Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Phil H

  
  Follow up to the reasonable effort that didn't to do badly apon release and managed to thrash JCVD and 'Street Fighter'. This isn't too far from the first film really in terms of layout and fights, nothing too spectacular and not well acted, more pantomime than… More
  Follow up to the reasonable effort that didn't to do badly apon release and managed to thrash JCVD and 'Street Fighter'. This isn't too far from the first film really in terms of layout and fights, nothing too spectacular and not well acted, more pantomime than cinema, but like the original there are little rays of sunshine here and there, the odd little glimmer of decent action or set. Lets not get carried away here though haha its so unbelievably cheesy and hammy yet all the cast seem to take it seriously, worryingly so James Remar who clearly needed the work. We do see more characters in this outing which was quite nice, a much wider range and some of whom didn't look that bad but again like the first film its hampered by outrageously bad cgi effects all over the show along with some nasty looking bluescreen work. Due to this being an epic failure the third planned film, Mortal Kombat: Devastation, was shelved, not too surprising. Also interestingly...Sly Stallone turned down the role of 'Baraka', Lambert would of come back for this sequel but was comitted to another film, Michael Jai White was gonna be 'Jax' but got 'Spawn' instead and Tony Jaa and Ray Park both were stunt men in this film :)

• Marc L

  
  I feel like I stepped into a really bad Power Rangers episode made by 2 6 year olds. This movie has little to no redeeming qualities, and one a bad scale, is right up there with Eragon (And Eragon was HORRIBLE) Let's talk about the special affects. See line #1 of my review.… More
  I feel like I stepped into a really bad Power Rangers episode made by 2 6 year olds. This movie has little to no redeeming qualities, and one a bad scale, is right up there with Eragon (And Eragon was HORRIBLE) Let's talk about the special affects. See line #1 of my review. They were downright awful. I could make better affects with my Windows Movie Maker. And a few puppets. And some string. I guess the creators of this movie need to thank God for photoshop. The villains were REALLY lame too (Again, see line #1 of my review) They looked like reject Power Rangers villains made in a kindergartner's fan fiction. Not only were these "bad" guys laughable, but there lines were really stupid. As was the acting. That's 3 Power Ranger's 6 year old references in one review. I think I've set a record! So yeah, the acting was pretty horrible. As for the plot...What plot? The movie is pretty much good vs evil and...Yeah that's pretty much it. My God, we've hit 4 people! 4!!!! This movie challenges everything you know about who makes movies. This movie could have been written by a monkey. It could have been acted out by the people in a Kindergarten play playing the trees, and the special affects could have been down by my 4 year old cousin. But I mean we do have to give this movie credit for something...The pink ninja is REALLY, REALLY hot.

• Taylor B

  
  Awesome fight scenes with MK characters. Acting and effects were probably terrible but when I was 11, this owned everything.

• Conner R

  
  Even more horrendous than the first, this can't even be enjoyed on a guilty pleasure level. The acting is even worse and all the rewarding elements of the first are taken away. All that is left is a talentless cast and director, even the effects look like TV quality. I have no… More
  Even more horrendous than the first, this can't even be enjoyed on a guilty pleasure level. The acting is even worse and all the rewarding elements of the first are taken away. All that is left is a talentless cast and director, even the effects look like TV quality. I have no idea what they were trying to achieve as far as storytelling, but they failed miserably.

• Tim S

  
  Trash.

• Lenny M

  
  Test your might,

• Lewis C

  
  Who needs an actual story, when you can have random fighters come jumping down from the sky to battle?

• Curtis L

  
  So bad.

• Justin Y

  
  Just like the first one you need to be a fan of the game to appreciate this movie. Depending on what your more into will determine which movie you like better. The first does a way better job with the story, but this one does a better job with characters and action. As mentioned… More
  Just like the first one you need to be a fan of the game to appreciate this movie. Depending on what your more into will determine which movie you like better. The first does a way better job with the story, but this one does a better job with characters and action. As mentioned earlier there was definitely more action. The choreography was much better as well, although the Scorpion-Johnny Cage fight in the first one is pretty hard to beat. There are more use of special effects as well and the quality is about the same as the first one. There are more characters in this movie compared with the first one, but obviously some only have small parts since it only is a two hour movie. There are a few actor changes as well. Sandra Hess does a better job as Sonya Blade than Bridgette Wilson because of her ability to fight. James Remar does a decent Raiden, but I enjoyed Christopher Lambert a bit more. Overall, if you liked the first one you will most likely enjoy this one as well.

• Dean M

  
  That action-adventure movie based on the video game is even bigger and better than the original because of new Sonya Blade and more Kombat characters.

• Jason S

  
  CRAP.

• Steve K

  
  Interminable. Forgot to be fun.

• Kalel J

  
  Quite possibly one of the worst films made to date. There is basically no redeeming qualities of this, even the action that made the original so enjoyable is mostly lost here.

• Benito r

  
  An extremley dissapointing movie. Easily the worst sequal ever made. The only thing that this movie has going for it are the fight scenes. This movie is an absolute failure because not only does it fail as its own movie but it also manages to completley destroy everything that the… More
  An extremley dissapointing movie. Easily the worst sequal ever made. The only thing that this movie has going for it are the fight scenes. This movie is an absolute failure because not only does it fail as its own movie but it also manages to completley destroy everything that the first one made and stood for. So this movie brings a whole new meaning to the word fail because there arent many movies out there that undermine everything the first one created.

