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Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge

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Not to be confused with Scorpion's Revenge.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge
Official DVD/Blu-ray cover
Directed byEthan Spaulding
Screenplay byJeremy Adams
Based onMortal Kombat
by Ed Boon & John Tobias
Produced by
  • Rick Morales
  • Jim Krieg
Starring
Edited byRobert Ehrenreich
Music by
  • John Jennings Boyd
  • Eric V. Hachikian
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Home Entertainment
Release date
  • April 14, 2020 (2020-04-14)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge is a 2020 American direct-to-video adult animated martial arts film based on the Mortal Kombat franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. South Korean studio Mir animated the film and was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The film centers around the titular character seeking his revenge on those who murdered his family and clan after being resurrected by Quan Chi, while Johnny Cage, Liu Kang and Sonya Blade are chosen to participate on the Mortal Kombat tournament for the fate of Earthrealm.

It marks the first Mortal Kombat based property to be produced at Warner Bros. Animation after its parent company acquired the franchise in 2009 from Midway Games, and the first Mortal Kombat animated project since the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, featuring co-creator Ed Boon involved as creative consultant as well as the first Mortal Kombat film to be rated R by the MPA.[1]

The film was released on April 14, 2020, on digital, and on April 28 for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD releases.[2] A sequel, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, was released on August 31, 2021.[3][4]

Plot

In Japan, Shirai Ryu grandmaster Hanzo Hasashi and his young son Satoshi are ambushed on their way home by several assassins from the rival Lin Kuei clan. Hasashi kills them after discovering that the Lin Kuei have slaughtered the rest of the Shirai Ryu, including his wife, Harumi. The Lin Kuei's Grandmaster Sub-Zero appears, uses his freezing abilities to restrain Hanzo in ice, and then slaughters Satoshi by crushing his neck. He then impales Hanzo through the neck with an icicle, killing him.

The thunder god Raiden and the Shaolin monk Liu Kang make preparations to defend Earthrealm by participating in the Mortal Kombat tournament, hosted by the aging warlock Shang Tsung. The tournament's victor will battle Goro to decide the fate of Earthrealm. The pair are accompanied by out-of-work Hollywood actor Johnny Cage and Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, with both having their reasons for participating: Sonya is in pursuit of Black Dragon crime syndicate leader Kano, while Cage believes that he is participating in a film project.

Meanwhile, in the Netherrealm, Hasashi awakens to impending torment from the Demon Torturer. Hasashi escapes and kills the Demon Torturer and several other demons. He finally meets with the sorcerer Quan Chi, who persuades Hanzo to fight for him in the Mortal Kombat tournament so that he can exact his revenge on Sub-Zero. Hanzo agrees, dubbing himself Scorpion.

Upon arrival on Shang Tsung's island, Scorpion attempts to steal Shinnok's amulet on Quan Chi's orders, but Raiden persuades him not to follow through on the deal. Meanwhile, Cage, Sonya, and Liu Kang witness Sonya's partner Jackson "Jax" Briggs having his arms ripped off by Goro until Raiden intervenes, and cauterizes Jax's arms. During the course of the tournament, Cage barely claims victory over a Tarkatan and realizes he is in an actual fighting tournament, not an action film. Sonya successfully garrotes Reptile, and Kang fights Kitana, emerging as the winner when she yields. In an attempt to stop the Earthrealm heroes, Kano has his assassins infiltrate the island to kill them, but they are all killed by Scorpion. While attempting to fight Kano, Sub-Zero appears and helps deal with the assassins, but a vengeful Scorpion attacks him and tackles him off a bridge into a spike pit, impaling them both and killing Sub-Zero. Cage and Sonya pursue Kano to rescue Jax while Kang rushes to Shang Tsung's throne room to face Goro.

Quan Chi appears before Scorpion and reveals that he was directly responsible for the slaughter of the Shirai Ryu, having disguised himself as Sub-Zero and manipulated the Lin Kuei into doing his bidding and that the real Sub-Zero had no part in the massacre. Enraged, Scorpion removes himself from the spike to exact revenge. At the climax of the tournament, Shang Tsung is revealed to have already known of Quan Chi's true intentions from the beginning and captures him. Liu Kang is almost killed during his match with Goro but is saved when Scorpion kills Goro with his kunai, while Cage, Sonya, and Jax successfully kill Kano. Shang Tsung attempts to have Scorpion fight Kang, but the spectre outsmarts the sorcerer and attacks him instead, forcing him to give him the amulet and willingly forfeit his status as a fighter, in turn securing Kang's position as the victor of the tournament. Tsung warns that Shao Kahn will have his revenge as he retreats to Outworld. The island begins to collapse, forcing the Earthrealm heroes to evacuate by a nearby boat. At the same time, Scorpion succeeds in killing Quan Chi in kombat before joining his family and clan in the afterlife. Later on the ship, Raiden tells Liu Kang that it was not his destiny to defeat Goro but to defeat Shao Kahn himself.

