I thought it lacked the charm of the original but I was still entertained. As you'd expect, there was some clunky dialogue, a convoluted story, and the low budget really took some bite out of the costume design and fight choreography. That said, Kano stole the show and the fatalities were pretty awesome.
Also, the idea of the dragon mark and arcana was a fresh take. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I definitely didn't hate it, I know that much. I am a little confused as to what Cole's arcana was supposed to be, though..
Spoiler!
As a huge Mortal Kombat nerd, there were quite a few things that bothered me:
1) Liu Kang and Shang Tsung took a backseat as secondary characters. Shang Tsung should be the main baddie and Liu Kang is the ****ing Chosen One.
2) The original character Cole Young was completely unnecessary. MK has like 100 fighters they could have chosen for a lead role, and they decided to create a new one for no apparent reason.
3) Building on that last issue, they featured ****ing Reiko and Nitara in this one? Lol. Like, I literally couldn't think of two less interesting characters from the MK roster.
4) I'll start by saying Kung Lao was ****ing awesome. Outside of Kano, he was the best represented of all the characters, I think. His intro throwing the hat, teleporting into the hat, the fatality, etc. just.. *chef's kiss*. It was exactly what the 8 year old in me wanted to see.
But, kinda going back to my first big issue, I think they missed an opportunity here. They built up Kung Lao as the Chosen One which is kind of cool. Apparently, he was originally selected and trained as the great savior since he's the direct descendant of the Great Kung Lao, but he washed out for some reason and it ended up becoming Liu Kang instead. They could have transferred the mantle here, but didn't. They had Lao unceremoniously killed by Shang Tsung, Raiden's all like "lol sorry bruh", and Liu Kang made it seem like they were gay lovers ("we were supposed to die together").
Killing Kung Lao could have been the spark that set Liu Kang on his destiny as the Chosen One. Or, ya know, he can shoot ****ing fireballs from his hands. 'Member when he met the other guys and immediately blasted them only to be like "totally kidding, I'm not your enemy"? Why not do that shit and save your cousin?
5) Raiden was absolute trash and the most worthless character in the movie
6) They killed Goro already. Dude was the 9 time MK champion and they kill him off before the tournamenr even started. He's been running fades and killing folk for 450 straight years yet some douche whose secret power is literally plot armor killed him in his driveway lol hate it, hate it, hate it.