Hey everyone and welcome back to my ongoing series of Mortal Kombat movie reviews! Last time, I checked out the original film from 1995 and to summarize my thoughts on it, I did have a fun time with it as it works at what it’s going for even if it is very much a product of it’s time. Plus it was a pretty big hit at the time, so much so that a sequel was put into production, one that promised to go bigger and cater more toward fans of the games as it apparently is loosely based upon the third game in the series. Needless to say the end result didn’t exactly end up appeasing many people as it ended up getting savaged by critics and was not nearly as financially successful as the first. After having seen it for the very first time… I can see why. I am pretty baffled at how a major sequel like this could end being of such poor quality, and yet be so entertaining in the wrong ways. Without further ado, let’s jump right in to see just what the heck happened with this movie and why it upholds such an infamous reputation!
Picking up right where the first one ended where the Emperor of Outworld, Shao Khan, has found a way to open a portal to Earthrealm and is ready to invade with the help of the once deceased Queen Sindel who is also Princess Kitana’s mother. Mortal Kombat tournament champion Liu Kang, and his allies try to fight but are no match against them resulting in the loss of Johnny Cage who sacrifices himself trying to save Sonya Blade. Not even the Thunder God, Raiden, can beat Khan so now the team has no choice but to retreat and find a way to stop him and his army from conquering the Earth in seven days time. So with Shao Khan getting closer and closer to accomplishing his goal with each passing day, each of our heroes go on their own quests in order to see what they can do to stop this invasion before it’s too late!
Admittedly a follow up to the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie had quite a bit of potential. Shao Khan trying to take over Earthrealm is a strong hook and from the basic concept it is clear that the filmmakers wanted to make a bigger follow up that raised the stakes and was bigger in size and scale with a darker tone to boot. It seems like it could be a solid follow up on paper… it’s the execution where things really messed up. I think my biggest problem with the story is that it’s really not that engaging where each character goes on different missions in order to get something and see how they can defeat Shao Khan with a bunch of random stuff happening here and there until everyone gets together to fight against him. All of it is done with very little investment in the story with big reveals and twists not resonating or surprising at all as I didn’t really care for any of the characters nor did I find the story that interesting. This lead to it feeling like it ran much longer than it actually was as I was wondering at points when the heck the movie was going to move on. I know the original’s plot wasn’t anything too special but at least it was well executed enough with solid pacing and had me fairly engaged in what was going on whereas here I couldn’t care less about where things were headed and it honestly felt like a really bad Saturday morning cartoon. However at the very least it’s not a boring watch as there are some crazy things that happen that had me laughing unintentionally so many times especially when it came to the dialogue which was really atrocious but in a fun way (Sindel’s response to her daughter’s reaction to her being alive in particular really had me cracking up). Now that doesn’t mean my problems with the film don’t apply, but there was still entertainment to be had even if I’m sure that’s not what the filmmakers were intending to accomplish.
Given how successful the first one it would make sense for the budget to be increased for the follow up… yet you wouldn’t really believe it by watching this movie. I’m definitely not the first to say it but this was really poorly put together from a filmmaking point of view. First the film looks cheap on all fronts as despite being a supposedly a more expansive follow up it hardly looks and feels like that as there is a lack of scale and it just feels rather empty with the characters wandering around isolated locations that don’t even feel lived in or are fun to explore. The green screen is also very much apparent in many places where stock footage is clearly noticeable and the way some characters would come in and out of certain scenes also falls into the unintentionally hilarious category. I guess if the action were as well done like in the first, that could have helped but that is not the case. It gets really repetitive very quickly as the sequences mainly consist of a lot of quick cut editing, noticeable stunt doubles and lots of flipping around with not even the rocking soundtrack being enough to save them. The costumes also look more like poor cosplay feeling like they came out of a Power Rangers episode (and not a good one) and the CGI is laughably horrendous, with the final fight involving Liu Kang and Shao Khan unleashing their animality being the most infamous example. There is however actually a reason for that last part as apparently the movie tested well in a test screening and the studio wanted to release the movie as it was without giving the team more time to work on the VFX and so the film was essentially left unfinished in that regard so I can’t really trash it too much in that case. At the very least if the artists were able to finish it would have helped some of the visuals look less like a poorly aged video game.
Despite the fact that this takes place right after the original almost everybody from that first movie was re cast which was a strange choice but one that I would not have minded had they done better work than they ended up doing. The only ones who returned are Robin Shou as Liu Kang and Talisa Soto as Kitana and neither were among my favorites in the first and they don’t get any better here. Kang’s journey to find his inner animality didn’t do anything for me and he is just as dull as he was before while Kitana also doesn’t get much to do either. Everyone else though is played by completely different actors which is a pretty jarring change especially when watching the two films back to back. While nothing against these performers personally (I’m sure they have done much better work than this) they really don’t do much with the material their given. I will admit that having Raiden take center stage more with his arc regarding sacrificing his immortality is a cool idea for his character it’s just that it’s not very engaging to watch here and James Remar brings little emotion to the role, lacking the charisma Christopher Lambert had. Same goes for Sandra Hess as Sonya Blade who just isn’t very interesting and lacks any sort of fun comraderie with her partner, Jax (Lynn Red Williams), who gets a bit of an arc regarding his use of his robotic arms versus his actual strength which was just there I guess. Heck even Chris Conrad who briefly plays Johnny Cage makes the character more dull, though that’s not really fair considering he was killed off almost immediately (which was disappointing considering he was my favorite from the first and it felt glossed over in the gram scheme of the film). On the villain side of things Shao Khan is a pretty generic threat, but Brian Thompson is actually entertaining going all over the top and chewing the scenery whenever he has the chance. He and Musetta Sander as Sindel were among the only ones having the most fun even if their performances weren’t exactly good and the characters weren’t much. There was potential in exploring the dynamic between Kahn and his father, Shinnok (Reiner Schone), as well as the implications of Sindel’s return but as expected it’s all barely touched upon. Other than that there are plenty of character from the games, most notably, Mortal Kombat 3 that make brief appearances, but it’s only the Native American shaman, Nightwolf (Litefoot), and mysterious warrior, Jade (Irina Pantaeva), that play any big roles, but hey Sub-Zero (Keith Cooke) and Scorpion (Ed Boon) are given just a bit more to do this time around which is something (okay Scorpion randomly saying “Suckers!” had me falling on the floor). Still on the whole there is a considerable downgrade here in terms of the performances and the characters are somehow even less interesting than before.
All in all I felt Mortal Kombat: Annihilation lived up to it’s reputation as one of the most disliked video game movies out there. While I can see what the filmmakers were trying to do with making a bigger sequel with higher stakes, it doesn’t work at all as the story lacks much in the way of actual investment, the attempts at drama fall flat, the pacing is awful, it looks really bad, the action is repetitive and not exciting, the actors don’t help with the material their given, and I didn’t really care for any of the characters. With that said, while it is among one of the worst sequels I’ve ever seen, it can be fun to watch in a shockingly bad sense as there are plenty things like the effects, acting, and dialogue that ended up being hilarious and made the experience at least somewhat fun. Still I do wish this could have been a better follow up that the filmmakers wanted to make that was at least as successful at what it was aiming for as the original was, instead of this mess. At the very least it’s a memorable watch even if it isn’t for the right reasons. Well that about wraps up my thoughts on Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and join me next time as I plan to review the direct to DVD animated feature, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, which I have much more positive thoughts on!
Rating: D
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