Mortal Kombat: The Annihilation Review
by Serdar Yegulalp (syegul AT ix DOT netcom DOT com)November 25th, 1997
Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)
A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp
Copyright 1997 by Serdar Yegulalp
CAPSULE: A step down from the earlier movie: not as enjoyable, not as well-done, but a pleasant enough timekiller.
Readers with 85 minutes just burning a hole in their pockets will probably do a lot worse than to catch MORTAL KOMBAT ANNIHILATION, but on the other hand, they could do a lot better -- like watch the first movie in the series. MKA is a brave attempt to follow up the surprisingly fun original, but it doesn't quite work.
MKA picks up *exactly* where the previous movie left off, with denizens of the outer dimensions breaking the cosmic laws of Mortal Kombat (the better to invade earth). Two of the first movie's characters -- Liu Kang and Sonya -- are back, as well as Raiden, but both Raiden and Sonya are played by different actors. The original Sonya was Bridgette Wilson; the new one is the less engaging Sandra Hess. Even worse is the cycling-out of Christopher Lambert as Raiden (a big loss), and the substitution of the more stolid James Remar -- a good actor, but not quite what's needed here.
However, the movie does try to make up for what it loses in personality by stirring some new characters into the mix. The best of the bunch is Lynn Williams (a former American Gladiator regular) as Jax, who steals every scene he's in with his glib comebacks and his cybernetic arms.
There's also more liberal use of effects -- especially Hong Kong-style wire-fighting moves, which give the movie's fighting scenes a different flavor than the original. In the original, the fights were more straightforward and looked more like they sprung from credible efforts on the part of the fighters. Here, it's completely over the top and hence less directly compelling.
The movie does manage to hum along nicely without getting boring; there's always something neat to look at. But it doesn't pack quite the same level of genial joy that the first one did. Looks like pulling off this sort of thing is a lot harder than people admit.
Two out of four fatalities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [email protected] EFNet IRC: GinRei http://www.io.com/~syegul another worldly device... you can crush me as I speak/write on rocks what you feel/now feel this truth =smilin' in your face, all the time wanna take your place, the BACKSTABBERS= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
More on 'Mortal Kombat: The Annihilation'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
