to rewrite time and history at his will and is the reason everything is as it is. Kano tries to rewrite history once again, making Sub-Zero disappear, but Sub-Zero is able to get off a frost blast at the last second, reverting the time change, and the two face off against each other.

The battle goes back and forth, with each fighter attempting to get to the hourglass, but Kano is able to get the advantage against Sub-Zero, giving him one last chance to join his forces. Sub-Zero declines and gets his comeback and kills Kano, sending him into one of the gears that control the flow of time. Scorpion and Kenshi arrive just in time to confirm Kano is dead, then the three leave and destroy Kronika’s control crown, ultimately destroying the entrance into the timestream.

The wasteland is freed, with Sub-Zero saying he has regained his honor, but he won’t help Kenshi restore the wastelands to the way they were. Sub-Zero explains that he doesn’t have control of his own power and that he needs to take himself out of play, leaving to hell with Scorpion. Sub-Zero tells Kenshi that it’s up to him to recreate the Lin-Quei and restore Earthrealm. With a new reason to live, Kenshi heads out into the wasteland alone.

Wasteland Warriors (Characters)

• Manny Jacinto as Kenshi
  The arrogant warrior loses his eyesight and honor at the hands of Shang Tsung. Kenshi is one of those characters who doesn’t get much time in the limelight when it comes to the main story of Mortal Kombat, so to see him as the main character of Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind was a surprise. The journey that Kenshi takes is one of regaining one’s confidence after paying the price for arrogance. Losing his eyesight makes Kenshi an interesting character to write about, and when the movie is complete, Kenshi comes out as a more interesting, more well-rounded, and character you want to follow onto his next journey.
• David Wenham as Kano
  First of all, it’s always great to hear a real Australian voice when it comes to Kano. Since the change occurred due to the casting of the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, it’s always best to get the authentic thing when it comes to Australian characters. Now, in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind it’s really interesting to see Kano not only aged up but technology’d up too, with a LOT of robotic enhancements on the character to the point of if you don’t know if he is more man or machine. Much like Kenshi, Kano is more of the second or third banana when it comes to villains, so it was good to see him once again get a headline role in a Mortal Kombat movie.
• Ron Yuan as Kuai Liang/Sub-Zero
  Text It could have been really easy to have another movie, TV show, or whatever starring Sub-Zero as the main character, but Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind does something that no other Mortal Kombat media has dared to do by aging him up and moving him into a mentor role. The addition of the backstory of how Kaui Liang is tortured by the events that happened during the Revenant invasion is really weird and not quite explained till near the end of Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, but it gives the writers something else to visit later on down the track.
• Keith Silverstein as Kabal, Courtenay Taylor as Kira, Yuri Lowenthal as Kobra, and Imari Williams as Tremor
  Yeah, going to group these four together as they don’t really have much of a speaking role in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, with Kabal being the most talkative of the lot only due to him being the one who gives Kano information, but it was nice to see these members of The Black Dragon appear alongside their leader all at once instead of doing them in their respective eras. (Kabal from Mortal Kombat 3, Kira & Korba from Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Termor from Mortal Kombat: Special Forces). There are also other members of The Black Dragon around too, like Erron Black, Drahmin, Ferra/Torr, No Face, and Jarek in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind too, but none of them really made any noise, so they aren’t even listed in the credits. However, it was really good to see The Black Dragon at full strength with a lot of members represented.
• Artt Butler as Shang Tsung, Lin Kuei
  The powerful sorcerer gets reduced to a lackey for Kano… So weird. But as we all know, Shang Tsung isn’t without a plan. Seeing him grovel at the feet of Kano is an interesting thing to do to one of the most powerful characters in Mortal Kombat lore, but to do what they did to him after regaining his strength from the Well of Souls was… Shocking… Let’s leave it at that. I always love Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat stories, as he finds a way to be central to almost all of them, but let us hope this is the end of the soul-sucker for a while to come.
• Patrick Seitz as Scorpion
  In what can be best described as a short cameo, we do get to see what I think is the most unique look of the character to date. Gone are the classic black and yellow martial arts look, and instead we get more of a 1990’s HBO Spawn look to the character. Scorpion only appears in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind due to a pact he makes with Sub-Zero, something that is only hinted at in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, leaving the ending he has with Sub-Zero open and the audience asking more questions.

