Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Review

 

Mortal Kombat fans a few days ago I promised you all a mega series of Mortal Kombat and well I will do my best to keep my word and deliver on that mega series of tie in reviews. Now then boys and girls since since i've just reviewed the 1995 live action Mortal Kombat film it sadly makes sense that I take a look at it's dreadful sequel and so boys and girls join me as I review the 1997 film with the film itself being called simply "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" enjoy.

The plot of this film is mere minuets after the first films ending the evil Outworld emperor Shao Kahn attempts to take over the earth and so it's up to Raiden , Liu Kang , Kitana , Sonya Blade and Jax to stop him before the earth is destroyed for good. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this film in all honesty the plot of this film is really freaking bad which is saying something because the plot of the first film was also pretty in my opinion and yet the plot of this film makes the plot of the first film seem OSCAR worthy by comparison. 

Starring in this film is Robin Shou as Liu Kang , Talisa Soto as Kitana , James Remar as Raiden and Sandra Hess as Sonya Blade. Also starring in this film is Lynn 'Red' Williams as Jax , Brian Thompson as Shao Kahn , Reiner Schöne as Shinnok , Musetta Vander as Sindel , Irina Pantaeva as Jade , Deron McBee as Motaro , Marjean Holden as Sheeva , Litefoot as Nightwolf , Chris Conrad as Johnny Cage , John Medlen as Ermac , J.J. Perry as Cyrax / Scorpion and as Noob Saibot and Mortal Kombat Co-creator Ed Boon as The Voice Of Scorpion.

In terms of what I thought about the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is really freaking bad and not just feature film bad either no I mean this acting is straight amateurish at best. Yes there are some decent actors and thus decent performances in this film like for example Robin Shou and Talisa Soto but everyone one else who is starring in this film turns really bad performances.

Doing the CGI for this film is Alterian , Digital Magic Company , Flat Earth Productions , Hollywood Digital , Kleiser-Walczak Construction Company , MetroLight Studios , Modern VideoFilm , Optical Illusions , Rainmaker Digital Pictures , SimEx Digital Studios , The Production Plant Inc. , Vision Crew Unlimited and Wildcat Digital Effects. The first film had some terrible CGI effects in it no one is doubting that and so you'd think that with the sequel that this film would have better CGI effects however you'd be wrong because this film despite being made a year later then the fist film and despite having a bugger budget then that of the first this film somehow has worse looking and more importantly more dated CGI then the first film does with all of the CGI effects in this film looking bad at least with the first film there was the excuse of "we haven't big budget special / CGI effects heavy film before now" but with this film there's no excuse for having effects that look this bad and yes i'm including the fact the fact that this film was a mid nineties film but even by mid nineties film standards the CGI effects that are in this film are still so freaking bad that's honestly laughable in my very humble and as well as being in my very brutally honest opinion anyways.

To this films credit this film is really freaking cheesy and the film does fully embrace the fact that's a cheesy nineties action film. However that doesn't make it a good film since at least with the first film they at least took the time to make sure that were making a good film and sadly the same cannot be said for this film since everything about this film from the acting to the fight scenes to the CGI and to plot they all scream cheaply made  which shouldn't be the case at all because like I just said this film has a bigger budget then the first film with this film having a budget $30 million American dollars compare to the budget of the first film which was $18 million American dollars and as such you'd expect things in this film to look more expensive then they actually are which sadly isn't even close to being the case / the truth at all.

Now then boys and girls for some weird reason the makers of this film chose to open this film with a very quick recap of the first film. Except they hide the faces of the characters whose actor got replaced in this film which they make super freaking obvious because even tho the first film had both Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage doing alot to advance the plot of the first film the flashbacks in this film make it look like only Liu Kang and Princess Kitana took part in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

Now incase you didn't notice when I was listing of the actors who are appearing / starring in this film film alot of the first film's main cast didn't come back for this film. Which considering that alot of the actors who appeared / starred in the first film really haven't gone on to become big names either now or even after the release of the first film I have to wonder why this film chose not to bring back as many of the original cast as possible.

This film has a total running time of one hour and thirty four minuets and forty six seconds and I have to say that even that running time is a bit on the long side for this film. Since you very easily could have told the story / plot of this film in one hour and fifteen minuets or even one hour and twenty minuets and to make things worse since this film also has a pretty bad story this film can also feel very boring at times but that's just in my very humble and as well as being in my very honest opinion anyways.

Now then boys and girls this is an action film after all and so that means that I have to talk about the action that's featured / presented to us in the actual film itself and if i'm being the action that's featured / resented to us in this film is also pretty freaking. Which for an action film is pretty bad but it's even worse for a Mortal Kombat film since the Mortal Kombat franchise is known for it's action scenes / fight scenes and yet this film just simply doesn't deliver with there being an action scene / fight scene what seems to be every five minuets with each one being worse then the one that came before it and it doesn't help things at all when you take into account that actress Talisa Soto doesn't make contact with who ever she is fighting with in one her fight scenes and yet the opponent still goes flying which just make the whole film look even more like an amateur production then it already does.

Overall this is a really bad film which is even worse when you take into account that the first film was let's be honest a pretty film. Now then boys and girls since i've talked about the very few good things  that are in this film and as well as the many , many , many , many , many ,many bad things that are in this film in this very review this film gets a 2.5 out of 10 from me , as for where I got all of the images that I used in this review well i got all of the images that I used in this very review from Google Images and the official mortal Kombat fandom wiki page with my preferred website to use to get images from this film being the official Mortal Kombat fandom wiki page since (even tho this film really doesn't deserve it) there are alot of high quality and as well high definition images from this film that are up on the official Mortal Kombat fandom wiki page.