Exceedingly stupid and exceedingly entertaining.
In my “Tekken” review, I made the claim that the only good video game movies thus far were the one that were laughably bad. While I still hold this statement to be generally true, I can’t help but stress that “Tekken” was not one of those movies. “Tekken” was an aggressively dark film with a goofy premise that just resulted in a giant bore.
Conversely, “The King of Fighters” took a goofy idea and has created one of the dumbest and most exceedingly incomprehensible movies I’ve stumbled across yet. The shock doesn’t so much come from the fact that it makes little to no sense so much as it does that it’s actually somewhat fun to watch.
“The King of Fighters” stars Maggie Q as Mai Shiranui, a CIA operative in the King of Fighters tournament which takes place in another dimension. With the help of Kyo Kusanagi, played by Sean Faris, she must defeat the megalomaniacal Rugal Bernstein, played by Ray Park, who has high jacked the tournament dimension and plans to merge it with their own reality in order to conquer the world. Believe it or not, it somehow gets dumber from here.
“The King of Fighters” is a film that is almost sublime in how little sense it actually makes. How did the contestants gain access to this “alternate dimension?” How does the villain just suddenly use magic to conquer it? Why is the white kid from “Never Back Down” playing a Japanese American? Who knows and who cares, it’s all about the fights and they do not disappoint.
Unlike last week’s excursion into mediocrity, the fight sequences in “The King of Fighters” are amazingly well shot. The blows are fast and impactful, the special effects are solid for a low budget direct-to-video flick and the pace is fast. There are points where the camera gets in a little bit too close but most of the action sequences generally satisfying.
Thank god the action is so compelling, because almost everything else about this movie is hilariously terrible. Most of the performances are just wooden but special note must be given Sean Faris, Ray Park, and David Leitch, who plays the genre savvy CIA agent Terry Bogard. Faris spends the entire movie, staring down people with a weird squint in his eyes that makes him look as if he’s constantly waiting for the next bathroom break. His character isn’t helped by the fact that continuity on this movie was apparently directed by Helen Keller, as every time the character of Kyo is seen in flashback form as a child or as a baby, he is clearly Japanese.
David Leitch serves as the voice of the audience, never failing at every turn of the plot to point out just how ridiculous everything that’s happening actually is. I found him to be my favorite character of the movie as he saved me from doing half the commentary I would have normally made. Ray Park however, chews up the scenery every time he’s on screen. He never ceases to be anything less than delightfully evil and the ridiculous outfits he’s forced to wear only help to solidify how much of a clown he is.
Despite a few odd camera positions and moments of that flop between so bad it’s good and so bad it’s painful, the sheer confounding nature of the actual plot made me proud of this choice from the get go. The solid action sequences seal it as a fun Friday night popcorn and beer flick.
3 Shatners out of 4
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