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Don't mind me, just linking a legitimately baller shot from this movie. Released in November of 1997,
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was the sequel to the 1995 film, picking up where its predecessor left off (and recasting all but two kharacters in the interim). After Shang Tsung's failure to defeat Earthrealm's warriors in Mortal Kombat, Shao Kahn arrives to handle them himself with the help of his minions and a resurrected Sindel. As you could guess, this movie is mostly taking cues from
Mortal Kombat 3 and features darn near the entire kast of that game. Darn near everyone who wasn't already killed in the first movie anyway. This movie strays away from its predecessor's slightly more grounded kostume design to more accurately represent the WWF wuxia madness of the games, with varying results. Let's get to it, shall we?
I once again apologize for the woefully inconsistent image quality. Real life doesn't get perfectly formed full-body art unless you commission the cleanest of photoshoots, and this movie generally lacked cool trading card-styled promotional body shots compared to the prior film. Once again, we are going in theme song order.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dePaRih9Kzs
Theme frm the funny movie Mortal Kombat Annihilation
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Liu Kang...
Liu Kang, now the newly crowned Champion of Mortal Kombat, isn't too different from when we last saw him. He's ditched the tank top he usually had in the first film for a not-all-that-different layered white vest that he wears for the entirety of the movie. It gets him through deserts, snow-covered landscapes, and a trip through magic underground hamster ball tunnel systems.
Sonya...
Sonya, now played by Sandra Hess, probably went through the biggest design overhaul. She spent a good portion of the last film in black shorts and a tank top, before ending the film in a leather dress courtesy of a creeptastic Shang Tsung. Despite this movie starting immediately after the first, Sonya is seen wearing a white tank top and green shorts. It's blatant outfit retconning that would make Midway proud. Now, I'm generally in favor of the switch on the petty basis that Sonya gets to wear her signature arcade-era color on the big screen for once. I say "generally," because someone on set didn't give Ms. Hess a bra. That tank top doesn't hide anything. Well, at least they don't have Sonya mud-wrestling in this movie.
Jax...
As you know, Jax stayed behind when Sonya went to Outworld. Upon her return home, Sonya finds Jax (now played by Lynn "Red" Williams) at a military base undergoing an operation to test out his metal prosthetics. Unlike subsequent adaptations, these are just voluntary augments that he can take off at will. His fingers are even visible, making them more like metallic goth sleeves. The metal arms themselves have a pretty bionic look, the metal finish emulating musculature but still high-tech enough to feature blinking lights. Jax also goes shirtless for the majority of the movie, keeping nothing but an open vest and a dog tag on his person while traveling with Sonya.
Kitana...
Kitana wears the exact same battle outfit she had in the prior film, which I can now talk about at length. It's a black leather corset with detached sleeves and pants. Simple, to the point, and infinitely less of a hassle for the actress to wear, though not particularly "Kitana." The woman needs blue. Some of the lighting choices in
Annihilation almost make the corset look blue in certain scenes, but it's still black. Kitana does get one blue thing -- okay, two -- in this movie: her war fans. They're pretty cool props and contrast her suit and the scenery well in the one fight that they're used.
Jade...
See what I'm talking about? Jade gets to wear bright colors, and it looks fine. She's even rocking the opera gloves before her
Shaolin Monks rendition made that a thing in the games. Unlike Kitana's leather corset, Jade's looks to be made of a softer cloth with more visible stitching, and one that's attached to a choker. Also of note are her thigh-high boots, a detail I didn't even notice until recently A relatively faithful kostume for a not-very-faithful Jade.
Sub-Zero...
Kuai Liang appears before Liu Kang and Kitana to kill Smoke (wait, what) and fight Scorpion. Our Cyromancer friend here is modeling the latest in recolor attire, taking loose inspiration from the
UMK3 "ninjas." This film basically took the conceit of the first movie's goal of individualizing the ninjas' suits and ran with it, giving them unique overtunic patterns as well. For Sub-Zero, I think the ribbon patterning works. And all things considered, I think he got the best mask of the bunch. Not that he wears it all that much.
Scorpion...
Scorpion (here played by future Sub-Zero actor J.J. Perry) appears for a whopping one scene to fight Kuai Liang and take Kitana away. His suit is pretty much a sleeved
UMK3 Scorpion, with rhomboids on the overtunic instead of squares. The biggest differentiation is the boxy mask. I'm not sure what to think of it; I appreciate the designers for giving everyone more color, but the gray masks looked less cheap. If someone could take the first movie's mask and place it on this movie's outfit, we might have an all-time winner.
