| Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind | |
|---|---|
 Official DVD/Blu-ray cover | |
| Directed by | Rick Morales |
| Screenplay by | Jeremy Adams |
| Based on | Mortal Kombat byEd Boon &John Tobias |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Edited by | Robert Ehrenreich |
| Music by |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind is a 2022 Americandirect-to-videoadult animatedmartial arts film based on theMortal Kombat franchise, directed by Rick Morales and written by Jeremy Adams, produced byWarner Bros. Animation and animated by South Korean studioDigital eMation.Snow Blind was released on October 11, 2022,[1] and is the third installment in theMortal Kombat Legends series. The film borrows elements from the plot ofMortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance,Mortal Kombat: Deception andMortal Kombat 11, and is a direct sequel toMortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021). It received mixed-to-positive reviews.
A stand-alone prequel,Cage Match, was released in 2023.
Decades afterShao 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, andJarek, along with an agedShang Tsung — has annexed these cities, with their leaderKano 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 warriorKenshi. 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 himtelepathically; 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, but not before Kano reveals he had predicted Shang Tsung's betrayal, hinting at a grander design to his rule.
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 summonScorpion 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 containingKronika'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.
Cover art for the film was leaked ontoTwitter on August 1, 2022.[2] Two days later on August 3, 2022, the film was formally announced viaIGN.[1]
David Wenham replacedRobin Atkin Downes asKano fromMortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge.Ron Yuan, who previously voicedScorpion inMortal Kombat 11, voicedSub-Zero, replacing previous voice actor Bayardo De Murguia fromBattle of the Realms.[1]
Snow Blind holds a rating of 80% onRotten Tomatoes based on five critical reviews.[3] Sam Stone ofComic Book Resources wrote that the film was "the most intimate story of theMortal Kombat Legends trilogy" and "is all about character at its heart."[4] However, Renaldo Mateen ofCBR 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 ofIGN 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 ofComingSoon.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]
AtNew York Comic Con 2022, a prequel, titledCage Match, was announced for a 2023 release.Joel McHale reprises his role asJohnny Cage, as the main protagonist, from the first two installments of theLegends series.[8]
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