Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind

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Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind
MKLegendsSnowBlindCoverArt.jpg
Official DVD/Blu-ray cover
Directed byRick Morales
Screenplay byJeremy Adams
Based on Mortal Kombat
by Ed Boon & John Tobias
Produced by
  • Jim Krieg
  • Rick Morales
Starring
Edited byRobert Ehrenreich
Music by
  • John Jennings Boyd
  • Eric V. Hachikian
Production
companies
Distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Release date
  • October 9, 2022 (2022-10-09)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is a 2022 American direct-to-video adult animated martial arts film based on the Mortal Kombat franchise, directed by Rick Morales and written by Jeremy Adams, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation with animation by South Korean studio Digital eMation. Snow Blind was released on October 11, 2022, [1] and is the third installment in the Mortal Kombat Legends series. The film borrows elements from the plot of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance , Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat 11, and is a direct sequel to Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021). It received mixed-to-positive reviews.

Contents

A stand-alone prequel, Cage Match, was released in 2023.

Plot

Decades after Shao Kahn's defeat in Mortal Kombat, Earthrealm has been attacked by undead revenants and become a wasteland of isolated cities. The Black Dragon clan — Kira, Kobra, Ferra/Torr, Drahmin, Kabal, Erron Black, No Face, Dairou, Tremor, and Jarek, along with an aged Shang Tsung — has annexed these cities, with their leader Kano declaring himself king.

Meanwhile, an aged Kuai Liang has abandoned the title of Sub-Zero and lives a farmer's life. Kabal, Kira, and Kobra assault him and steal his supplies before entering an untouched city that is the home of the brash young warrior Kenshi. He defeats the trio in combat but spares their lives, and they flee but later return to the city with fellow clansman Tremor and Shang Tsung in tow. When Kenshi announces himself by his full name, his surname Takahashi catches Shang Tsung's attention, and after Kenshi is defeated by Tremor, he intervenes and prevents his execution.

Under the alias of "Song", he tells Kenshi of a powerful sword called "Sento" that could be used to defeat the Black Dragon. Kenshi is lured to a desert where the Well of Souls is located, and when he opens it, energy surges from the well and blinds Kenshi, while Shang Tsung absorbs it and is rejuvenated with a younger form, after which he throws Kenshi into the well and leaves him to die. However, Kenshi hears the mystic sword Sento speaking to him telepathically; he takes the weapon and frees himself from the well.

Shang Tsung later attacks Kano, killing several of his Black Dragon henchmen before being slain himself by Kano after he is unable to consume his soul due to Kano being cybernetic.

Kuai Liang finds Kenshi wandering the desert and takes him in, then trains Kenshi by enhancing his other senses. He reveals that he had faced the wave of the revenants and, in a desperate attempt to end the conflict, killed everyone but himself in an ice storm. However, the casualties included his clan members and civilians, which caused him to swear an oath never to use his powers again.

When Kano seizes control of another city, Kenshi argues that they need to help the townspeople but Kuai Liang refuses, resulting in a fight. Kuai Liang gains the upper hand and offers Kenshi one last chance to return to a normal life, but Kenshi chooses to enter the city where he is captured after killing more of the Black Dragon.

Kuai Liang burns down his farm to summon Scorpion and reassumes his past identity of Sub-Zero. They join forces and arrive at the city to free Kenshi as the latter is being tortured by Kano. After they kill the remaining Black Dragon members, they decapitate Kano but he survives and rushes to a chamber containing Kronika's Hourglass, which Kano had used to create an alternative timeline in which he unleashed the revenant infestation to gain his immense power. He is killed by Sub-Zero before he can then use the Hourglass to erase the cryomancer from existence, and the chamber's entrance self-destructs to seal off those from outside. Since he promised Scorpion to take him if he ever used his powers again, Sub-Zero departs to the Netherrealm, making Kenshi the successor of the Lin Kuei and the new protector of Earthrealm.

Voice cast

Production

Cover art for the film was leaked onto Twitter on August 1, 2022. [2] Two days later on August 3, 2022, the film was formally announced via IGN. [1]

David Wenham replaced Robin Atkin Downes as Kano from Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge . Ron Yuan, who previously voiced Scorpion in Mortal Kombat 11 , voiced Sub-Zero, replacing previous voice actor Bayardo De Murguia from Battle of the Realms. [1]

Reception

Snow Blind holds a rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes based on five critical reviews. [3] Sam Stone of Comic Book Resources wrote that the film was "the most intimate story of the Mortal Kombat Legends trilogy" and "is all about character at its heart." [4] However, Renaldo Mateen of CBR lambasted the film's inclusion of Scorpion as an "overused franchise trope", commenting that "it's as if the series doesn't trust other A-listers, [instead] falling back on a lazy, tedious creative move." [5] Brittany Vincent of IGN rated the film a 6 out of 10, saying that "centering the plot mostly around Kenshi is a smart move" and "it's refreshing to see a character that doesn't get much screen time shine for a bit", but criticized the plot for "spend[ing] too much time elsewhere away from Kenshi when we’ve already been drawn in and want to learn more about him." [6] Stephen Wilds of ComingSoon.net praised the voice acting, character roster and "engaging" fight scenes, "but it’s hard not to think that this outing won’t hit as well for casual fans or those who don’t appreciate the apocalyptic western genre." [7]

Sequel

At New York Comic Con 2022, a prequel, titled Cage Match, was announced for a 2023 release. Joel McHale reprises his role as Johnny Cage, as the main protagonist, from the first two installments of the Legends series. [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance</i> 2002 video game

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is a 2002 fighting game developed and published by Midway for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance. It was the first all-new Mortal Kombat fighting game produced exclusively for home consoles, with no preceding arcade release. It is the fifth main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and a sequel to 1997's Mortal Kombat 4. Its story focuses on the eponymous alliance between sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung and their schemes to revive an ancient army to conquer Outworld and Earthrealm. The game is the only main installment not to feature series protagonist Liu Kang as a playable character. It is also the first game in the canon series to not have the involvement of co-creator John Tobias, as he left Midway in 1999 to pursue other interests.

Sub-Zero (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

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Jax (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

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Scorpion (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

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Reptile (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonya Blade</span> Mortal Kombat character

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liu Kang</span> Mortal Kombat character

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Raiden (<i>Mortal Kombat</i>) Mortal Kombat character

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Artt Butler, is an American voice actor. He is best known for his voice roles as Captain Ackbar in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rafael Diaz in Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Shang Tsung and Cyrax in the animated direct-to-video films Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020) and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Vejvoda, Jim (2022-08-03). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Voice Cast and Plot Details Revealed". IGN. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  2. ↑ "Twitter post". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  3. ↑ "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind". Rotten Tomatoes . 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  4. ↑ Stone, Sam (October 11, 2022). "REVIEW: Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Delivers a More Intimate Martial Arts Adventure". Comic Book Resources . Valnet, Inc. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  5. ↑ Mateen, Renaldo (October 10, 2022). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Resorts to an Overused Franchise Trope". Comic Book Resources . Valnet, Inc. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  6. ↑ Vincent, Brittany (October 5, 2022). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Review". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  7. ↑ Wilds, Stephen (October 11, 2022). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind Review: A Good & Gory Time". ComingSoon.net . Mandatory . Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  8. ↑ Bankhurst, Adam (October 8, 2022). "Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Will Arrive in 2023 With Joel McHale Returning As Johnny Cage". IGN . Retrieved October 8, 2022.
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