Mortal Kombat (1995) had its moments, yet it was a box office smash and subject to a mixed critical reception. It is open-ended and left audiences expecting something in the next installment. So we have a sequel to this video game movie, and it was atrocious. I had to find this movie and see for myself what an abomination it turned out to be.
If you thought Street Fighter (1994) was a joke, then you would be wrong because Annihilation is the ultimate kick-in-the teeth. There is just about everything wrong with it: dialogue, acting, visual effects, plot, writing, fight scenes, choreography, costumes, and even the controversial recast of lead characters. That's right, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade and Rayden are played by different actors from the previous installment, even though this is a direct sequel instead of a standalone sequel. Linden Ashby, Christopher Lambert and Bridgette Wilson are replaced by Chris Conrad, James Remar and Sandra Hess respectively; yet Johnny Cage (now played by Conrad) is killed off sooner before the movie even begins. And as you expect from this unexpected turn of events, different actors possess very different personalities.
I just cannot even understand the story. With that aside, I will tell you another flaw with this movie: the appearance of several characters without explanation, such as Jax. He makes his presence in this film without events explaining how he is dragged in in the first place. As if that too is not enough, there are fight scenes that occur for no reason whatsoever. The enemies are never explained to be affiliated or not to the main villain, they just attack at random. But most of these scenes are badly choreographed and are just sporadically edited to look better when they do not.
Speaking of the script, I assure you that there is so much goofiness in this movie that it all renders some moments unintentionally hilarious. As if Johnny Cage's wisecrack from the last movie was not enough, this movie offers very little wisecrack but yet endlessly laughable instances. Nobody in this movie can be taken seriously, and for a movie based on a video game several characters are reduced to cardboard cutouts, forgettable and weak. Such occurrence would only add more pain to the flick.
The deal with the fight scenes is that they all look as if the zip wires tangle and snag while the cameras role, just like the marionettes. Plus, jumping and leaping is too frequent for many of the scenes instead of the conventional fight moves distinct to the Mortal Kombat universe. In other words, it's more like ballet than combat.
The acting is beyond atrocious. The dialogue sounds like it was written by a primary school kid, not a professional. I mean, it can make you grimace or laugh unintentionally. I wonder if anybody was ever prepared for this movie at all.
So the portals are kept open because the Emperor, Shao Khan, has broken the rules of the tournament by resurrecting Princess Kitana's mother, Cyndell. Khan is merging two worlds together and must be defeated by the sixth day before the portals can be closed. There are two options for closing the portals: defeating Khan and breaking Cyndell's curse. This is too perplexing to digest. However, the heroes take so much time addressing the crisis they just walk around encountering one thing after another, throwing the viewer off course. In the meantime there is exposition that never seems to take a break. It is as if they turned this movie into an audiobook.
Here is one scene that caused such a stir: the return of Sub Zero and Scorpion. Sub Zero was killed in the last movie, but in this movie his brother makes an appearance, also named Sub Zero. I can understand the brother part, but there has been no crucial explanation why both have been named Sub Zero. Scorpion also reprises his role without any reason whatsoever, and that just upsets those who have not played the games up to that point.
Every time I look at this thing, I can't help it but laugh. This thing resembles a rejected design for the Predator alien from a different universe.
In the last movie the C.G.I. is dated, but not as rudimentary as it is in this movie. The CGI is so crude that the effects in Anaconda are superior. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Howard The Duck (1986), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) and even Jurassic Park (1993) had better effects overall. This movie spent so much on the set and so little on the effects, script and actors. The visuals department should have focused on stop motion, which is far more realistic to this eyesore. I imagine that they saved tons of money by reusing the set from the last movie, yet the budget for this film is roughly twice the budget for the last one. So how did they falter so much?
How could the movie franchise do so well with one movie, only to misfire with the second movie? It does not appeal to fans and non-fans alike, it just squanders its own opportunity to succeed. everything in a sequel is just wrong, and this film has placed itself in one of those trends. It just angers everyone who watched the first movie who expected several improvements in this movie. It nonetheless ends the expectations and is closed-ended. This movie is undoubtedly one of the worst movies based on the video game franchises from the 1990s.
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