Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Directed by John R. Leonetti
A group of heroic warriors has only six days to save the planet in "Mortal Kombat Annihilation." To succeed they must survive the most spectacular series of challenges any human, or god, has ever encountered as they battle an evil warlord bent on taking control of Earth.
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What critics compared Mortal Kombat: Annihilation to
In the 1997 franchise-killing flop “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” the thunder god Lord Raiden delivers an ominous warning: “What closes can also open again.”
1997 saw the grim dawn of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation , a bizarrely cheap-looking, strangely inert mess that missed the mark so hard the series went tits up for decades (although again, great soundtrack).
It can be said this is a better movie than another entry in the franchise, the infamously bad “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” from 1997, where the costumes look like leftovers from a high school play.
While not as solid as the surprisingly excellent 2020 animated film, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge , this live-action Mortal Kombat is a giant step above 1997’s abysmal Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and the many lousy video game movies that followed.
The disastrous 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation , picks up after the tournament in Paul W.S. Anderson’s competent original, while the largely forgotten 1998 TV show Konquest , and the first season of the short-lived 2010s web series Legacy , are about events leading up to the tournament.
Director John R. Leonetti (a cinematographer by trade, but his directorial credits extend all the way back to 1997's all-time classic Mortal Kombat: Annihilation ) and his filmmaking team manage to make a creepy-as-shit doll not scary.
With a moronic script by C-grade horror specialist Gary Dauberman as its guide, tone flat performances from its cast, and inept direction by John R. Leonetti (who biggest directorial achievement until now was Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), it’s the scares that Annabelle must rely on to see it through.
Director John R. Leonetti (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Butterfly Effect 2) and writer Gary Dauberman (Swamp Devil) are delegated the reigns of this cash-in prequel/spinoff of James Wan’s horror movie hit the Conjuring.
I know what you’re thinking, “How could the director of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation fail so valiantly,” and to that question I have a simple answer – Leonetti only wants to mimic.
With a lot of help from cinematographer James Kniest, Leonetti (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, The Butterfly Effect 2) admirably sets up terror that the film usually doesn't fully pay off, like an early jolt when Manson Family–style fanatics are shown massacring John and Mia's next-door neighbors through adjoining bedroom windows.