Mortal Kombat Annihilation

<<

The Arcade

>>

If 1995's 'Mortal Kombat' is something I consider possibly the best video game film adaptation out there (despite it still not being great), its follow-up is flat-out not worthy at all. This felt like much more of a name-cram than anything else. By this point we had 'Mortal Kombat Trilogy', and a pretty solid range of new characters to choose from. So why not add them into the 'Mortal Kombat' sequel? It looked exciting at the time, but unlike its predecessor, this was a bitter disappointment.

The fist thing to understand is that this film and I have a touchy personal history. Back when this was released, I was 15. A friend and I took it upon ourselves to try to sneak into 'Starship Troopers' by purchasing 'MK: Annihilation' tickets, bypassing that cinema, and wandering into the glorious R-rated experience that could have been. Would you like to know more? We were caught red-handed, but I asked if we could at least go check out 'Annihilation' still, since we payed for those tickets. The dude let us, but upon watching it, it could have been seen as our punishment for trying to sneak in. So, while missing out on what eventually became a personal favourite sci-fi action flick, we were exposed to what seemed to be the concept of 'Mortal Kombat' meets 'Power Rangers'.

While the first film is more about the tournament, this one picks up where it leaves off, with Shao Khan (Frank Welker's voice) coming out of nowhere, essentially saying "it's go time", and Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Kitana (Talisa Soto), Sonya (Bridgette Wilson), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Raiden (Christopher Lambert) getting ready for a fight. This film is about that fight, and the team of heroes attempting to stop Khan and his hench... things from basically creating a Hell on Earth. As this picks up, there's an almost complete recast. While Liu Kang and Kitana (who, by the way, I forgot to mention in my 'MK95' review - she helps) are the same actors, Now we have Sonya (Sandra Hess), Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad), Raiden (James Remar) and Shao Khan (Brian Thompson).

Things hit the ground running so hard, that the movie ends up tripping over its feet and wiping out. These filmmakers took the most basic of the basic and found a way to crowbar in basically every damn character you knew from 'Mortal Kombat' at the time. I won't go through everyone, but most notably, Jax (Lynn 'Red' Williams) comes in for some incredibly lame comedy relief, and the biggest baddies include Shinnok (Reiner Schöne), Sindel (Musetta Vander) and Motoro (Deron McBee). But honestly, think of any character from up to 'MK: Trilogy' and they're pretty much a guaranteed cameo, with a few exceptions of course, but very few.

When it comes to this particular franchise, if you don't like the live-action films, you can always take a peek at the fairly fresh 'Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge', which is evidently great for fans of the franchise. Once again, much like DC properties, their animation apparently reigns supreme (except maybe those old straight-to-video movies from the 90s). I'd still recommend checking out that first movie again, and trying to get past the dated effects to see some further potential for video game movies. As far as this one is concerned though, it's widely regarded as something pretty awful; just a simple cash-in with seemingly no real 'Mortal Kombat' fans in mind. But I will say this - it's pretty fun to watch with friends and make fun of as it unfolds. If the first one is pretty silly, then this is absolutely ridiculous.

​1/5

---