Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
New Line Cinema, 1997

Nothing can prepare you for trash sequel Abomination

Nothing could prepare you for the abomination that is Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Wildly uneven in just about every category, Annihilation is what happens when your favorite film franchise gets too big for its britches.

Let’s not beat around the bush: Annihilation is terrible. The casting, which features only Robin Shou and Talisa Soto returning from the first movie, is awful. No one of note beyond the aforementioned make an appearance, and the choices for the rest of the characters are not great. Linden Ashby, who stole the comedic show the first time around, is gone as is villain extraordinaire Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. James Remar is not a suitable choice for Raiden; Sex and the City, yes, but not Mortal Kombat. Lynn Williams tries his best as Jax as does Sandra Hess as Sonya, but everything around them is messy, muddled and jumbled.

The story does the movie absolutely no favors, though some of it is recognizable to fans of the franchise lore, such as Sindel’s resurrection and the death of Johnny Cage. Ultimately, there are entirely too many characters introduced (Noob Saibot coming out of Smoke’s chest anyone?) and too many dumb changes made (Shinnok is Raiden’s father! Shao Kahn is Raiden’s brother! Jade is a double agent! Animalities for no reason!) to make this anything but an obvious cash grab.

The acting is ham-fisted and dreadful – any movie that allows Musetta Vander to dance on a table awkwardly is automatically bottom tier – and the special effects are less than the first film. And, let us not forget: The best thing about the movie, the Scorpion versus Sub-Zero fight, does not hold up after 27 years. There’s much better choreography in even the most middling movie, and the fight doesn’t make sense in hindsight with scrutiny against the established lore in the games and the preceding movie.

Do yourself a favor and skip this travesty. Most Mortal Kombat fans wish they could erase this movie with the power of Kronika’s Hourglass.

Like the games: 3
Acting: 3
Story: 1

Total: 7 out of 30 or 2.3

 

HOW WE GRADE
We score the properties in three categories: Casting (or voice acting in cases of animated), plot and similarities to its source material. Each category receives points out of the maximum of 10 per category and 30 overall. The percentage is the final score.