Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

A group of martial arts warriors have only six days to save the Earth from an extra-dimensional invasion.

Director:

John R. Leonetti

Writers:

Ed Boon (video games), Lawrence Kasanoff (story),

Stars:

Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, James Remar

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robin Shou	...	Liu Kang
Talisa Soto	...	Kitana
James Remar	...	Rayden
Sandra Hess	...	Sonya Blade
Lynn 'Red' Williams	...	Jax
Brian Thompson	...	Shao-Kahn
Reiner Schöne	...	Shinnok (as Reiner Schoene)
Musetta Vander	...	Sindel
Irina Pantaeva	...	Jade
Deron McBee	...	Motaro
Marjean Holden	...	Sheeva
Litefoot	...	Nightwolf
Chris Conrad	...	Johnny Cage
John Medlen	...	Ermac
J.J. Perry	...	Cyrax / Scorpion

Storyline

Mortal Kombat is an ancient tournament where the Earth Realm warriors battle against the forces of Outworld. Liu Kang and a few chosen fighters fought and defeated the powerful sorcerer Shang Tsung, their victory would preserve the peace on Earth for one more generation. Taking place now where the first movie left off, the Earth realm warriors live a short period of peace when evil forces from another dimension come to invade and wreak havoc on Earth. They are guided by the forces of Outworld leader, Shao Kahn and his generals such as: Motaro, Rain, Ermac, Sheeva and Sindel. Now Liu Kang, Raiden, Jax, Sonya and Kitana must defeat Shao Kahn in six days before the Earth realm merges with the Outworld.

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Plot Keywords:

warrior | martial arts | mortal kombat | battle | loss of friend | 

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Taglines:

This time there is no tournament. This time there no rules. This time there is only Annihilation.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for non-stop martial arts violence

Details

Official Sites:

New Line

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mortal Kombat 2

Filming Locations:

Ayuthaya, Thailand

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£278,808 (UK) (13 February 1998)

Gross:

£278,808 (UK) (13 February 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Threshold Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The red ninja, Ermac, is played by the film's stunt co-ordinator, John Medlen.

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Goofs

After Rayden has his new identity, he is attacked by the ninjas. During this fight scene you can clearly see Rayden's stunt double instead of the main actor fighting.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rayden: [narrating] Mortal Kombat is not about death, but rather the preservation of life. Liu Kang and a few chosen fighters from the Earth realm defeated Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung. According to the rules of Mortal Kombat, their victory preserved the safety of the Earth for one more generation. Our chosen ones were returned to Liu Kang's home on Earth, only to enjoy a brief period of peace... for someone from Outworld has a different point of view.

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Crazy Credits

Out of respect for the people of Thailand, this motion picture contains no depictions of harm to any sacred Thai structures or simulations thereof.

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Connections

Referenced in The Spoony Experiment: D.O.A: Dead or Alive (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Higher"
Written by Bob Henning and Stefan Mueller
Performed by Alien Factory
Courtesy of "edel" Records GmbH, Hamburg, Germany
by arrangement with E.A.R. (Edel America Records)
from the album Mortal Kombat: More Kombat

User Reviews

This is probably the worst sequel ever

The problem with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation isn't that it's stupid, with no significant plot, dialogue or characters. That is undebatably true of Annihilation, but that was also true with the first Mortal Kombat movie, and that was a great movie. The problem is the HUGE let down in the martial arts and special effects scenes. MK had some terrific fight scenes, such as the brilliant Cage/Scorpion fight in the forest, the great Liu Kang/SubZero fight, and the cool finale with Shang Tsung. Annihilation didn't have any fight scenes up to the quality of those three, many of the fight scenes made no sense, and the finale was horrible. In addition, some things in Annihilation I would really like an explanation for:

• Why did Raiden dress up like Aladdin half way through the movie? Was

looking like a complete dork part of becoming mortal? And where was Christopher Lambert, anyway?

• What was the third test? Where did that Wolf-guy go? What happened to

Sub-Zero?

• Why did they do that stupid thing with Jax' bionic arms? Stupid movies

should admit they are stupid movies. Stupid movies which try to have serious elemends become bad movies.

• Same deal with Katana's mother.



• What was point of that huge monster that came out of nowhere to attack

Sonya, then immediately went back to it's whole when Jax hit it on the head? Was it a whack-a-mole?

• How is it that Sonya and Jade began to fight IN A DESERT and they

immediately fell into a mud pit?

• Why did Smoke maticulously break every window in that random building

before fighting Sonya and Jax?

• What was the point of having Liu Kang turn into a dragon? He just turned

into a human again, without having done anything effective as a dragon. How was that useful?

• Why didn't they spend more then $80 on the special effects for that

dragon? I could do better then that with miniatures and clay animation.

• How is it that this movie could have been made so badly, with such bad

cinematography and such pathetic martial arts effects, after the first one was so good?