Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
★ — Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation arrived two years after Paul W.S. Anderson's surprise 1995 hit, which had turned the notoriously violent Midway video game franchise into a modestly entertaining piece of mid-90s action cinema and grossed over $122 million worldwide on a $18 million budget. New Line Cinema moved quickly on a sequel, but Anderson declined to return as director, leaving the chair to John R. Leonetti, whose background was almost entirely in cinematography (he had shot the first film, and would later direct Annabelle in 2014). The production was reportedly rushed, with significant cast changes including the replacement of Bridgette Wilson and Linden Ashby, and the script credited to three separate writers. The $30 million budget was nearly double that of its predecessor, though the finished film gave little obvious indication of where the money went.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation isn’t just a bad movie, it’s a full-on cinematic disaster that somehow defies the laws of logic, storytelling, and basic human dignity. The first Mortal Kombat (1995) had style, cheesy fun, and decent fight choreography. This 1997 sequel throws all of that away and replaces it with neon spandex, terrible dialogue, zero plot coherence, and special effects that look like they were rendered on a dial-up-era screensaver. The acting is wooden, the pacing is frantic yet somehow boring, and the entire film feels like someone described the plot of the first movie from memory after three energy drinks. Characters teleport between realms without explanation, Shao Kahn monologues like a rejected Saturday morning villain, and the romantic subplot between Liu Kang and Kitana is so awkward you’ll wish for another apocalypse just to end the scene. And yet… it’s so utterly, completely bad that it loops back around into being kind of hilarious. Watching it with friends, yelling at the screen, marvelling at how badly everything goes, it becomes a party experience. The sheer commitment to nonsense gives it a bizarre charm. I give it credit: few movies earn the title of “so bad it’s legendary.” This one doesn’t just wear the crown, it is the crown. And yes… flawless victory.
Rating: ★ | Year: 1997 | Watched: 2025-09-19
Where to watch (UK)
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