“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)” Review

Mortal+Kombat%3A+Annihilation+%281997%29+Review

Dahlia Bray, Staff Writer

Netflix rating: 2.3/5 stars

Rotten tomatoes: 3%

Dahlia Points: 2/10  

Summary:

“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” begins with Shao Khan, the main villain, resurrecting Kitana’s Mom to keep the portal between Earth and Khan’s realm, Outworld, open. The good guys: Liu Kang, Kitana, Raiden, their teacher and kungfu master, Sonya Blade and Jax, approach Khan in hopes he won’t end the world. However, in six days, Khan declares Earth will be his. Once this cliché encounter ends, Kitana is taken by Khan’s crew to the outworld, and it is up to Kang and the gang to save both Earth and Kitana. Besides all the pointless fights and ridiculous graphics, only two scenes are important: Kang walking through the desert and the end battle scene.

About midway through the movie, Kang is alone, walking through the desert and trying to get to Kitana, when he stumbles upon NightWolf, a man in tribal attire. NightWolf teaches him to use his inner animality to defeat his external and internal demons, which eventually becomes his greatest strength. As we approach the end battle scene, Kang, Blade, Jax, and Raiden become exponentially weaker, ruined by each trial and tribulation they have faced. Kang finds Kitana, the gang is complete, commence MORTAL KOMBAT. The beginning of the final battle begins like every other basic fight scene, except Raiden makes an announcement mid-fight.

He and Shao Khan are brothers.

The family connection intensifies the fight, humanity against humanity, the connection fuels the good crew to overpower the evil overlords, defeat Khan, and restore the world to its normal peace.

General Thoughts:

Within the first 20 seconds, I began to understand that “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” was based on a game, and only featured video game music on its score. The intro to this movie was beyond atrocious, featuring graphics that looked like they were created in Windows Movie Maker and the same green screen skills as a 15-year-old aspiring YouTuber.

One of my main questions, besides “What is going on?” was “Why don’t the female fighters wear bras?” It’s understandable, because the world is ending and all, but you’re fighting; a bra would probably come in handy.

Besides the many unexplained fight scenes, the only thing that kept this movie interesting was the romantic scenes between two main characters, Kang and Kitana. With a story line as underachieving as this one, the romantic scenes were “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’s” only saving grace.