Mortal Kombat: Legacy : Season 2 Trailer
Finally (and a month later nonetheless) DMK is reviewing the debut trailer for Kevin Tancharoen’s highly anticipated Mortal Kombat: Legacy : Season 2! So if you haven’t seen it yet – but then again with almost 5 million views already who hasn’t – please view below.
0:09 – 0:17: Very ‘Gladiatorish’, Tancharoen’s cinematography continues to impress me.
0:17 – 0:27: Whoa… an awesome wooden sword fight between what is soon revealed to be a young Bi-Han and a young Hanzo Hasashi. Scorpion and Sub-Zero being childhood friends is an interesting ‘non-canon’ idea, but I love it. Subbie and Scorpion’s feud has been at the center of MK lore for years, so I’m all for new concepts being explored.
0:28 – 0:35: And cue the badasses.
0:38 – 0:43: Holy crap! Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is returning as Shang Tsung! Brilliant… absolutely brilliant! This is by no means a knock on Johnson Phan (Shang Tsung from season 1), but I never fully accepted him as Shang Tsung. Tsung has always been a very “authoritative” complex character in my opinion and in particular the scene from Season 1 when Tsung made an offer to Johnny Cage, I just didn’t feel it. Bruce Locke played him very well in Conquest as more scheming villain, but bar none Tagawa IS Shang Tsung. It’s a very awesome tribute to fans of the original film.
Brian Tee is a very good character actor and I’m looking forward to his portrayal of Liu Kang. I definitely see it as a much darker interpretation than that of Robin Shou’s, and if it’s any indication of Tee’s upcoming filmography, he certainly has some big roles lined up which can only help Legacy’s legitimacy.
0:57 – 1:01: Dan Southworth as Kenshi… BADASS! Dude sliced a guy in half like it wasn’t a big deal. Southworth has long been attached to do something with Mortal Kombat… if I’m remembering correctly he was rumored to be a in the running for Fujin in Threshold’s ill fated MK3… so it’s nice to see Southworth finally get his due. And it’s awesome to see Kenshi finally get a live-action treatment!
1:01 – 1:06: The ultimate homage to fans of the original film. A vague “Techno Syndrome” in the background before Tagawa utters the awesome phrase, “It has begun”. So awesome.
1:07: More awesome Kitana/Mileena fighting?
1:09: Wow… Ermac looks absolutely frightening. I know fans either love or hate the design of Ermac here, but I’m open to it. I mean it has to be better than the Power Ranger Ermac from Annihilation right?
1:14 – 1:19: Bitter, drunk, and dark… I’m really digging the anti-hero Liu Kang concept.
1:19: Fuckin A… the muthafuckin Chairman as Kung Lao. Awesome! I’ve always been a huge fan of Mark Dacascos (Only The Strong anyone?), and up until recently he kind of became a parody of himself, but with roles in Hawaii Five-O and now Legacy… Dacascos is still a badass and a tremendous choice for Kung Lao. He brings a certain confidence and “superiority” charm to the role.
1:21 – 1:23: Raiden is a hard character to interpret on film. Christopher Lambert pulled it off so well in the first film because he was the wise-cracking mentor to the good guys. I don’t know much about David Lee McInnis’ body of work, but it’s interesting to see his take on the thunder god.
1:24: Casper Van Dien! Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it. I’ve always been a huge fan of Dien’s and I’ll always have a huge nerd boner for Startship Troopers. With that being said… I think Dien is a perfect choice for Johnny Cage. Again this isn’t a knock on Matt Mullins (Rebirth and Season 1 Johnny Cage), who is a terrific martial artist, but Mullins never fully encapsulated Johnny Cage in my opinion. Dien just looks and acts like a movie star… which is obviously a must for Cage. So spot on in my opinion. I mean Tagawa, Tee, Southworth, and Dien… talk about getting excellent actors for these roles!
1:25: Dammit, no more Tahmoh Pinikett as Stryker? Oh I see, too cool for MK with filming Man of Steel and all.
1:26: I do like the Sub-Zero look here. Looks to be a different actor from Season 1… IMDB doesn’t seem to have that updated though.
1:29 – 1:31: Subbie and Raiden allies eh? I’m listening…
1:33: Again… BADASS!
1:34 – 1:45: Glimpses of the fight scenes. Looks like some awesome action… as expected from Tancharoen.
1:57 – 1:59: Stryker getting his ass kicked… always the whipping boy, never the whooper.
2:00: Hah… do like McInnis’ ho hum delivery here. He has peaked my interest as Raiden…
Okay so I just had a full on Mortal Kombat nerdgasm! I absolutely loved Rebirth and Season 1 albeit some of the kinks. With that being said, I’m super excited to see Tancharoen’s tournament-centric Season 2. I was vaguely hoping Warner Bros would have given Tancharoen a large budget and allowed him to reboot the Mortal Kombat film franchise – which I hope is still in the works with Tancharoen as director. But maybe we’ll get Season 2 and the film reboot… the best of both worlds? Regardless, Season 2 looks utterly epic and I cannot wait to see what’s in store. Kudos to Kevin Tancharoen and crew for giving life to the once dead live-action Mortal Kombat franchise. It’s great to see fans this excited for a live-action Mortal Kombat again.