WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge.

When the R-rated trailer for Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge dropped, it seemed the movie would be a gore-fest. That sort of violence is not something the Defenders of the Realm cartoon could have done, nor the two PG-13 live-action movies. Granted, fans did get a taste of the unabashed blood and violence in the Mortal Kombat X prequel comics as well as the web series such as Rebirth and Legacy. But with Scorpion's Revenge, it felt like the gloves were off with no restrictions in the animated field. Fans were already expecting a lot of body parts and guts strewn all over the place like in the popular video games. Sadly, this film totally wastes that opportunity with its biggest flaw being a lack of Fatalities.

The concept of the Fatality is what initially drew the ire of parents in the '90s, who really didn't like seeing heads ripped off, limbs torn and, well, a bunch of murders happening in arcade games and consoles. As much as games like Street Fighter got flak, these killer finishing moves from the minds of Ed Boon and John Tobias pushed the envelope and parents felt it took gaming too far. Thus, they advocated banning the game.

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Decades later, though, people know what the essence of the franchise is, so it seemed like Fatalities would appear in the film. But for some reason, Scorpion's Revenge is light on brutal finishes, which is shocking. In the film, Sonya Blade decapitates Reptile using her iconic army cord, and then, in the finale, Scorpion pulls off Quan Chi's head (which really should have been a Sub-Zero Fatality). The wraith gives us the "Toasty!" Fatality when he unmasks and, with his flaming skull, incinerates the necromancer for murdering his family.

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But that's about it. Liu Kang doesn't use his flaming feet or dragon transformation to kill, Raiden doesn't shock and blow anyone up, and Johnny Cage doesn't uppercut anyone's heads off. This is Mortal Kombat, and even the heroes kill -- that's just the nature of the property. To hold back here feels like such an injustice to loyalists. Even when war erupts with the Black Dragon invading and an army of monsters such as Motaro arriving, there aren't any Fatalities. The villains don't do them either. Shang Tsung doesn't suck anyone's souls out, Kano doesn't maim anyone with his laser eye, and Goro just pulls Jax's arms off instead of pounding him to death or ripping him in half. With this approach, Scorpion's Revenge feels like any random animated movie that doesn't honor what the games were about.

Having Fatalities would not have taken away or betrayed the narrative, it would have simply added style to the substance on tap. What's shocking is Warner Bros. Animation does such a good job with DC's heroes and villains, one could really think they'd get to see the MK characters cutting loose in their own elements, staying true to what made the series tick in the first place. Seeing Hanzo Hasashi pre-Scorpion mutilating Lin Kuei ninjas with katanas and various x-ray cutscenes don't count because there are no iconic finishes involving fighters of note. They're just randoms who we don't know. The fact Cage kills off Baraka in underwhelming fashion (by dropping a burning building on him) perfectly sums this problem up -- either the creative team was afraid or felt Fatalities were a bit too much for a franchise that never believed in limits. The film does the games a disservice here.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge stars Joel McHale as Johnny Cage, Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade, Jordan Rodrigues as Scorpion & Hanzo Hasashi, Steve Blum as Sub-Zero, Artt Butler as Shang Tsung, Darin De Paul as Quan Chi, Robin Atkin Downes as Kano, David B. Mitchell as Raiden, Ike Amadi as Jax Briggs, Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro, and Grey Griffin as Kitana & Satoshi Hasashi. The film is now available on Digital, and will be out on Blu-ray and DVD on April 28.

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