I am not good with spoiler thing so I'll answer like this.
Scorpion has never changed since his incarnation of the original game. Scorpion is the LAST of his family and his clan as Quan Chi made certain of that. Scorpion has no decendants because he is the only person left of his blood and heritage. Scorpion's soul purpose of existance is to avenge the death of his family and clan and he believe Sub-Zero was the one who did it but in fact was a sorcerer named Quan Chi. Since you've also seen this film let me ask you something. How often was Scorpion featured in this film? Was he basically summoned by someone to appear or was he stalking the one person he believed murdered his family and clan throughout the film? Was one of the most popular and Ed's golden boy given his fair share to shine in this film or was he only saved for a a very brief few scenes?
Scorpion's existence in the games have always been a mystery with only a little being revealed here and there. Deadly Alliance changes the rivalry since that's when Quan Chi reveals this treachery and this story arc continued into the second timeline. Just because Scorpion may have been the last of his kin or clan in one game doesn't mean that couldn't change. Since his origins are always mysterious. As for the film, Scorpion was featured predominantly in the first and last scenes, plus he's seen in Hell at least once, and he stalks Cole at least once, so he has around 20 minutes in the film. In the final fight, he was summoned incidentally when Sub-Zero grabbed Cole's weapon. There was is never insight he was stalking Sub-Zero but moreso letting his presence be known to Cole. Despite being used in only a few scenes the film centers around his descendant so he's not supposed to be the center of the film but tied into the center. So it adds to the mystery of Scorpion's possibility have having a lineage. As for your other rant about this story not being true to MK, this story is PRE-MK. It sets it up. Hence why it's called a prequel, of sorts. It could have happened. Yes it kills off some people - Mileena for example, but Mileena is known as a clone and there has never been any mention in the lore that there couldn't be more than one. Kano also dies. And so does the MK champion, Goro. But at the end of the film Shang Tsung explains death is just a portal and if you know MK, people come back to life.
This film's purpose is to rejuvenate the franchise in the film/media department, show WB it has worth and expand into a Cinematic Universe. So the next movie can virtually undo everything that happens in this movie and ultimately this film doesn't matter except as a marketing tool to create this Cinematic Universe. If you read the original article MKO linked, not MKO's version stripped version, you'll notice Mortal Kombat BEAT OUT the likes of such films as Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom and Logan in Russia, two very high-grossing film franchises. In fact here's the quote from Deadline MKO left out:
In its debut, Warner Bros/New Line’s Mortal Kombat entered 17 offshore markets this session, grossing $10.7M from 4,596 screens. Russia led play with $6.1M (+10% on GVK‘s bow), opening as the biggest Hollywood title released during the pandemic with results tracking at pre-pandemic levels coming in 7% above Logan and 12% ahead of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Saudi Arabia ($691K), UAE ($689K), Thailand ($574K) and Taiwan ($554K) round out the Top 5.
Comparing MK2021 to either MK1995 or GvK is so silly, you cannot do it. For GvK for the reason I already explained. And second because Mortal Kombat has only been released to a few international markets whereas GvK was released world-wide also the same time so almost all the figures are in and they include HBOMax's success. GvK reached us here in America via both cinemas and HBOMax whereas, as I said, it's been released throughout a select few Asian countries (Japan lagging behind) and only one European country: Russia. MK2021 still has a lot more to go, including two biggest fanbases, Japan and Brazil who won't even see the film until the next two months, and of course the USA (which has a popular fanbase) and Australia, where it was filmed and likely will help its success there. Looks like the UK is currently left out but hopefully that changes.
