Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Nothing will ever be the same.
My cousin hasn’t seen tonight’s movie. Now, normally I might be bothered to try and capitalize on Veterans day for some good old military action, but when I realized that tonight’s was a freebee on YouTube the deal was sealed. Through the combination of the universe saying “this should be remedied,” I decided that yes, we would make my cousin watch this movie and see just why the new Mortal Kombat was so appreciated.- tonight we watch Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
The story here is arguably the weakest element, or at least in contention to the first spot.After winning the tournament in the last movie, the champions of Earth are interrupted by a new big bad, announcing his takeover of Earth in contradiction to the rules. Fan favorite from the last movie Johnny Cage is then immediately removed from the movie by a PG-13 fatality, which keys bad-ass Sonya Blade to turn into a whiny emo chick for the majority of the movie. Meanwhile, the defenders need to seperate to accomplish goals - Sonya getting someone who won’t be whiny to accompany her, and Lou to unlock further power levels so they can go and save the world. It’s basic as it can be, and there’s super-quick problem and solution situations that come up along the way, but the biggest twist of the movie doesn’t really feel like it’s as big a deal as the characters make it out to be. Will Earth be saved? Who knows - well, anyone that watched the movie obviously, but that’s besides the point.
Actors do alright. Some do a good, but with Johnny out of the picture arguably the most entertaining actor just got nixed - leaving it up to Lou to relearn to believe in himself, Jax to get beat up, and Sonya to be a jerk for the entire movie. I honestly think that at times I’ve seen more depth in a Power Rangers episode, but despite that the actors do what they can with it. Most seem like they are having a fun time with their parts, including totally ridiculous parts with barely any lines. I mean, it’s best when it’s cheesy if I’m being honest, so accept you’ll get some real stilted sounding lines - but who can tell where the blame lies in how that delivery got chosen, maybe it was the desired effect.
The characters themselves aren’t much to shake a stick at. For the most part, the main heroes get the basic one attribute they need to learn to develop - like believing in yourself or working with a team - and that’s kind of all they get. It’s hard to say it feels like there’s a ton of development, and you’ll be meeting new people who quickly disappear at a breakneck pace. A new Sub zero? Delivers some lines, gets in a surprise fight with Scorpion and then both just vanish away before we hit the next scene. Most characters used as bad guys stick around for one fight - some don’t even get to have a fight as much as just getting killed (in a non-brutal way of course) off. Some characters like Kabal don’t get more than a name drop. They get a few moments to shine, do a special move or two, then go away. The ones that stick around are there, but with the plot on hand I don’t think there was much more of a push do to a lot with it outside of that fan service angle of covering a ton of characters.
Sweet Power Rangers style action.
The audio is by far the best part. I mean, yes some of the lines are delivered a little wonky and whatnot, but you hear it all. They’ve got plenty of cut ins from the games, and they work in the voices you’d expect from most the cameos as well. More so than all the classic action sound effects and kung fu sounds, there’s one aspect that really excels about the audio department - and you’ve probably guessed it. The soundtrack! That thing is bumping, so much so that I actually owned it on CD - yeah, some people might not even know what that is, I’m old whatever. Still, the music is full of energy and totally groove-able, either at a club or a combat scene. Sure, the sudden amp of music gives away the fact a fight is about to start - but it’s not like the movie ever really tries to hide it or anything anyways.
Effects is probably the second contender in the worst part category - but it’s a far more mixed bag then the lukewarm story. Some of it, like the miniatures and the costumes, look wonderful. Other parts, like most the CG stuff, are not ageing well. I mean, all honesty, they didn’t look great back then - and I’m sure if you scroll some reviews of the time you’ll notice that easy enough. Still, it’s nice that they tried to do things like that to add more of the games in from a fan standpoint - animalities, despite looking horrible here, are a cool thing to have in, as are the extra punch-up to some of the special moves to make them more reminiscent of the games they happened in. That being said, in keeping that PG 13 rating you loose quite the impact of most fatality executions - such as Johnny’s somewhat lame neck-snapping intro to the movie. Other times, like with Sonya’s kiss of death, they find a neat little way to work it in - even if the end result still looks not that great.
The best way I can sum this up is that expectations shouldn’t be high going in. It’s a great way to appreciate both from an adaptation and quality standpoint just how far the franchise has come with the newest entry. It’s also a great way to showcase the dark side of trying to fit in too much fan service - there so many characters in here that you wouldn’t even notice most of them if you had a sneezing fit. It at times feels like a parent dangling keys in front of a little kid trying to entertain them - are you getting board? Action scene! In all honesty, that’s arguable when this one is at its best though, even if it is pretty much like watching an episode of Power Rangers - we aren’t striving for realism in these fights. We want lots of flips and kicks and air-swings, and it’s all going to be super flashy because that’s what people want - and they aren’t wrong in my opinion. For all the John Wick attention to detail movies there are out there these days, sometimes you just want that more relaxed goofiness of people flip-kicking their way out of every situation and punching centaurs in their front-crotch.
Sweet Power Rangers style graphics.
This movie is best summed up by the fact that it is not a good movie, but it is an entertaining one. Low expectations will lead you to have a good time jamming the music and enjoying the fan service of seeing all the different characters floating around. It isn’t the best delivered package, with some faltering effects and a few lines that just don’t really hit right - but for that young kid themed action kung fu desire, it’s a pretty decent pick.