Cyrax...
I don't envy what the production crew had to undertake with certain elements of the franchise. "Yellow cyber ninja with wire locs who looks like a legally distinct Predator" was always going to be a bit weird, even with the non-robot ninja Power Rangers running around. Cyrax looks alright, though I do wonder why his head colors are basically inverted. They gave his head
more yellow. Maybe because his one fight scene takes place in a dark laboratory and they wanted to make sure the audience (and Lynn Williams) could make out the guy in the suit. Speaking of said suit, it's pretty accurate, for better or worse. The Cyber Lin Kuei always looked the most "off-the-shelf" of the original trilogy's fighters, but the players weren't going to see all of that up close too often by virtue of the games keeping them at a distance. Cyrax here is up close and personal, so his armor looks almost as plastic-y as the BMX gear Sal Divita wore for digitization in 1995.
Mind you, I don't think this is a bad design, I just think it could be improved with a few minor tweaks. Loath as I am to suggest live-action adaptations just add more black to designs, I would do so for the shoulder pads to keep them from blending into the chestpiece too much. Maybe making the helmet's "muzzle" yellow while making the rest black could also possibly work. Armchair analysis nearly 25 years after the fact is good, no? On an unrelated note, Cyrax also has an exposed panel for him to shoot out his weapons. It's there, I guess.
(Cyber) Smoke...
It seems
Defenders of the Realm wasn't the only project that thought Smoke should be gray in all forms. Though to be honest, Cyber Smoke in the movie's got more of a silver finish. I think that's what Cyrax is missing. The game version has some silver decals on the suit to complement the yellow and black. Cyrax doesn't really have it outside of some exposed circuitry. Smoke's just as monochromatic but silver and black don't contrast with each other as much. Even as he appears to be more of a knock-off RoboCop than usual, Smoke's got a pretty cool look. I really do think it's the metallic finish. It keeps the prop armor from looking like paintball gear in a way that Cyrax's bright but slightly weathered yellow armor kinda can't do.
Sheeva...
Sheeva's not too different beyond having a more conservative (and very shiny) singlet to accommodate an actual actress instead of a claymation creation. Oddly enough, she's lost all of her silver. No silver belt...okay, no belt at all, and no silver around the bracelets and anklets. Maybe Smoke's paint job took up all the budget.
Motaro...
Motaro in this film is a half-CG creation to mimic the claymation look in a big-budget format. Some issues with his front "feet" aside, the effects were generally decent from what I recall. Motaro doesn't deviate all that much from his game counterpart below the waist outside of the metal "belt" area being a darker shade of gray. And if you want to consider it an accessory, his tail is far less smooth than it is in the games.
And now for the rest!
Raiden...
Switching actors to James Remar, Raiden starts the film wearing roughly the same white robes we usually see him in. After he gives up his godhood to more directly assist Liu Kang and co., though, he undergoes a change. It seems that the loss of deity status somehow makes him younger and he dresses in attire that wouldn't be too out of place on this continuity's version of Liu Kang. A simple black vest, brown pants, and some caged bracelets. Give him a red headband and this would be a Liu Kang kostume. "It's a new look," indeed, Raiden.
Johnny Cage...
For his woefully short screentime, Johnny (now played by Chris Conrad) wears more-or-less the exact same thing he had on in the last film. He also apparently picked up a new pair of shades along the way, judging by how he takes them off dramatically in the opening.
Mileena...
Mileena's appearance in this film has her donning a bright pink version of Kitana's attire with equally bright pink gloves and a headband. And for obvious reasons, she's also wearing a mask. Also, shout-outs to her fingernail polish. Makes some of Mileena's idle animations in
MK11 all the more amusing.
Baraka...
The blades are my favorite part of this design. Shame the Tarkatan arms are obvious rubber sleeves overlaid on the human actor's arms. Probably should've given this version of Baraka gloves to hide the untouched hands. And also a mask that doesn't show the actor's teeth. The actual clothing parts of the kostume are fine and accurate, but Baraka's most defining features are kind of let down by a few design snags. I actually dig the earring, though.
Noob Saibot...
Noob gets summoned by Ermac of all people during the finale's four-on-four rumble. Noob's backstory was minimal at the time and no one knew he was Bi-Han yet, so I guess we're just supposed to assume he was some other condemned soul that made up Ermac's composition. Anyways, he's Noob, but not a full-on shadow spectre, just a ninja in black. His suit notably looks more leathery, which does make the fabric shine during the night scene he appears in. Said suit also hews closer to the more
MK1 take of the prior movie's ninja uniforms, which does unintentionally give credence to the idea that this is Bi-Han recently resurrected to serve the Forces of Darkness.
