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Mortal Kombat: Legacy Review: We Got To Fight The Powers That Be

By TK | Posted Under Film Reviews | Comments (13)

mortal-kombat-legacy-episode-7-scorpion.jpg

Some time ago, Kevin Tancharoen wowed video game fans with his short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, a gritty new take on the Mortal Kombat universe that has spawned countless video games, two terrible movies, and one even worse television series. It’s an undying franchise, filled with a massive cast of characters, a ridiculously lengthy history and a dense, complicated, and often silly universe. Tancharoen had hoped to parlay his short film into a feature length project, but it never quite got off the ground. He did, however, gather together enough financing to create a nine-episode web series, and thus, Mortal Kombat: Legacy was born, and released via Machinima.com’s Youtube page. Here’s the original short:

The results are mixed, though overall positive. The worst one can say is that the series never really lived up to the short film, which is a shame. It took a slightly different direction, and mixed live-action, animation and cgi into a crazy melting pot of bloody martial arts mayhem that sometimes worked, and sometimes missed completely. The actors assembled were a mixed bag — a handful of relatively well known actors (Michael Jai White, Jeri Ryan) combined with more unknown players, creating varying results in terms of performances. The fighting was excellent, to be sure, but some of the episodes felt like wasted opportunities — filler episodes that never really grabbed the viewer. It was still an engaging series, and I enjoyed seeing the direction Tancharoen took the characters. Honestly, Resident Evil aside, it’s probably the best video game adaptation you’re likely to see.

The stories take place across time and space, telling short origin stories of some of the major characters in the Mortal Kombat universe, as they come to be a part of the first Kombat tournament. It stripped down the characters substantially, simplifying their labyrinthine backstories, or creating brand new ones — mostly for the better. Instead of being faced with a lengthy, complicated storyline, it rather gave each character a more focused origin story, something that served the medium quite well. Coupled with strong effects, excellent costume design, clever sets and top notch fight choreography, the series hit more than it missed.

To make things easier, I’ll just embed them all for you and run through them briefly:

The first episode, featuring Michael Jai White as MajorJackson “Jax” Briggs and Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade as they go up against arms dealer Kano, featured far more gunplay and generic action movie settings than actual hand-to-hand combat, but it also probably had some of the better acting of the episodes — no doubt due to the presence of more practiced actors. The big battle featured Jax and Kano, and for the most part it felt like it wasted White’s impressive martial artistry. That said, Ryan managed to acquit herself quite well, and comes off as quite the badass.

Episode 3, featuring Matt Mullins as Johnny Cage, was one of the weaker entries, featuring little real fighting and an unexciting backstory (though Cage was never one of my favorites in the games, either). Telling the story of a Hollywood action hero whose star has begun to dull, it was filmed in part as an Access: Hollywood-style fluff piece, and it simply never found a firm foothold. It did feature him doing the splits and cockpunching someone though, so it’s not a total loss.

Episodes 4 and 5 told the stories of half-sisters Kitana and Mileena — one born of a far-off king and queen, one cloned by the conquering Outworld emporer, Shao Kahn. Told partly through animation and partly through live-action, it also featured a strange, almost hypnotic voice over that told the tales of the two sisters. It featured some solid fight scenes, particularly those between the two actresses, Samantha Tjhia and Jolene Tran — not to mention some creepy-ass special effects to show the inner monster of Mileena.

Episode 6, “Raiden,” featured one of the series’ favorite characters in an interesting new twist. In it, Raiden is found outside a mental institution, proclaiming himself to be a god. It’s a curious development and made for one of the most intriguing episodes, with Ryan Robbins giving a solid performance as Raiden. It also featured perhaps my favorite ending of the series.

Episodes 7 and 8 featured the rivalry of the most famous members of the Mortal Kombat universe, Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Told within the context of feudal Japan, it removed much of the mysticism surrounding the characters (though not all — Sub-Zero still has some pretty freakish powers), and instead made them leaders of warring clans. It’s a pair of excellent episodes, with Scorpion (Ian Anthony Dale) and Sub-Zero (Kevan Ohtsji) acquitting themselves nicely as a pair of steely-eyed warriors hell-bent on each other’s destruction. That said, it’s also an unfortunate departure from the Rebirth short film, which had its own unique take on the characters. The conclusion of episode 8 showed Sub-Zero to be something else entirely, something definitely not of this world, and made me desperate to see more.

The final episode, “Cyrax and Sektor,” was also a solid one. Taking place once again in the “real” world (that is to say, a version of modern Earth), it featured two assassins for the mysterious Lin Kuei clan, auditioning to become technologically superior cybernetic warriors. The opening fight scene is one of the best of the show, and the gruesome transformation scenes are bizarre and uncomfortable. As with each of the preceding episodes, it features some outstanding costume design, with their cyborg costumes appearing to be technologically intimidating, while still relatively practical.

In the end, Mortal Kombat: Legacy felt more like a tease than a full-blown series. With each episode being only 10 minutes or so long, I felt like I was never really able to dig into the meat of the characters or their stories. Hopefully, Tancharoen can get another season together and further this reinvigorated universe, and complete this evolution of the Mortal Kombat universe into a living, breathing beast that does the series proud.









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Comments

Welp, I know what I'm doing when I get home.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at August 30, 2011 12:30 PM

"Resident Evil aside"? RESIDENT EVIL?!?!

Posted by: Case at August 30, 2011 1:21 PM

I liked the first Mortal Kombat movie dipped in extra cheese. Hey that theme song was pretty catchy.......MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!

