Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of The Realms Review

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Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms is a direct sequel to Scorpions Revenge, and it sees Earth Realm’s Heroes, journey to Outworld to face the forces of Emperor Shao Kahn in the tournament to end all tournaments: Final Mortal Kombat.

The Good 

In many ways, MK: Battle of the Realms is what 2021’s Mortal Kombat live-action movie should have always been. A well-structured and bloody tournament, that takes full advantage of Mortal Kombat’s exhaustive character roaster.

The animated movie builds on the strong foundations of Scorpion’s Revenge, by introducing new characters and completing several storylines, including Earth Realm vs Outworld. 

After Outworld’s defeat in the last tournament, Shao Kahn calls for the Final Mortal Kombat, to settle the fate of realms once for all. And this leads to some of the best one-on-one fights of the Mortal Kombat Franchise. 

As expected, MK: Battle of the Realms doesn’t shy away from blood. And over the course of the tournament, several characters suffer very gruesome deaths (especially when Shao Kahn gets involved).

However, this doesn’t mean the earth’s defenders were any less formidable.

My personal favorite was seeing Liu Kang finally disgrace the sorcerer-fighter Shang Tsung with just one hand. It was a very satisfying defeat and my only wish was that this fight went on a bit longer.

But asides from the brutal competition, MK: Battle of the Realms also continues the story of the Legend himself Hanzo Hasashi (Scorpion). After achieving his revenge, the NetherRealm ninja finds himself targeted by Kuai Liang’s Subzero, whose brother Scorpion accidentally killed.  

For the most part, scorpion’s side quest to find redemption was a decent continuation of the character’s arc. But everything falls apart once the animated movie gets to its finale. 

The Bad 

Unfortunately, where MK Legends: Battle of the Realm gets it wrong, is trying to tell one too many stories at once. The animated movie should have taken more time to flesh out Kitana’s rebellion against Shao Kahn. And the final plot about “The One Being” should have been a separate movie. One that would have dived deep into Shinnok, and the origins of other elder gods.

Instead, Battle of the realm rushes through Shao Kahn’s epic defeat, just to squeeze in a final fight with a boss that hadn’t been properly established. And what was the result?

A lackluster finale that could have been avoided if the movie had just focused on one villain at a time. 

Verdict