Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Two years after the first film’s success, New Line Cinema released Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in November 1997 promising more characters, more action, and a continuation of the saga. What fans got, however, was a sequel that’s gone down in infamy. Annihilation was directed by John R. Leonetti, who had been the cinematographer on the 1995 movie and was making his directorial debut. The script (by Brent V. Friedman and Bryce Zabel, with story contributions from producer Kasanoff and even game co-creator John Tobias) attempted to adapt the plot of Mortal Kombat 3, in which the evil emperor Shao Kahn breaks the rules and invades Earthrealm, resulting in an apocalyptic free-for-all. On paper, it sounded exciting since the stakes were higher than a single tournament, and nearly every character from the games up to that point made an appearance. Unfortunately, Annihilation’s production was riddled with challenges that ultimately led to a critically panned result beloved only in so-bad-it’s-good circles, akin to films like “Birdemic” and “The Room”. One of the first things fans noticed was that many familiar faces were missing. Despite Mortal Kombat (1995) ending on a cliffhanger, only Robin Shou (Liu Kang) and Talisa Soto (Kitana) returned for the sequel. Other main roles were completely recast. Fans were not pleased to see a fan-favorite character unceremoniously dispatched in the first scene, nor to adjust to new actors for key heroes. The recasting wasn’t over: characters who had cameoed in the first film, like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, were also played by new performers. Scorpion’s original actor, Chris Casamassa, opted to do Batman & Robin instead.
New Line wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so they fast-tracked the sequel without giving the script or production enough time to breathe. Robin Shou, in retrospect, noted that the filmmakers “tried to do too much” and ended up with a mess of characters and subplots. The movie’s tagline was “Destroy All Expectations,” and unfortunately it did – just not in the way the marketers intended. With a budget of $30 million, Annihilation set out to be an epic globe-trotting adventure but it ended up living in infamy as one of the worst video game movies ever which is a status reflected in its rock-bottom 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At the box office, Annihilation performed far below expectations, grossing about $51 million worldwide which was far less than half the first film’s take. Given its higher budget, that result was a financial disappointment. Plans for a third movie which was rumored to be titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation were quickly cancelled amid the poor reception. In fact, Annihilation was such a setback that it essentially froze the franchise in Hollywood ice for over two decades. Apart from an unrelated direct-to-video animated film and a short-lived TV series (Mortal Kombat: Conquest), the Mortal Kombat cinematic universe went dark after 1997. The sequel’s failure became a cautionary tale: just because fans love the game, doesn’t mean they’ll love the movie especially if the filmmaking quality isn’t there. As one distressed fan on the Mortal Kombat subreddit summed it up, “1995’s Mortal Kombat was and still is the best video game movie ever made… Annihilation is quite possibly the worst movie ever created, period”. But is it really that bad? Is it a hidden gem that was unnecessarily hated on? Let’s find out. This is “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”.
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Two years after the first film’s success, New Line Cinema released Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in November 1997 promising more characters, more action, and a continuation of the saga. What fans got, however, was a sequel that’s gone down in infamy. Annihilation was directed by John R. Leonetti, who had been the cinematographer on the 1995 movie and was making his directorial debut. The script (by Brent V. Friedman and Bryce Zabel, with story contributions from producer Kasanoff and even game co-creator John Tobias) attempted to adapt the plot of Mortal Kombat 3, in which the evil emperor Shao Kahn breaks the rules and invades Earthrealm, resulting in an apocalyptic free-for-all. On paper, it sounded exciting since the stakes were higher than a single tournament, and nearly every character from the games up to that point made an appearance. Unfortunately, Annihilation’s production was riddled with challenges that ultimately led to a critically panned result beloved only in so-bad-it’s-good circles, akin to films like “Birdemic” and “The Room”. One of the first things fans noticed was that many familiar faces were missing. Despite Mortal Kombat (1995) ending on a cliffhanger, only Robin Shou (Liu Kang) and Talisa Soto (Kitana) returned for the sequel. Other main roles were completely recast. Fans were not pleased to see a fan-favorite character unceremoniously dispatched in the first scene, nor to adjust to new actors for key heroes. The recasting wasn’t over: characters who had cameoed in the first film, like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, were also played by new performers. Scorpion’s original actor, Chris Casamassa, opted to do Batman & Robin instead.
New Line wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so they fast-tracked the sequel without giving the script or production enough time to breathe. Robin Shou, in retrospect, noted that the filmmakers “tried to do too much” and ended up with a mess of characters and subplots. The movie’s tagline was “Destroy All Expectations,” and unfortunately it did – just not in the way the marketers intended. With a budget of $30 million, Annihilation set out to be an epic globe-trotting adventure but it ended up living in infamy as one of the worst video game movies ever which is a status reflected in its rock-bottom 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At the box office, Annihilation performed far below expectations, grossing about $51 million worldwide which was far less than half the first film’s take. Given its higher budget, that result was a financial disappointment. Plans for a third movie which was rumored to be titled Mortal Kombat: Devastation were quickly cancelled amid the poor reception. In fact, Annihilation was such a setback that it essentially froze the franchise in Hollywood ice for over two decades. Apart from an unrelated direct-to-video animated film and a short-lived TV series (Mortal Kombat: Conquest), the Mortal Kombat cinematic universe went dark after 1997. The sequel’s failure became a cautionary tale: just because fans love the game, doesn’t mean they’ll love the movie especially if the filmmaking quality isn’t there. As one distressed fan on the Mortal Kombat subreddit summed it up, “1995’s Mortal Kombat was and still is the best video game movie ever made… Annihilation is quite possibly the worst movie ever created, period”. But is it really that bad? Is it a hidden gem that was unnecessarily hated on? Let’s find out. This is “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”.
BUY OUR MERCH: firewood-media.creator-spring.com
check out the website: www.firewood.media
Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCWt-qgIjac3_pm4YKj-ODYA/join
Thanks for watching and consider checking out the other films and music videos on our channel! We have released two feature films, a vast collection of short films, music videos, and weekly uploads. If you are interested in watching them, here are a selection of links...
PESTICIDE: youtu.be/JUGUbJQo8bE
S2D MUSIC VIDEO: youtu.be/ecSQbMREO5M
CAREER MINOR LEAGUER: youtu.be/5DYLbgSqtvM
Twitter: twitter.com/firewoodmediatv
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