I love Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. It's one of my all-time favorites and it's a classic in its own right. A story about an aged gunslinger reluctantly getting back on the saddle, trying his damnedest to keep a promise he made to himself and his departed wife, only to break that promise when a friend is ruthlessly murdered. Leaving him seeking vengeance against those that wronged him. The character of William Munny is possibly my favorite of that archetype in all of fiction. The story of the old warrior reclaiming their former glory and or finding redemption is a trope I love and will continue to well into the near future. Which is all the more reason I hate The Last Jedi. No, this is not yet another "TLJ Sucks" rant. There's plenty of those. Today, we'll be discussing a contemporary example of a film that succeeds where TLJ failed. It's time to once again return to the Mortal Kombat Legends series with today's offering: Snow Blind.
Since my previous MK-related review, I've taken some time to get better acquainted with the franchise. And I wanna retract my previous statement. That whole the "least interesting part of Mortal Kombat, for me at least, is the narrative." bit. I was wrong. And I'm happy to be. I confess, I'm a bigger Street Fighter mark than an MK fan. But I absolutely get why people love (and hate) the franchise. The original 1995 film holds up better than you'd think. With a interesting, albeit standard protagonist in Robin Shou's portrayal of Liu Kang, and the enigmatic as hell Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's Shang Tsung. And it fairs far better than its 2021 reboot which unfortunately sucked. If that had been my intro to MK, I would have stood by my previous statement. A good representation of its own mythology it was not. But let's get into today's film... SPOILERS AHEAD.
While the second entry in the Legends series, Battle for the Realms was considered mixed to bad by some, and with good reason (see also SonicHaXD's video on it - if you thought Across the Spider-Verse was a mess, you've seen nothing yet), both it and the previous film Scorpion's Revenge made enough of a profit in WB's eyes to justify more animated MK content. Three sequels were green-lit. The first of which being Snow Blind. A film that unlike its predecessors wasn't married to any specific continuity (per se), and was allowed to experiment. The main protagonist, Kenshi Takahashi, a brash young warrior looking for a fight, gets his ass handed to him by members of the Black Dragon gang. He's spared death by a feeble, old Shang Tsung. Who's hoping to use Kenshi's ancestral history to his own ends. After Kenshi opens the Well of Souls and is blinded by the experience, Shang Tsung siphons the souls of Kenshi's ancestors to restore his youth. He then leaves the blind warrior to die at the bottom of the well, where he returns to K-Town to exact his revenge on King Kano for the years of indignity he suffered under him. And then he dies. A very, very grisly death. Unfortunately, this scene doesn't add to much in the longterm for Shang's character. I will admit, it is a clever bit of subversion and foreshadowing for a later scene with King Kano, but having Shang Tsung, a major antagonist of the series, killed off so soon leaves Kenshi with not much in the way of a satisfying conclusion to that story. It just feels off. It's a bit of a half-baked way of getting Kenshi to the well to find his family's sword Sento and from there meet up with our other protagonist, Kuai-Liang (the second Subzero). Sadly Shang Tsung is little more than a bipedal plot device. Though perhaps that's the intention given King Kano's backstory and motivation. Which we'll get into later...
Now I referenced TLJ at the start of this. And with good reason. My feelings of TLJ is that it failed to apply the old warrior reclaiming their former glory trope to Luke Skywalker. Luke is not the character you do that with. A guy who was shown to be the beacon of the Rebellion and a force of positive energy much like Superman or Captain America. Sure the character can have doubts and even stumble, but their core character is their unwavering optimism. In TLJ, the man we knew as Luke is gone. Replaced with a haggard shell with motivations that are at best poorly defined and downright character assassinating at worst. Luke is not Logan. Nor should he be. Now in the hands of a better writer this idea could've worked, see also Samurai Jack (Season 5). However, in Snow Blind, Kuai-Liang's own story is far more applicable to the old warrior trope. Years before, the world was plagued by a zombie horde - they're called Revenants but they're functionally zombies. In an attempt to stop them, Kuai-Liang enlisted the help of his fellow Lin-Kuei and went to confront the threat. However, when his warriors are slaughtered and he's surrounded by the enemy, fearing for his life, he used his cryomancy to summon a blizzard that killed everyone and froze everything around him. Killing the Revenant horde as well as innocent bystanders. Afterwards, with the loss of the Lin-Kuei and the world being reduced to a Mad Max-esque wasteland, he swears off the Lin-Kuei and forbids using his powers ever again. Believeing the endless cycle of violence he had taken part in was partially responsible for the end of the world as he knew it. He then resigned himself to living the rest of his days in isolation as a farmer. That is until Kenshi arrives beaten and blinded by Shang Tsung and desperate for help.
