Fifth Episode: Kitana and Mileena Part 2

This episode concludes the story of Kitana and Mileena. While hunting down the King of Edenia's former decoys, Kitana starts learn about her real past, as Mileena continues to scorn her quietly.

The Good

The Fight. Though it was incredibly short, the fight was very well choreographed and executed. The only shame is that there was only one fight.

Sam Tjhia and Jolene Tran as Kitana and Mileena. Despite not having a lot of screen time, both Kitana and Mileena were superbly portrayed by Sam Tjhia and Jolene Tran, respectively. Especially during where Kitana confronts the final doppelganger.

The Animated Segments. While the animated segments seemed to take up more space than the live-action segments, they're very good nonetheless. They're colorful, expressive, and of course, very violent.

The Bad

The Long Recap. What is it with this series and the recaps that seem to take up half of the episode? It's not like these episodes are very long to begin with; if someone needs a recap, they can just watch the other episode first. It's Youtube, not TNT.

The Short Episode Length. I would say maybe two minutes of the entire episode progressed the story, which is more that I can say for episode 2, where the only scene that progressed the story was the ending. Youtube has recently started to phase out video length limitations (which I believe is not a problem for Machinima to being with, because they have a Partner account), so these two episodes could have easily been edited together. It still would have been a short story, but at least watching the short wouldn't feel like a waste of time (which is what these two-parter episodes are starting to feel like).

The Narrator. The two female leads in this short are obviously Asian. So, why does the narrator have a British accent? Having a female narrator with a British accent made it seem more like a faery tale, instead of a story associated with Mortal Kombat.

Shao Kahn. Aleks Paunovic did not shine as Shao Kahn. His performance seemed more hammed up than it was supposed to be. Outside of his performance, the character was sitting down in every scene he was involved in.

The OutWorld. The actual setting of the OutWorld in this short doesn't even resemble, in the slightest, the OutWorld in the games. Especially in the fight scene. In fact, none of the locales in this short fit their counterpart at all. Kahn's throne room in the animated scene and the real-world set didn't even match up. The throne room actually seemed smaller and less-impressive than you'd expect a conqueror of whole worlds to have.

The Story. While the entire story is not bad, there was one point that didn't make sense. When the King was killed by Baraka, Kahn lied and claimed that it was a double. Why? For what reason? He's going to capture Sindel and the baby anyway, the lie makes no sense. He doesn't even begin falling in love with Sindel until later, so what ends would there be for that lie? Kahn is still taking over her realm and brutally murdering half of her people, the lie still has no rhyme or reason. There is also a hint of the final double being the King himself. The twist doesn't work if it barely makes sense to begin with, not to mention opening up more questions, like if that's him, then why did he abandon his wife and daughter? The other plot points, including Mileena's struggle with her Tarkatanity, were entertaining, though.

The Dialog. There's no way to describe it, you'll just have to watch it for yourself.

Summary

Despite some good points here and there, the series is starting to show its true colors. With these multi-part stories, the actual story doesn't progress until the very end, and when it's over, it makes you feel like there should have been more. It's all hype, with no real payoff. Outside of that, it doesn't feel like you're watching Mortal Kombat. What is supposed to be a universal ruler is portrayed as an Earth-born king during the middle ages, with cartoons and British narrators filling in the blanks. It begs to question, why isn't the entire webseries animated? Obviously a $2-million isn't enough to portray Mortal Kombat the way it's supposed to be portrayed, that is, unless it was fully animated. Sure, there were MK cartoons in the past, but they were all targeted at children. If Mortal Kombat was animated (in either 2D or, more preferably, 3D), it could fully express Mortal Kombat with the weight, length and universal space it deserves (and with the extra money, possibly hire better writers).

Maybe then the fantastical aspects will be given some justice, instead of spewing out episodes that are generally on par with Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Conquest, at best.

Of course, it's not the actual Mortal Kombat story that's to blame; it's the filmmakers, who can't seem to learn from mistakes made in the past.

If you found something you liked or didn't like about the episode, comment below and tell us all about it.