QUICK! PAN TO THE MORTAL KOMBAT FLOOR!

I was going to write an article about the Subzero and Scorpion two parter quite some time ago. That is, until I seen an annotation in episode 8 telling me to tune into next week’s ninth and final episode. So I figured I’d wait for that last part and wrap this whole thing up.

It didn’t come out the next week, or the week after. A month goes by, and it’s still nowhere to be found. There was no announcement of what was going on and the Machinima channel still said it was coming out the week following episode 8. Until I read a news post somewhere saying that the director “tweeted” (in the most informal way possible) that he was not only not going to premiere the next episode of his weekly series on time, but that he was SAVING it for a premiere at comic-con 2 MONTHS later.

In the 2 months of absence he could’ve shot an entirely new episode, or maybe he could instead have presented all the parts edited together as a feature length film. But whatever, it’s all incidental now, it really doesn’t matter in the long scheme of things but god damn was that confusing to figure out.

Another baffling announcement was that the final episode was going to focus on Sektor and Cyrax. Sektor and Cyrax?! I mean those are cool characters and all, but, Sektor and Cyrax!? I thought for absolute certain that the final episode would focus on, oh I don’t know, Liu Kang the MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER OF MORTAL KOMBAT. But I’ll hold my thoughts on episode 9 for when I get to it.

Let’s instead focus on episodes 7 and 8, the Subzero and Scorpion two parter. We focus on Scorpion’s life before it was torn apart. We see his family and his home. The tone of this story is appropriate, and I feel like the Japanese language with the English subtitles helps it to feel a little more authentic.

Scorpion is then summoned into an ambush, but not before slipping into a really fucking terrible ninja costume…

I mean jesus, this is making Mortal Komedy look like Mortal Kombat Annihilation, hes even walking in the woods just like every Youtube tribute to MK you can shake a stick at. I can buy a better scorpion costume at Walmart for halloween. I’m also confused as to why the scorpion mask comes complete with a goblin mouth and nose? Or why his pony tail is sticking out the back of his mask.

So Subzero appears and it’s pretty clear that Scorpion was led into an ambush while Subzero’s men are killing everyone in his village. The Subzero costume looks significantly less cheap but still doesn’t look anything like the classic designs from any incarnation of Mortal Kombat.

The first part ends before right before they fight.

The second part, once again it’s shorter than the first and several minutes of it are padded with credits, for once it actually provides a conclusion better than it’s set up. Stuff actually fucking happens in it. It isn’t just a rehash of the first part up until the final minute. Like the shittier episodes of Dragon Ball Z.

Right away Subzero and Scorpion start fighting in the woods, complete with cheesy techno music, and THIS is what I fucking wanted. Just two people with super powers fighting, was that too much to ask for? I’m pretty pleased, and I have to say, even the fight choreography is good here.

So Scorpion beats Subzero but quickly retreats to check on his family, whom he finds have been frozen to death. While Scorpion is mourning Subzero stabs him in the back and freezes him solid. Subzero then reveals himself to actually be Quan Chi trying to deceive Scorpion. He kneels before Scorpion is asks him to be his servant in exchange for exacting revenge on Subzero. He of course gives in, my only problem with this is Quan Chi spoke to him through the ice as if he could see and hear despite being frozen. SO WHY DID HE CHANGE SHAPES RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM!? Whatever…

Surprisingly I have a lot of good things to say about this. It’s not perfect, but it’s also fairly well paced, and it showcases an actual arc in Scorpion’s character. And there’s a real sense of tragedy there. Save for the strange costume choices these episodes are the first instances in which I can say that this genuinely feels like a Mortal Kombat show.

It does have a number of issues still. Like the fact that Quan Chi looks like shit and doesn’t really act like Quan Chi, the episodes are too short, and none of the two parters needed to be split into two. But if this is a sign of things to come then I would gladly like to see where this guy could take a Mortal Kombat movie. If it gets that far.

Before I spit too much praise I’ll move onto my thoughts of the ninth and final episode.

Human versions of Cyrax and Sector are being escorted to the Lin Kuei to be roboticized. Sektor is blindly following the initiative to turn all of the Lin Kuei warriors into cyber ninjas whereas Cyrax is against it. The camera pans down to the Mortal Kombat floor. As much sense as that makes.

They arrive at a warehouse, where they are forced to fight two highly trained agents as a test. They conclude the test by breaking the agent’s necks because of how absolutely necessary it was. It turns out however that the agents were robots, and this infuriates Cyrax. So he rips off one of their heads and tosses it at the security camera.

Cut to the operating table. The doctor explains some technicals and since the Lin Kuei apparently don’t believe in anesthetic Cyrax wakes up mid operation and they just keep going anyway.

With the operation complete they start another test. This time the robotic Cyrax and Sektor fight a gray robot that could potentially be robot Smoke. But they call him “Project Hydro” so I guess it isn’t.

As you’d imagine the robots aren’t dudes in costume, but are CG models. They look pretty good, not convincing, but good. In fact I’m pretty sure they just borrowed the character models from MK9.

Now my real problem with this test is their testing our the improved design they apparently integrated into Cyrax and Sektor, but they’re making them fight the old design robot 2-on-1. The gray robot puts up a damn good fight too, which makes me question if the newer robots are improved at all. They had to work together to kill him is all I’m saying.

So the episode concludes by saying that the rest of the Lin Kuei will undergo the robotic transformation. And that’s it. That’s Mortal Kombat Legacy.

What’d I think? Ehhh.

Let’s get one thing straight though. I was never out to hate this series. I want this guy to succeed and for him to learn from his mistakes. At this point it’s unclear if there will be a second season, and to be honest, I’m not so sure if I want one. It all depends on how well it would turn out. The last few episodes were a decent stepping stone that instilled new faith regarding this guy’s ability to do the mythology justice… but the rest of the series is still largely boring, and lacking in a consistent tone.

At last, now I can go back to my every day routine of ignoring Machinima.