As for Mk2021 to MK1995 film success comparison, the world was different back in. So let's take a trip back to 1995. In 1995 computers were just becoming a thing. What Internet you did have was likely dialup. Viewing a Web site with just one or two graphics in them was tedious. Given the fact video clips were always small and very shitty looking, they were also very slow to download. So you can imagine pirating full movie being impossible. Now, at the same time, we didn't have the technologies to pirate movies. Back in 1995, most of us had only a VCR and the dreaded Cable TV system, maybe a Satellite TV system and of course the ability for PPV. Laserdiscs were out but the average Joe couldn't afford those and Laserdisc writing tools, had it even existed, would have been more outrageous then the players. Maybe a few of us were just getting DVD players although I thought those cam a little later but I could be wrong. Still, piracy simply didn't exist back then. We also didn't have USB or DVD burners (in the mainstream anyway) so again, piracy was a minimal and would have been restricted to shipping VHS tapes, aka tape trading. Not to mention we were limited to whatever technologies we had for storage capacity (usually floppy disks and CD-ROM disc). Not to mention... the most important... NONE OF OUR TVS PLAYED ANY OTHER DEVICE EXCEPT A VHS OR LASERDISC OR BETA TAPE OR WHATEVER. We didn't have the ability to stream content on our TVs from our own external hard drives (they didn't even exist either) or USB drives (please no one thought of those until later). So how would people watch movies released to the cinema then and now? THEY ACTUALLY WENT TO THE CINEMA. When it was time for a movie to come to home release, it hit Pay-Per-View channels first. Once PPV had its way, and sometimes this happened at the same time, it became available to VIDEO STORES ONLY. Yes, Mortal Kombat wasn't even released to home owners, officially, until later. When the VHS was available to video retailers, we could only rent it. Video retailers also had to pay usually $60 PER UNIT, that means each copy of MK on VHS cost $60 and they were discounted for bulk prices (to be fair, Blockbuster bought them really cheap). So finally MK became available to home owners, I think December 1995 but if you feel compelled my site has this exact date. Now, beyond that, Mortal Kombat didn't actually hit standard cable TV until 1998 when it premiered on TBS (it already had its run on premium cable like Starz and HBO though). Because movies were not available at the whim of a hat or click of a button ON DEMAND, each viewing got a good amount of audience per medium. (for the record, most TVs in the 1995 didn't have a way to play movies on CD-rom only computers and yes MK was officially released on a CD-ROM at some time)
Jump to 2021 and I'll be brief about this. Most cinemas are closed or acting in capacity. Movies can be camrecorded and pirated. High-speed Internet exists and accommodates that. The movie will also be available to HBOMax users the same day it hits theaters. It will soon be released to home video not too long after (and also PPV). Pirated copies can be put onto many drives such as USB or external hard drives or DVDs or Blurays and even streamed from some stes. Even before the pandemic, cinemas in the USA were a dying breed. They're on their last legs. Customs have changed. In America in 1995 we were very relaxed. We didn't mind packing cinemas full of people and paying shit ton to watch a movie (although the were way cheaper) and eat their snacks. Careers were way easier to come by and didn't have so many restrictions - this is a whole different topic. The US Economy was booming and so wasn't popular culture. Celebrities kept their opinions mostly to themselves or tabloids and seldom interacted wit fans. We were also very social animals and didn't mind being out and talking to other humans. Again jumping to 2021. Jobs are hard to come by. Good-paying jobs don't exist, many Americans have to work many dead-end jobs to just live. Careers are more limited to luck and who you know at the right time. Social security and welfare rule the American people (and parents) so many people don't even have to work. Social media is its own animal, people literally don't have to talk to anyone in person when they can just text or Facetime. People do not like crowds anymore so even those places are seeing less people. People are staying home more for their entertainment, whether it's waiting on a film from cinemas to eventually hit their favorite streaming service or just pirate it outright. Fans now can directly communicate with celebrities without leaving their homes and even have a negative impact on them to the point where a celebrity will deactivate their social media. Popular culture is moreso limited to nostalgia and isn't as hip as it once was. The global economy can't be trusted and we have a pandemic. Not to mention our popular culture is ran too much by social politics so it limits our advertising - just recently McDonalds and Disney joined forces again to promote Disney movies in McDs toys. The world is a mess today - need I go on.
