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Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

 
Movies:

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

 
  • Director: John R. Leonetti
  • AMG Rating: star
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Movie Type: Fantasy Adventure, Martial Arts
  • Themes: Heroic Mission
  • Main Cast: Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, James Remar, Sandra Hess, Lynn Red Williams
  • Release Year: 1997
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 98 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: PG13

Plot

Just when you thought the game was over, along comes the second movie inspired by the popular video game Mortal Kombat. While Liu Kang (Robin Shou) led his warriors Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto), Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess), Rayden (James Remar), and Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad) to victory, and the safety of the world seemed certain, no one counted on the treachery of Shao-Kahn (Brian Thompson), the evil Emperor of the Outerworld, who has a new plan to overtake the Earth. Shao-Kahn has discovered a portal between Earth and Outerworld, and if it stays open for seven days, the two worlds will merge, with Shao-Kahn controlling both planets. Rayden and Sonya set out to find his colleague Jax (Lynn Red Williams), while Liu Kang and Kitana are on the trail of Nightwolf (Litefoot) as they race against time to defeat Shao-Kahn, who has brought Kitana's mother Queen Sindel (Musetta Vander) back from the grave to aid his evil scheme. Mortal Kombat II: Annihilation marked the directorial debut of cinematographer John R. Leonetti. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

Continuing in the tradition of shockingly putrid video game film adaptations, comes this sequel to Paul W.S. Anderson's surprise hit version of the fighting game Mortal Kombat. Whereas the first film was a guilty schlock pleasure, this sequel is an exercise in the art of genuinely beautiful trash cinema. Directed by acclaimed cinematographer John R. Leonetti, the film portends bad things when the star of the original, Christopher Lambert, is replaced by James Remar and one of the first film's big heroes, Johnny Cage (Chris Conrad), is killed off in the first ten minutes. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation never takes the foot off the accelerator as our heroes fight endless kung fu robots, travel under the Earth in giant balls, and encounter creatures made with some the most offensive CGI effects ever seen. In between all of this, the audience gets to hear some gloriously stupid dialogue and acting so bad it's no shock that much of the film's cast has yet to be seen onscreen since. Perhaps the slogan "Destroy All Expectations" was meant not as a tool to sell the film to the video game-obsessed youth at whom it was targeted, but as a warning to all going into Mortal Kombat Annihilation expecting any kind of reality onscreen. Lovers of extreme cinema will delight in the film, which has already found a devoted cult following, but all others are recommended to keep an extreme distance. ~ Jason Gibner, All Movie Guide

Cast

Brian Thompson - Shao-Kahn; Reiner Schoene - Shinnok; Musetta Vander - Sindel; Irina Pantaeva - Jade; Deron McBee - Motaro; Marjean Holden - Sheeva; Litefoot - Nightwolf; Keith Cooke - Sub Zero; Dana Hee - Mileena; Ridley Tsui - Smoke; John Medlan - Ermac; J.J. Perry - Cyrax/Scorpion; Tyrone C. Wiggins - Rain; Dennis Keiffer - Baraka

Credit

Nathan Schroeder - Art Director, Joshua Wexler - Associate Producer, Fern Champion - Casting, Mark Paladini - Casting, Kevin Reidy - Co-producer, Jennifer Parsons - Costume Designer, Lee Cleary - First Assistant Director, John R. Leonetti - Director, Pat E. Johnson - Second Unit Director, Peck Prior - Editor, Carla Fry - Executive Producer, Alison Savitch - Executive Producer, Brian Witten - Executive Producer, Robin Shou - Fights Choreographer, George S. Clinton - Composer (Music Score), Charles J.H. Wood - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, Lawrence Kasanoff - Producer, John Midgley - Sound/Sound Designer, Ray Park - Stunts, Chuck Comisky - Special Effects Supervisor, Alison Savitch - Special Effects Supervisor, Brent V. Friedman - Screenwriter, Bryce Zabel - Screenwriter, Tobias John - Short Story Author

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Wikipedia: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Top
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Directed by John R. Leonetti
Produced by Lawrence Kasanoff
Written by Screenplay:
Brent V. Friedman
Bryce Zabel
Story:
Lawrence Kasanoff
Joshua Wexler
John Tobias
Video Games:
Ed Boon
John Tobias
Starring Robin Shou
James Remar
Talisa Soto
Sandra Hess
Brian Thompson
Lynn "Red" Williams
Irina Pantaeva
Musetta Vander
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) November 21, 1997
Running time 95 minutes
Country  United States
Language English
Budget $30 Million
Gross revenue $51,000,000
Preceded by Mortal Kombat
Followed by Mortal Kombat: Devastation

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a 1997 film that was the sequel to Mortal Kombat. It was produced by Threshold Entertainment and directed by John R. Leonetti, who had served as the director of photography for the previous film. The storyline was largely an adaptation of Mortal Kombat 3. The novelization by Jerome Preisler was released through Tor Books.