In the days that follow, Kuai-Liang begins to rekindle his own warrior spirit by training Kenshi to survive despite his blindness. Eventually being inspired by Kenshi's dogged insistence on doing the right thing by standing against King Kano and the Black Dragon rather than hiding in the desert. Both characters have an arc the complements each other. Kenshi is humbled by his handicap and learns to fight again through Kuai-Liang's teachings. And Kuai-Liang regains his honor by standing up to Kano rather than live on his knees. Had Kenshi not shown up on his farm that day, it's likely Kuai-Liang would've never been motivated to get back what he felt he had lost all those years ago. In the end, he succeeds in beating Kano and becoming the warrior he once was. Snow Blind's not very complex or deep, but it understands the fundamental basics of the Hero's Journey. Something TLJ couldn't manage with its absurd multimillion dollar budget.
Now something I should mention is the twist. The climax of the entire film and largely the film itself is predicated on this twist. Snow Blind is not a general audience movie. And unless you played Mortal Kombat 11 and have seen Kano's arcade ending, you're likely going to be lost. So here's the story: Basically, the idea is in Kano's MK11 arcade ending, after you've beaten Kronika, Kano will take the Hour Glass and reshape the universe to his will. However, he soon finds that winning all the time is boring as fuck. So he tries to shake things up by having the risk of losing be a factor so that the "... victory is all the sweeter" as he says. The world of Snow Blind is born from that arcade ending. And gives us what is possibly my favorite incarnation of Kano across all media. Not only is he voiced by David Wenham, Faramir from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but he's actually intimidating. No longer the thug playing second fiddle to Shang Tsung or third string for Shao Khan. Now he's running the show. For all intents and purposes, he is effectively God of this reality. His motivation is fascinating, and he has a cunningness about him that's just fun to watch.
The ending itself however is a bit divisive. Suffice to say some decisions are made that the film doesn't adequately explain. Like, you have the ability to remake time and space and undo everything Kano has done. And you just nuke it from existence. Neither Kuai-Liang or Scorpion (here for his obligatory cameo appearance) explain why they destroyed the Hour Glass. The best possible explanation I've seen online is that they recognize that the Hour Glass is too dangerous to fuck around with and too powerful to leave unguarded. So better to destroy it and leave things as is and hope Earthrealm can pull itself up from the shitmire. But no one should have to write for the writers when its their script. It's their issue to resolve, not ours.
If I have any legit gripes it's that the ending is really weak compared to what was up until that point a solid run. Like the writer's just tripped and landed face first in the dirt before crossing the finish line. The resolution is unsatisfying and leaves me asking more questions that will likely never get an answer.
The animation this time around has also been changed. Shedding the thin-lines and sharp corners of the previous two entries for lines thicker than Bryce Dallas Howard's ass and more softer edges. If Scorpion's Revenge was a 90s comic, Snow Blind is an early 2000s comic. Not quite as stylized, but still pretty damn good. Snow Blind loses the shaky cam of Scorpion's Revenge for more wide shots that allows for the action to really pop. And that was a good call. Some particularly notable sequences being the Shang Tsung vs King Kano fight, Kenshi's assault on K-Town, and the three-way duel involving Kenshi, Subzero, and Scorpion vs Kano. The art style may have changed, but the emphasis on blood and gore is still the same.
While it may not have stuck the landing, I still would recommend Snow Blind. Much moreso than I would Scorpion's Revenge. Sure the pacing does lag a bit in the middle, but it more than makes up for it by the end of the second act going into the third. And it's got a bit more going on under the hood than your average MK fare. Check it out and see for yourselves.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind gets Shang Tsung's head torn off out of ten.
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