You know, I talk a lot about video game movies on this website, and "bad" video game movies at that.
Last year, I defended the original Super Mario Bros. movie, and this year, I'm going to defend 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which I KNOW is often considered not only one of the worst video game movies of all time, but also one of the worst movies of all time, period.
But, I still think it’s worth defending all the same, and I'm going to try to prove it to you today. Hopefully, it’ll be a flawless victory.
This Movie Had Guts To Have Shao Khan Kill Off Johnny Cage In The First Few Minutes
Now, let's just get things straight off the bat. I unironically LOVE the first Mortal Kombat movie from 1995. In fact, when 2021's Mortal Kombat came out, I wrote a whole article about how I would still rather watch the original movie over the newer one. In 2023, I still love watching the first movie.
It just has it all. The special effects (for the time) were amazing, the story was relatively close to the games, and all of the characters were awesome. When compared to the Jean-Claude Van Damme Street Fighter movie, it completely blew it out of the water (though, I now appreciate Street Fighter for all of its goofiness).
Surprisingly, even though I've always mained Scorpion in the games, my favorite character in the first movie was Johnny Cage, played by Linden Ashby. He was just so cool, and arguably had the best scene, when he punched Goro in the nuts.
I was actually really looking forward to seeing him in the sequel. So, imagine my surprise when 1. They replaced Linden Ashby with some other dude named Chris Conrad, and 2. Shao Khan freaking killed off the character in the first few minutes of the movie!
A lot of fans of the 2021 Mortal Kombat really want to see Johnny Cage in the sequel, and many people thought it was gutsy to not put him in the first movie. But, nothing was gutsier than killing Johnny off so early in Annihilation. That took balls…which he likely would have punched if he was in the movie any longer.
It Also Had The Guts To Make Raiden And Shao Khan Siblings
Okay, so, one thing that totally blew my mind when I first saw Annihilation was the plot twist that Lord Raiden and Shao Khan…ARE BROTHERS! Dun dun duuuun! Mind you, this is the equivalent of fan fiction, as the games (unless we’re counting Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe) don’t reference this in any way whatsoever. That’s not to say that Raiden doesn’t have a brother in the games, because he does. It’s Fujin, the God of Wind. But, Shao Khan is not his brother in any of the canonical games, nor is Shinnok their father.
Still, I think this plot point is kind of interesting. For one thing, it makes Raiden’s allowance of Johnny Cage’s aforementioned death feel all the more potent, since Raiden essentially gave his “brother” a pass, giving him the edge. Secondly, it retroactively changes the first movie if Raiden knew that disposing of Shang Tsung would ultimately bring his brother to seek out the newly empty throne
So, yeah, a lot of MK fans are against this silly subplot, but I think it’s pretty interesting, from a narrative standpoint, at least.
So Many Characters!
Recently, I wrote about why I loved the new Super Mario Bros. movie, despite what the critics say, and one of the reasons why I loved it so much is because they fit in so many references to the games. I mean, the movie had so many characters and songs from the series, that it was sometimes hard to keep up.
Well, whereas a lot of '90s video game movies were trying to stray from the source material, Annihilation had the bold distinction of basically trying to fit in as many characters from the Mortal Kombat series as possible, sometimes (What do I mean sometimes? Always!) to its detriment.
I mean, there is literally a scene where the ultra obscure character, Rain (you know it’s him, because he’s wearing purple) is killed off within seconds for no real reason whatsoever, other than to fit in as many characters as possible.
That said, maybe they shouldn’t have done this, as even characters from the first movie like Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, and Raiden, had different actors portraying them. But, if you’re the kind of person who likes to say, “Ooh, there’s Cyrax! And there’s Nightwolf!” Then Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is the movie for you.
They Even Fit Animalities Into The Plot
Back in the Mortal Kombat II days, it was always rumored in the school yard that not only were there fatalities, friendships, and babalities in the game, but also animalities. Friends would say that they were at an arcade down the shore and saw some teenager pulling off animalities with all of the characters, and not just the cool dragon fatality from Mortal Kombat II.
Well, being morons who didn’t readily have the internet back then, we of course believed each other since we couldn’t verify this was true or not. But, no, just like the fabled Lara Croft nude code, it wasn’t true, and it wasn’t until Mortal Kombat 3 that we would actually get animality finishers.
Honestly, they were kind of lame, but for something that was relatively so new to the franchise (MK3 came out in ‘95), I think it was kind of cool that Annihilation actually fit animalities into the plot, even making it a part of the outrageous climactic battle.
I actually have a funny story about this. My friends and I saw Mortal Kombat: Annihilation for one of my birthday parties, and my friends thought the movie was so bad that they left early, and I watched the final battle all by myself. On my birthday. When the movie ended, and I found them all playing real Mortal Kombat in the arcade next door, they asked me what happened at the end, and I told them that they wouldn’t believe it if they saw it, as even I sometimes still struggle to explain this scene. If not for YouTube, I would likely think it was all just a fever dream. Which brings me to my last point.
In The End, The Movie Is Comic Gold
I don’t think anybody would be surprised that I didn’t include Mortal Kombat: Annihilation on my list of the best video game movies, because as I said up top, I KNOW it's bad. So, I’m not defending it because I think it’s good. I know it’s atrocious.
But, just like how I love Batman & Robin, I also really love this movie, because it’s just SO bad. In fact, you know how I said earlier how I’d rather watch the original over the 2021 version? Well, I’d also gladly watch Annihilation over 2021’s Mortal Kombat, because at least I have fun watching the older film.
I mean, the acting is just SO bad in this movie, and I sometimes like randomly spouting lines from the film when the situation calls for it. Like, not too long ago, I was complaining about something to my friend, and he joked, "Well, at least you’re still alive," to which I countered, “Too bad you…will die.”
The special effects (If you want to call them that) also look like they belong in a PlayStation 1 cutscene. I kind of find them charming, though, being as bad as they are. Plus, I find it hilarious that there really isn’t one redeemable quality to the entire movie, which really drives it into camp territory, right up there with The Room, and Troll 2. Honestly, I’ve watched Mortal Kombat: Annihilation more than movies that I genuinely love, so if that’s not worth defending, then I don’t know what is.
But, what do you think? Do you also love Mortal Kombat: Annihilation for being so bad, it’s good? For more news on all things MK, make sure to swing by here often.
