Mortal Kombat is an instance of both genres complementing each other fairly well. You might not call it a great movie, but it's not a horrible one, either. So what made the difference? First, consider the story: the heroes of Earth are called together to fight the champions of another realm, or face the destruction of their world. Simple enough. For the game, that was all it took to serve as the spine of the action, providing just the barest believable context for the action that followed.

The movie took this spine and built muscle around it by delving a little deeper into its main characters' histories and personal motivations. Yet it didn't go too far; it took its basic premise seriously, but it also recognized the inherent absurdity of the combatants' special abilities and didn't try to provide a reason for any of it. That's always one of the problems with translation: knowing when to back off.

Second, the movie delivered on its unstated promise to expand upon what fans of the game already knew. That is, audiences were treated to lush environments, stunning set pieces, and fights with good pacing and action, all of which helped to breathe life into what had been until that point a fairly static two-dimensional universe. Players wanted to see their favorite warriors in the flesh, executing their special moves in living, breathing battles that often looked better on the big screen than the small.

Third, Mortal Kombat the movie gave the script a little believable humor to act as a pressure valve for itself; whenever it began to feel as though it was taking itself too seriously, a silly joke was able to puncture that balloon. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle to player acceptance of movies based on beloved game franchises. Video games themselves don't try too hard to provide a backstory; the best ones know that players aren't there for that, they just want to play. Of course, some games do go too far and wind up wasting the players' time with interminable cut scenes and unskippable dialogue. At some level, the creators of Mortal Kombat the movie knew that they weren't making War and Peace, but rather an enjoyable amusement, a diversion from the stresses of the day. All that it really needed to do was not insult its audience, and the rest would play itself out.