Shao Kahn...
In
Annihilation's rendition of the first film's ending scene, Shao Kahn appears in the flesh to declare his intentions for konquest. His suit is a pretty faithful rendition of the game design. You know, just with pants. He's also got new straps across his chest. This movie's version of Shao Kahn has his shoulder pads attached to his cape, which does make him look a little naked for fight scenes when said cape is tossed aside. Shao Kahn is also sometimes seen wearing more casual attire when he's resting in his quarters, actually wearing a shirt in some scenes. The emperor in this film is depicted with a few more dimensions in general, so I guess they wanted to humanize him a bit more. I commend the movie for bringing this pretty outlandish design to life, though the helmet looks floppy and cheap. This may be why they toss it off in several scenes, but it looks more ceremonial as opposed to "This is my killing helmet." I mean, it still is, it just doesn't offer much in the way of protection.
Nightwolf...
Nightwolf shows up briefly to teach Liu Kang the secrets to unlocking an Animality. His appearance is largely game-accurate, war paint and all. Primary difference is his get-up being all-black and having non-holey pants. To be expected.
Sindel...
Everyone's favorite scream queen makes her film debut with
the greatest line ever uttered in cinema. She's traded the vest and silver cuffs for a cape and opera gloves and gotten some black tights, but this is a bonafide Sindel. This is one of the few kostumes from the movie that I would outright say fits perfectly in
MK Trilogy, no alterations needed.
Ermac...
Ermac gets hexagons on his overtunic, and his shinguards are shaped like hexagons too. I neglected to mention this earlier, but the overtunics of this film seem to be sturdier as opposed to the more fluid leather ones seen in the 1995 film. This design is fine, points to him and Rain for having cowls that lack the widow's peaks seen on Scorpion and Sub-Zero's cowls, but something about Ermac's mask looks a bit overlayered.
Rain...
Rain also has hexagons on his overtunic, though I think his mask may be a recolor of Sub-Zero's.
Water God and Fire God...
Two of Raiden and Fujin's fellow Earthrealm Gods and some of the bosses seen in
Mythologies: Sub-Zero, who've been upgraded to Elder Gods in
Annihilation. The Water God is now visibly human and wearing blue robes while the Fire God has gone from a burning Raiden sprite to an older human in elaborate red robes. Simple and to the point.
Shinnok...
Yes, despite this being an adaptation of
MK3's events, Shinnok is at the forefront pulling the puppet strings of everything. This includes Shao Kahn, who's his son. And Raiden's brother. This movie is weird. Alas, the film's color, color everywhere initiative did not extend to the Elder God, who opts for simple black and silver robes. I mentioned how Shinnok in
Mythologies looked like a Sith Lord, but this guy is just a bearded Palpatine before he gets hit with lightning. It's fine, just nothing that really screams "Shinnok." The elaborate headgear in the games really does help the silhouette. Movie Shinnok might have his Amulet somewhere. He might be holding it in the picture seen above. Or it might be on his belt.
And from a deleted scene, we were able to (not) see Shinnok with:
Quan Chi...
Seen only in publicity photos alongside Shinnok -- presumably to meet with him once the Elder Gods banished him to the Netherrealm and set up an
MK4-inspired third movie -- Quan Chi looks pretty one-to-one with his game counterpart from the few images we've been able to find on the internet. Main difference is the lack of red on the belt and the patterning on the robes themselves. This is a pretty sick kostume and I'm surprised it wasn't carried over wholesale when Quan Chi appeared properly in
Mortal Kombat: Conquest.
And there you have it. I don't think these kostumes hit quite the same beats as the first film's, but there are a few winners. And I'll give them credit for generally not watering down the designs of genuinely freaky-looking foes like Baraka and Motaro. By comparison, the first movie only really needed to have Reptile and Goro to satisfy its weirdness quota, and even Reptile circa 1995 was only lizardlike once the mask came off. Really, I think it's just the abundance of fighters that probably ran the kostumers ragged. A smaller group of fighters may have allowed them to put all their time and effort into making them slick and detailed. As it stands, most are detailed, though some (Quan Chi, Sindel) look like they got more attention than others (Sheeva). It is what it is.
While
Annihilation would be the last film in the original continuity (and goodness knows they tried for years to follow it up), it would not be the end of this continuity period. Less than a year after its release,
Mortal Kombat faithful would receive additional adventures that would attempt to contextualize the events of the two films. But that's a post for another time. Until then, have a good night, and enjoy a poll.