King of Fighters review
Nobody is screaming at the top of their lungs for a live-action adaptation of any video game, much less King of Fighters. It was quite clear that this movie was going to suck hard especially when the cast was announced. If you think that Neal McDonough as M. Bison and Justin Chatwin as Goku was terrible, the choice of ALL actors (including extras) were even worse. The only thing they have in common with the games were their names: Kyo Kusanagi by a white guy just like Dragonball Evolution, Ray Park (Darth Maul, Headless Horseman, Snake Eyes and etc...) is Rugal and not only looks nothing like Rugal except for the the red eye but wears the most laughable and awakard outfits a villain could wear; Terry Bogard is some prick CIA agent. But the worst one for me has to be Maggie Q as Mai Shiranui: everybody knows that chick has the nicest jugs in the video games and she is pratically the one character I picked most in arcades for that very reason. To be fair, its really hard to find a good actress who have the sizes matching those of any big-breasted heroines, especially in comics. But in other hand, Maggie Q not only has really flat chest even to real standards, but she is not a good actress either, playing a half-dead dull Mai Shiranui, instead of the energetic and happy-go-lucky temptress in red I loved from the games.
But if that alone destroys any hope for a KOF fan to enjoy this movie, the other viewers had to deal with the most convuluted, messed-up plot that has nothing to do with the games and has more in common with Matrix and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation about a tournament taking place in alternate universe where people can travell through earpieces where they change clothes and fight against other opponents. The main villain Rugal wants to reaunite several artifacts from the Kusanagi, Yagami and Kagura clans in order to release the ancient snake-demon Orochi and merge the alternate world with the Earth.
The plot makes no sense and is too complicated for this kind of movie and the acting is in the same levels as Legend of Chun-Li. It doesn't help in the fact that especially Maggie Q and Ray Park knew the movie was going to be bad and acted accordingly.The fight scenes were decent and the special effects were alright but they really turn silly as the movie goes on. At the very least, King of Fighters wasn't taking itself so seriously like Legend of Chun-Li and realizes how much silly is, like dressing Rugal like Tony Hawk to some cheesy music in the background. Don't watch it if you are KOF fan. It will break your heart.
