A third entry in this pretty decent adult animated Mortal Kombat movie franchise? Who knew! Well I didn't for sure so as eager as I am I was quick to view this pronto, stay tuned to find out what I thought. Oh wait, I mean have a gander down below at my humble scribbles.
Long after the Defeat of Shao Khan Earthrealm has come under the control of 'The Black Dragon Clan' and their now cybernetic leader Kano. The entire realm has, somehow, become a massive desert wasteland strewn with death, destruction, and isolated cities. Out of nowhere the young warrior Kenshi pops up to try and defeat Kano and his clan. But Kenshi will need the help of an aged Sub-Zero (now a humble farmer) and a magical mysterious sword called Sento.
So this third entry takes a distinct different route in terms of visuals. First off, the hand-drawn style is very clearly different from the previous two outings and offers a more lowkey appearance, dare I say slightly cheaper animation. Or at least that's how it appears to me. The art on display definitely has less detail and looks a bit more like a Saturday morning cartoon, albeit a decent one. The actual animation, while respectable, is a bit more choppy or jerky, not as fluid as the previous two movies (both of which had a very Genndy Tarkakovsky-like style). Overall the visual presentation is solid but not as good as the previous offerings. Unfortunately the CGI in the finale of the movie is pretty terrible, was that on purpose? Cos it seriously stuck out that bad.
The setting for this movie also has a distinct vibe about it. Set in a desert wasteland, outback/western looking locations, people dressed in various barbarian-esque style attire, the mad vehicles etc...Yup, it's clear as day to anyone that the folk behind this have taken a big page out of the 'Mad Max' franchise, with a little bit of 'Star Wars' thrown in. That's not a bad thing, in fact it works really well, but it is obvious.
Of course continuity wise this third movie is still a thoroughly adult affair with blood and guts flying all over the place...and that's a good thing. In fact, I might actually hazard a guess and say this movie is possibly the bloodiest of the three movies. In fact, I'd say the lowkey animation actually kinda enhanced the violence and gore on display because it looks much more gritty and somehow more nasty. Naturally being Mortal Kombat you'd also expect there to be more characters involved, and you'd be right. This time we get a nice roster of old and new with the likes of Tremor, Kobra, Erron Black, Kabal, Jarek, Drahmin, Dairou, Ferra/Torr (total Mad Max rip-off character), and Kira. Whilst at the same time we have stalwarts like good old Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Shang Tsung.
Story wise there is nothing specifically unique going on here, we've seen this sort of thing all before. But I can't deny that the gang of bad guys are suitably evil in their deeds and it is certainly satisfying to see them get their comeuppance via various blades. Kano is also a top sadistic villain here with his (I think) Aussie accent, again makes you think of that desert-set Aussie cult classic. All the sequences of Sub-Zero training Kenshi are also somewhat generic, think of any hero training moment in any other movie. But essentially this is most definitely your standard Western Clint Eastwood revenge thriller set within a violent cyberpunk/Mad Max world with sprinkles of Far East mysticism thrown in, and that's no bad thing.
At first I thought this was gonna be complete poo as the visuals were somewhat jarring after watching the slicker earlier movies. But blow me down this was actually really good, in fact I'd go as far as to say this is the best of the bunch, so far. It helps being an adult animated feature I think, had this been a live-action movie it would probably disappear into obscurity amongst tonnes of other wannabe action fantasy flicks. The plot moves at a nice clip but never feels convoluted or slow. The voice acting is again on top form across the board (at least for me). The characters are great fun and the violence is gooey and disgusting. The only downside for me is the silly movie subtitle, Snow Blind? Really?
9/10
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