This isn't just a movie. This is an event. It's a sign from the gods. It's a way of life. Ok, it's just a movie, but as far as movies go it was, well, not good.
Anihillation picks up right where the first Mortal Kombat left off, only this time, Rayden, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade look and sound completely different. I guess Bridget Wilson and Christopher Lambert had too much self-respect to do this one. As would be expected (and was implied in the previous movie), the honorable emperor of Outworld isn't terribly pleased about Shang Tsung losing Mortal Kombat. So, of course, he decides to break the rules and invade the realm of Earth. This is expressly forbidden, and supposedly impossible, but I guess we're supposed to ignore the first movie. So, the emperor, Shao Khan, and his minions come to Earth and declare that in 6 days, the planet will be destroyed, and on the 7th day, mankind will rest... in peace! Evidently, the guy who played Johnny Cage didn't like the script and demanded that he be left out of the movie, so Johnny attacks Shao and dies. Sonya, who thinks there was actually romance brewing, is pretty upset about all this, but she puts her feelings aside so the movie can continue.
Once again, Liu Kang is the Chosen One, and he has to prepare for his great battle with Shao. To do this, he needs to find a new character named Nightwolf. In the game, Nightwolf kind of sucks unless you actually practice with him a lot. He's actually not bad. I digress. First, we need a cameo by two of our favorite characters: Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Of course, we all know that they died in the previous one, but that doesn't get in the way. The new Sub-Zero, in keeping with the video game lore, is actually the original Sub's brother and a good guy. He shows up to rescue Liu and Kitana from Smoke, an evil ninja robot. In the movie, Smoke is actually Sektor from the game, only painted different. So, Sub kills off Smoke, and Scorpion shows up. Everyone likes Scorpion. Scorpion is like the Boba Fett of Mortal Kombat. So, there's a big fight, and Scorpion captures Kitana and vanishes never to be seen again. Liu and Sub exchange a few bits of random dialogue, and Sub disappears for no good reason.
Meanwhile, Sonya's out looking for her old partner Jax, who is being played by former American Gladiator, Sabre. He just got some nifty arm implants that quadruple the power of his arms. This comes in later as a stupid moral. So, Sonya and Jax are chillin' at the military compound (or whatever) and another robot ninja, Cyrax, shows up. He does all his special moves and eventually blows up. Sonya and Jax get away, of course, and start to wander around looking for bad guys.
Next, we get to meet some of the bad guys. Aside from Shao, there's Motaro, a Centaur, Sheeva, a Shokan, Rain, another ninja, Sindel, Kitana's once-dead mother, and some other forgettable guys. They have Kitana locked in a cage. They demonstrate their sheer evilness and mention a few other characters' names.
So, Liu is wandering around the desert and he gets attacked by a wolf. The wolf, of course, transforms into Nightwolf and tells Liu all about animalities, finding his inner animal, and having to pass three tests. Liu takes a nap and is suddenly awakened by another character, Jade. She's a hidden character in Mortal Kombat II, I think. Anyway, she tells him to forget the tests. They have a world to save. Liu, of course, questions this, but decides that she's hot enough, and Kitana's not around, and no one needs to know.... Then he changes his mind, but she comes along anyway.
Off in another part of the desert, Jax and Sonya are still wandering around, and Sonya gets attacked out of the blue by Mileena, an evil Kitana clone. They go through their choreograhped moves, and Sonya wins. Eventually, they meet up with Rayden, who was out communing witht he higher gods. They decide that the best way to help the people of the Earth Realm is for him to become human. This makes him mortal. It also makes no sense, but he gets a hair cut and goes along with it. We also find out that Rayden is actually Shao Khan's brother. So, the good guys meet up and go to rescue Kitana to reunite her with her once-dead mother and close the portal. Unfortunately, this doesn't work at all. To make matters worse, Jade turns on them and, I don't remember what happens to her. Oh yeah, and there's a short sequence where Liu fights Baraka, the toothy guy from MKII.
At any rate, it's time for the end of the movie, and there's four bad guys and five good guys left. Shao defeats Rayden, and there's a big Oscar-calibur scene in which Liu tells him he can't die, and Rayden says he's proud to die a mortal. This is pretty stupid since mortal means capable of dying. In other words, immortals, by definition, can't die. So, one down, four to go. Jax fights Motaro. Liu fights Shao. Sonya fights the red ninja guy (Ermac?). Kitana fights Sheeva. Jax loses his funny implants and realizes that all he really needs to win is faith in himself. Kitana beats Sheeva and realizes... something. Sonya beats Ermac with the help of Jax (since Ermac his this neat thing where he can become two people), and learns once again that even she needs help sometimes. In the meantime, Liu's getting the, er, tar beat out of him by Shao. Then he remembers his inner animal, so he turns into a crappy computer-generated dragon, in the hopes that this might beat Shao Khan. Shao, one-ups him by turning into a much larger crappy computer-generated dragon. There's an even bigger fight, now, and no one can see it because, like so much of this movie, the people in charge of lighting never showed up. Well, the elder gods finally decide to take action and let Liu and Shao fight it out according to the rules of Mortal Kombat. Liu wins, and Rayden is brought back to life and given the new position of elder god. Then I stop the tape, rewind it, and go to bed.