Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a 1997 martial arts action film directed by John R. Leonetti, who had served as the cinematographer for the previous film. It is the sequel to 1995's Mortal Kombat. The storyline was largely an adaptation of Mortal Kombat 3, and the novelization by Jerome Preisler was released through Tor Books.
Plot summary
The evil emperor Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson) 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 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.
Christopher Lambert was interested to reprise his role as Lord Rayden in this film but he was busy for his role in Beowulf. Apparently, James Remar won and took his role.
Linden Ashby did not reprise his role because the script of Johnny Cage in this movie was to be killed off early, so Chris Conrad took over.
Sylvester Stallone was offered to play one of the MK characters, but declined.
There are no reasons why Bridgette Wilson did not reprise her role as Sonya Blade.
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]
Gametrailers gave a scathing review in its "Top Ten Countdown of the Worst Video Game Movies". The said review stated:
"Despite riding on the tail of its semi-successful predecessor, Annihilation's C-Grade special effects, low-budget porn dialogue and afterschool special combat resulted in the manifestation of the film's tagline: "Destroy All Expectations!" It did just that!
The re-casting is SO BAD that even Johnny Cage told his agent to kill him off. Instead of Billy Maddison's lovable Miss Vaughan, we get a forty-something Sonya Blade with ranger shorts hiked up to her underarms, and a thunder god that appears to have skipped puberty.
The final showdown between Kahn and Kang, a haphazard sixth grade play-doh project had us looking for the portal out of the theater!"
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 consequently remained stagnant in preproduction for over a decade, including 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]
In June 2009, a bankruptcy court lawsuit saw Lawrence Kasanoff suing Midway, mentioning that a third film was in the works. However, Warner Bros. had bought most of Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat, the next month.[12] Chris Casamassa later reported that he would reprise his role as Scorpion and that filming would begin in September of the same year.[13] Linden Ashby, who played Johnny Cage in the first film, stated in an interview on Soap Talk that he read the script and will reprise the role.[14]
Soundtrack
References
External links
