Légendes Mortal Kombat: Snow Blind

I sat down to watch the 2022 animated movie "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" with my son. And I have to admit that I was not familiar with all the characters in this storyline. But then again, I haven't been playing the games for a long, long time, so I don't keep up with who is in the franchise.

I have seen the 2021 animated movie "Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms" and the 2020 animated movie "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge" as well. And of these three, then this 2022 is the weakest addition to the "Mortal Kombat" franchise, simply because the storyline is all over the place, and there isn't really much to keep your attention to the various characters. So writer Jeremy Adams didn't exactly impress with the storyline here.

Visually then "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" is good. You know what you get when you sit down to watch something like this; an abundance of fighting and over-the-top violence. And yeah "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" offers that as well, and that is one of this particular animated movies strongest aspects. But it is hardly enough to make it worthwhile watching.

The art and animation style used in "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" is adequate. It does look and feel like it belongs in the "Mortal Kombat" franchise.

The voice acting, since this is an animated movie, is adequate, though there wasn't a single familiar voice on the cast list, aside from David Wenham. I didn't recognize his voice though, and it was only when I perused the cast listing on IMDb that I realized it was him.

"Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" is something for the hardcore fans of the "Mortal Kombat" franchise, for sure. For a casual viewer, then this is adequate enough for a single viewing, then you forget about it and move on.

My rating of "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind" from director Rick Morales lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

The MK timeline is just forever all over the place now huh? I'm not mad about it though, it's just an observation. The titles for these animated movies are "Mortal Kombat: Legends" so it's not an issue but this is the first one that really feels like it's doing something completely non-canon. Surprisingly, they actually did try and tie it back to the games at the end but I won't spoil that here.

The movie is an alternate origin story for Kenshi, a popular PS2 era Kombatant. Of the more "modern" games, he was easily one of the best new editions, so it doesn't surprise me that he's the first to get his own solo film. Not quite solo though because Sub-Zero is also here and ends up being the one to train Kenshi.

The real change was having Kano be the main bad guy, that was kind of cool to see. Kano and his Black Dragon thugs are terrorizing villages all over a Mad Max-esque wasteland and they must be stopped. I loved the nerdy cameos in his crew, there were bad guys from the awful video game "Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, Drahmin and Jerek even had a cameo! Good stuff for MK nerds like myself.

The fighting and violence are all well done but there were a few iffy spots of animation. The plot is very generic but still fun to see play out. Feels like an adult Saturday morning cartoon in many ways. It moves by really fast and I was never bored. I liked some of the ways they changed the characters up and Scorpion in particular gets a really cool redesign.

If you are an MK fan, you'll enjoy it. If you are a fan of animation, you'll most likely enjoy it. If you are a huge plot person, you may not love it. It's an easy recommend to action and MK fans though.

After the convoluted and rushed mess of a predecessor, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is a huge step up in quality that offers a more contained story that wisely focuses on the insanely gory action and character beats opposed to the convoluted lore.

Although it does indulge in a few of the more frustrating impulses that the franchise just can't seem to escape from but thankfully they are still fun and unexpected but definitely not necessary for this smaller, self contained story.

Manny Jacinto is a really good Kenji, bringing the misplaced confidence that transitions into a wiser maturity. David Wenham is a solid Kano, the humour and viciousness is still there even if he doesn't rival the best versions of the character.

The animation is really good even if it struggles with movement, swapping from the old DC style to the one utilised in newer, rebooted ones which also works here as everything looks a little more vibrant and striking, especially the character designs.

This is coming from a true fan of the video game franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Reverse anagram Boon and Tobias to get the character Noob Saibot(I wonder why he hasn't been featured in any of the storylines so far in the franchise).

The story seems to be inspired by the MK11 video game with characters introduced in MK Armageddon (for those who are not familiar with some of them).

The plot has a very beautiful unusual concept of a Mad Max inspired dystopian future, the art style is very beautiful and stylish, voice acting is decent and of course there is the characteristic over-the-top gore. It's strongest point is the action which is fluid and contributes to the overall entertainment.

Character development is good, even though it's focus is on the two main characters. Could have done with more details into Kenshi's training and development into the blind swordsman. It's lengthy but still not properly handled. That part of the plot was a bit all over the place. The movie's plot twist involving Kenshi's relationship with both Shang Tsung and sub zero threatens to affect it's faithfulness to the source material.

Pretty decent action which is not lacking in entertainment value.

Although not as action-heavy as the previous part, it still performs reasonably, primarily because of how organic the narration is.

I love how they had given proper time to Kenshi, one of those characters in this Mortal Kombat universe, which I believe has always been sidelined because of other prominent personalities, underappreciated, in spite of possessing a remarkable set of powers and skills!

He finally got his due recognition, and I couldn't be happier.

Now as far as the film is concerned, it is an enjoyable ride with fair amounts of bloodshed to entertain your yearnings, to satisfy your innermost appetite. Still, somewhere the story comes across as very routine, with the same arc we have encountered thousands of times! I wish the writer here had taken more risks instead of playing a safe hand!