Review of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) by Thequietgamer — 15 Jul 2016

The first Mortal Kombat was already a cheesy martial arts movie. This sequel is even cheesier. We get goofier performances, worse dialog, and uglier special effects. The plot goes into a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo. It tries to go grander in scale than it's predecessor, but it all just leads to poorer writing.

We still get the entertaining fights though. The movie definitely doubles down on the fan service. Just like the first movie it's strength is in watching the game characters fight each other with over-the-top action. These fights are backed up by an awesome soundtrack.

It tries to go bigger than it's predecessor and ends up falling short as a result. It also gets quite a bit cheesier. However when it's focusing on the first movie's strengths (cheesy martial arts action with fan favorite MK characters) it's still pretty entertaining. The expanded roster of characters taken from the games still makes it worth a watch for fans of the series and of the first movie. The lack of R-rated fatalities is still a disappointing non-inclusion, but no more so than it was in the first. Overall the movie just isn't as good this time around.