I think what Tancharoen is doing is the same thing the screenwriter of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li tried. That is he's actually of the opinion that the character stories are gripping and interesting, moreso than the actual fighting. Even if it may be amazingly written on paper (or pdf that is), you get actors that can't pull the material off (of course, it's Mortal Kombat for christs sakes) and a directing eye not able to transport anything but blandness. It's obvious that Tancharoen didn't start this with the idea of ever going for amazing fight scenes, funny super violence and over-the-top characters in the first place. Don't get your hopes up, it's not coming.
First thing every director of game adaptions should do is a breakdown of what's really cool and beloved about the games (moves, characters, lines, locations). Look at the possibilities you'll have, cast, budget, locations. Strike everything that is not possible to do. Then think up new stuff that would be cool but doesn't fuck with the rest. And only then you can start to think about how you'll tie everything together, when you got everything covered that people expect and that should be in there (because it's success is proven).
Most of the times with game adaptions, it feels the other way around. And it seems as if the filmmakers are either never capable of seeing what people like in the original... or that they're just not giving a fuck and just half-heartingly do Mortal Kombat because no one wanted to finance their real dreams. You may say that every movie should have good characters and a story, but when it comes to adaptions like this one, I seriously doubt that's the highest priority for target audience. And Tancharoen will fail at that. He'd have bigger chances to land real gigs if he used these episodes as style and action reels.
