Nothing wrong with them, except it's supposed to be a live action series. Like I said originally, I get it's a smaller budget and they can't afford to recreate another world... I get that. Not upset they decided to use art to show us the location.


Why did we need to see Kitana and Mileena training against dummies and each other in the form of drawings? It's a live action series, ya? You have actresses for both Kitana and Mileena, ya?

So it's a live action martial arts series, you have actresses for the characters, in the episode you have them practicing martial arts, yet you do it as a cartoon... in a live action series...


I guess I'm just disappointed that I was expecting my favorite character to be shown as a person and not a cartoon, since that's how the series is being advertised as.


I'm not trading in my Mortal Kombat fan club membership or anything like that, and I'll be up at midnight next week to see Episode 5. I just think in a live action series, drawings should be used minimally, to try to get a point across that other wise would be difficult (like showing off Edenia). I don't think that in a martial arts based live action series, two people sparring against each other should be drawn.

That's all... I'm perfectly fine with the story.

But seriously, Shao Kahn's armor looks horrible... hopefully it's just his "hanging out in a castle" wardrobe and not his battle gear.

By far the worst episode so far. Shao Kahn looks fucking retarded. Edenia was poorly depicted. Baraka looks horrid (though we already knew that). The animation was terrible. The music was painful to listen to (that woman going nyyeaaahyoooyaaaeeenhheeeaaa).

What a horrible step backwards.

I loved it. But then, I prefer animation to live action anyway. I like the Kill Bill approach. What really won me over was they took the "Kahn actually loves Sindel" route and Mileena's origin was exactly right.

Just a little weirded out though by where they plan to go with the whole "Jerrod got away" thing, and the unnecessary-ness of Sindel "merging her soul with Kitana". Why can't suicide just be fuckin' suicide? "She did it to save Kitana", "She did it to cast a protection spell on Earthrealm", no she fucking didn't. She did it to get away from Shao Kahn, just leave it at that!
And yeah, Baraka looks like a LotR orc and Kahn looks nothing like Shao Kahn, but they always get the looks wrong in live action, you get used to it after 15 years of repeated disappointment. At least the guy playing Shang has a goatee this time.

My favorite episode so far.
I really liked the visuals they used in this one and how most of the story stayed true. Also how Mileena was portrayed and definitely like how Baraka looks in this rather than the one from the trailer. Not to crazy on how Shao Khan looks tho or Sindel.

Other than that I wish it was longer.

How do you not love this ep?

lol

Only con really is... Kahn.

I think the actor is right, I like his look and his voice I could get use to, etc... but, his biggest problem is he lacks presence in a real way in order to really exemplify Shao Kahn. Needs the mask, or at least the face aesthetics since the mask is off. See the comics. Maybe more than anything he needs to provide us with something impressive to distinguish himself. I could go watch Lord of the Rings for the kind of Shao Kahn that's in this episode.

The idea of MK's Shao Kahn is as, or even more badass than the LOTR's trilogy. Ramp it up on his badass-ness... he's Mortal Kombat's ideal "God of War/the Devil" character for a large part of the franchises existence.
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I like how they did pretty much everything else. The tone is good, it feels like it has the potential to be a really good king/queen era portion of the story. Which is right where I think it should be. I think maybe dressing the cast more distinctively would be a +1 for this portion of the story too. Shao Kahn and King Jerrod (the whole Edenian Royal family, really) could be from the same family the way they're dressed. They need to seem as though they're from different worlds. The Tarkatans are entirely acceptable, though.
LOVE the more sympathetic Kitana, Mileena, and Sindel. I was intimidated by Mileena again finally... THAT's WHAT SHE's SUPPOSED TO BE!!... I haet the game (MK9) version. lol

I'm in line with those who cannot believe the games refuse to use this version of those characters.
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There is one other con I think. That is, Jerrod. Had this turned into some big budget project (Mortal Kombat Legacy Trilogy or something), I'd like to see him fight Kahn and loose, like what happened in the comic. I don't like that he fled like that. He kicks Shao Kahns ass but looses in the comic.