Contents

Plot summary

The evil emperor Shao Kahn opens a portal from Outworld to the Earthrealm and has reclaimed his queen Sindel, who is Kitana's long-dead mother. With the portal open, Earthrealm is in danger of being absorbed into Outworld within six days, a fate which Liu Kang and the others must fight to prevent. Johnny Cage is killed by Kahn during the confrontation, and the remaining Earthrealm warriors must regroup. Raiden goes to ask the Elder Gods why Kahn was allowed to break the rules of Mortal Kombat.

Sonya enlists the help of her old partner, Jax. They are ambushed by a group of Kahn's warriors, led by the cyborg Cyrax, all of whom are eventually defeated. Meanwhile, Kitana and Liu Kang search for a Native American shaman named Nightwolf, who they have been told knows the key to defeating Kahn. On the way, they run afoul of the cyborg Smoke. Kitana and Liu Kang dispatch of him with the aid of Sub-Zero, the younger brother of the Sub-Zero whom Liu Kang had defeated in the previous tournament. Sub-Zero agrees to help Kitana and Liu Kang, but Scorpion suddenly appears, attacks Sub-Zero, and kidnaps Kitana. Knowing that Liu Kang is not yet strong enough to face Kahn, Sub-Zero exhorts him to continue on to Nightwolf before pursuing Scorpion and Kitana, then disappears.

Raiden meets with the Elder Gods and asks them why Kahn was allowed to break tournament rules and force his way into Earthrealm, and how he can be stopped. The answers he receives are sparse and ambiguous; One Elder God says that reuniting Kitana with her mother, Sindel, is the key to breaking Kahn's hold on Earthrealm, but another Elder God insists that the defeat of Kahn himself is the solution. Raiden is then asked by the Elder Gods about his feelings and obligations towards the mortals, and what he would be willing to do to ensure their survival.

Liu Kang finds Nightwolf, who teaches him about the power of the Animality, a form of shapeshifting which utilizes the caster's strengths and abilities; essential if Liu Kang is to defeat Kahn. To achieve the mindset needed to acquire this power, Liu Kang must pass three tests. The first is a trial of his self-esteem and focus. The second comes in the form of temptation, which manifests itself in the form of Jade, who attempts to seduce Liu Kang and make him forget about Kitana. Liu Kang resists Jade's advances, which impresses her. She offers her assistance in fighting Kahn. Liu Kang accepts Jade's offer and takes her with him to the Elder Gods' temple, where he and his friends are to meet Raiden.

Sonya and Jax also head to the temple, only to be confronted by Mileena, who Sonya initially mistakes for Kitana, and an unearthly creature. Jax and Sonya defeat their adversaries and continue towards the temple. At the temple, the Earthrealm warriors reunite with a newly-shorn Raiden, who explains that he has sacrificed his immortality to freely fight alongside them. Together, they head for Outworld to rescue Kitana and reunite her with Sindel.

With Jade's help, Liu Kang sneaks into Kahn's castle and rescues Kitana, while Raiden, Jax, and Sonya find Sindel. Unfortunately, Sindel remains under Kahn's control, and she escapes while a trio of Raptor warriors ambush the heroes. Jade also steals away, having revealed herself to be a mole sent by Shao Kahn to disrupt the heroes' plans. Raiden then reveals that Shao Kahn is his brother, and that Elder God Shinnok is their father. He realizes that Shinnok had lied to him and is supporting Kahn. With renewed purpose, Raiden and the Earthrealm warriors make their way to the final showdown with Kahn and his generals.

Liu Kang and his friends openly challenge Kahn and his allies, only to be interrupted by Shinnok, who demands that Raiden submit to him and restore their broken family, at the expense of his mortal friends. Raiden flatly refuses, and is killed by an energy blast from Kahn.

Though the early going is rough, Jax, Sonya, and Kitana emerge victorious against their opponents. Liu Kang has a much more difficult time, however, battling against Kahn; he manages to tap into his Animality but he is barely able to hold his own against Kahn's own Animality. Shinnok in turn prepares to wipe out Liu Kang, but two of the Elder Gods intervene, having uncovered Shinnok's treachery. They declare that the fate of Earth shall be decided lawfully, through Mortal Kombat. Kahn taunts Liu Kang, angering him enough to give him a second wind. Liu Kang defeats the Outworld Emperor once and for all, and Shinnok is banished to the Netherealm by the other Elder Gods.

Earthrealm reverts to its former state, and Shao Kahn's hold over Sindel is finally broken, allowing her to reunite with Kitana. Raiden is revived by the other Elder Gods, who bestow upon him his father's former position. With everything right in the universe once again, the Earthrealm heroes return home triumphant.

Cast

Additional information

Two of the film's actors were regulars on American Gladiators: Lynn "Red" Williams (Jax), and Deron McBee (Motaro), who were Sabre and Malibu, respectively. They fight each other in the final battle of the movie.

