Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge

I'm sort of split on this.

Now the concept of an R rated animated Mortal Kombat film is by no means a bad idea, I think the execution of it is performed very very well here. However, I'm more split on the plot elements. The story is sort of a hybrid of a Scorpion origin/standalone film mixed with the 1995 movie, and I genuinely wasn't expecting that. I fully anticipated a pure Scorpion movie, and while I don't need to fully know who Scorpion was before he was killed and returned as a specter I don't mind the story given with Hanzo and his family being killed and it's his quest for revenge that brought him back to life. That's cool, that could so easily be a film in and of itself, you get the backstory, you see him battle his way out of hell, craft his new persona, and seek vengeance on Sub-Zero. Beautiful, perfect! But then we just do the 95' movie again, with some variation of course, but I feel it was almost entirely unneccesary. Now if you wanted the original movie to have the ludicrous amounts of gore of the modern games then you are going to adore this movie. The blood is almost comical in it's absurd cartoony fashion, and the x-ray bits are clearly for the demographic who plays the new games, it's without a doubt the Mortal Kombat film for this generation. But every other aspect besides plot is really good, the animation is clean with a few good nods to anime thrown in, the voice cast is super good, music once more is decent, it really is just the nitty gritty details of the story that I'm not all for. Including one, I swear to God, it really made zero sense whatsoever and I feel was there just for the sake of a twist. It is beyond stupid, it almost makes me long for the plot points of Annihilation. Now granted those plot points were bullshit, but for the movie they were contained in it worked. Here, what the actual f*** were you on? I will say this however, in just one week I have garnered so much appreciation for Sonya than in 26 years of living, I'm serious once again she comes out as the best character for me. Which is odd because, not that I ever disliked Sonya, but my mains in the few games I played from most favorite was, Baraka, Reptile, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Noob Saibot if he was unlocked. I'm not even touching on Annihilation with how they handled Baraka. Look at how they massacred my boy. But we're in a happy place now, a gruesome, bloody, action packed, f***ed up happy place. So I would have to give this movie 3 stars, 7/10, not what I expected but neither was I disappointed. So I hope this week appeased my viewers and the elder gods, and tomorrow we wrap it all up with the new movie.

Gotham By Gaslight

You know Warner Bros. Animation, I don't think you understand what an R rating is. Both this and The Killing Joke could have been PG-13 and you wouldn't have to cut a damn thing. Is it the stigma of it being animation so in order to hammer your point home that it is heavy stuff you gotta make it an R rated movie so people take it seriously? Christ.

Yeah, Gotham By Gaslight is rated R which blew my mind when I picked it up at Redbox, I almost thought I got the wrong movie but nope. Now granted when you are dealing with a subject matter like Jack The Ripper, you're gonna get a body count and you're gonna get blood but an R rated film that does not make. Okay, slow down, go back, let's start basics. Gotham By Gaslight is an adaptation of the popular Elseworlds series DC has been making since the late 80s, taking classic superheroes and giving them unique spins. Like, what if Superman didn't land in Kansas but in the USSR and fought for communist values? Well this is a what if of Batman taking place in the late 1800s and one of his earliest cases is catching Jack The Ripper, based off the very first Elseworlds book. Now I do have to say, the book is okay, in fact I liked the movie better than the book. It's a very loose adaptation adding tons of new elements and centering the story on Jack whereas the book had 2 cases. So the story I genuinely liked, it's a very good mystery and to see a well known superhero in this time frame is a neat thing to see. I've always admired the Gotham By Gaslight suit, though I have never been a steampunk fan which it takes inspiration from. So the story and characters are really darn good, with one quiet scene between Bruce and Selina that really stole the whole movie for me, it was really good! I only had one major problem with the movie that I don't think was how it ended in the book, my memory is fuzzy and I should go back and read it one day, but I can't divulge what really pissed me off cause it spoils the mystery. But we will move to the technicals now! Animation is really great, the colors are dark and murky, and I must praise the unabashed unapologetic potrayal of late 19th century culture. Like they got their research down man, life sucked back then and it sucked even harder for women. Voice acting across the board is great, specifically Bruce Greenwood but you know what's weird? Bruce is a better Batman than he is...well, Bruce. But all in all, it's a decent movie, I enjoyed it more than the fraking Killing Joke that's for damn sure. Doesn't deserve the R rating even in the slightest, perfect for a rental, and if you know anything about me we can't leave this alone now. I don't got any other movies for the week, so let's watch some more animated Batman movies! Tune in tomorrow, same time same channel!