Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie Review

Mime over matter.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 13, 2023

Mortal Kombat Legends is a series of direct-to-video animated films starring fan-favorite characters in quasi-origin stories and other lightly serialized adventures. It got off to a surprisingly strong start with 2020's Scorpion's Revenge, an appropriately ultra-violent and consistently entertaining adventure that, among other things, featured a breakout turn for Johnny Cage (capably voiced by Joel McHale) even though it was largely Scorpion's show. The 2021 follow-up Battle of the Realms shifted things to the perspective of Liu Kang but oddly juxtaposed the story with an overstuffed tournament that compromised the film's flow and enjoyment value. Last year's Snow Blind wrote itself into a corner with a dull story and open ending that I wasn't convinced the creative team would even bother resolving.

Well, it turns out they didn't. Cage Match hits the reset button entirely (at least for now) as a stand-alone throwback adventure starring the first two films' best character: Jonny Cage (again voiced by Joel McHale). The story takes place in 1984 Hollywood with a vintage vibe to match, from its neon-infused visual aesthetic to the costumes, visual gags, and a few well-placed pop culture references and guest appearances. Struggling young actor Cage is currently starring in the low-budget Ninja Mime, which hits a production snag after his co-star Jennifer (Jennifer Grey) turns up missing. Working with his dutiful assistant Chuck Golden (Dusan Brown) and occasionally against his foul-mouthed agent David Doubldy (Gilbert Gottfried, in one of his final performances), Cage makes little headway and seems more concerned with his career than anyone -- or anything -- else. After literally ending up in the middle of a fierce fight between two female warriors Kia (Grey DeLisle) and Ashrah (Kelly Hu) for possession of a mysterious scroll, the fallout takes him around the city and into the middle of a top-secret society attempting to resurrect an ancient demon.

It's a fun ride and moves predictably fast at a sleek 80 minutes, with the bulk of its story taking a purely linear and episodic approach as Cage and a couple of friends delve deeper into the seedy underbelly of Hollywood (or is that the whole thing?). A brief detour arrives in the form of a flashback explaining Cage's childhood desire to learn martial arts, and the whole show has an appropriately tongue-in-cheek attitude with a heavy reliance on one-liners, multiple fourth-wall breaks, and even a healthy dose of snarky freeze-frame narration. For pure entertainment value, it hits the mark and just might edge out Scorpion's Revenge for replay value; the lightweight balance of comedy and action brings to mind 1980s cult classics like Big Trouble in Little China, which it doesn't directly reference but might as well.

So why not a higher score? It all seems a bit too easy, which is more of a spillover criticism for the crooked, confusing narrative path this franchise has taken during four movies in as many years. Cage Match is certainly fun and well worth watching, though it just kind of sits by itself amongst the three other passively connected films as an optional one-shot. That may be part of its charm, of course, and at this point I'd rather the franchise be a series of separate chapters... but this Hail Mary approach feels more like desperate, short term fan service than thoughtfully planned.

Regardless, I'd imagine anyone who thought Johnny Cage was the best part of Mortal Kombat Legends thus far will share my overall enthusiasm for what's otherwise a pretty damn fun adventure and a potentially good sign for the next installment. Warner Bros. offers Cage Match on Blu-ray or 4K (separate review here) with no combo pack option, unlike earlier titles. Either way, disc contents are identical on both formats apart from the video presentation.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The long and short of Cage Match on Blu-ray is that, much like earlier Warner Bros. releases of native 2K direct-to-video animated films (including all three earlier Legends), fans will get a reasonably good runner-up to the unavoidably superior 4K edition. This is for two reasons, and the first and most obvious is disc compression. Although Cage Match is only an 80-minute film (with only another 10-15 minutes of video-based bonus content) and thus should fit snugly on a single-layer Blu-ray, it regularly runs at a fairly below average bit rate of 15-20Mbps and occasionally even lower. As a possibly direct result, this film's use of heavy gradients and bold colors leads to occasional banding and black crush... or at least "darker color crush", since Cage Match is rarely dominated by true blacks and, in some conditions, avoids them entirely. The second is its lack of HDR enhancement, which makes some of the audacious color choices look even more garish and overcooked in comparison. If this is the first or only way you're watching Cage Match, though, these differences won't be as noticeable, and on small screens they may not be detectable without close inspection.

Otherwise, this is a solid presentation overall and contains many of the fundamental strengths described in my review of the 4K disc, including crisp line detail and a punchy palette. Bottom line: even with some room for improvement, it's a largely good-looking disc that successfully shows of Cage Match's mostly pleasing visual aesthetic.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix offers a similarly crisp presentation, likewise leaning hard on showy sonic touches during action scenes and where its 80s-flavored soundtrack is concerned. It carries a solid amount of weight at critical moments with punches, kicks, explosions, and other front-forward effects landing heavily while sometimes even drifting towards the rears. Discrete effects are limited but appreciated, such as crowd noise and other location-based ambience. Overall it's not quite as in-your-face as earlier Legends films due to a larger focus on comedy than straight-up action or even horror, but considering the subject matter it's a fine effort with little room for improvement.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are included during the main feature only.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc set ships in a keepcase with 80s-inspired cover art, a matching slipcover, and a Digital Copy redemption code. The bonus features are slimmer than earlier Legends films but still worth a once-over.

• Audio Commentary - This full-length sesh features producers Rick Morales and Jim Krieg with writer Jeremy Adams, who deliver a predictably candid and laid-back track. Topics of interest include bringing more comedy to Mortal Kombat, developing the idea, bringing Joel McHale back, embracing tropes, using "real songs", adding a bunch of F-bombs, writing from experience, experimenting with costume design, shout-outs and background characters, working with Gilbert Gottfried and Jennifer Grey, gratuitous violence, and much more.

• What Would Johnny Cage Do? (9:55) - A quick and enjoyable behind-the-scenes piece that features the participants above as well as Joel McHale and director Ethan Spaulding. There's obviously a bit of overlap, then, but it's still enjoyable enough and includes a few glimpses of concept art and voice acting.

• Ninja Mime Trailer (1:03) - A scuzzy-looking promotional piece for the movie-within-the-movie.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ethan Spaulding's Cage Match is the latest (and possibly greatest) installment of Mortal Kombat Legends, an ongoing direct-to-video origin anthology series that, up until this point, gradually wrote itself into a corner. It feels like a hard press of the reset button and is slightly docked for that reason, but on its own is an entertaining action-adventure that leans heavy on tongue-in-cheek comedy. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray edition (4K available separately) is a decent runner-up and will likely be good enough for most modest setups. Recommended.