If you’ve never heard of Mortal Kombat, you mustn’t be a fan of video games.
This fighting game was huge and rivaled Streetfighter II for the top spot in one on ‘beat ’em up’ arcade games list in the 90’s. When they released the first Season of Mortal Kombat Legacy we finally saw a video incarnation that paid tribute to the games with an awesome style of storytelling and martial arts action.
Season 2 was on YouTube but has since been removed. You can grab the Blu-Ray here though.
Is it good? My answer – They did alright….
The flow on story telling style I preferred to the old series, but it made it seem MUCH shorter (I sat down and watched them all one after the other). Many individual stories were told and blended into the one story line very well, so it’s a good mixture of back stories and current events.
Overall I feel like less was delivered than the first in terms of story depth, but there was more action in this series – which is what Mortal Kombat is all about!
Straight away in the first episode we see Liu Kang and Kung Lao showing off some nice skills. After all, Kung Lao is played by Mark Dacascos, so that’s one extremely talented martial artist in a prominent role!
I was also pleasantly surprised with the performance of Brian Tee, who played Liu Kang. Brian has some martial arts background and was able to let it rip in the first episode creating an awesome fight scene to kick start the series. On another note, the very character of Liu Kang is quite different than expected, being the washed up drunk and a borderline villain, as opposed to the picture perfect hero he was portrayed as in the original video games.
Characters & Actors?
We’re looking at an almost entirely new cast in this season!
It’s a little unfortunate that most of the actors from the first season didn’t make it through – especially dropping a talented martial artist like Matt Mullins for Casper Van Dien (to play Johnny Cage), whose onscreen fighting style looks him look like he’s never even seen a fight let alone studied a martial art. But Casper does add a certain masculinity to Johnny Cage that the boyish Matt Mullins just couldn’t.
We see more of Kitana vs Mileena while being introduced to a few other fighters like Ki, Liu Kang and Kung Lao. But even most of the existing characters like Stryker, Raiden and Shang Tsung (with the original movie actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) are replaced by different actors.
A good chunk of the original season’s characters don’t make an appearance except a few – the most notable being Scorpion and the fact that Ian Anthony Dale is playing him again. The Scorpion Vs Sub Zero story line was well told and builds up quite well leaving you wanting more.
I do need to take a moment to comment on how badass Scorpion looks in this series!
Where to Next?
This season leaves you ready for another, but it left me wanting to see more of the original’s season’s characters. The real acting & martial arts talent sits with Michal Jai White as Jax, Darren Shahlavi as Kano and Mark Dacascos as Kung Lao, with Brian Tee’s fight as Liu Kang giving him an honorable mention in my books.
Of course an epic fight between Scorpion and Sub Zero is an absolute must!
So hopefully we see these characters mix up and solidify the two currently existing seasons into a really action packed series; or even better – a feature length film.
I can’t say I know a hell of lot about the future plans of the series, but this season definitely left me wanting more! If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t forget to watch the first Season of Mortal Kombat Legacy, before scrolling back up and watching the second. Enjoy!