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Last, awesome job plugging in those animations. It's an excellent way to visualize magic and special effects. Considering that this is Edenia we're looking at, I think this tool was perfectly utilized and, I hope to see them continue to use it.

This episode trumps Johnny Cage iMo, and continues to make this series better and better. I very much like how they handled this.

Edeania?

Queen sindle?

Liked the episode but i hate Shao Kahn, there doing and MKA on us :(

I'm glad someone else got to notice the similarity between this episode and Kill Bill vol.1 (which is what I loved about both films) :)
I dig the entire concept of Mileena's transformation being connected with the Tarkatan taint in her body and soul and suppressed emotions, it adds a great deal of depth to her character rather than follow a simple dichotomy of good girl-bad girl.
IMO the story about the man killed in the dungeons is a lie whose aim was to prevent Sindel from revolting against Kahn, or at least not developing a full-blown hatred...
Yeah, I do agree that the special eggect reeked of MK Annihilation but I still believe we should wait and see more of it...
The structure of the series so far seems to be showing all of the participants' backgrounds without too much elaboration so I doubt we'll get to see Kitana and Mileena in the next episode which is a pity...

I agree with this alot too actually. After watching it another couple times, I caught right on to it. Just...keep that part simple. It was already good.
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Also, I like the narrators voice alot. Like her accent and how she says Edenia. She pronounced Sindel wrong at first but, got it right the rest of the video.

I hope they use all this input for a movie. lol

Loved the episode. The Arabic music toward the end was awesome.

pretty kool video sofar imo all legacy videos are very nicely done

I really liked this episode, really liked mileena's story and the animation stuff. Shao Kahn lacks presence tough, hope as the series goes further he will. But just like Mileena's story, I really liked how they made him more "human". Baraka..well.still nog too fond of him, but I can live with it. Only thing I'm not really getting is the Sindel's suicide merging her soul with kitana's.

Just saw this....


The answer I believe, would be something to the effect of this:

During that part of the story, Kitana and Mileena were children. In order to have that part be live action, you'd have to pay someone's mom to use their daughter. Then of course, the kids would have to know martial arts well enough that it would look good on camera.

Since this is indeed low budget, I doubt they'd go through the cost associated with a talent search to find two martial arts girls, pay them with all the contracts and crap like that included....just for a couple 5 second spots in a low budget mini-series.

It's better to just make those parts animated, so that we can at least be able to see Mileena and Kitana during that part of those characters lives.

All they needed to do then, is pay an animations team (1-5 guys in a graphic arts studio somewhere).

I think that's about right.

I am shocked that you guys think this is episode is bad. In my opinion this is the best episode of the series so far.

except shao khan's lack of helmet, i think everyone was spot on.

I thought baraka will look bad but i like his design a lot.

Again, my only complain is shao khan. In my book shao khan is bald and has some weird had looking forhead and wears a skull mask.

other than that i love where this is going

to those complaining about the animation.. its a much cheaper and better looking effect than attempting to build a set or do cgi with the MINIMAL money they had.. the budget for the entire series was 2 million

Finally an interesting episode. Sorry guys, but the first three were boring as hell to me.

That said, I too am disappointed with Shao Kahn. While he seems tall and physically strong as you'd expect Kahn to be, the lack of helmet killed it. Not impressed with Edenia either.

Shang Tsung's naughty smile as he was told to create Mileena totally redeemed the guy in my eyes. When I first saw him in the previous episode, I was like WTF?!

Mileena shines in this episode, way superior to the latest game Mileena. Is it just me or does she really have normal teeth at the end of the episode when we're back in the present?

While I liked the music in the background and the narrator, I wish there was more live-action and less cartoon scenes (especially since the animation is not very fluid).

But yeah, finally an episode that is actually "MKish" so to say.

