Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Blu-Ray Review

Rated PG-13 (Non-Stop Martial Arts Violence)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 35 Minutes

Cast:

Robin Shou-Liu Kang

Talisa Soto-Princess Kitana

Sandra Hess-Sonya Blade

Chris Conrad-Johnny Cage

James Remar-Lord Raiden

Brian Thompson-Emperor Shao Kahn

Lynn 'Red' Williams-Jackson 'Jax' Briggs

Musetta Vander-Queen Sindel

Reiner Schöne-Elder God Shinnok

Irina Pantaeva-Jade

Deron McBee-Motaro

Marjean Holden-Sheeva

John Medlen-Ermac

J.J. Perry-Cyrax/Scorpion/Noob Saibot

Keith Cooke-Sub-Zero

Ridley Tsui-Smoke

Dana Hee-Mileena

Dennis Keiffer-Baraka

Tyrone C. Wiggins-Rain

Gary Paul Davis-Nightwolf

Directed by John R. Leonetti

Liu Kang prepares to use the Force...

The original “Mortal Kombat” was no movie masterpiece but director Paul W.S. Anderson successfully captured the spirit and tone that made the video games so popular, something that continues to elude most video game-to-film adaptations today. With a worldwide box office gross of $122 million, a sequel was a no-brainer but nothing could’ve prepared us for the atrocious film that awaited us. Despite a bigger production budget, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation” is a bargain-basement cash-in that has no story, no character development, terrible special effects and poorly choreographed fight scenes. It makes those low-budget flicks on the Sci-Fi channel look like “Citizen Kane” in comparison.

After defeating Shang Tsung in the fighting tournament known as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and preserving Earth’s safety for one more generation, Liu Kang (Robin Shou) joins his friends Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad), Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess), Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto), and the thunder god Lord Raiden (James Remar) to celebrate their victory. Their happiness proves to be short-lived as the emperor of the realm of Outworld, Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson), resurrects Kitana’s mother, Queen Sindel of Edenia (Musetta Vander), and illegally opens a portal to Earth-Realm in an effort to conquer it. Kahn holds Sonya hostage to force Raiden to surrender but Johnny Cage impulsively attacks him and is promptly killed. Faced with Kahn’s invasion force and his generals, the remaining survivors go underground to figure out their next move. With only six days before Earth-Realm permanently merges with Outworld, destroying mankind in the process, Liu Kang and his friends must gather new allies and prepare to do battle with Shao Kahn and his legion of super-powered minions.

“Mortal Kombat Annihilation” is an absolutely incoherent mess, overstuffed with characters that are not given any introduction and seems to have been written by thirteen-year-old boys. The first thing you’ll notice is the amateurish special effects. Shao Khan’s minions leap around a poorly composited green-screen and the resulting fight scene between Khan and Raiden is choppily edited with constant cuts of the two somersaulting around for no reason at all. The film is made up of meaningless fight scenes and what little dialogue there is fails to engage us due to their poor or cheesy delivery. Random characters pop up without rhyme or reason and just disappear for the rest of the film. You’ll notice corners being cut everywhere despite having an ample production budget as shots often repeat during fight scenes and there’s little effort to hide the obvious wire-work or even the stunt doubles for that matter! The film’s sets seem to have come out of a low-budget flick and the costumes look like something the crew just picked up at the corner store. Sometimes, you see their masks fall off because they’re so cheap-looking! The final battle has Liu Kang and Kahn using their ‘Animality’ abilities where they shape-shift into these poorly animated dragons and awkwardly duke it out. The script panders to kids with all its talk about having faith in ourselves and being a family that it feels like I’m watching an educational cartoon. Hell, I was expecting one of the characters to pump his fist into the air and shout such gems like ‘You can do it!’ The only praise that I can muster is the soundtrack which has a nice techno beat that you can nod your head to, especially the main theme from The Immortals. In fact, you should just listen to that and not watch the movie at all. Everything else about “Mortal Kombat Annihilation” is utterly forgettable, bargain-basement trash.

With the exception of Robin Shou and Talisa Soto, much of the original cast opted out of the sequel, probably one of the wisest decisions they made out of their entire careers. With its terrible script, the new cast is forced to recite some of the most awful dialogue I’ve ever heard in a film that it rivals “Batman & Robin”! As Shao Kahn, Brian Thompson speaks like a brain-damaged Adam West, pausing at every other word. The same applies to Musetta Vander as Queen Sindel, prancing around in a purple leotard. The female actresses also do not wear bras to appeal to teenage boys missing their brains. Much of the dialogue consists of pointless exposition, stating the obvious, or announcing who they’re fighting.

Like the original film, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation” is slated to be released on Blu-Ray on April 19, 2011 alongside the ninth game in the series. It is already available on Blu-Ray in Canada since last March courtesy of Alliance and for the most part, picture quality looks great and is an improvement over the original. This one actually supports a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track so you won’t have to turn up the volume. It gives the false impression that the film is better than it actually is while its bass-heavy soundtrack plays in the background. There is no menu, no extras, and no subtitles included. The upcoming North American release only includes the theatrical trailer and a preview of the ninth game as special features. Rather paltry but I understand why none of the cast and crew want to record commentary for this film.

“Mortal Kombat Annihilation” was released on November 21, 1997 to highly negative reviews with 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics pointed to ‘its shallow characters, low budget special effects, and mindless fight scenes’ that the film ‘manages to underachieve the low bar set by its predecessor.’ With an estimated $30 million production budget (where did all this money go?!), its worldwide box office gross barely covered it with $51 million. A third film the series, “Mortal Kombat Devastation” was planned but due to the poor critical and commercial response to this one, it was shelved and has remained mired in development hell. I would guess that it has been cancelled now that Warner Brothers has green-lighted a ten episode web mini-series called “Mortal Kombat Rebirth” directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It presents a grittier, realistic take on the franchise and strips much of the supernatural elements away. Any way you slice it, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation” is just terrible in every aspect and is a smack to the face to all the fans. You literally have to ‘destroy all expectations!’ How New Line Cinema actually deemed this worthy of theatrical release boggles the mind!

Final Rating: 0.5 out of 5

"The Earth was created in six days; so too shall it be destroyed! And on the seventh day, mankind will rest...in peace! (Wow, I can't even begin to describe how poorly written this line is.)