Blu-Ray Review: Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge

The physical release of Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is now officially out to the public across all current formats such as Blu-Ray, DVD, and even Digital streaming services which are optional. Upon research for this review, I got my standard combo pack from Best Buy which comes with a shiny cardboard slip-cover along with two discs of both formats and two paper-vouchers. One being a survey tied with Warner Bros. While the other is a free digital version of the film from the streaming site “Movies Anywhere”.



Both the DVD and Blu-ray menus in terms of creative flair leave more to be desired. With only a still-image of the movie’s cover art of the logo and Scorpion, along with a red bar at the bottom with white text where the options of both formats can be found complete with the end-credits’ dubstep music. Compared to the Blu-Ray version the DVD Menu is even more bare-bones with not even a “scene selection” just the “Play Movie”, options to language settings and the exact same two film trailers that pop up when you first play both disc formats such as the trailers to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and the live-action Birds of Prey movie.



The Blu-Ray portion of this combo-pack however, is a slightly different story. What it lacks in flashy animated menus, thankfully compensates with special features that attempt to give more proverbial meat to the Blu-Ray itself. 

“From Epic Game to Extreme Animation”
Behind the scenes interviews with Director Ethan Spaulding, Producer Rick Morales, Screenwriter Jeremy Adams, And various members within NetherRealm Studios including Mortal Kombat’s co-creator Ed Boon who also served as the creative consultant.

“The Weapons, Wardrobe, and world of Mortal Kombat Legends”.
As the title implies, this dives deeper into the visual style, what influences and inspirations behind the backgrounds, character designs (In which half of them are lifted from the game “Mortal Kombat X”), weapon designs and how certain weapons make sense to their various places of origin. From the refined swords and technology of Earthrealm, To the barbaric crude swords and stabbing weapons from primitive medieval-like places such as Outworld and MK’s long-standing interpretation of hell, The NetherRealm.

“The Savage Sound Design of Mortal Kombat”:
An in-depth look into the music and sound effects made to emphasize gore effects & breaking bones with the sources of their sounds being recorded from the most unexpected places, and how much creative freedom that was surprisingly given to the producers.

“Mortal Kombatants”
Which is basically a select handful of character bios of the iconic MK characters within the main plot for those completely unfamiliar with the franchise as a whole Surprisingly these are the only two interviews we get with the voice cast such as Joel McHale and Jennifer Carpenter voicing their respective characters Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, while everyone else that’s being interviewed are the same producers and crew I previously mentioned.

And finally, a commentary track that delves deep into the nitty-gritty details of the creative process from the Animated film’s creators themselves.

Our Take
When it comes to the physical home release of this film, The phrase “Pick your Poison” springs to mind as other more-expensive collectors editions of this, also reportedly exist such as a “Target Exclusive” Steelbook case and a Special Edition which comes with a Scorpion figurine (similar to the Teen Titans: Judas Contract Release). With all the physical disc formats most likely identical to my copy, It isn’t perfect. But at least the Blu-Ray features are serviceable enough for longtime Mortal Kombat fans like me. But if you have money to burn, go for the Blu-Ray when it’s discounted.