Mortal Kombat (2021)

Haven't seen Annihilation yet—other than the NC and DT reviews. That set such a low bar that that's why many fans still probably think the 2021 film is an improvement.

I've heard people love the recent slate of animated movies. The idea that they're not financially successful is surprising to me.

Oh yeah, Annihilation is terrible.

It does have some highs. It's the only Mortal Kombat adaptation in history (including the rebooted games themselves) to accurately depict Jax's metal arms as just a cool weapon he likes to use. He wanted to have super-strength cyborg arms so he got some super-strength cyborg arms he can wear to hit people with. The original canon answer for how Jax lost his arms is "N/A" because his arms are completely fine, something that only Annihilation ever realized.

It also has the legendary Raiden vs. Noob Saibot ballerina fight.

Which is absolutely horrid from a fight scene perspective but is memetically hilarious to watch. The spinny kick twirls stand out in my memory more vividly than even the good fights from far better films, which is all of them (even 2021).

And Raiden giving up his godhood out of pure love for the mortals is just beautiful.

Also, Robin Shou continues to bring his A-game to the role of Liu Kang despite the atrocious material he's given to work with.

...other than that, yeah. It's pretty much shit from start to finish.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 2nd 2024 at 10:27:51 AM

anihilation is bad in a way that is funny to mock, the new movie is just boring. Like even my gf who is not a fan knew the movie was bullshit.

Don't forget when Baraka was knocked into a fire pit by Liu Kang they literally used the same clip of Rain being knocked by Shao Kahn into the same pit. Not to mention everyone's reaction to Animality powers is a blank "huh?" w/ Jax's line being the best of the whole film ("Man now I done seen everything.") My favorite review video of MK Annihilation was from Black Nerd Comedy where Andre couldn't stop laughing at how bad the Baraka costumes looked (especially the head).

Annihilation says that Jax's arms are his weakness so he takes them off and hits harder with his fists.

It can be argued Annihilation is a better representation of the games than the first movie. It features a large cast of imaginative characters and settings trading punches with little rhyme or reason. But it is a significantly worse movie because of how unfocused any of the subplots are. The first three games are basically just opportunities to pick your favorite character and play through the ranks, you may catch a glimpse of the story and subplots but it is not designed with anything more than a broad premise. The canon events of any game was basically determined by the sequel.

Still, I do have a soft spot for some of the creative visuals, Raiden's negotiations turning him mortal and the Elder Gods stepping in to enforce proper Mortal Kombat! at the end.

My favorite bit of Annihilation trivia is that Thuy Trang (Trini from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) auditioned for the role of Jade but didn't get the part.

And now we've had three Power Rangers actors play Mortal Kombat characters.

and even then, the next games just laid off some stuff here and there, never a proper story line, it took MK 9 to more or less tell us how stuff actually went down. While MK 1 is so transparently big trouble in little china+enter the dragon is kinda sorta easiert to craft a line.

Crazy how much of a step down Annihilation was since the 1995 film got the reputation for being a good starting point. Of the two live action movies I saw, I do probably like that one the best. I like the 2021 film as a stepping stone to something better though.

Annihilation... wasn't great. It was further proof that video game live-action adaptations were just bad. Street Fighter, Legend of Chun-Li, Tekken. Dead or Alive is the only one that got an above-average film mostly due to leaning into the camp and sex appeal, and it still had to modify the storyline.

I mean, MK 1 was great because the conditions to it were good: the game have like 9 chararter at best, very simple in definition and the conflic as state was already seen in stuff like operation dragon.

Like in general the first game is VERY simple, the movie also use limited special efect when it matter and it snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.

Meanwhile this one do the oposite because it face a wall: It dosent want to tell the tournament so instead it create this plot of bad guy try to kill the good guys without the tournament but also wants Scorpion to be protagonist even when it have become clear multiple times scorpion IS a side chararter but also because it need to respect scorpion storyline, you need another way to tell it and then studio mandates a surrogate chararter and you end with this.

Next time they should just Avengers Movie it. Make a movie setting up Scorpion and Sub-Zero's rivalry, a movie about Sonya and Jax going after Kano, a movie about Liu Kang and Kung Lao training in the monastery, a movie about Outworld politics with Kitana, Mileena, Shao Kahn, and Sindel, etc. etc. and then roll it all up into a big Mortal Kombat Tournament krossover film.

Thus beginning the Mortal Kombat Cinematic Universe. Which tragically cannot use a K for Cinematic due to it being the wrong form of C.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 5th 2024 at 12:26:37 PM

Annihilation suffered from a lot of real life problems hindering its development (and Lawrence Kasanoff getting way too goddamn cocky about his personal role in the success of the first movie). There's a good What Happened on it.

Oh, that's one of my fav What Happened? vids

Annihilation is so bad that I think I forgot about it until Electronic Gaming Monthly took a swipe at it years later. So it took me a long time to realize how much it truly sucks.