Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The movie offered a strong visual presentation.
At all times, sharpness remained terrific. Virtually no softness crept into the image, so we got a tight, well-defined package.
Both jagged edges and moiré effects failed to appear, and the image lacked edge haloes. Of course, source flaws failed to materialize.
Realms boasted a pretty broad palette that happily deviated from the usual trend toward orange and teal. The movie’s colors went with a nice variety of hues, all of which appeared lively and bold, and the disc’s HDR added some impact to these tones.
Blacks seemed deep and dark, while low-light shots presented nice smoothness and clarity. HDR brought extra dimensionality to contrast and whites. This ended up as a solid image.
Though not quite as good, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack added punch to the proceedings. With all sorts of chaos and mayhem on display, the mix opened up well and used the various speakers to create a lively sonic environment.
Audio worked fine, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music appeared vivid and full, as the score remained well-depicted.
Effects added spark to the material and showed nice accuracy and depth, with warm, tight bass. This felt like a very good mix, especially given the movie’s lower “direct to video” budget.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both sported the same DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio.
In terms of visuals, the 4K looked a bit better defined and showed stronger colors and blacks. However, improvements didn’t feel significant, as the two looked pretty similar. While the 4K worked better, it didn’t become a substantial upgrade over the BD.
We get a few extras here, all on the included Blu-ray copy, and and we start with an audio commentary from producer Rick Morales and writer Jeremy Adams. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters and connections to the broader Kombat universe, cast and performances, and related domains.
Given Adams’ presence, it comes as no surprise that story and character issues dominate the chat, and those offer some reasonably useful information. However, Adams and Morales tend to go into “geek-out fanboy mode” a bit too much, as they tend to rave about the wonders of the Kombat franchise too much. This leads to a decent but less than terrific commentary.
Two featurettes follow, and The God and the Dragon fills seven minutes, five seconds with notes from Adams, Morales, co-creator Ed Boon, storyboard artist Milo Neuman, and actors Joel McHale and Jordan Rodrigues.
“Dragon” looks at story/characters, the movie’s violence and animation. It includes a few insights but mostly consists of happy talk.
Voices of Kombat spans eight minutes, 34 seconds and features Adams, Morales, Boon, McHale, Rodrigues, storyboard artist Christina Sotta, and actors Jennifer Carpenter and Patrick Seitz.
As expected, “Voices” looks at cast and performances. Like “Dragon”, it brings a fair amount of praise, but it seems more informative than the prior program.
Finally, we get a Gag Reel that goes for four minutes, six seconds. It shows a few outtakes from interviews with Seitz, Carpenter and Rodrigues, but it mostly provides recording studio outtakes with McHale. Some amusement results.
Decades into the franchise, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle for the Realms doesn’t find much new to say. We get a dull story and lackluster action across this mediocre animated tale. The 4K UHD boasts excellent visuals as well as very good audio and a mix of bonus materials. Maybe diehard Mortal Kombat fans will enjoy this project, but it leaves me cold.
To rate this film visit the prior review of BATTLE OF THE REALMS