Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge
Official DVD/Blu-ray cover
Directed by	Ethan Spaulding
Screenplay by	Jeremy Adams
Based on	Mortal Kombat by Ed Boon & John Tobias
Produced by	Rick Morales Jim Krieg
Starring	Patrick Seitz Steve Blum Jordan Rodrigues Darin De Paul Joel McHale Jennifer Carpenter
Edited by	Robert Ehrenreich
Music by	John Jennings Boyd Eric V. Hachikian
Production companies	Warner Bros. Animation Studio Mir
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Release date	April 14, 2020 (2020-04-14)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

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 MPAA.^[1]

The film was released on April 14, 2020, on digital, and was followed on April 28, 2020, on 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 ninjas from the rival Lin Kuei clan. Hasashi kills them all 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 murders Satoshi. He then impales Hanzo through the neck with an icicle, killing him. Deep below in the depths of the Netherrealm, Hasashi is mysteriously resurrected and 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.

Meanwhile, 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 own reasons for participating: Sonya is in pursuit of Black Dragon crime syndicate leader Kano, and Cage believes that he is participating in a film project.

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, before realizing he is in an actual tournament, and 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 in order 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 forfeits his status as a fighter, securing Kang's position as the victor of the tournament. Tsung warns that Shao Kahn will have his revenge and retreats to Outworld, and the island begins to collapse, with the Earthrealm heroes evacuating to a nearby boat, while Scorpion succeeds in killing Quan Chi in combat before joining his family and clan in the afterlife. Later on the boat, Raiden then 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 make preparations for the invasion of Earthrealm.

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[]

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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[]

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[]

External links[]

• Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge at IMDb