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.)

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Mortal Kombat Blu-Ray Review

Rated PG-13 (Non-Stop Martial Arts Action and some Violence)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 41 Minutes

Cast:

Robin Shou-Liu Kang

Bridgette Wilson-Sonya Blade

Linden Ashby-Johnny Cage

Christopher Lambert-Lord Raiden

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa-Shang Tsung

Talisa Soto-Princess Kitana

Trevor Goddard-Kano

François Petit-Sub-Zero

Chris Casamassa-Scorpion

Keith H. Cooke-Reptile

Kevin Michael Richardson (voice)-Goro

Kenneth Edwards-Art Lean

Steven Ho-Chan Kang

Gregory McKinney-Jackson 'Jax' Briggs

Frank Welker (voice)-Emperor Shao Kahn

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

Round One...FIGHT!

‘TEST YOUR MIGHT! MORTAL KOMBAT!’ Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, “Mortal Kombat” has remained as one of the most popular fighting game franchises since its inception in 1992, alongside Capcom’s “Street Fighter” and Namco’s “Tekken.” Midway Games published a total of eight installments until the beleaguered publisher filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 after incurring massive debts. The company was liquidated in 2010 and the “Mortal Kombat” franchise was acquired by Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, with a ninth installment due in April, 2011 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a possible PC version. Notorious for its graphic violence, the original game was cited as one of the reasons for the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (or ESRB), a self-regulatory organization that assigns age-appropriate ratings to all video games, much like the MPAA does for films. At the height of its popularity, a film adaptation, simply titled “Mortal Kombat,” was released in 1995 and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who would go on to helm “Resident Evil” in 2002, based upon Capcom’s series of survival horror video games. “Mortal Kombat” is one of the best video game-to-film adaptations to date; although that’s not exactly high praise considering the bar is set quite low. As a film, it’s a failure due to the simplistic story and dialogue but what it does do is perfectly capture the spirit and tone of the video games.

The realm of Outworld, led by the Emperor Shao Kahn (voice of Frank Welker), desires to conquer Earth-Realm but is unable to do so without winning ten consecutive fighting tournaments known as Mortal Kombat, which is held once every generation. With nine wins, the tenth tournament will decide the fate of the Earth. Liu Kang (Robin Shou) learns of his younger brother’s death at the hands of the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and enters the tournament to avenge his death. Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) is branded as a fake martial artist by the media and competes to prove himself while U.S. Special Forces soldier Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) is after a murderer known as Kano (Trevor Goddard), who killed her partner. Although initially wary of each other, these three quickly strike up a friendship during the tournament and are guided by Lord Raiden (Christopher Lambert), the god of thunder and protector of Earth-Realm. To defeat Shang Tsung and save Earth-Realm from being conquered, Liu Kang and his newfound allies must not only battle numerous foes wielding strange powers but also face their own fears and doubts.

I first saw “Mortal Kombat” way back when it was released in theaters in 1995 (wow, sixteen years ago!) and loved it, mostly for the fight scenes. Watching it again now, the film looks silly with its dated visuals and CG but Anderson does successfully capture what made the video games so popular in the first place. Like its source material, the story is paper-thin; why Hollywood continues to adapt fighting games into films is beyond me. The first twenty minutes establishes the three major characters and their motivations for fighting in Mortal Kombat and its pretty much non-stop action once they arrive on Shang Tsung’s island, with small bits of exposition thrown in-between fight scenes. The franchise itself has extensive back-stories for all the characters but none of it is here besides a few subtle references. Trying to incorporate it would’ve confused the audience anyway. Character development is nil but the cast does manage to infuse their characters with some personality. Of course, what we all came to see are the fights and they are well-choreographed but lacking the staple blood and gore of the video games to keep it a kid-friendly PG-13. Popular characters like Sub-Zero (François Petit), Scorpion (Chris Casamassa), Reptile (Keith Cooke) and Goro (voice of Kevin Michael Richardson), brought to life by Tom Woodruff Jr. wearing a sculpted suit and animatronics, make appearances. Much of the fighting is shouldered by Robin Shou, who also did the fight choreography. While Linden Ashby and Bridgette Wilson put on a good show, their lack of martial arts experience shows with their stiff movements, the limited amount of fight scenes they participate in, and the number of wide shots used to hide the stunt doubles. CG is used sparingly and is largely exclusive to Reptile, who sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps the most memorable element was its theme music, known as Techno Syndrome on the official soundtrack. It went on to define the “Mortal Kombat” franchise.

Most of the ‘acting’ occurs in the first twenty minutes as the cast establishes their characters. Linden Ashby mostly just sprouts cheesy one-liners while Bridgette Wilson looks way too serious for a film of this type. What little drama is provided by Robin Shou as Liu Kang, who ran away to escape his destiny and now feels guilty for leaving his younger brother behind to be killed. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa surprised me as the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung and he seemed to relish playing him like a cartoon villain. Finally, there’s Christopher Lambert hamming it up as god of thunder Lord Raiden and former Bond Girl Talisa Soto providing some eye-candy while wearing a leather bustier.

“Mortal Kombat” is slated to be released on Blu-Ray in North America on April 19, 2011, alongside its sequel and the ninth game. However, it is already available in Canada since last March, courtesy of Alliance. The picture quality is quite a leap from the DVD and you’ll notice a lot of small details with the sets and clothing. Sometimes, the color palette leans toward a yellowish hue. Although rare, certain scenes do look too soft. The most disappointing aspect is the audio, which is only Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kbps, ported over from the DVD. You’ll have to crank up the volume just to hear what’s going on. The North American version will have a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and come on a 50 GB disc as opposed to 25 GB on this one. There are no extras. Heck, there’s not even a menu or subtitles! The special features on the upcoming NA version look bare as well with a tie-in animated movie, the film’s theatrical trailer, and the trailer for the upcoming ninth game.

Released on August 18, 1998, “Mortal Kombat” unsurprisingly received negative reviews with 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics found that ‘despite an effective otherworldly atmosphere and appropriately cheesy visuals, [the film] suffers from its poorly constructed plot, laughable dialogue, and subpar acting.’ It was a box office success, earning $70 million domestic and $122 million worldwide against an estimated $18 million production budget. In fact, the film stayed at the top spot for three weekends in a row. “Mortal Kombat” doesn’t have much going for it besides the fight scenes but what it does, it does very well. This certainly isn’t a great movie but as an adaptation of a popular video game, you couldn’t have wished for more.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5

"If I did not believe in you Liu Kang, I would not have helped you. In the Black Tower, you will face three challenges. You must face your enemy. You must face yourself. And you must face your worst fear."

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