Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms

'Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms (2021)' is the follow-up to 'Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)' that sees the heroes of Earthrealm take part in one final Mortal Kombat tournament in order to prevent Outworld from merging with their home and utterly destroying it. The piece starts out depicting the first meeting between Liu Kang and Raiden, seeming to suggest that Kang is its protagonist. Though he takes a major role towards the picture's finale, he's actually just one of the ensemble and this lack of focus makes his eventual rise to main character seem unearned and, even, unplanned. The film, in general, struggles to know what it wants to be. It's incredibly unfocused, with several plot strands (which usually reference events from the games) occurring at once and each detracting from the other. There's very little sense of character, too - so much so that most of the major deaths lack any real impact. Hands down, the biggest issue with the piece is its third act. Honestly, this segment would've been better off as an entirely separate movie, with the set-up that precedes it acting as a cliffhanger. As it is, it feels tacked-on, messy and, ultimately, underwhelming. It's actually rather unnecessary and takes the steam out of the narrative. Despite the movie's issues, though, it's still entertaining overall. It has plenty of energetic, exciting and extremely violent fight scenes that should satiate fans of the video-game franchise upon which it is based (which includes me, by the way). It's really fun to see the characters kick one another's butts in brutal ways, even if the carnage lacks any emotional weight (and it sometimes really ought to pack a punch). The flick is animated impressively and it has a strong aesthetic. The voice-work is good and the pacing is breezy enough that you'll never get bored. Though it isn't perfect, it's an enjoyable slice of animated action. It's one of the better video-game adaptations out there, even if it isn't as good as its predecessor. 6/10.

The first one "scorpion revenge" was better, this tried to tell different stories all at once and did a clumsy job doing it but still good.

Its good fun, if u have played MK you'll enjoy this movie.

Animation allows for two things: anything you can think of can be displayed and nothing needs to listen to laws of physics or logic, because people have been trained since young that cartoons aren't real so you can suspend your disbelief as much as you like. That is why live action films will never work better than their animated original, but this is true especially for Mortal Kombat. The first 10 minutes of this film was better than the live action thing made recently (that I also enjoyed), for example.

And while the beginning was brilliant and the characters (a LOT of them) were quickly introduced in a way that didn't feel rushed, Raiden decisions felt really ridiculous and the ending was kind of bad. I liked the combination of 2D animation style and fatalities and X-ray moves that were taken from the games. The story was acceptable, too, and the fact that it was R-rated and villains and heroes died gruesome deaths randomly was awesome.

Bottom line: I love the MK Legends animations. They have good stories and characterization and use animation in a way that no live action or CGI could. It's not a perfect film or anything, but it was very enjoyable to me.

Can't Believe it's written by the same guy as the first one, the first movie "MK: Scorpion's Revenge" was so good that i gave it 10 stars, but this one is a let down. I hope the next one is better.