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.)
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