Posted by: Dingle Berry at August 30, 2011 2:08 PM

Well, the Pajiba crowd evidently isn't big on Mortal Kombat, but I do fully intend to check these out, as it was my arcade game of choice back in the day. I wasn't even aware these shorts were out there. Thanks for the links.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at August 30, 2011 4:06 PM

Yeah the first Mortal Kombat was bad, but in a good way for me. The second one? Ugh. I also seem to recall them changing a bunch of actors, despite the fact that it is a direct sequel. Having trouble getting actors to sign on? Maybe that's a sign.

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at August 30, 2011 4:13 PM

I was a bit disappointed that some of the characters' origins differed from how they were implied in the trailer. Seriously, that story about Baraka was pretty damn freaky and pretty damn good! I'll agree with you on this one TK - a few shaky entries but overall a solid series.

Damn shame it only had 9 episodes. I was like Oliver Twist at the end of that episode with Cyrax. I want some more!

Posted by: Four Eyes at August 30, 2011 9:01 PM

You forgot Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Stryker in the first two episodes.

He was probably one of the best "actors" in the series.

Posted by: DeistBrawler at August 30, 2011 11:23 PM

Nice to see you writing about something that doesn't make you want to smash yourself in the testicles with your keyboard, TK. We'd hate to lose you to testicular blood loss.

As for Mortal Kombat, these games were always the gorehound's Street Fighter, so in my opinion the largest failing of the first movie was the lack of spine-ripping and violent dismemberments. That and hot-ass Bridget Wilson fights about as well as I do, and can't act much better. God, she was pretty, though.

Seriously, though, I watched Mortal Kombat after I picked up newest iteration of the game, simply titled "Mortal Kombat" (despite it being something like, the eighth, in the series). It wasn't good, but if you're watching an action movie based on a fighting game, you're in the basement, half-drunk in your underwear, and you aren't expecting much. But compare if you will, the first Mortal Kombat to some of these OTHER action movies based on fighting games.

According to Metacritic:

Mortal Kombat: 58 (out of a hundred. Brr)

But it only gets worse from here.

DOA: Dead or Alive: 38

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li: 17

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation: 11!!

And no one even bothered to rate "Tekken" or "The King of Fighters"!

So yeah, the first Mortal Kombat is almost art. Still, I think that with the complicated mythology involved, MK works best as a series, both here and in the unappreciated Mortal Kombat: Konquest.

Man, fuck all these "K"s. I'ma go play Street Fighter.

Posted by: AmbroseKalifornia at August 30, 2011 11:49 PM

I couldn't grasp the Scorpion and Sub-Zero episode. What did that mean at the end??

Posted by: Candy at August 31, 2011 1:57 AM

Im really disappointed that he diverged from the "real world" approach the original trailer showed. It got me all excited and shook up about a Mortal Kombat revival because it stripped the silliness from the series and featured some very creative takes on some of the more difficult characters.

I have to express my huge disappointment with these shorts. They're well made for what I imagine is a pretty small budget. They're as well acted as you'd expect these things to be. But it seems like all the originality and creativity that went into forcing the characters into the "real world" was spent on the original short.

I liked that idea. Bringing the MK universe down to real life is a fascinating idea and would make for a wildly intriguing series.

But this? This burns all the good will and hope of the original. By abandoning what was an pretty cool idea, he's at least lost this viewer. But I was never really much of an MK fanboy anyway, so Im not exactly his target audience. Im sure they're sticking around. But then, that means the series and the potentially awesome universe isnt exactly gaining any ground.

Posted by: Lennon at August 31, 2011 2:49 AM

I know what I'm doing tomorrow on my day off.

The first MK movie was bad -- in a good, good way. I don't care what anyone says: the acting was over-the-top, but it was cheesy and good and perfect for the generation it was born in.

Posted by: duckandcover at August 31, 2011 2:56 AM

I will be watching the shit out of these when I get internet in the new digs.

I'd sacrifice my left Noodle-Nut for a gritty, (more) realistic movie version of this game.

P.S. Scorpion was clearly the best character. You Raiden fans are mentally unstable - proof?? the webisodes show him IN AN INSTITUTION.

Posted by: SPAGHATTAH NADLE at August 31, 2011 2:50 PM

I do like these, on the whole, despite the flaws. I like them keeping the mysticism, but only insofar as it can still be blended back into the realism of the first one - it would be easy enough to take the Scorpion and Sub-Zero story and wrap it back into the short, where they've either become ageless or have been transported in time by the Outworld people involved or whatever and are now continuing their shenanigans in the crime world. I thought the harlequin baby serial killer shtick of the original short was dumb, so am happy to see it gone, but I did think the new take on Baraka was really cool, so I was sad to see that changed back for the series - although I guess if Baraka were still a crazy self-mutilating plastic surgeon I'd be incredulous that his grafted-on arm-blades don't rip his arm skin wide open every single time he punches from the sheer impact of hitting someone with them, so maybe I just can't be pleased either way.

I am kind of a passive MK fan though (don't go out of my way to play it, but if someone else brings it over, I'm game), and I am also incredibly tired of "gritty, realistic" reimaginings that just strip all the magic out of everything and pop on some grey or brown filters, so I'm happy to see someone trying to bring the magic into the real world setting in a less silly way, even if they fail here and there, rather than just trashing it entirely. Not everyone has to like it, obviously, but that's my take on things.

I subscribed on YouTube and hope they can get the funding to make more of these, and hopefully start tying various plot threads together (although, honestly, I could probably keep watching origin stories for quite a while). I can't wait to see Jaxx with his new shiny robot arms.

Posted by: Nat Kittyface at September 1, 2011 12:24 AM