Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

Starring: Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, Brian Thompson, Sandra Hess, James Remar, and Lynn Red Williams
Director: John Leonetti
Choreographer: Robin Shou, Pat Johnson

Before The Matrix revolutionized the American action film by creating a trend of using CGI-enhanced martial arts and the such, Hong Kong influence actually had begun to make quiet inroads into the Silver Screen with some certain “transition films.” These brought in Chinese choreographers or did the choreography with a certain Hong Kong flavor, but without necessarily drawing attention to itself. Among these movies were Blade (1998), The Big Hit (1998), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and the already reviewed Double Team (1997). However, the first of these transition films was a successful film called Mortal Kombat (1995).

Mortal Kombat has the distinction of being probably the best film adaptation of a popular video game. Now, that may not be saying a whole lot, since most of the competition well…you know. Mortal Kombat, unlike some of other attempts to film a video game, benefitted from a storyline that was true to the source material and the inclusion of a lot of good martial arts. The result is what I like to call a “modern-day Enter the Dragon” as both films revolve a around a martial arts tournament, both have a Chinese guy as a hero, and both have the choreography chores divided between the Chinese star and an American guy (who happens to be Pat Johnson in both). And in both movies, it’s the choreography from the Chinese guy (Robin Shou in this case) that stands out from rest. This film is probably the first of the so-called “transition movies” as far as I’m concerned.

Two years after the first Mortal Kombat was successful, a sequel was made. Now the first movie had ended with our heroes walking triumphantly into the Temple of the Order of Light (in Southeast Asia) after having defeated Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat tournament. However, the sky then goes dark, and the Emperor Shao Kahn appears, and announces that he shall steal the souls of the good guys. And that’s where it left off, and that’s where the sequel begins.

Shao Kahn (Thompson), his generals (Sheeva, Montaro, Ermac, Rain, and Sindel), and an army of ninjas drop out of the dimensional gate. Shao Kahn proclaims the destruction of Earth and of humanity, saying that it will all happen in six days. Raiden (Remar) challenges Shao Kahn to a fight and begins to wipe the floor with him. However, Shao Kahn results to treachery and when the smoke clears, Johnny Cage is dead. I’d like to note that in neither of the two films does Johnny Cage get to throw a Shadow Kick that actually connects with the intended target. I’d feel gyped if I were him.

Our heroes (Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Kitana, and Raiden) escape into the bowels of the earth in order to seek help. Liu Kang and Kitana decide to search for Nightwolf in the American southwest while Sonya sets out to find her partner Jax. Raiden decides to look for the temple of the Gods to find out why Shao Kahn and his armies are being able to attack the earth.

While underneath the earth, Liu Kang and Kitana get into a bunch of fights with a cyborg called “Smoke”, Scorpion (who seems to be ressurrected from the previous film), and a bunch of ninjas. Evening out the odds is Sub-Zero who comes in to assist the good guys. When all is said and done, Kitana is kidnapped and Sub-Zero leaves Liu Kang to continue his journey. Now, if I were Liu Kang, I’d be a bit upset with Sub-Zero, since I’d expect him to contribute more to the saving of humanity than simply fighting Scorpion and Smoke. I’d want him to stick it out to the end. Anyways, Liu Kang finds Nightwolf on top of a mesa, who teaches him how to perform an “animality.” Waking up from a dream-like state, he finds that it has inexplicably begun to snow and that there’s an Asian girl with him in an outfit not unlike what Raquel Welch wore in One Million Years B.C.. She first tries to seduce him and when he spurns her advances, she becomes a female ninja and begins to fight him. This film apparently takes place in some counter-Earth where everyone resolves their differences by breaking out into a choreographed fight. At the end, she says its all a test and they set out together to find his comrades.

Sonya finds Jax at a government laboratory. Incidentally, he’s had a some aumentive sugergy performed on him and now has some cybernetic strength-enhancers put on his arms. I’m curious in any case to know why everyone else at the lab disappeared but he’s still there. Anyways, their reunion is broken up by the appearance of another cyborg, Cyrax, and some more ninjas. After that fight, they set out to find Raiden and the others and do, but not before getting into another fight with Mileena and some giant monster thingie. Well, if you’re seeing a pattern, you’re right. The heroes go somewhere and get into a fight. They go somewhere else and get into another fight. They go somewhere else and…you get the point.

Well, according to this movie, there’s some legend that says that the portals between realms can be opened outside of the usual Mortal Kombat realms through Sindel, Kitana’s mother, who’s been ressurrected by Shao Kahn. Why it is that way is never explained. In any case, if Kitana is reunited with Sindel, the portals can be closed, but once again, we’re not quite sure how that works.

In order to be able to do all this stuff, our heroes travel to the Outworld with the help of Raiden, who has given up his immortality (and a dignified appearance) in order to help out the good guys. They manage to reunite Sindel and Kitana, although they get into a bunch of fights before that. However, that doesn’t work. It seems that there’s been some treachery among thieves going on and someone whom I won’t mention (Shao Kahn’s father) that’s been fooling around with the portals.

So there’s some tragedy and double-crossing that occurs before our heroes (Liu Kang, Jax, Kitana, and Sonya) have take on the villains (Shao Kahn, Sindel, Ermac, and Montaro) in one last Mortal Kombat!!!!! *play Mortal Kombat techno music*

I won’t hesitate in saying that this is a flawed film. It is very flawed. You see, our characters have to not only fight the forces of evil, but they have to engage in mortal kombat with a badly-written script, a bad plotline, and their own acting limitations. The plot seems to exist mainly as a way of finishing up where the first movie left off, but for the direction that it goes, it tries too hard to include most of the characters from the game in order to please video game fans. (Solution: A better way of handling the storyline would’ve been to make it an essential remake of the first one, with the emperor calling a new tournament and having our heroes recruit some fresh blood to compete against the villains. I mean, the result would’ve been the same, but the sudden appearance and disappearance of all these characters wouldn’t have been so jarring.)

