8 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation 27 Years Later

Rewatching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation 27 years later reveals some hilarious truths about the worst Mortal Kombat movie, including some good ideas and decisions that ended up being wasted. Often listed as one of the worst video game movies of all time, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation came out on November 21, 1997, as a direct sequel to 1995’s Mortal Kombat. With a new director and an almost entirely new cast, Annihilation little resembled its predecessor.

With Mortal Kombat 2 releasing in 2025 following the 2021 reboot, it’s interesting to look back at the franchise’s first live-action sequel. Mortal Kombat (1995) had been a solid hit, grossing over $122 million worldwide on a budget of $20 million. Unfortunately, Annihilation was worse than its predecessor in every way. The film’s disastrous critical reception killed its box office right after the opening weekend, with Annihilation only grossing $51.3 million on a $35 million budget. While it’s difficult to find redeemable qualities about Annihilation, the movie makes for a fun rewatch.

8 Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’s Story Was Exciting On Paper

Annihilation Tried To Be A Bigger And Bolder Sequel

For all its flaws, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation actually had an exciting premise. Compared to the first movie, which was a classic tournament film in which we could predict who was going to wing each fight, Annihilation was set to be a bigger and bolder sequel. Mortal Kombat (1995) was a charming movie but not a great adaptation of the video game, from the lack of special abilities to the absence of Mortal Kombat’s defining violence. Looking at Annihilation’s synopsis and character roster, the sequel had the potential to be a more fantastical, game-accurate take on the world of Mortal Kombat.

Within just a few minutes, we are introduced to Shao Kahn, the Elder Gods, Shinnok, a different version of Sub-Zero, Nightwolf, and several other characters and concepts from the game. Still, all of that is wasted due to the movie’s flaws. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a reminder for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 that having more characters and locations from the source material is not enough to make a great sequel. Annihilation was far more ambitious than its predecessor, which ended up heightening the franchise’s problems and leading to a disappointing sequel.

7 Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Is An Insult To Johnny Cage

Cage Is Recast And Killed Off In The Opening Sequence

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation picks up immediately after the events of Mortal Kombat, but it doesn’t take long for the sequel to change the status quo. Johnny Cage is killed by Shao Kahn in the opening minutes of the film, a massive insult to the character that had been a fan favorite in the first movie. Granted, Linden Ashby did not return for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and was recast with Chris Conrad. However, killing off Cage so nonchalantly was not the best way to handle the recast. Cage’s death was supposed to establish how threatening Shao Kahn was.

However, it only comes off as a silly way to handle an actor not returning for the sequel. Johnny Cage was not the only character recast for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. In fact, only Liu Kang and Kitana kept their actors from the previous film. While recasts are not uncommon when it comes to sequels, Mortal Kombat’s cast changed drastically between the first and second movies. There are so many new faces in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation that one would question if it was even an actual sequel to the 1995 film or a new franchise entirely.

6 The Elder Gods’ Rules For Mortal Kombat Don’t Make Sense

Shao Kahn Was Breaking The Rules (But Which Ones?)

Liu Kang won the tournament in Mortal Kombat against Shang Tsung, meaning that Earthrealm was safe – but only for a few minutes. Shao Kahn opened a portal from Outworld to Earthrealm and descended from the skies at the end of the first film, thus completely ignoring the rules of the tournament. Or so we thought. The fact is that not even the Elder Gods seemed to agree on what the rules of the tournament were even worse. To make things worse, even though they agreed that Shao Kahn was breaking the rules, they didn’t know what to do about it.

Related Mortal Kombat 2’s Returning Character Continues One Of The Games’ Oldest Trends

Death doesn’t mean much in the Mortal Kombat universe, and one Earthrealm champion who has become used to dying and coming back will do so again.

Much of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation can be summarized by Raiden asking the Elder Gods for guidance, only to hear confusing and conflicting answers in return. For example, one of the Elder Gods says that the only way to stop Shao Kahn is to reunite Kitana with Sindel and close to the portal. However, a different Elder God told Raiden the only way to stop Shao Kahn was to beat him in the old-fashioned way. Raiden and his Earthrealm champions end up doing both things anyway, but it’s curious how clueless the Elder Gods were the whole time.

5 Liu Kang’s Story With Nightwolf Doesn’t Lead Anywhere

What Was Liu Kang’s Third Test After All?

Nightwolf debuted in 1995’s Mortal Kombat 3, the third entry in the game franchise. Seeing a new character make his live-action debut shortly after his first video game appearance was exciting, but Nightwolf’s role in Mortal Kombat 2 made little to no sense. In theory, he was supposed to guide and train Liu Kang ahead of the ultimate battle against Shao Kahn. The problem is that Nightwolf shows up out of nowhere and later disappears just as easily. The movie also makes Animality, a concept that debuted in Mortal Kombat 3, a big plot point.

Liu Kang’s journey to master Animality involves three tests. However, we never get to see what the third test even was. Liu Kang first learns about courage and the importance of self-esteem. He then passes a temptation trial during which he has visions of a woman he had never seen, Jade. However, by the time we see Liu Kang again, he has already completed his training. Nightwolf disappears from the movie and never returns. Interestingly, Nightwolf was referenced in Mortal Kombat (2021). Whether he will be on the upcoming sequel remains to be seen.