Part of the movie was filmed on location at Parys Mountain on the island of Anglesey. The scenes involving the Temple of The Elder Gods were filmed on location at Petra, a large temple and basin located in Jordan.

The French release of the movie was known as Mortal Kombat: Destruction Finale, while the Italian release was titled Mortal Kombat 2 - Distruzione Totale (Total Destruction).

Reception

As was the case with the original, Annihilation was not pre-screened for critics. However, it was nowhere near as well-received as its predecessor, with 4% out of 25 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes[1] and a dismal 11/100 rating on Metacritic.[2] Jason Gibner of Allmovie wrote, "Whereas the first film was a guilty schlock pleasure, this sequel is an exercise in the art of genuinely beautiful trash cinema."[3] James Berardinelli of ReelViews described MK:A as having "no story, no characters, and no coherence,"[4] while Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle said, "The movie is nothing more than a perpetual chain of elaborately choreographed fight sequences that...are linked together by the most flimsy and laughable of plot elements."[5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "D-" rating, while calling it "abysmal" and "incoherent."[6]

Though Annihilation attempted to continue in the style of the first movie, the cast of returning characters from the original was almost completely overhauled; only Robin Shou (Liu Kang) and Talisa Soto (Kitana) reprised their roles, while the only other actor to return was Keith Cooke (Reptile in the first film) as Sub-Zero. Additionally, while the original attracted casual moviegoers as well as gamers, Annihilation catered exclusively to MK fans.[7] The picture consequently suffered from a large and homogenous cast that was employed to depict as many Mortal Kombat characters as possible, causing a subsequent drop in characterization due to a script that attempted to accommodate them all, which resulted in many inconsistencies between the storylines of the films and the games.

Meanwhile, new supporting characters, such as Mileena, Nightwolf, Baraka, Rain, and Ermac, were either not identified by name or only made brief appearances, some while serving little to no overall purpose to the plot. In a February 2001 interview with fansite Total Mortal Kombat, actress Marjean Holden (Sheeva) expressed her displeasure at the filmmakers' treatment of her character. In the shooting script and novelization, Sheeva met her demise in an extensive fight scene with newly-mortal Raiden, but the scene was never filmed and her screen time was scant in the finished print, with Raiden instead fighting two Raptors and Sheeva's death simply coming from a falling cage. "Here was a character, that was one of the most popular [in] the video game...and they killed her without even so much as a fight! Something I was not happy about at all. That was one of the reasons I wanted to do the role, was for the sheer fact that there were really great fights in the movie for this character, and they all got cut out."[8]

Box-office performance

Annihilation was released on November 21, 1997, and its opening weekend take was $16 million, enough for a number-one debut at the box office, but it was nonetheless a 30% drop from the original's opener of $23 million. While it grossed $35 million domestically, it was only $5 million above its budget and amounted to half of the original's total domestic take of $70 million. Annihilation made $51 million worldwide, a 59% drop from the original's total box office gross of $122 million.[9]

Sequel

Production on a second sequel, titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation, was initially scheduled to commence shortly after the release of Annihilation, but it was shelved due to Annihilation's poor box-office performance. It has remained stagnant in preproduction for over a decade, after being mired in development hell for a number of years with numerous script rewrites and story changes, along with the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, which greatly affected one of the shooting locations.[10]

No information about the production exists on the official MK website produced by Threshold Entertainment, which has not been updated since 2004.[11] The only confirmed detail about Devastation is that it will be a reboot of the MK film saga. In a November 2008 SOAPnet interview, Linden Ashby said that he read the script and plans to reprise his role as Johnny Cage,[12] while Chris Casamassa will reprise his role as Scorpion, with filming beginning in September 2009.[13]

Soundtrack

References

  1. ^ Mortal Kombat: Annihilation at Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - Metacritic
  3. ^ MK: Annihilation Review - Allmovie
  4. ^ Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - ReelViews, 11/97
  5. ^ Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - Austin Chronicle, 11/28/97
  6. ^ Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - Entertainment Weekly, 12/5/97
  7. ^ "What's in this movie for MK gamers? 'There are more characters in this movie from the game than last time, and there's a lot of new ones, to coincide with the fourth game.' "Mortal Kombat II - Cory Doctorow, SciFi Entertainment, 11/97; reprinted on craphound.com
  8. ^ Interview with: Marjean Holden - Total Mortal Kombat, 2/4/01
  9. ^ Box Office Mojo
  10. ^ Clint Morris (2008-02-08). "Director talks Mortal Kombat reboot". Moviehole.net. http://www.moviehole.net/news/20080208_director_talks_mortal_kombat_r.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-08. 
  11. ^ mortalkombat.com - Threshold Entertainment
  12. ^ http://www.truveo.com/Linden-Ashby-talks-about-Mortal-Kombat-3/id/282147513
  13. ^ http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12742587

External links


Preceded by
The Jackal
Box office number-one films of 1997 (USA)
November 23, 1997
Succeeded by
Flubber

 
 

 

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