For the final day of positive week, I’ve chosen to take a
look at another sequel, similar to SPEED 2 only in trying to build a franchise.
Some of you may enjoy it, some of you may piss on it, and some of you may think
I’ve been hit in the head by some Polish punk one too many times. As always,
your mileage may vary. As always, you’re likely in error.
Mortal Kombat was already a massive, multi-million dollar
game franchise, from coin operated video game machines to various home
platforms. MK characters appeared in a multitude of licensed areas, none of
which I’m interested in talking about here. MK was huge, and a movie was
inevitable, considering the colorful costumes, well-developed characters and
potential monies gained. The first movie, MORTAL KOMBAT, was released in 1995
and while not a great adaptation, made enough money to push ahead with a
sequel. MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNHILATION was released in 1997, under a budget almost
twice of the first film. It, like SPEED 2, didn’t fulfill the high hopes of the
studio, and it also had plenty of behind-the-scenes rough patches that make you
laugh, in hindsight. Whether or not you like Mortal Kombat, the sequel movie
has plenty to make Jan de Bont wish he’d done something better, like AIR
AMERICA.
The sequel to MORTAL KOMBAT picks up the story from the
first movie, advances it fairly quickly, then throws a handful of new
characters onto the screen so game fans could get wet in their seats watching
their favorites. The story itself variably follows the storyline of the games,
which at that point were the series of coin-op games, as well as Mortal Kombat
1 and 2, which went thusly: An ancient battle of fighting martial artists must
beat the forces of evil who wish to open a portal to Earth so they can dominate
it and enslave the population. There are all sorts of inane and kooky details
for each and every character, explaining their super power-like abilities, as
well as a whole generational thing, as well as gods. It’s pretty wild stuff,
and while it works well in a game format, it’s tough to fit all that in a movie
that’s not quite 2 hours long. The first movie got the tale down well, though
it had a hard time with the martial effects and actors involved. ANNIHILATION
seemed to spark it up a bit, hiring some new people that had some skills in
physical arts as well as some acting ability. In some ways, it was a better
movie than the first. In some ways.
Bridgette Wilson played important character Sonya Blade in
the first movie, to some chagrin. She’s hot, she’s capable, but she’s no
martial artist. Swiss actress and model Sandra Hess was hired to play the
character for the second movie, and she was promoted as having some form of
martial ability. She didn’t, but her physical prowess and presence on screen
far surpassed that of Ms. Wilson, who is probably best known for being Adam
Sandler’s love interest in the forgettable BILLY MADISON. Hardly a career high.
For me though, Ms. Hess was… admirable. The fight between her and the character
called Mileena in the mud was quite an entertaining few minutes. For that alone
I would push MK2 over SPEED 2, but there’s so much more.
Robin Shou returned in the sequel as Liu Kang, the hero of
the movie, and overall, the game itself. Liu Kang is a poorly disguised copy of
Bruce Lee, which likely made the character even more popular when the first MK
game hit the streets. Robin Shou filled the character well, and was mostly
well-liked by viewers and fans. He got to stretch his acting chops in MK2 when
given the ham fisted romance plot with Talisa Soto, playing the Kitana
character. While Ms. Soto may be a bit wooden when acting in this character,
she definitely filled the costume extremely well. If nothing else, MK2 had an
amazing eye candy quotient that far surpassed the first film, or, you guessed
it, SPEED 2. O, right, I forget that I’m a guy. For you girls, I have no doubt
that Robin Shou gave you what you wanted. For eye candy. I guess. Ahem.
Journeyman muscleman actor Brian Thompson (no relation to
Marshall Thompson, brought up in detail yesterday), well known to genre fans in
a myriad of roles, ended up playing the villain in MK2, Shao Khan. He was
interviewed as taking the role as a favor to one of his sons, and I for one was
incredibly pleased. His voice alone brought the character to a larger imposing
persona on screen, which is considerable, as the character in the game is
massive. It was hard not to think of Thompson after the movie, when the
character appeared in game. No matter what he thinks of the role, he dominates
the screen when appearing, his mere presence overbearing all others in shot.
I won’t go into befuddling detail on all the actors and
characters involved in the movie, except to say that most of the action scenes
were ramped up from the few the first film had. Considering that the plot is
basically GOOD vs. EVIL for the Sake of the World, the fights should have taken
up about 75% of the time. Sadly, it tried to force too much of the game story
into the movie, hobbling it about half of the way through. By the time you get
to the end of the flick, you want it to end. Too bad it’s a cliffhanger ending,
as it was hoped that this was a huge money making franchise. It wasn’t, and we
never got another MK movie. I’m not unhappy about that, since I didn’t have to
see Musetta Vander in purple spandex ever again.
MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION, as well as its predecessor, are
guilty pleasures of mine. They’re dumb, they’re fun and yes, they could have
been better. SPEED 2, you never had a chance.
Next week, no more positives. It’s all about the shitpile
SPEED 2 is, and maybe I’ll call some of you out that think everything Sandra
Bullock touches turns to platinum.
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