4 Scorpion And Sub-Zero Are Given More To Do Than In The First Movie

Scorpion And Sub-Zero Are Slightly More Important In The Sequel

Scorpion and Sub-Zero were nothing but henchmen in the first Mortal Kombat film. It must be noted that Scorpion and Sub-Zero’s popularity grew massively with time, but they were not the face of the franchise when it first started. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation gave the two characters a little more to do and an actual role in the story, although their scenes were not particularly great. This version of Sub-Zero was Kuai Liang, Bi-han’s younger brother. In the first film, Bi-han was defeated by Liu Kang during the tournament.

Bi-Han died in
Mortal Kombat
(2021) and is expected to return as Noob Saibot in
Mortal Kombat 2
.

The new Sub-Zero was trying to help Jax and Sonya when Scorpion showed up looking for a fight. Unfortunately, despite their cool costumes and their bigger role in the movie, the actual fight between Scorpion and Sub-Zero was very underwhelming. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation did not have a lot of great fights, but the one between Sub-Zero and Scorpion was arguably the worst of them all. There isn’t much history between the two characters, with Scorpion’s real target being Kitana the whole time. Over two decades later, Scorpion and Sub-Zero would be front and center in the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot.

3 Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s Shang Tsung Was Missed In Annihilation

Shang Tsung Was The Best Thing About Mortal Kombat (1995)

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation makes one thing clear – Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s Shang Tsung was the best thing about the first movie. While the three main heroes were compelling and fun to watch, Shang Tsung stole the show in 1995’s Mortal Kombat. Tagawa’s performance found the perfect balance between the silliness that a 1990s villain adapted from a video game should have and how threatening a soul-eater warrior working for supernatural forces should be. Even though Shang Tsung didn’t know what a flawless victory was, his delivery was one of many iconic moments from the first movie.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa also played Shang Tsung in the 2013 webseries
Mortal Kombat: Legacy
and 2019’s
Mortal Kombat 11
.

Shao Kahn is more powerful than Shang Tsun and should be a better, more threatening villain as a result. However, Shao Kahn was nowhere near as fun to watch in the sequel as Shang Tsung had been in the first installment. The personal history between Shang Tsung and Liu Kang worked much better for Mortal Kombat than Raiden and Shao Kahn being brothers did for Annihilation. Shang Tsung died in the first movie, but I would have had no problem with Annihilation bringing him back even without a great explanation.

2 We’re Back Right Where We Started At The End Of Annihilation

The Movie Has No Real Consequences Apart From Cage’s Death

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation feels not only as an incomplete movie but also as a pointless one. After the heroes fight Shao Kahn’s servers throughout the film without a clear goal in mind, the Elder Gods decide that everything will once again be decided in Mortal Kombat. Shinnok’s plan leads nowhere, and it all comes down to a fight between Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation starts as a very different movie from its predecessor, but its conclusion is virtually the same as the one from Mortal Kombat (1995). Liu Kang fights the big bad and saves the day.

Even the closing shot of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is almost identical to the one in Mortal Kombat, with Raiden and his pupils celebrating the victory. For a movie whose premise was the end of the world, Annihilation was surprisingly inconsequential. In hindsight, this was the better approach given that there was no sequel. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation opened strong at the box office but dropped significantly after the first weekend, and while a third entry was considered, it never happened.

1 Mortal Kombat Still Hasn’t Had A Definitive Live-Action Movie Adaptation

A Reboot Happened 24 Years After Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Rewatching Annihilation can be a sad reminder that Mortal Kombat has yet to have a great live-action movie. The 1995 film works as its own thing and can arguably be considered a cult classic already, but it is not a great adaptation. Mortal Kombat (2021) suffered from the opposite issue. The reboot was much closer to the source material than its predecessors, from the amount of graphic violence to the fatalities and everything in between. The cast and the costumes were also very accurate.

Mortal Kombat’s Theatrical Movies	Release Year	Rotten Tomatoes’ Critic Score
Mortal Kombat	1995	47%
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation	1997	4%
Mortal Kombat	2021	55%

However, as a movie, Mortal Kombat (2021) had a lot of issues. The pacing, the story, and the fight scenes were not as great as they could have been, not to mention the lack of an actual Mortal Kombat tournament. The best MK movies have so far been the animated ones, with Scorpion’s Revenge being a standout. Hopefully, Mortal Kombat 2 will be a much better sequel than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was and will deliver the universally praised live-action MK film that the franchise still lacks.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation PG-13AdventureActionFantasy

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is an action movie released in 1997 and is a direct sequel to the 1995 original film. After suffering more casualties at the hands of Outworld, the warriors escape to regroup and prepare to defend their home again. Together with martial artist Liu Kang, the princess of Outworld, Kitana, Sonya Blade, and Jax Briggs, Raiden will seek the means to defeat Shao Khan and end Outworld’s tyranny once and for all.

Director John R. Leonetti Release Date November 21, 1997 Studio(s) New Line Cinema Distributor(s) New Line Cinema Writers Brent V. Friedman , Lawrence Kasanoff , Bryce Zabel Cast Brian Thompson , Reiner Schone , Talisa Soto , Deron McBee , Lynn Red Williams , Robin Shou , Irina Pantaeva , Sandra Hess , James Remar , Musetta Vander Runtime 95 minutes Franchise(s) Mortal Kombat Budget $30million Expand