Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
While Lin-Manuel Miranda is most recently known for his Broadway production of “Hamilton” (which he also starred in), one of his first big hits was over a decade ago with “In the Heights”. A show that earned him four Tony awards (13
Mortal Kombat has been a brand that has solidified itself as one of the power houses of fighting games for the better part of 30 years. They were the big bad newcomer in the 90s with a violent series of games that shocked conservative parents for years with their over the top blood and gore, sort of making them a household name simply due to the fact that they were “nasty” and “gory” while still being aimed at children. I remember my parents banning me from playing the games, even though that never stopped me from hiding the Mortal Kombat I and II games for my gameboy under my bed, and owning a Nintendo 64 just to play Mortal Kombat 4. Years later has me gleefully watching the 2020 reboot and beating the ever living snot out of Mortal Kombat’s 9-11 in what can be considered one of the best soft reboots of the entire series. Needless to say this 40 year old (or ALMOST 40 year old, I still have a few months left of my 30s left) gamer is having a ball with the latest animated films as well.

The Mortal Kombat Legends series reboots and retells the basic elements of the last 11 games (well more than that if you consider the spin off games that are outside of the main tournament time lines) in it’s own flavor of gore and violence. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge was a solid entry last year, but felt a bit broken up, and more like an introduction than anything. Battle of the Realms rehashes much of the same tournament feel of the first movie, but places Scorpion and Sub Zero in secondary roles as the world opens up to one of the biggest, if not most side lined, villains of the series.

The movie takes place after the events of the 9th Mortal Kombat tournament that happened in Scorpion’s Revenge. Outworld is STILL trying to invade earth realm, and our heroes are trying their best to keep Shao Khan’s forces at bay. We’ve got the introduction of Stryker to the force along with Liu, Sonya, Johnny and Jax, while the forces of evil bring in Jade, Reiko, Kintaro and D’Vorah. All the fighting grinds to a halt when Shao Khan brings up the idea of going to the elder gods and demanding the 10th and final tournament NOW instead of in the next 1000 years, which Raiden agrees to in hopes of ending this bloodshed NOW, instead of putting it off for a millennia.

Naturally the elder gods agree, leading to another tournament for which earth realm has to fight for over the course of the movie. However, simultaneously we see that Quan Chi’s plans from the Netherealm are not as dead as we thought from the previous film. Quan Chi’s master, the mad god Shinnock, is taking control of things and plans to use the Lin Kuei and Scorpion to find a sacred artifact that will unlock the one being, a being so powerful that even the elder gods couldn’t completely defeat, but rather lock away in 6 different pieces across the 6 major realms and keep hidden from society. This being is the harbringer of doom whose entire goal is to destroy the 6 realms and bring chaos to the world. So not only does Liu Kang and friends have to kick Shao Khan’s butt, but he has to take on a being so powerful that even the elder gods tremble.

As the cover pretty much gives away from the get go, this is a Liu Kang vehicle much like the last film was a Scorpion focused movie. Sure, we see Scorpion and the new Sub Zero play a major part in the movie (it’s obvious at this point that Scorpion is being played as a fan favorite to the core, completely with the reboot methodology of using him as a hero instead of anti-hero), but this is Liu Kang’s destiny as “the chosen one” from beginning to end.

I will admit that I am having a blast with the goriness of the series. In fact, it’s almost comically gory as the fatalities and brutalities just unfold throughout the tournament. It’s nasty, ooey gooey, and completely over the top hilariously bloody, and even is a bit more 4th wall breaking than the previous movie. Johnny Cage is still the best part of the series in terms of comic relief, and I noticed that this one has a better over all story than the previous one. However, I was a bit disappointed in how the story wraps up. The defeat of the One Being is a bit too fast, and really feels like it was better left for being the main plot of the NEXT animated film instead of being shuffled off as the last 12 minute villain to defeat after Shao Khaon. Ironically I’m not surprised either. The One Being was always sidelined in the games as well, coming out in Mortal Kombat: Deception, and basically fading to the background as Blaze became the actual villain in the next game. So I guess it’s not shocking that they side line what is probably the most powerful villain of the series just like they did in the game.




Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout and some language




4K Video: Video:

The Blu-ray was good, but the 4K UHD outclasses it in every way, getting rid of the low bitrate banding that was going on in the Blu-ray, as well as fine tunes the mid range animation style that the series is based on. It’s a low budget animated movie, but the animation looks great on this disc. There’s not signs of crush or other major artifacting on the disc, and every digitally animated line on the film looks solid. It’s not a film that’s going to wow you with incredibly detailed art styles, but the colors are bright and richly saturated, and compared to the Blu-ray it fine tunes background objects and makes good use of the HDR. Said HDR is INCREDIBLE on this disc, and really richens the landscape with deep primaries and blood red darknesses. The scene with the “keys” that Shinnock acquires is amazing, and every splash of red, and skin tone looks immaculate. Simply put, this blows the Blu-ray out of the water and is easily the best version by a good margin.







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track shared between the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD is quite the showstopper, with a blasting bass track, and a wildly kinetic surround mix that makes full use of all 6 channels. The dialog is beyond reproach, but it’s the insanely energetic surround channel usage and full bore bass that really kicks this into high gear. The constant action scenes pummel the listener with low end assaults, and fills out the score quite nicely. The whiz and whir of magical abilities flows through the surround channels, and even though it’s loud and brash, the mix never feels bloated over over bearing. The dragon fight between Liu and the One Being at the end of the movie is a real treat, as he whirls overhead in dragon form, and The One Being crushes the low end with each and every step he takes.





Extras:

• The God and the Dragon: Battling for Earthrealm (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes and inside the creative process of bringing Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms to action-packed life on screen.
• Voices of Kombat (Featurette) – Join Joel McHale, Jennifer Carpenter, and the cast as they detail the process of creating unique and compelling voices for the larger than life characters in the film.
• Kombat Gags: Gag Reel (Featurette) – Step inside the VO booth with the cast of the film for all of the flubbed lines and outrageously improvised lines from the cutting room floor.
• Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms Audio Commentary (Audio Only) – Producer Rick Morales and Screenwriter Jeremy Adams take the audience inside the art of writing and animating the film in this feature length audio commentary.

Final Score: ​

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle for the Realms is a fun sequel to last years Scorpion’s Revenge. It’s a cheerfully fun little blood batch for those you like an “elseworlds” telling of the Mortal Kombat legacy, and is actually quite a bit of fun. Sure, they’re not the greatest animated movies of all times, but Mortal Kombat is a franchise of it’s own right, and this makes fun popcorn chewing fun in between games and Live Action movies. The 4K UHD is an impressive disc, beating out the good Blu-ray by a goodly margin and enjoying the same great 5.1 audio track. Fun Watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Joel McHale, Ike Amadi, Artt Butler, Robin Atkins Downes
Directed by: Ethan Spaulding
Written by: Jeremy Adams
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Spanish, Dutch
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 31st, 2021

Recommendation: Fun Watch