Just re-watched this movie pumped for the sequel and still loved it! It does a great job introducing some of the core the characters and concepts while creating its own things to help further unite them, which ironically is what most people complain about when I talk to them about it. Those things they introduce to unite stuff are the central character Cole Young and the Arcana. They created an OC named Cole Young in order to establish all the lore of the series by having it be explained to him, and I think it's fine mainly because he fit so well that when I watched the movie the first time, I figured he was one of the Midway characters that hadn't appeared in a while and I just forgot about him (he even looks like Cobra at the beginning with his hands wrapped and wearing a hood). Secondly they introduce Arcana basically the Mortal Kombat logo as a tattoo that gives everyone their powers, and again I'm fine with this, mainly because a lot of MK characters have super human abilities that are never explained, so putting them all under one power system like this makes sense.
Overall as a Mortal Kombat fan I recognize this movie has flaws, and while I still want to say the 95 movie is better, I also recognize that that movie existed in a bubble where a lot of MK lore had yet to be established and they made up just as much as this did (many just don't recognize it since due to the 95 movies popularity its lore ended being incorporated into later games) and so I have to recognize that this is a great movie, maybe a better movie but I can't say for sure so I simply urge you all to watch it and decide for yourself