Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

So the new Mortal Kombat film finally makes its way to The UK tomorrow which means I have just watched the last Mortal Kombat film made Annihilation and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees the warriors of Earthrealm attempt to stop Shao Kahn's invasion. 

Main Character 

Robin Shou as Liu Kang and Talisa Soto as Kitana were the only actors who reprised their role from the previous film and after watching this train wreck it is easy to see why. Neither of them are very good in the film and it seems like they were the only ones who signed a 2 film contract so they were forced to be here. The characters are so bland and you won't care about them or anybody that appears on screen. 

Supporting Characters

James Remar takes up the role of Raiden and he is so dull and poor. At least Christopher Lambert is so over the top its ridiculous but Raiden is given way more to do in this film and the character just isn't very interesting with Rear clearly not enjoying himself at all. Sandra Hess and Lynn Williams take up the roles of Sonya and Jax respectively and they offer very little and Jax actually became really annoying and I was wishing he had as much screen time as he did in the first film. At least the new guy they cast as Johnny Cage realised he only wanted a small role and doesn't barely appear here. Shao Khan is finally here as the villain and he is so cliché, the awesome character from the game is gone and replaced by this bloke who isn't actually that intimidating. There are more characters from the games here but they are used so poorly that I just wish they hadn't bothered. 

Story 

The story is all over the place. It's like the film wants to get through the majority of the stories in the game but it rushes all of the without explanation and it makes fans like me incredibly frustrated. The whole plot is absurd and there is one element of the film that breaks all kinds of lore and makes the film laughably stupid with a really stupid ending. 

Script 

The script of the first film had some charm, yes it was cheesy but it kind of worked. This one is just so bad, with a mix of terrible acting and terrible acting it is just terrible and left me shaking my head as to how somebody got paid to write this mess. 

Style 

Now the most important part of Mortal Kombat - the fights. They are terrible, the overuse of slow mo is obvious because the cast just weren't particularly great at fight choreography or at least making them. Then you get the effects, they are so bad, maybe some of the worst I have ever seen. I know people will say it had a small budget, then they shouldn't have tried this rubbish. 

Overall 

Overall, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is one of the worst films I have ever seen. There is no redeeming qualities to this film and no wonder it has taken nearly 25 years for a big budget reboot, avoid this film at all costs. 

Rating - 1/10