User reviews

I gave this a 3 out of 10 just in respect for efforts to make a film and when the color's adjusted the picture's visually pleasing in HD. An advice if you are going to watch it, increase the contrast and turn down the brightness then it will look great on an HD TV.

If you are a King of Fighter fan and you follow its story then it is best not to watch it. If you are looking for character reasonableness, don't watch it. 10% of the movie is based on the game, the rest a high budget softcore, action, soap opera hybrid.

Plot basics: Jabra Bluetooth headset transports fighters to a tournament in another dimension. Hot chick fighter gets fall into a love triangle. Martial arts demonstration with some CGI.

Film makers please stop abusing video game titles just to attract more viewers.

Hand on heart, then I am not a fan of movies based on fighting games, but this one topples all the rest. It pretty much sums up the definition of bad movies.

"The King of Fighters" suffers horribly from an very weak and basically non-existent storyline. And whatever little was there just didn't work. Come on, putting in an ear piece and then press a button and you go to an alternate dimension to fight? Yeah, that was perhaps the most epic fail of the entire movie.

Also, the movie suffered from a lack of acting talents. Surely there were some scenes that were alright, but in general the acting performances in this movie was painful to behold. And also the actors/actresses didn't really have much of a solid dialogue script to work with. And also the characters portrayed in the movie never grasped you, they were shallow and had no personalities, so it was hard to relate to any of them or get any kind of emotion for any of them.

Now, what did work for the movie, was the CGI effects. They were actually adequate enough to look at. I especially liked the regular flame and blue flame effects, they looked cool.

Some of the fighting scenes were good enough to look at, and had just the right amount of speed and action. But most of them actually were strenuous to the eyes and came off as half-hearted, forced attempts of making a fight scene.

I wonder what made Maggie Q agree to participate in a movie like this. Usually her movies are somewhat further up the ladder compared to this movie. If for no other reason, at least her appearance is a treat for the eyes.

There are way too many movie versions of fighting games out there, and 99% of them doesn't translate well to a movie screen. And "The King of Fighters" is one of them. I actually fell asleep and was out for 20 minutes during this movie, it was just that boring. I am sure that the director had the best of intentions at heart, but there is no need to make a movie out of a fighting game that has long gone out of date.

If you are into action movies and movies based on fighting games, "The King of Fighters" should be avoided, you are better off watching something like "Mortal Kombat" instead. This movie is not really worth the effort.

I wasted an hour and a half on this (well more like an hour, as I was out for 20 minutes or so), and this is definitely not a movie that I will be returning to ever again.

If there's one video game that I suck at big time, it will be The King of Fighters. Already I was struggling back then with mastering all the Street Fighter character moves, then this game came along, where one has to master 3 characters as a group and face them off either with some artificial intelligence (now programmed to be smarter at your neighbourhood video game store), or with another human challenger who finds it easy to cream me with one character in full energy left to spare.

Things have been relatively low key for the film version of the video game, and perhaps rightly so since it's not automatic that films from Japanese video games, manga and animation make that dignified live-action leap onto the silver screen, most falling short in the process – last year's disastrous Dragon Ball Evolution and the lacklustre Street Fighter Legend of Chun Li being very recent examples of the bad aftertaste left at the box office. Audience these days demand a lot more, and the in-built fan base no longer representing a ready market, but a base of high expectations that are difficult to meet even as they are aware some tweaks to characters and story lines are necessary for the change of medium. This Gordon Chan directed effort however, is expected to fall short given the extremely flimsy, cookie cutter storyline that reeks, and for an action film, the cardinal sin of having limited action, almost all of which are left to the last 30 minutes.

Maggie Q marquees this film as Mai Shianui, working undercover for Terry Bogard (David Leitch) of the CIA (I hear yawns already) to hook up with Iori Yagami (Will Yun Lee) who teaches her the background myth of having a necklace and a mirror combined to open a door to another dimension. There's a sword in the picture as well belonging to the Kusanagi clan, but one rumored to be lost, and required by chief villain Rugal Bernstein (Ray Park) in order to reign supreme in the King of Fighters MMORPG since he's stolen the other two items and tweaked the system so that his rules apply in the virtual world and is working to combine all dimensions and realms into one. That's basically it, with the heroes trying to convince the Kusanagi clan heir Kyo (Sean Faris who plays a half-Japanese, that explains his Caucasian looks) to cough out the legendary sword, and stop Rugal from destroying civilization.

What's neat is how Rita Augustine and Matthew Ryan Fischer managed to fuse the fantastical elements of the fights that nods at the Matrix experience, with combatants jacked in through bluetooth-like earpieces in order to fight in the virtual MMORPG dimension complete with superhuman powers from the game, though the fights during the first hour had just a very little glimpse of what the finale would promise. The King of Fighters then is a tournament where combatants rise in the ranks through each victory, though with the compromise now by Rugal, death in the dimension also means death in the real world.

What didn't work, happens to be a lot of things. For starters, we have the usual cardboard characters (OK, so this is based on a video game) with CIA agents, hokey Japanese philosophy talk, and just about every situation, setting and background of the characters being extremely contrived. As mentioned the first hour of the film is talk, talk and more talk on the usual genre themes like responsibility and destiny, Then you have heroes who are reluctant and blur, and how one gets transformed from zero to hero is absolutely baffling based on pep talks from memory. The quest for the Kusunagi sword also happens in the most roundabout fashion just to bloat the film's runtime, and amongst all the characters, Terry Bogard happens to be the most carelessly designed on screen with that out of place jacket and baseball cap (keeping to the game I know), with a really obnoxious, ignorant attitude, and a CIA dimwit a-hole to boot.

