Visible crew/equipment: When the purple ninja 'Rain' is smacked into the fire pit by Shao Khan, look closely as the body falls into the pit. A stage helper's hand comes up to catch the falling 'body'.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
1 visible crew/equipment mistake
Directed by: John R. Leonetti
Starring: James Remar, Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, Sandra Hess
Continuity mistake: Shao Kahn removes his cape in the final battle. When Motaro breaks Jax's bionic arm, holds it up and Shao Kahn shouts "Yes!", Shao Kahn is wearing his cape again.
Trivia: Despite the poor critical and fan reception of this film, the continued popularity of the original "Mortal Kombat" movie led the producers to try and make a third film for nearly fifteen years, though the project was eventually shelved in favor of a theatrical reboot. A third film entitled "Mortal Kombat: Devastation" actually officially went into production in 2005, but had to be cancelled when Hurricane Katrina destroyed all of the film's sets in New Orleans.
Question: Is there any story as to why the overall quality of this production was much less than the first Mortal Kombat? For example, the computer-animated creatures and morph effects seemed much worse than the first movies, and certainly worse than any other movie of the year. Also, the costumes and sets were of a lower quality than the first movie. Everything seemed to be a step down from Mortal Kombat 1. You would think that the sequel would have a bigger budget, but it seemed just the opposite with this movie.
Answer: From what I've gathered about the film, the entire production was rushed by the studio and producers, as they wanted to capitalize on the first film's success. Pre-production was troubled at best. Funds weren't allocated to the right places. The film was often being re-written on the fly on set, so large chunks of the movie were being changed at the last minute. It also had a first-time director at the helm who supposedly had a very bad time making the movie due to how hectic it was. And finally, the studio forced them to release the film before it was completely finished, hence the effects and editing were never finalized. So basically, it was a perfect storm of a rushed production without a finished script, an overwhelmed first-time director, and a studio that wouldn't let the producers properly "complete" the movie. Hence, the entire film was a complete mess and was very low-quality.
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Answer: Mortal Kombat 2 was given a budget around the same as the first one probably indicating that New Line (makers of the film) were not convinced the film would not be as much an success as the original was. The buget of 30 million is not too high of a risk for a major film studio. The original was more built on the novelty of the video game and the interest of how it would translate to the screen so a sequel was always going to be tough. While it's hard to find out why the quality was unimpressive, this can just be more from different film crews from the first or just tougher f/x to try and create for the film in the time available. Take The Mummy Returns for example. The Scorpion King near the end looked far too computer generated. This was despite a massive budget and impressive CGI for both films.
Lummie ★