As a movie it was decent. As an adaptation it was pretty bad. Still above average for a film adaptation of a video game. Very few of those have been even watchable, let alone good.
100%. Such an awful game. Only famous for the controversy and of course for the gimmick of blood and violence. The movie actually wasn't half bad considering what it was based on. Though the sequel was heinous.
I wouldn't say that it was awful, but it did not age very well. The fatalities look kind of gimmicky in retrospect, and everyone's basic fighting style being pretty much the same and not resembling martial arts in any way is definitely a huge strike against it, but it was revolutionary for its time, and definitely solid competition for Street Fighter.
Games like Street Fighter involved skill while MK was a button mashing game. Sure, fatalities required precise input at the correct distance but that was second to the combat mechanics. I loved the game as a kid, owned a full sized arcade game as an adult, yet still recognize it was not a good game. It is, however, a legend.
Actually now that I think of it, if you want to get super technical Noob Saibot IS in the first game, because he's the original Sub-Zero (the Sub-Zero in future games is his younger brother, I believe).
If I'm not mistaken I think reptile was only someone you could fight against as a bonus round after doing something special, don't remember exactly what it was. But I don't think you could play AS reptile and he didn't show up in the basic story mode. But he was in the game.
They went back and forth on the spelling back then. If memory serves, the arcade had it as Raiden, then it was changed to Rayden for the console versions and stayed that way for the next couple games.
Why is that annoying? It was the first game created, and those were the bosses (with the exception of Reptile, who was a hidden character). That's how most video games like this work. If a later iteration of the game is produced, then they usually add new bosses, and older bosses become playable characters.