Movie Trailers – Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Let’s face facts…Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a bit pants! It’s the sequel to one of the first, if not the first; good movie based on a video game, so it was already a hard act to follow. Annihilation has several issues going, from the rather spaced out plot, the terribly dreadful CGI, and in a obviously noticeable way; several key cast members being re-cast, for no unexplored reason.

That’s not to say the whole thing is a downright awful movie, as there were ‘some’ things to enjoy, in particular the film’s final battle between Shao Kahn and Liu Kang. It’s like when Wonder Woman turned up at the end of Batman V Superman, it’s totally worth sticking around for, but it does mean getting through a lot of trash to get there.

In comparison to the first film, it does have one thing over it’s predecessor: a really good trailer. The first film‘s trailer just sort of fits the mold. It just sort of looks like nearly every major trailer from it’s period. Just something which relies on the property‘s popularity to sell, rather than trying to make something more unique.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’s trailer is something very different. For a start, it’s trying to set up an actual film, rather than a straight adaptation. The first film did well probably due to the popularity of the video games, where as this one needed to try harder to create it’s own identity for a future series of films, which of course, sadly didn’t work out…this time.

This trailer jumps straight to the point, highlighting the sudden events at the end of the previous film, and set’s up it’s story, by introducing key characters. It then goes into explaining things, and how they all fit together, without revealing too much plot of course. We get a montage of more classic characters, fight scenes, special effects, and what from the surface at least, looks like a rather compelling story, one which the first film’s trailer doesn’t really create.

And while all that is going on, we get a rather broad range of techno based music. These create some interesting sounds and beats, which when mixed with footage create a highlight in Kitana preparing to fight. We then of course, and possibly more importantly, hear the classic Mortal Kombat theme.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a pretty weak film, but it does have it’s moments. But the really interesting thing is how from it’s weaker product, it creates a much better, more gripping hook than it’s far better predecessor did. It’s a much more standout and creative approach, even if the end product sadly doesn’t live up to it!