Dude, the producers pocketed the money. 10 years later and now you know.

When I first saw this god-awful movie, I assumed that the studio had shelled out a far smaller budget than that of the first film which was why it looked so amazingly cheap. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the budget was almost twice that of the first film.
While I think a big part of it was due to in-experience on the part of the director; I'm still often at a loss as to how it turned out looking so bad (after all, the director of this one had been the cinematographer on the previous film so one would hope he'd have some idea how to make a film not look terrible).
Sure, the first film had some cheesy effects but they were light years better than those on this film. Further-more, the first film had FAR more convincing production design with sets that didn't look like they were borrowed from Power Rangers.
Did you see how many people were in that cast? There's a HUGE chunk of your budget. AND, it's SOP, when an actor returns for a sequel, he/she gets a bigger piece of the pie than then previous film.
Except many of the actors who would have been returning and thus asking a higher price were replaced in this film. Christopher Lambert was most likely the biggest pay check in the first film and he didn't return nor did Bridgette Wilson who would have commanded a much higher salary than the no-name actress who replaced her.
Most of the actors on this film where relative unknowns who probably weren't making much above scale (the lowest SAG union rate). Especially given that the biggest stars left after the first film, it's still stunning that this film cost as much as it did.
I don't doubt it. When a stuntperson takes an acting role, they get paid as an actor. While it wouldn't be the millions of dollars given to a bigger named actor, it's still more than they'd make just doing stunts.
Actually, it's not. A regular actor gets a pay bump for stunt work and professional stunt men usually have their own set rate. When they're given actual lines in the movie (as opposed to just being guys fighting in costumes), they'll get their stunt pay and an actor's scale pay which is much less than even a moderately recognizable actor Christopher Lambert would make.
Just ask any movie producer or casting director. The cast of MK: Annihilation would have been far cheaper than the cast of the original.

Its crazy,I could have made a great MK movie with 3-5 million and the effects would still look great
You want tah fack wit me? You ah fACKING chioah boi compahed tu me ah chioah boi

there were a lot of international locations
, not to mention a lot more special effect shots.

I remember renting this when it came out and thinking it was awful, then finally turned it off around the half-way point after that horrible effect where Rayden comes flipping off that mountain. He literally came out of nowhere.
"Dad! The cable's out again! Can you FIX IT?!"

Like someone posted earlier, you can do a lot with a little and stretch a dollar for all its worth.or you can have all the money and resources available and not have the vision to make a project a success. This reminds me of the Tremors movies. The first one was an absolute success while the sequel(s) didn't even hold up against the original whatsoever. CGI doesn't always produce great scenes in movies.
"Ha, let me tell ya about 20 year old's my friend, half of them are 16." - 30 Rock

Good question.

It might have had something to do with not wanting to delay the film's release out of the holiday season. It's clear some of the effects went unfinished - the clear seams in the "swirling sky" texture at the beginning of the movie, a frame in the same scene where a CG cloud supposedly thousands of feet in the air appears in front of a monk's face, the scene in Shao Kahn's war room where the rope moving Motaro's tail hasn't been airbrushed out and Sheeva only has two arms with little nubs on the costume signifying where the CG team was supposed to put in the others, the low-resolution stock footage lava and explosions in the backgrounds of some scenes that I assume were placeholders, Raiden suddenly appearing with a thunder sound effect, but the CGI stormcloud is missing and he just materializes mid-flip between frames - and the editing seemed rushed as well.

that Liu Kang/ Shao Khan animality fight was the worst cgi i've ever seen

They shouldn't have tried skipping the second video game on go to the third. They should have stuck with MKII as the source material, b/c then, the only new charaters would be Shao Kahn, Kintaro, Baraka and Kung Lao. Also, they should have just left off the whole Animality part. If they did those two things, I think the film could have done wonders for its time.
Shutter Island 7.5/10
Secretariat 7/10
"RedBull's For Pu$$y's"-Number Six

well the locations in mk 2 could of been filmed anywhere
there was no reason for them to film in here in the uk or anywhere else
also the sets were not that great either also outworld was depicted in the 1st mk movie.
1 thing though i back then CGI was still really expensive to use plus took longer to do
so with the crappy budget this movie had the CGI was always going to suck plus he people doing the cgi would have been paid more as would of taken them longer.
the cgi animals in the power rangers movie looked alot better haha.

Just look at Annihilation: the sets, locations, props, cast and special effects are much larger than the first film. There are only a handful of special moves in the first film that are adapted from the games, whereas Annihilation is chock full of them. Plus, there are the huge sets depicting the barren wastelands of Earth and Outworld, the effects for the Animalities (lots more FX work there than the Liu/Shang finale in 1). And like others have pointed out, a director can either be very good at using what resources they have, or they can squander them easily.
Every time Michael Cole tries to be cool, an orphan dies.

I bet it had something to do with the MK rights, maybe Robin Shu got a salary raise IDK.
Hey, if I was a scientist, you know what I'd clone? Hot dogs!

• Will Ferrell

They blew most of their budget on location shoots in Wales and Jordan.

They blew all their budget on coke and LSD, took all of it, and then made the movie in on all night coke-induced burst of energy.

a talentless effects team will do it

Paul W.S. Anderson (director of MK1) wasn't on the project. At the time, he was the only one who could make a video game movie that was good. So it's no surprise to me that it sucked. Anderson never directs sequals. I'm not sure why. But the only Video game movie sequals I liked were Resident Evil, and the first one still kicked more ass than either of the other two.

I would blame the director John R. Leonetti, who didn't direct the first one. He had more money but made a worse film. Not sure why they didn't have Paul W.S. Anderson direct this one, perhaps he didn't like the script. Not having all the original actors back really hurt this film too.

Agreed. Goro was pretty damned impressive!
The Life and Lies:
http://www.imdb.com/board/10417741/board/nest/93744643

Reptile from the first film always looked a bit cheesy, but some of the effects (like the purple portal Shang Tsung hops through) were amazing and still hold up to this day.
Personally, I've always been impressed with how they handled Goro. I rememeber when the movie was announced, I thought there was no way they'd make a convincing giant dude with multiple arms. (This was before you could just CGI up an ogre.) And boy, I'm glad I was wrong, because Goro rules.
!

Honestly, I think the visual effects in both films were rather cheesy.
The Life and Lies:
http://www.imdb.com/board/10417741/board/nest/93744643

Gothor are you for real Hellboy 2 was terrible and it looked cheap compared to the 1st one. The fish story ruined the whole movie.

It's a mystery. Sort of like, "How did Hellboy II's budget increase from $60 to $80 million, yet the movie looked like it cost three times as much as the original?"
It all comes down to the skill and dedication of the filmmakers, set designers and CGI team. You can do a lot with a little. Or you can not give a crap and squander resources.
!

This message has been deleted.