The MK timeline is just forever all over the place now huh? I'm not mad about it though, it's just an observation. The titles for these animated movies are "Mortal Kombat: Legends" so it's not an issue but this is the first one that really feels like it's doing something completely non-canon. Surprisingly, they actually did try and tie it back to the games at the end but I won't spoil that here.
The movie is an alternate origin story for Kenshi, a popular PS2 era Kombatant. Of the more "modern" games, he was easily one of the best new editions, so it doesn't surprise me that he's the first to get his own solo film. Not quite solo though because Sub-Zero is also here and ends up being the one to train Kenshi.
The real change was having Kano be the main bad guy, that was kind of cool to see. Kano and his Black Dragon thugs are terrorizing villages all over a Mad Max-esque wasteland and they must be stopped. I loved the nerdy cameos in his crew, there were bad guys from the awful video game "Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, Drahmin and Jerek even had a cameo! Good stuff for MK nerds like myself.
The fighting and violence are all well done but there were a few iffy spots of animation. The plot is very generic but still fun to see play out. Feels like an adult Saturday morning cartoon in many ways. It moves by really fast and I was never bored. I liked some of the ways they changed the characters up and Scorpion in particular gets a really cool redesign.
If you are an MK fan, you'll enjoy it. If you are a fan of animation, you'll most likely enjoy it. If you are a huge plot person, you may not love it. It's an easy recommend to action and MK fans though.