Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms [Blu-Ray]

Director: Ethan Spaulding

Cast: Joel McHale, Jennifer Carpenter, Jordan Rodrigues (VOICES)

Release Date: August 31, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms picks up shortly after the explosive finale of Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, the 2020 blockbuster hit that initiated these animated films – which are based on one of the most popular videogame franchises in history. In Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, our team of heroes are besieged by the enemy forces of Shao Kahn – forcing Raiden and his group of warriors into a deal to compete in a final Mortal Kombat that will determine the fate of the realms. Now our heroes must travel to Outworld in order to defend Earthrealm and, simultaneously, Scorpion must find the ancient Kamidogu before it’s used to resurrect the One Being – which would mean certain destruction of all things in the universe. Time is short and the stakes are high in this action-packed continuation of the Mortal Kombat journey.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ rejoins the defenders of Earthrealm, picking up shortly after the conclusion of ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge’ as our heroes are assaulted by the deadly forces commanded by Shao Kahn. When the group is offered everlasting peace should they agree to partake in a final tournament promised to end the conflict once and for all, Raiden reluctantly accepts forcing the warriors to head to Outworld to fight once again, although hopefully for the final time. Meanwhile, Scorpion escapes from the underworld once more and sets out on a hunt for the ancient Kamidogu before it can be used to resurrect the One Being which if accomplished could result in the destruction of the universe as we know it.

‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ is another blood-soaked, bone-crunching and extremely violent animated feature that expands upon the world introduced in the last film, while delivering a few mildly surprising deaths and shocking moments throughout that will keep the fans on their toes. The film’s storyline this time around also expands and while it does allow the opportunity for keeping more characters in play and key to the tale, it unfortunately also results in things becoming a bit more jumbled and confusing this time around. Occasionally feeling like they were struggling to jam as much content and story into the eighty minute runtime as possible which causes some of the story elements to blend or become mildly confusing. Fortunately the plethora of bloody action, chaos and memorable battles at least help to keep things from ever becoming even the slightest bit dull.

This new adult, animated ‘Mortal Kombat’ feature is once again directed by Ethan Spaulding (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge) who does a great job of guiding along the bloody fun and excitement. The film also features a solid voice cast of new and returning individuals that includes Joel McHale, Jennifer Carpenter, Jordan Rodrigues, Patrick Seitz, Grey Griffin, Matthew Mercer, Bayardo De Murguia and many more who all really help to make this animated film series work as well as it does. I would strongly encourage anyone who enjoyed ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge’ to make a definite point of checking out ‘Battle of the Realms’ at your earliest convenience if you haven’t already had the pleasure. It’s another wild, bloody and action packed good time that fans of the saga probably won’t want to overlook.

Overall, ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ is a wildly violent and blood drenched follow-up to ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge’ that suffers from what at times seems to be an overly jumbled and complicated storyline, but still delivers enough graphic carnage, fight sequences and violence to keep fans from every losing interest along the way. ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ is definitely recommended for Mortal Kombat fans and especially anyone who enjoyed the previous animated feature ‘Scorpion’s Revenge’, although I would strongly urge those who haven’t seen the last entry to try and watch that one prior as ‘Battle of the Realms’ is very much a direct sequel in many ways. If you were a fan of the last animated film, this should easily be worth the cost of a rental at the very least and is definitely well worth a watch.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty solid for the most part and offers up a largely clean, vividly colored and well detailed presentation from start to finish. It holds up nicely even during the various fast moving, darkly lit and heavily populated sequences throughout and never suffers from any severe issues or troubles, although some minor banding and other minor imperfections are present, very similar in appearance to the DC Animated Movies also released by Warner; but never anything notable enough to result in an unpleasant viewing experience by any means. Overall, this is a more than capable high definition video presentation that does its job well in most respects and it shouldn’t disappoint fans or first time viewers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is quite the treat in itself and delivers a crisp, clean and aggressive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all five available channels regularly in order to send action and fantasy effects, along with some music, bits of dialogue and more throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, and never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible along the way. Overall, this is a wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that holds up great throughout and repeatedly adds some extra fun and excitement to the viewing experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms’ features a few enjoyable extras. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Producer Rick Morales and Writer Jeremy Adams’ in addition to a couple of Behind the Scenes Featurettes: ‘The God and the Dragon: Battling for Earthrealm’ (running approximately 7 minutes in length) and ‘Voices of Kombat’ (running approximately 8 minutes). Also included is ‘Kombat Gags: Gag Reel’ (approximately 4 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray & Digital from Warner Bros. Entertainment

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