Revenge of the Ninja Mime

I’ve sat through a few of the Mortal KombatFunctioning almost like counter programming against the cleaner, brighter, and friendlier fighting games of the era, Mortal Kombat added violence, gore, and bruality in equal measure, creating a fighing game every kid wanted to play (and every adult wanted out of their house). animated films so far, ever since the WB started releasing direct to video movies back with Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge in 2020. The films have varied in quality, at least when it came to the storytelling, and the movies attempted to combine and condense multiple titles, and several characters worth of in-game story, into a cohesive film for fans. It’s not an easy feat, especially considering the video game series has been rebooted twice so far, and it could have gone very wrong, very quickly.

Overall, though, the series of animated films have been pretty decent. Continuing with Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, which concluded the story from the first film, and then Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, which was willing to explore a future imperfect, alternate reality for the franchise, the movies have been willing to explore all the strange, interesting, and odd-ball places the overall franchise (currently consisting of 12 games and counting) has gone. About the only place the films haven’t gone yet is up against the DC Comics heroes (ala Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe), but considering the WB makes a bunch of animated films for that universe as well, I’d guess it’s only a matter of time on that front.

And now we have Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match, the fourth film of the series, which casts yet another curveball for the franchise. This time we have a prequel, a film set before the events of Scorpion's Revenge, following the misadventures of Johnny Cage (voiced by Joel McHale) as he encounters the denizens of Netherrealm. It probably does act as a retcon and reboot for the series as well, but considering the events of the last film with that movie ending on an implied reboot of the series anyway, that really doesn’t matter that much. Instead we get a fun, 1980s, synthwave, dayglo affair that feels very different, and very fresh, when compared to the three films we had before.

The film opens with a voice over from Johnny Cage (McHale), telling us about the state of his life. He’s gotten his big break, thanks to his agent, David Doubldy (Gilbert Gottfried), and is finally starring in a real action film, Ninja Mime, opposite a real star, Jennifer Grey (voiced by herself). There’s only one problem. As per the producer, Brian Van Jones (Phil LaMarr), Jennifer has gone missing, and Johnny Cage has to go find her. Without her, the key scene of the film can’t get made and the whole production goes under.

With the help of his assistant, Chuck Golden (Dusan Brown), Johnny gets over to Jennifer’s house, but instead of the starlet he finds two warriors, Jataaka (Zehra Fazal) and Ashrah (Kelly Hu), battling over a scroll. Johnny gets in the way and Jataaka makes off with the scroll. Ashrah chases her, so Johnny chases them both, getting caught up in a battle not just for the scroll but the fate of the entire world. For years everyone has told Johnny he’s special, and now is the time he can prove it to everyone… including himself.

Here’s the thing about Johnny Cage: he’s a one-note blowhard. Normally I would say that would make for a terrible character to build a movie around. When he showed up in the first two Mortal Kombat Legends films, he was the comic relief, the idiot with a quip that at least made you laugh. But it’s hard to build an entire story around them because when you scratch that out to a full length film, their sole gag quickly wears out. You can only push a character like that so far in most circumstances.

However, Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match is not normal circumstances. For starters, Cage is voiced by Joel McHale, one of the few actors that can make the full of himself blowhard character work for any length of time. He played Jeff Winger for six seasons of Community and that character, while developing nuance over time, remained a great blowhard that you absolutely loved and rooted for. Similarly, McHale played a similar character when he hosted The Soup on E! McHale hosted the show for 12 seasons and played the perfect blowhard there throughout (even carrying that schtick over to The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale).

McHale has a certain magic to his performance and he brings that to Cage. Yes, he’s an idiot that’s completely and utterly full of himself, packed to the brim with ego and unearned bravado. But because McHale is voicing him you actually don’t mind. He’s a character you absolutely want to hate, one that should never be able to carry a solo feature all on his own, and yet… he does. McHale’s voice performance, plus the knowing humor of the feature-length film, keeps you entertained, endeared by this idiot blowhard at the center of it all.

That’s the other strength of the film of course: the movie knows it’s utterly silly. Unlike the previous three films, which all largely played it straight (outside of Johnny Cage, of course), this movie is basically a parody of the franchise up until now. Cage is thrown into a story he really isn’t meant for, and while there are demons and devils, gods and monsters all running around, killing each other in very graphic ways, the film never strays into self-serious drama. It remains very silly, and very humorous all the way through.

The production perfectly highlights that, taking on a dayglow, neon lit aesthetic to suit its 1980s-set adventure. Crotch-rocking tunes and synthwave style backs the film while everything is highlighted with pinks, yellows, and bright blues. This film takes the decade it’s set in and pushes it past the point of reason, reveling in being a different kind of Mortal Kombat in a different decade. It could have just been another standard Mortal Kombat but, instead, it went for something else, something more fun.

I don’t think the creators could pull this trick off twice. The magic of Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match is that it’s so unlike what came before that it acts as a kind of palette cleanser for the series. It’s a fun comedic trifle that gets to play in the world of the series without having to take itself seriously. It gets to be a Mortal Kombat but also a parody of the series all at the same time, and it works so well. It’s one of the most entertaining adventures to come out of this franchise, but it’s absolutely a trick they could only do once. If they did it again for the next film, it just wouldn’t hit the same.

So I’m glad they took the risk and made a fun and enjoyable Mortal Kombat confection. Sometimes a franchise needs to let its hair down and have a little fun, and with Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match, the bloodiest fighting series around got to do just that. It’s movie magic.