Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Review

 

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is a animated direct-to-video adult animated marital arts film, as well as the sequel to Battle of the Realms, and the third overall film in the Legends film series. The film is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and NetherRealm Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is written by Jeremy Adams and directed by Rick Morales.

The story is it's been many years after the events of Battle of the Realms. Everything seems to be peaceful, but that all changes when Kano is seeking retribution, and terrorizes and destroys everything in his path along with an army of Black Dragons. After young fighter Kenshi is blinded, he goes through intense training with an older Kuai-Liang all in an effort to stop to Kano.

Initial Reaction

Now even though this film series hasn't been 100% perfect, the Legends series has been pretty entertaining. So when I found out a new one was coming out, I didn't waste anytime with this film, and waited, then watched.

Cons

If there was one thing I wished we got more of, it's this new world. We're introduced to a new post-apocalyptic setting this time around, and we're not given much. We're given a quick explanation of how Kano rose to power, and we're told, but barely shown how dangerous revenants are. But never felt like we were giving a bigger sense of danger with them, at best we got a flashback, and told what they did to land. Also during this post-apocalyptic world, we don't really know what happened to the other classic characters, just Sub-Zero and Kano. I guess maybe the filmmakers didn't dive too deep into this because then the film would be longer than what it needed to be. But I think maybe a couple of quick flashbacks could've done the job just fine.

Middle Ground

I've got nothing, so just move on.

Pros

Now I'm gonna be quick about three things, because I've pretty much praised them in my previous reviews regarding this franchise, so giving a long explanation would seem repetitive. If there's three things the Legends series has remained consist on it's the art style, animation, and gore. Especially that last one. Those three aspects have always been a great selling point for this film series, and I still love those three things to this day. Now if there's one thing I love about this is the smaller scale. The reason why that's such a big thing is because even though I still liked Battle of the Realms, I still took issue with the fact it should've been a two-parter. But here, it's a really good small story, where it didn't need to deal with so much. Speaking of story, I really felt like there was a nice balance between Kenshi and Sub-Zero. Kenshi goes through a good story of how he was cocky, but no only lost his sight, but also got humbled, and learned to be a true warrior. And we have Sub-Zero not only being a teacher, but also needed to get back into the fight, while at the same time get redemption from a mistake he made many years ago. So both their stories were perfectly brought together. Speaking of Kenshi, it was really nice to see him get the spotlight. Cause sure, I'll also have some love for the classic characters such as Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Sonya, Raiden, and etc. But the fun thing about Mortal Kombat (as with many other fighting games) is it's wide variety of characters, and many of them are truly underrated and could very well get some attention on them. So seeing Kenshi get some love is very welcoming, and I imagine that aspect of the film made a lot of Kenshi fans happy as well. The last thing I'll praise is the ending. It's very bitter sweet, which I liked, and it did make sense to the story. But it also left me guessing of what's next? Cause we are getting another film titled Cage Match (take a wild guess of who's gonna be the focus on that), but it makes me wonder, will we get a story set in this post-apocalyptic world, or something set in the past? I don't know, but I find that very exciting.

Overall I really enjoyed Snow Blind. I though it was pretty awesome. We as usual get a good art style, great animation, and plenty of gory action. A nicely done smaller scale, a good balance between Kenshi and Sub-Zero's stories, and a refreshing story focusing on Mortal Kombat's more underrated characters. All perfectly wrapped up with a bitter sweet ending, that makes you wonder, what's next? Although I do wish we could've explored more of the world our characters now live in.

My final rating is Good.

So that's going to do it for me. Come back on Thursday, Oct 13th, because on that day, I'll tell you the story of an unmade Halloween trilogy. All in celebration of Halloween Ends. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.