• Steven V

  
  Very good action-adventure movie. A sequel of Mortal Kombat packed with interesting graphics and more martial art moves as well.

• Joseph E

  
  Warning: Still only fans of the game might like this film, and then some who like it, may not! When it comes to ridiculous, yet awesome martial-arts scnes, look no further. Still the soundtrack is great. The acting is still alittle faultering, even though the original cast(Not all… More
  Warning: Still only fans of the game might like this film, and then some who like it, may not! When it comes to ridiculous, yet awesome martial-arts scnes, look no further. Still the soundtrack is great. The acting is still alittle faultering, even though the original cast(Not all of the new one's were bad), were better!

• Duncan R

  
  Well, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's slightly worse than it's predecessor. This time, there's really not much of a plot to speak of, and the acting is either really flat or hilariously over-the-top. The special effects are cheap even by 1997… More
  Well, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's slightly worse than it's predecessor. This time, there's really not much of a plot to speak of, and the acting is either really flat or hilariously over-the-top. The special effects are cheap even by 1997 standards (since <i>Terminator 2</i> came out in '91, and <i>Jurassic Park</i> in '93), and aside from a spar between Sonja and Mileena halfway through this snoozefest, the fights were just as uninspired as in the first one.

• Darik H

  
  Have you ever seen a movie that was so incredibly stupid that it hurt just to watch it, but, like a train wreck, you felt compelled to take in every horrific moment as it collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing behind but a lifeless black hunk of twisted metal? Oh, I have. Squandering… More
  Have you ever seen a movie that was so incredibly stupid that it hurt just to watch it, but, like a train wreck, you felt compelled to take in every horrific moment as it collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing behind but a lifeless black hunk of twisted metal? Oh, I have. Squandering all the goodwill earned by its predecessor, Mortal Kombat Annihilation is a shoddy excuse for a film, combining bad acting, a weak script, mediocre effects, poor editing, cheap production design, flat compositions, and pathetic choreography into a film that is as bad as the sum of its parts would indicate. This movie set back the cause of video-game cinematic adaptations for years, and almost killed the Mortal Kombat gaming franchise to boot (1997 featured a lot of genre-killing films, didn't it? I'm looking at you, Batman and Robin...). Most of the original cast has jumped ship, leaving only Robin Shou's Lui Kang and Talisa Soto's Kitana to flounder under the sub-par direction of one John R. Leonetti (whoever the hell that is...). In place of the funny, mischievous Christopher Lambert, here we have B-actor James Remar as the all-too-serious Raiden, God of Bad Lightning Effects. Sandra Hess makes for a better substitute as Sonya, but her character arc is telegraphed from a mile away, and she seems to serve no other purpose in the narrative than to get into a mud-wrestling match halfway through the film. As far as the newcomers go, the best is easily Lynn "Red" Williams as Jax, who manages to make a pretty funny movie (funny, that is, for ALL the wrong reasons) just a little bit funnier WITHOUT being the butt of the jokes- his attitude comes off more genuinely than anything else in the film, but only occasionally (when the poor scripting permits it). And it's hard to deny that Brian Thompson is perfectly cast as Shao Kahn, even if the director undermines the very qualities that make him a good choice; Kahn is hardly the domineering force that the characters treat him as (he gets his ass handed to him in the first five minutes, and he constantly panders to his father for approval), and without an indomitable villainous presence to drive the action, the narrative loses cohesion quickly. Making matters worse is the filmmakers' desperate desire to fit as many Mortal Kombat characters into the story as possible, which results in he introduction of a bevy of ill-developed characters who bear no relevance to the plot beyond the scene in which they appear. Sure, we get to see Smoke, Cyrax, Rain, Mileena, Baraka, Noob Saibot, Reptile(s), Nightwolf, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero, but, well, who cares? None of them are given any backstory or motivations, and most of them are dead after a few minutes (or else they Mysteriously Vanish, instead of, say, sticking around and HELPING to fight the battle to come- why, Sub-Zero?). And worst of all, the Maguffin that most of the plot is focused on- Queen Sindel- is not only stuck in a ridiculous costume with little to do except, well, stand there, but when they finally get to her, she turns out to be- surprise!- COMPLETELY USELESS, only sticking around long enough to say as much to our heroes before vanishing in a plume of stupid. So how do they overcome the forces of Kahn? Simple- they fight them, just like they SHOULD have done when the movie BEGAN. And don't even get me started on the skinless monster things (that can be beaten by, well, punching them. A lot.), the stupid dragon tattoos, the last-minute soap-opera twist, the overwhelmingly underwhelming death of Sheeva- the list goes on and on. If you actually want to watch this movie, then the only advice I can give you is to heed the tagline on the poster: "Destroy All Expectations." 'Cause if you go into this expecting anything resembling a good movie, you are about to be sorely disappointed.

• Gabbo E

  
  The tagline for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is "Destroy All Expectations", it did just that, bad recasting and acting, no kind of story nor character development, lackluster fight scenes, and some of the worst CGI ever to assault theaters, do I need to say more?

• Brett W

  
  This movie is truly one of the great cinematic abominations. The promise of cashing in on the MK craze managed to coax a group of actors into looking and acting like total jackasses.

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