More than 30 years after the video game became a sensation, the Mortal Kombat franchise still plugs away. The fourth in a series of animated films that started in 2020, 2023’s Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match offers another tale in this universe.

Set in Hollywood circa the 1980s, actor Johnny Cage (voiced by Joel McHale) aspires to “A”-list success as an action hero. However, when his costar Jennifer (Jennifer Grey) disappears, he finds himself in a new situation.

Johnny learns of a nefarious secret society located in Los Angeles as well as threats from a mysterious place called Netherrealm. Placed into menacing situation, Johnny learns he must literally fight for his life.

Well yeah – it wouldn’t be Mortal Kombat without mortal combat, would it? And that becomes a problem with a lot of the franchise’s movies, as they often feel like scenes of graphic violence with stories loosely cobbled around the mayhem.

I missed the first Mortal Kombat Legends film – 2020’s Scorpion’s Revenge - but I saw both 2021’s Battle of the Realms and 2022’s Snow Blind. Those two felt like scenes of graphic violence with weak stories cobbled around them.

This meant I went into Match with fairly low expectations, and perhaps that became a factor in my enjoyment of it. That said, I entered literally every Mortal Kombat movie from the 1995 live-action flick to date without anticipation of much entertainment value, so this attitude didn’t become unique to Match.

As such, I think this means I can chalk up Match as a moderate success. While it never becomes a classic action tale, it nonetheless keeps us pretty engaged across its 80 minutes.

Of course, Match boasts a much higher level of comedy than the average Kombat flick, as it gets to lovingly mock so many domains. Match pokes fun at 1980s action movies as well as that decade and Hollywood in general.

All these topics feel like fish in a barrel. We’ve seen them lampooned many, many times over the years.

But that doesn’t mean efforts to evoke laughs and satire from those subjects feel so stale they can’t succeed. Match fails to find new ground in the way it takes its jabs, but it still gives us a fun experience nonetheless.

I just dig that unlike most Kombat entries, Match doesn’t take itself too seriously. Obviously, that goes with the 80s parody territory, but the movie’s light and frothy feel means it offers a nice contrast to its peers.

Kombat fans may find some disappointment related to the violence, as Match seems less graphic than usual. No, it doesn’t eschew fights and gore, but unlike its predecessors, it doesn’t revel in the nastiness as much.

That seems fine with me, mainly because I got the impression other Kombat efforts care too much about those “fatalities”. The filmmakers appeared so preoccupied with kewl ways to kill that they forgot to create interesting stories as well.

Again, nothing about Match reinvents any wheels, and its plot can get a little bogged down at times. Nonetheless, the film moves at a fairly good clip most of the time, and it mixes comedy and action in appropriate measures.

The ever-snarky McHale delivers a solid lead performance as our arrogant wannabe “A-list” star, and the supporting roles do nicely as well. I especially enjoy Grey’s take on herself, and we get a fun turn from Gilbert Gottfried in one of his final parts.

All in all, I enjoyed the time I spent with Cage Match. The movie brings a brisk, clever mix of spoof, homage and action that allows it to keep us entertained.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a terrific presentation.

Sharpness excelled. The movie always came across as tight and well-defined, so don’t expect any signs of softness.

Well, outside of some intentional softness used to recreate 1980s video and other artifacts such as the Ninja Mime film within a film. However, these existed for a purpose and didn’t detract from the overall quality.

Jaggies and moiré effects also remained absent, and the image lacked edge haloes or artifacts. In addition, print flaws were a non-factor and didn’t appear at any point.

In terms of colors, Match went with a palette that favored a “1980s vibe”. This meant bold turquoise, purple and orange much of the time.

The disc reproduced these intentionally garish hues well. HDR added zing and impact to the tones.

Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. HDR brought greater punch to contrast and whites. Across the board, the image worked well.

I thought the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Match opened up the violent material in a compelling manner. The forward channels brought out the majority of the audio, but the entire package added a lot to the movie. Music presented strong stereo imaging, while effects cropped up in logical spots and blended well.

The surrounds also contributed good information. For the most part, these reinforced the forward channels, but they also contributed a fair amount of unique material.

These instances mainly occurred during bigger action scenes. The back speakers brought out a nice sense of space and environment.

Audio quality always satisfied. Speech was warm and natural, without edginess or other issues.

Music sounded lively and full, while effects displayed good definition. Those elements seemed accurate and dynamic. All of this led to a positive presentation that deserved a “B+”.

As we shift to extras, we begin with an audio commentary from producers Rick Morales and Jim Krieg and writer Jeremy Adams. All sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of story and connections to Mortal Kombat games/mythology, characters and design choices, cast and performances, audio and music, animation, 80s elements and connected material.

While a frisky and laugh-filled track, this doesn’t become an especially informative commentary. We get some useful nuggets but the participants mostly joke, so we learn less about the movie than I’d prefer.

A featurette called What Would Johnny Cage Do? goes for nine minutes, 55 seconds. It brings info from Krieg, Morales, Adams, director Ethan Spaulding, and actors Joel McHale and Jennifer Grey.

With “What”, we look at story/characters, 1980s influenced, art and animation, cast and performances, and Mortal Kombat links. We get a decent little overview of these topics.

Finally, we get a trailer for Ninja Mime, a faux film with Cage as the star. It goes for one minute, three seconds and offers minor amusement.

After a slew of not very good movies, Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match offers a pleasant surprise. It mixes action, comedy and parody to become a lively and fun flick. The 4K UHD delivers excellent visuals, appealing audio and a few bonus materials. Match gives me hope future Mortal Kombat Legends tales will work as well.