In the aftermath, Shang Tsung is tortured by Shao Kahn for his failure before being ordered to prepare for Earthrealm's invasion.

Voice cast

Production

Development

Reports of a new animated Mortal Kombat film was hinted at in January 2019 as a tie–in to the upcoming live–action reboot film Mortal Kombat.[5] A year later, the animated film was announced officially as Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge. Upon the film's official release, a special variant of the Warner Bros. Animation logo featured Scorpion strangling the Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck in place of Porky Pig for the normal opening logo.[6] The logo originally was going to be where Daffy was impaled through the head by Scorpion's Kunai, but that was changed due to the studio having to adhere to age-appropriation regulations for their opening logos.[7] This would follow up a year later in the film's sequel, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms featuring Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo strangling Scorpion.[8]

Casting

The film sees Patrick Seitz returning to voice Scorpion from previous installments after not returning to the role in Mortal Kombat 11 (where he was replaced by Ron Yuan), along with Steve Blum (known for voicing the Kuai Liang version of Sub-Zero since Mortal Kombat X) as the Bi-Han version of Sub-Zero, Grey Griffin voicing Kitana properly after previously turning down the role in Mortal Kombat X due to her pregnancy at the time[9] and Kevin Michael Richardson reprising his role as Goro for the first time in twenty-five years since the 1995 film.

Release

Rating

Ed Boon confirmed on his Twitter account that the film will receive an "R" rating, marking the first time a Mortal Kombat film has been rated R.[10]

Marketing

The first trailer was released online on January 28, 2020.[11] A red-band trailer for the film was released on March 8, 2020, during the "Final Kombat" tournament following the trailer debut of Mortal Kombat 11 guest fighter, Spawn.[12]

Home media

The film earned $508,501 from domestic DVD sales and $2,126,194 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total home video earning to $2,634,695.[13]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10.[14]

Sequel

Main article: Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms

In June 2021, it was announced that a sequel was happening, entitled Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, with most of the cast and crew from Scorpion's Revenge set to return for the film. It debuted on August 31, 2021, on Digital, and September 14, 2021, on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ "Animated 'Mortal Kombat' Movie in the Works with Joel McHale". 17 January 2020.
  2. ^ @SuperPRGuy (2020-01-30). ""Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge" arrives 4/12 on Digital & 4/28 on 4K/Blu-ray/DVD! Trailer:…" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-04-20 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b Couch, Aaron (2021-06-16). "Animated 'Mortal Kombat Legends' Sequel Arriving This Summer (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  4. ^ a b "Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms Release Date, Box Art Revealed". GAMING. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  5. ^ "RTF EXCLUSIVE: Joel McHale and Jennifer Carpenter Will Lead the Cast of an Animated MORTAL KOMBAT Movie!". 2019-01-10.
  6. ^ "Mortal Kombat: Scorpion Grabs Daffy Duck in Official Animation".
  7. ^ @RickJMorales (3 May 2020). "@spacekicker This was a late addition to the film. I was in a music spot and realized there was no way we could us…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ^ McWhertor, Michael (August 31, 2021). "New Mortal Kombat movie canonizes Ultra Instinct Shaggy". Polygon.
  9. ^ @GreyDeLisle (21 April 2015). "The lovely Karen Strassman had to take over the story lines when I had my baby...but the ass-kicking is ALL ME! #MortalKombatX" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-04-20 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ @noobde (2020-01-24). "What do all these films have in common? - Joker Movie - Killing Joke animated film - Mortal Kombat animated film" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-04-20 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ "'Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge' Revealed in Epic First Trailer". 2020-01-28.
  12. ^ Published on Mar 8, 2020 (2020-03-08). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge - Red Band Trailer". YouTube. Retrieved 2020-04-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions's Revenge (2020) The Numbers Listing". The Numbers. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  14. ^ "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
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