Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is the second film based on the Mortal Kombat videogame franchise; it incorporates characters and plot details from the series' first three games (with an emphasis on Mortal Kombat 3).

Picking up directly after the first film, Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson) -- the Emperor of Outworld -- begins Outworld's invasion of Earth...even though Liu Kang (Robin Shou) won Mortal Kombat and broke Outworld's streak of consecutive tournament victories. While Raiden (James Remar) confronts the Elder Gods over Kahn's invasion, Liu Kang undergoes specialized training in order to face Shao Kahn (who is far more powerful than Shang Tsung), and Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess) reunites with her partner Jackson "Jax" Briggs (Lynn Williams) before helping him to fight various Outworld warriors as they arrive on Earth. Kahn's Outworld forces are numerous and powerful, however, and it will take every ounce of skill and power Earth's heroes have to defeat the invasion.

This film is near-universally despised. Aside from Liu Kang and Kitana, every other character from the prior film was played by a new actor, and Johnny Cage was killed in the first few minutes as a display of Shao Kahn's strength. Annihilation tries to toss in as many characters from the first three games as possible, and although there's decent costuming and creature design, few of these characters are named during the film -- and even fewer have a decent moment or fight scene to indicate a personality (or a reason why they're important). The plot doesn't feature an official Mortal Kombat tournament to justify the frequent action scenes, which makes for a disjointed storyline. Like the previous film, Annihilation is rated "PG-13", but its violence is more toned-down than the first film's. Subpar visual effects round out the list of reasons this film is responsible for killing off the Mortal Kombat film franchise. Speaking of which, there were indeed plans for a third installation, which would have included Quan-Chi and Shinnok (working title Mortal Kombat: Devastation), but it was cancelled due to this movie's failure.

Tropes used in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation include:

Bear in mind that tropes who appeared in Mortal Kombat might apply here as well.

  • Animorphism: Liu Kang meets Nightwolf while the latter is in his wolf form. He teaches Liu to change into a dragon to gain an edge over Shao Kahn, who it turns out can transform into an even larger hydra.
  • Bad Boss: Shao Kahn, in spades. See You Have Failed Me... below.
  • Big Bad: Shao Kahn.
  • Brought Down to Normal:
    • Raiden.
    • Jax's cybernetics were damaged in his fight at the end. In all reality, they never seemed to give him that big of an advantage in the first place. Still he manages to hand Motaro's ass to him with his normal arms.
  • Composite Character: This movie's version of Smoke has Smoke's grey paint job and ability to turn to smoke, but everything else about him comes from Sektor, the only one of the three cyberninjas not to appear in the movie.
  • Conspicuous CGI: The final Shapeshifter Showdown fight scene.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Sonya versus Mileena.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Sheeva gets a cage gets dropped on her. The filmmakers seem to really hate the Shokan. There were plains to have a fight scene between her and Raiden which never panned out.
  • Five-Bad Band:
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Flexible Tourney Rules: The tourney rules are well and truly screwed and Shao Kahn invades directly without so much as setting up a tournament at all. As Nightwolf says to Liu, "The Tournament had rules. This time, anything goes." The Elder Gods spring a trap by calling a tourney and removing Kahn's immortality when he least expects it, allowing Liu to destroy him for good.
  • Franchise Killer: There were plans for a third movie follow-up, but disappointing box-office returns saw them fall by the wayside. Years later, there were serious talks of a new movie (that may or may not have been a true sequel), but production difficulties led to it being scrapped. There IS a new film in the pre-production stages, though it's going to be a complete reboot of the franchise, and those involved say it's going to be a much darker film.
  • Hot Mom: Sindel, as in the games.
  • Immediate Sequel: Picks up right after the first movie left off.
  • Kudzu Plot: The film goes so far into the politics of the Elder Gods and Outworld that there is no way the uninitiated can understand it. Hell, so little of it comes from the games even the initiated can't understand it.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Basically every character from the first three games appear.
    • No Name Given: A few, such as Mileena and Cyrax, end up nameless.
  • The Mole: Jade.
  • Mud Wrestling: The Cat Fight between Mileena and Sonya.
  • Murderous Thighs: Sonya uses Murderous Ankles on Ermac.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Nightwolf isn't inflicted with lycanthropy, he's just a Voluntary Shapeshifter with only one form.
  • Playing Gertrude: Musetta Vander, who plays Sindel, is only four years younger than Talisa Soto, who plays her daughter Kitana.
  • Shapeshifter Showdown: Liu and Kahn at the end, though each only uses one form.
  • Smug Snake: Shao Kahn.
  • Spinning Out of Here: Queen Sindel literally dances in a circle to teleport.
  • Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Johnny Cage, which was probably inspired by his death in the third game, which is what the movie was based on.
  • Take Me Instead!: Raiden offers himself up as Kahn's prisoner in exchange for Johnny Cage. Kahn, for some reason, accepts, then immediately declines anyway and kills Cage.
  • World of Ham
  • You Have Failed Me...: Rain tells Shao Kahn that two fighters named Kabal and Kurtis Stryker were captured, without being made to beg for their lives before they were killed. Kahn proves his displeasure by hitting Rain with a giant hammer and knocking him into some sort of Hell Well. Jade, Kahn's mole in the ranks of the heroes, gets it even worse when she fails at her job -- Kahn feeds her to a monster carving in the wall, which gives out a great big burp when it's done with her.
    • Made even worse due to the facts that making Stryker and Kabal beg before death was not part of Rain's orders but only added on so Kahn could vent his daddy issues on someone and Jade and Sindel did the tactically correct move by retreating from a force they could not have defeated on their own. So he killed them for NOT failing.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat:_Annihilation?oldid=1882843"