Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Director: John F. Leonetti
Starring: Robin Shou, Brian Thomson, Sandra Hess, James Remar
Primary genre: Fantasy
Secondary genre: Martial arts
Paul WS Anderson’s Hollywood debut in Mortal Kombat (1995) ended in an enticing cliffhanger sending waves of euphoria to every single 13-year-old boy around the world. Shao Kahn, emperor of Outworld, had declared all-out war on Earth and our heroic quartet (now with Kitana on their side) under the guidance of Lord Raiden was ready to kick Outworld butt, tournament-free. It was a great visual for awesome, dark-fantasy-sci-fi fusion of things to come with an even greater trailer and poster to generate the right amount of hype. It set up Kahn as a more malevolent and unbeatable opponent than Shang Tsung, one impossible to defeat, unless of course, you are the producers of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
“ I *am* to be feared for if you fail me now, I will feed your rotting corpse to the worms!”
Pushed early for a cinematic release to capitalize on its predecessor’s success and the videogame’s popularity, Annihilation featured unfinished special effects, an entirely new cast (excluding Talisa Soto and Robin Shou), an overly serious tone, anemic clashes, banal stuntwork, rapid-fire editing, a plethora of exterior shoots and sets, and a nonsensical story. Taking over from Anderson (who declined to return in order to direct Event Horizon (1997)), John F. Leonetti, the cinematographer of the first movie, has a hard time capturing the energy and visual panache of the British director.
He replicates all the elements that made the 95 cult classic stand out: the music, the wire-fu, the techno soundtrack, the fan service, the same opening credits, and plenty of fight scenes, thinking quantity is quality due to a substantially higher budget. His Outworld is drenched in purple, deep black, and gunmetal hues through an expansive production design, explosive sound mixing, and George S. Clinton atmospheric score. Despite its distinct visual style, Annihilation hardly registers due to its poorly rendered (in many ambitious shots) special effects, and glaring goofs. Even Clinton has a hard time dressing musically all this pseudo-dramatic mumbo-jumbo about mortals, magic conquerors, cyborgs, centaurs, and evil queens.
The appeal of our original heroic trio and their archetypal but highly effective motivations have been replaced by stilted dialogue, muddled storylines, no arcs, and plenty of cardboard characters existing to purely satisfy hardcore fans. Liu Kang (played underwhelmingly by Robin Shou) does not earn his status as Earth’s mightiest warrior. His lackluster final confrontation lacks the thematic depth that his climactic showdown with Shang Tsung had, looking more bored than engaged. Meanwhile, Leonetti and his army of screenwriters throw a fight every second, afraid of their action figures’ ability to decipher, understand, and elicit any sort of emotional response to the movie’s events (e.g., the death of a popular character).
Even on the action front, Annihilation hardly delivers. Implementing an unlimited amount of backflips, somersaults, leaps, and flying pirouettes, kombatants come and go as … kameos just to flex their muscles and push the wire teams to their limits. Only the dual combo of Cyrax and Smoke (they nailed their look) manages to generate some sort of excitement amidst a sea of mindless wandering to deserts, ruined temples, and underground caves. By the time we reach the final 4 vs. 4 confrontation, the choreography effort drops to the bare minimum under “hiya!” screams and painfully slow moves of untrained actors.
Yet, Annihilation’s biggest problem is its deadpan face. It is unable to capture the charming, adolescent balance that permeated Anderson’s flick. Gone are the memorable performances and tongue-in-cheek humor, replaced by a villain with daddy issues, a weird brother-to-brother rivalry and terrible scripted lines. This is Mortal Kombat for f***s sake, not Hamlet!
For every good thing, there are a myriad of bad ones. Rubber masks, editing mistakes, unfinished 3D and backdrop special effects, abuse of wire work, character assassinations, cheap costume design, negated verbal sparring (“You are alive!” ,“Too bad you will die!”), and a Shakespearean tone make Annihilation the blueprint for how clueless production decisions can harm the final product. Still, there is something magnetically appealing about its excessive efforts to be taken seriously. It can be seen as a martial arts Batman and Robin (1997); loud, lame, and unstoppable like the drunken fool in a cool party. It crashes and burns in spectacular fashion but not before it elicits this notion of curiosity about its own mesmerizing-to-watch destruction that you can’t take your eyes off it. How did they get it so wrong and still go with it? Shao Kahn says that we should prepare for final Kombat. He was right.
Videogame adaptation gone wrong
+Solid production design
+Sound design takes no prisoners
+Clinton’s atmospheric score
+Scope
-Repetitive fighting
-Shao Kahn has daddy issues
-No returning cast members
-Glaring movie goofs
-Unfinished special effects