A new story in the Mortal Kombat universe (What Worked)

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is the first time in a long time that didn’t try to be an adaptation of established Mortal Kombat events since Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge was released, but even then Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge was partly a known story. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind uses the landscape created during the events, or a version thereof, of Mortal Kombat 11. You can feel that Mortal Kombat 11 vibe the whole way through Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, with most of the characters being from that era of the game, or having ties to those versions of events. However, it doesn’t make Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind an adaptation at all but gives a whole new story based around The Black Dragon and one member of the Earthrealm forces that doesn’t get too much story time in any media with Kenshi.

After viewing Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, I felt that it really did some justice to not only Mortal Kombat as a series, but to the characters and landscape that they used as well. The Black Dragon is one of those groups that would be prime material as villains in their own right, and they haven’t had much chance to shine in media since that horrible Mortal Kombat: Special Forces game back on the PlayStation. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind used The Black Dragon in a Mad-Max style, which suits the likes of Kano and others really well, and is a good play on one of Australia’s best-loved movie series too… Bonus points for including No Face in the group, another character who isn’t talked about much since Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, much like Termor was until he appeared in Mortal Kombat X.

Using Kenshi as the hero of the story instead of any of the newer characters from Mortal Kombat X / Mortal Kombat 11 was a good touch too. Kenshi’s story of arrogance and pride taking a fall, then rising up again to become a real hero is one of those classic martial arts film tropes that Mortal Kombat Legends as a series was built for. Sure, we could have gone with Cassie Cage, but we had that in Mortal Kombat X, so taking someone from “left field” and turning him into the hero was a great touch.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Mortal Kombat without the two “main” characters, Scorpion and Sub-Zero, in the film. Having Kuai Liang as the old wise teacher with a troubled past pushed that this isn’t your normal Mortal Kombat Legends movie, but something that was willing to change things up and go for something original for a change, and that change seems to have worked for the better in my eyes.

It’s alright… But… (What didn’t work)

The problem with Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is the same thing that Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms had. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is just another story in the Mortal Kombat saga, and now it looks like that saga has gone down the same multiverse route as everything seems to want to do since Marvel’s Phase 4 arrived.

I understand that the point of Mortal Kombat Legends is to tell those stories from the Mortal Kombat universe that haven’t been told before, freeing the movie series from the video games and going its own route. However, what this does is confuse everyone from the hardcore Mortal Kombat fans to casual viewers who are picking this up because they’ve heard of Mortal Kombat as a whole. If there was some overarching storyline for the whole Mortal Kombat Legends series, or even an intro much like Transformers: Generation 2, Tales from the Crypt, or other anthology shows/movies, then maybe it wouldn’t come off as confusing.

By keeping the random tone of the Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind series as it is, the feedback is going to be that these movies “suck” because they aren’t telling the “proper” Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind story from start to finish. when dealing with people like that, you need to spell it out for them letter by letter, giving them the explanation from the beginning. While Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind did use the whole random movie/multiverse idea as a great twist for its premise, now connecting the idea that what we have been seeing in Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms and Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge are alternate takes on established Mortal Kombat lore, the diehard fans are still waiting on the perfect Mortal Kombat adaptation and will savage anything that isn’t what they want, leaving Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind in the bargain bin alongside Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms.

Trying new things is always a gamble (Closing)

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind isn’t a bad movie at all, in fact, it’s the best Mortal Kombat Legends movie I’ve seen so far. Mortal Kombat Legends as a series needs to continue along this route, telling unique and new tales in the Mortal Kombat multiverse using the characters and some situations we already know to give us an expectation and then twisting it into something new and interesting. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind did that really well with the revelation of Kano using the timestream to create the world we just spent over 60 minutes at that point exploring. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind could have been that generic Mortal Kombat 11 adaptation, but instead drove off the beaten path and did something new, that needs to be celebrated.

However, I’m sure all the “die-hard” Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind fans will shit all over this, much like they did Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind because it was different in the story it told, and the fights weren’t as frequent and bloody as the previous two movies in the Mortal Kombat Legends series. If you have already sat through the first two Mortal Kombat Legends movies, then go ahead and get this one. If you haven’t, then give it a go anyway. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is a good action movie that will kill a bit over an hour with ease and leave you either wanting more or removing this from your TV to go play Mortal Kombat.