The script and acting needed a bit of work as well. James Remar does a pretty good job filling in Christopher Lambert’s shoes as Raiden. Robin Shou is alright as Liu Kang; he did better in the first one. The others struggle (mostly overacting…Brian Thompson, I’m looking in your direction) with a script that seems more at place in a Power Rangers cartoon than in a film based off of an ultraviolent video game. I guess that’s the big problem, the presentation of this film is more suited for kids and pre-teens than it is for older audiences.

But there’s another question we have to ask ourselves, how faithful is this movie to the source materials? Let’s start by breaking our characters into three groups:

Characters who have an important role in the movie:

Liu Kang- The hero of the film. Performs an animality and some good wushu but that’s about it.
Raiden- Starts off well in the beginning and gets to perform his flying move. Benefits from having a talented stunt double.
Kitana- Fights pretty good, but why do they never portray her as being a lady ninja?
Sonya- Fights good and performs her trademark fatality.
Jax- Gets to use his earthquake attack and fights pretty good.
Shao Kahn- Gets to use his hammer and do some of his signature moves. Spends too much of the movie without his mask on, which lessens his effect as a villain.
Sindel- Gets to use both her scream and her energy blast.
Jade- Gets one quick fight scene but otherwise is just window dressing.
Montaro- Looks more realistic than the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns
Ermac- Other than his red outfit (which is “too” colorful) he is just another ninja lackey.

Characters who appear just to get in a fight scene:

Smoke- Gets one fight and even busts out one of the Secktor’s moves.
Sub-Zero- In addition to his martial arts, gets to perform two of his his moves. I do wish they would’ve made him a main character and discussed his association with the Lin Kuei.
Scorpion- If you liked him in the first film, you should like him in this one.
Cyrax- Portrayed pretty faithfully; his net attack is changed into an acid attack (although it creates probably the most gory scene in an otherwise tame film).
Mileena- Doesn’t come across as a mysterious, deadly female ninja.
Reptile- Just kind of appear for the sake of getting in a fight.
Baraka- Like the Reptiles, he/they get cheated and don’t get a chance to really bust it out in a fight.
Noob Saibot- Just a ninja in black.

Characters who appear but don’t even get a fight scene:

Sheeva
Nightwolf
Rain
Johnny Cage

Shao Kahn probably got the worst end of the stick in this movie. I don’t feel Brian Thompson was the right choice as he mistook “overacting” for being evil. That, and I think the Shao Kahn outfit in the Mortal Kombat II commercial looked far more imposing than Brian Thompson does in this one. I think they would’ve been FAR better off taking someone like Billy Chow (Fist of Legend) or Ken Lo (Drunken Master 2), leaving him in the costume during the entire film, and dubbing his voice like Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So what’ll really make or break this film is the martial arts. I mean, good martial arts can redeem even the worst movies to some degree. Like the first movie, the choreography is divided between Hong Kong veteran Robin Shou and Pat Johnson. And like the first movie, you can obviously tell the difference between the work of both choreographers. Shou’s choreography is pretty good and Johnson’s pales in comparison. This is especially noticed in the fight between Sonya and Mileena, which at one point, becomes devolves into a mud wrestling match between the two girls (too bad Sammo Hung didn’t choreograph the fight, he did an excellent job with a hand vs. sai fight in Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars). The best fights of the film occur in the first third of the movie and involve the two fights under the earth’s surface and Sonya’s and Jax’s fights in the laboratory.

As far as the actors are concerned, they all make a pretty fair showing. Robin Shou, who although he is no Jet Li (or Donnie Yen or Zhao Wen-Zhuo), does a good job and does some nice-looking moves, especially in the finale. Sandra Hess, who plays Sonya, is more talented as a fighter than Brigitte Wilson was. James Remar’s stunt double is Ray Park, who was unknown at the time, but is now known among the fanboy world as the man who played Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1. He fight with the Reptiles is pretty good. Keith Cooke, who played Sub-Zero (and played Reptile in the first movie), impresses in his fight against Sub-Zero. Cooke is actually a very talented wushu stylist and is arguably the best thing about the China O’Brien movies that Cynthia Rothrock made. The actors who played Smoke and Scorpion/Cyrax are also pretty talented and deserve mention.

This movie uses a lot of CGI in it. It probably uses more than it needed. While the CGI used in the energy blasts and stuff is alright, the CGI monsters, especially in the animality scene is very obvious. Also, the CGI effect of the “ominous sky” comes across as being more awkward than eerie.

I could continue picking this movie apart but I shouldn’t. If nothing else, it has some good fight scenes to redeem from total failure. It’s worth checking out just for those, as they serve as another good example of the transition that American martial arts movies made from the static old style to the imaginative and intricate Hong Kong style. I mean, it’s good to see some fight scenes that don’t rely on CGI. If that’s how you feel, than this film is worth a rent.

Score: 2.5 out of 5 animals

Note: I managed to find the old commercial for the Mortal Kombat 2 video game online. After watching it, I have to agree with the comment I’d made earlier: Shao Kahn looks far more menacing in the commericial then he is in the film. Not only that, Reptile does as well, and Baraka looks better than he did in the movie. Is that ironic?