I really liked this episode in general. The anime is a nice but a little overused. It’s understandable because of the lack of budget, but it would really be awesome to see in CGI. (hope Kevin gets to do a full movie at some point). At some scenes in the episode the anime really did it’s thing and gave it a nice look (like Shao Kahn and Sindel standing by that window). As for Shao Kahn.. it the timeline is correct this plays out like 10.000 years ago (young Kitana) so I’m sure he will get his armor and helmet later.

As a whole I think this is the best episode yet. The anime and the music are nice. And I think it is better to use this anime style of filming then just using cheap special effects.

I dont think its fair to judge until next week. At least with it being a Kill Bill style cartoon then there will be no need for the gore to be edited out. This episode told alot of the back,back story so i presume next week will show alot less anime or what ever its called

I enjoyed the hell out of this episode! Probably the best of the 4 so far... I really like that they are keep pretty much to the story but drifting enough to make it its own thing. Pretty cool

I think some of y'all are forgetting how low budget this is. I found it was worth my 10 minutes. It wasn't spectacular but it had some high points. I personally hate this Shang Tsung but I liked the twist that Jerrod might still be alive, mileenas battle between humanity and animalism, and Shao Kahns possibility to love someone.

Cant shine a turd. Story was already bland. They did what they could. STFU and just enjoy the series.

The only parts that irked me were that they portrayed Shao Kahn as "human" instead of...what ever the hell he is.

And that Mileena no longer has this story heh (not that I have much problem with the new one....I mean I'm trying not to)
And then there was that whole Sindel transferring her soul to Kitana thing? Wut O.o ? Movie version of Scorpion anyone?

You simply can't do 20 years of history in 7 minutes and expect to develop characters. The whole thing felt like the first few minutes of sequel intended to bring the audience up-to-speed on the story. The Cage and Jax/Sonya episodes showed us a relatively compact story that was indicative of their character stories without simply narrating what those plots were. In those episodes, we got enough of a taste of the characters that we could infer more about them. This episode narrates everything interesting about Kitana and Mileena away. The challenge is to create a tight mini-story that gives expression to Kitana's purity, Mileena's jealousy, and Shao Kahn's evil. But to simply tell us that Kitana is pure, Mileena is jealous, and Shao Kahn is evil is bland and uninspired.

Let's be honest: if you like the episode, it's because the narrator said what you wanted him to say (qua Mileena's backstory), not because he said it particularly well. If you like the animation, it's because you like animation anyway.

Seriously, get over the fact that Shao Kahn isn't wearing a mask- his choice of headgear is petty. The issue is that Shao Kahn fails to emanate evil, or any sinister desire for Sindel. The real problem is that Shao Kahn doesn't feel like a villain. The mask has nothing to do with his character, though there is something to be said for sticking with the original character costumes. I agree with those that think that Baraka (sic) looks especially B-budget (MKA), but I'm not sure that could have been helped.

Given his budget, 10-minute webisodes are bound by many limitations. Think small, and create interesting characters in the smallest space possible. We don't need to go to Edenia to understand Kitana. We need to see her reacting to Mileena and Shao Kahn. Show not tell.

I find that animated or comic costumes usually don't look very good in live action.

I figure that if you dressed someone in an exact replica of Kahn's outfit it would be hard to take him seriously. Unless maybe that person is 7+ feet tall and extremely muscular like Kahn appears to be in the games.

Also, as a general rule directors like to have a character reveal emotions using facial expressions which is hard to do in mask. This is why Spider-man always loses his mask in the films.

I feel this one explains too much...the animation would not have been necessary if they focused on a specific part of the Edenia storyline. I liked the more focused first 3 episodes.

The Kitana and Mileena training at the end looks like it's going to be great tho. looking forward to that.

The only redeeming quality in this episode was Mileena's story. She wasn't one-dimensional - she had depth, character and reminded me of the jealously manipulative MKD Mileena (hands down the best personality she has had in a videogame). In MK9 she is nothing more than a scantily clad killer, which is a shame, as the character deserved much more.

But yeah, agreed that Shao Kahn was horribly portrayed, Baraka looked ridiculous, and the episode could have definitely been improved with less animation.

Overall, I still say the best episode so far was Johnny Cage's.