The King of Fighters
Director: Gordon Chan
Year: 2010
Rating: 5.0
Will
the real Gordon Chan please stand up? For those who are not Hong Kong film
fans, I should mention that Chan as a director has made his mark with Fight
Back to School, Fist of Legend, Thunderbolt and Beast Cops - but at the same
time he directed Armageddon, The Medallion, Inspector Pink Dragon and other
films best forgotten. But how the hell did he find himself in this non-Hong
Kong mess that was shot in Canada. Money I would guess. I am still trying
to figure out what that was about. But at the same time, how bad can a film
be that begins with Maggie Q stepping out of a shower. Wearing a towel. She
stares at the mirror, puts in an earpiece and suddenly she is in another
dimension where she has to fight an opponent. After kicking his ass, she
is back in the bathroom. What? Huh? Did I fall asleep and dream that? Or
did she? Who wrote this? They should be put in another dimension.
As dimwitted a plot as you are likely to
trip over any time soon. Clans of martial artists challenge each other in
this other dimension. Hmmm. And there are three ancient treasures that if
combined will allow the person holding them to take the power of the Orichi
which is some CGI ball of string. The world will naturally be doomed. One
of them Rugal (Ray Park) decides to steal the treasure so that he can gain
great power. He gets two of them and goes to the other dimension where he
sits on a throne. He has to of course be stopped - and our Maggie Q along
with Iori (Will Yun Lee), Kyo (Sean Faris), Chizuru (Francoise Yip) and Terry
(David Leitch) jump into the dimension to fight him. Rugal has two hotties
helping him - Bernice Liu and Monique Ganderton. And they all fight. A lot.
The final 30-minutes is a non-stop bash. And it could be worse.
There is some talent in those names above
- Ganderton, Ray Park and Will Yun Lee are all martial artists. David Leitch
you may know as the director of John Wick, Dead Pool I and II, Atomic Blonde
and Bullet Train. What the hell is he doing in the film. He is also the choreographer.
Park was Darth Maul in Star War Ep 1, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars:
The Clone Wars. Francoise of course was a star in Hong Kong films before
she exited for Western fare. Bernice Liu was another one of the Chinese Canadians
- like Francoise - who went to Asia and won a few beauty contests and then
into films there and back home. The main question of course - and nothing
against Chan - is you had the director of John Wick and chose Chan to direct?
Well, John Wick was 4 years in the future. And why give it a plot that spells
straight to video from minute one. As bad as the plot is, the plentiful action
even with the excess of wire and some poorly made CGI isn't bad. Quantity
makes up for quality.
Not surprisingly, it is based on a video
game.
