The King Of Fighters (2010)

Background: The King Of Fighters is a long and storied fighting game franchise from SNK out of Japan. It was, for a long time, the main rival for Street Fighter in Japan. Over in America, we had Mortal Kombat, which never really caught on in Japan, so The King Of Fighters got lost in the mix. Anyone who knows fighting games, though, knew it, and brother let me tell you, I knew it. I remember power dunking with Terry Bogard, Mai not being a good character but people liking her boobs,  and just some great animations. The characters originally came from other SNK games, like Ikari Warriors and Fatal Fury, but the story revolved around Kyo Kusinagi, his rival Iori Yagami and the King Of Fighters Tournament held by Either Rugal or, later Chizaru. At least I assume that's the story that the movie will be using. The King Of Fighters has always been an unusally story heavy fighting game. They've had multiple story arcs over the years, and most people just liked punching dudes so they never really paid much attention. In fact, the ones that people consider to be the best games (KOF'98 and KOF'02) ditched that whole nonsense and just got down to fighting.

Sean Faris, a regular white dude, is playing Kyo, which seems like an odd choice for the role. The story originally comes from ancient Japanese folklor, so it seems especially odd that the main character of the series is played by someone with no Japanese heritage. Mai is played by Maggie Q, a favorite around the internet. She most recently made waves for being in Nikita The CW's reboot of La Femme Nikita, 

Plot: The basis of the plot actually doesn't stray too far from the games. There exists a fighting tournament that is used to find out who really is The King Of Fighters (they say "King Of Fighters" a lot in this movie). And there are 3 relics that were used to seal away the Orochi, a serpent spirit from Japanese lore. That's pretty much all this movie takes from the games. Here, the story revolves not around Kyo Kusanagi, whose clan sealed away the Orochi, but around Mai. Mai and Iori Yamagi are lovers in this world, and Mai is entered into the King Of Fighters tournament. One day, when Mai and Iori are checking out the famous relics, Rugal comes in and steals them. He can use them to set the Orochi free, but little does he know the sword's a fake.

Mai is tasked with finding a man named Kusanagi, the father of Kyo. This man is in a hospital and hasn't spoken a word to anyone in years. Here, Mai runs into Kyo, no reimagined as a motorcycle repairman who doesn't know much about his past. Also, he's a white dude. His father is asian, and even Kyo is asian as a youngster in flashbacks. This is never explained.

Also reimagined are Vice and Mature. As lesbians. Why not? They're pulled into the fighting dimension and Rugal turns them into his minions. As with much of this movie, little attention is paid to their backstory from the game. Enter fan favorite Terry Bogard. Instead of being the nice guy that everyone loves though, he's a CIA agent and a total dick. He's wearing a suit and tie and doesn't have anything even approaching an ass-length ponytail. Turns out he's working with Mai, just like in Fatal Fury!

Rugal changes the stakes of the tournament now that he has the relics, now it's going to be a fight to the death. Mai has figured this out and she and Terry have to stop him. The movie takes a long time to get to this point though. There's some more stuff with Kyo and Iori's family history and the history of the Orochi, but it's the last 20 minutes that everyone's been waiting for. The entire crew is transported to the fighting dimension and everyone has their recognizable gear on. Terry's hat even says "Fatal Fury" which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in this movie. Anyway, people punch, people kick, people throw fire. Kyo, strangely refrains from throwing fire, even though that's his main deal in the games. Kyo wins using his family's sword and everything's all better.  

What Went Wrong? The King Of Fighters suffers from a lot of the same problems as fighting game movies. The story is close enough to the story of the games, but the story of the games is just a backdrop when you play it. Ryu and Ken were the most popular characters of the Street Fighter games, but only a minor role in the movie. Mortal Kombat's most famous characters Sub-Zero and Scorpion, only appear in a few scenes in the movie, instead the movie revolves around Jax and Sonya, two of the least popular characters in the game. Though it my seem like pure fan service to bring the most popular characters to the front on the movie, these movies are pure fan service to begin with. Those movies often care very little for character's backstories (Like Street Fighter's Charlie being turned into Blanka somehow) and this is by far the worst for that. The depiction of Terry Bogard goes so against the Terry Bogard fans know and love that he's not even recognizable.

Focussing the movie around Mai and making Kyo a side character is a complete mistake. Maybe just because I never liked Mai, but making Kyo into a regular dude that gets dragged into the tournament goes against the main story The King Of Fighters games. The parts it gets right get completely overshadowed by the parts it gets wrong

What Went Right? Like all movies based on fighting games, it's fun to see the character's special moves taken into the real world. In this case, the magical powers that the characters have are explained by the fights taking place in a different dimension. This means nothing to people who haven't played the game however and the special effects budget means that we don't really get to see a lot of this. It's mostly just pretty bland shaky-cam fighting. How the characters change into their recognizable outfits when they enter the fighting dimension is never explained, but who cares? Terry Bogard at least looks like Terry Bogard finally (minus ponytail).

Also, I'm of the opinion that even the worst movie can be at least partially saved by a villain that overacts as much as Ray Park does as Rugal.

Verdict: The King Of Fighters '98 is available for download on Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network. Just sayin'.

Score: 18%