The humble video game adaptation is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and yet the genre is still unable to obtain any kind of consistent quality. Ironically, given that the genre quickly became his bread and butter for better or worse, it was Paul W.S. Anderson's Mortal Kombat that demonstrated how it should be done.
It was only the fourth live-action feature film based on an existing console asset that rustled up a 45 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating, but you need to look at it objectively. Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, and Street Fighter were all shameful films, and Mortal Kombat's rating on the aggregation site is almost as high as the above three.
From Rotten Tomatoes' establishment in 1998 until Dwayne Johnson's Rampage was released two decades later, it remained the best-reviewed entry in the genre's entire history, while a $124 million box office mark was a top level until Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider came out in 2001.
Mortal Kombat is one of Prime Video subscribers in the United Kingdom, which is a decent legacy to leave behind, especially when we're talking about a cheese-filled cult classic that is capable of stoking warm fuzzy nostalgia in an entire generation.