The fight sequences happened to be a mixed bag, though Hong Kong influences are very heavy in the way the fisticuffs are designed. Special effects inspired by the game are also limited, which is most unfortunate as the game is famed for the various combo-moves that the characters can execute, which is all but lost in the film version. Even then, whatever effects all seemed to be reserved for the extended battle sequence at the finale for an all-out duke out, and audiences will have to be patient with all the talk for the first hour before things start to get remotely interesting since all the money shots get concentrated toward the end.

Naturally movies of this nature will have an ending primed for sequels to continue where it left off especially when the box office response is positive, but my money's on the "Nay" list. If I have to compare, then this is ahead of Dragonball and The Legend of Chun Li, but only just.

If you are a Kof player, do not watch this.

If you are into action/fighting movie, do not watch this.

If you love watching good movie, Do Not Watch This.

I really have no idea why they made such a movie?

Was Dragonball no bad enough?? Have they no learn the mistake??

What is the director or the screen writer thinking?? Iori Yagami looks like a playboy?? Kyo is American Spanish?? (can't really tell what nationality he is, but he sure is not the Kyo we are expecting), maggie Q as Mai? And who is that guy using the 2 sticks? Rugal?? not Mr.Big??? No to mention the other characters, i am really speechless.

This is not X-Men, or Spider Man, or one of those American superhero story, which was successfully turned into movie.

This Is Kof. You simply just can not find a bunch of people, film some really bad fighting scenes, slap a movie together and call it Kof.

Sorry about the complain, but I had to hold my anger for 1 and half hour, just so i can see it to the end, and be sure how hopeless this movie is before i made this post.

I wanted to give this a 0 star rating, but the lowest is 1 so yeah.

It's bad.

Please don't waste your time watching this movie!! Its horrific to see how low budget movie production houses and poor unprofessional directors try to make a movie from a franchise and twist the original characters and story and fan support into a pathetic show of a movie which is nothing but a complete joke.

I mean I was speechless once I was able to finish this movie after keeping myself in the chair in hope that the director would come up with something better. But Alas, it was the same joke again n again.

You could tell at every step of the movie that its a low budget movie with directions so horrible that the actors are stiff, dialogues not in place, the tiny bit of special effects being forwarded to make it faster. Like for gods sake, you couldn't make the Orochi ball into a little bit better display??? If you can't make a good movie, then please don't screw up the original story board and the KOF name.

Anyone with the slightest taste in movies should stay a million miles away from this movie. The whole production house and director should be ashamed of what they have done. Me, a proud fan of KOF, disgusted beyond saying to see this movie.

There are stronger words starting with "F" that can be substituted for "Fighters" in the title "King of Fighters". A pity "profanities, obscenities and spiteful remarks" are not allowed in reviews. But here is a clue: the "F" word is definitely an insult, just as how Hong Kong Director Gordan Chan's "The King of Fighters" is an insult. Not just an insult to the fans of the King of Fighters (affectionately abbreviated to "KOF") video game series, or video games in general, but it even manages to be an insult to bad video game movies.

On a whole, the setting of the story manages to immediately rip-off "The Matrix" while sounding more confusing than the entire trilogy combined. THe premise of this movie shows A secret tournament that is held in some alternate dimension in which fighters from around the world "log in" to via special earpieces. Think jacking into a big matrix-like video game world, complete with "I-know-kung-fu" wire fighting and badly CGI-ed special powers. Its all fun and games until Rugal (Ray Park doing his best Darth Maul meets The Joker impression) steals some sacred artifacts with a plot to free something called "The Orochi". Why free the orochi? Because Rugal wants to haxors the alternate dimensional video game, become "L33T" and ultimately the god-mode hax winner. Out to stop him are undercover agents Mai, who is working for Terry Bogard in the CIA, and Iori Yagami, a man with a past connection to Rugal. Together they must seek out a third artifact called the "Kusanagi sword" which has been passed from father to son to one Kyo Kusanagi.

To quote Maggie Q's character of Mai by saying "Its not Logical", would be a major understatement. An illogical, confusing and plodding plot is the least of this movie's problems. In trying to mix mysticism with hardcore science fiction would have worked in the hands of a skilled creative team. Here it turned out like oil and water, making the entire movie very difficult to follow and bordering on absurd.

The most basic criteria for a just "passable" video game movie is that either the story has small resemblance to the game (Silent Hill, Max Payne, Hit-man) or the character has some similar appearance to their game counterparts (Mortal Kombat, Tekken). King of Failures has NONE of these mere basic elements! Fine, Resident Evil had neither too, but at least it had a story that was mildly entertaining. King of Failures is an absolute chore to sit through.

The pacing is thrown off by having too much talk and not enough fight. All the talk is not even interesting nor does it develop that silly excuse for a plot. Kyo's so called "hero's journey" has been done in umpteen other shows and every character's lack of charisma is made even more painful by stilted acting and laughable dialogue. At least Ray Park's Rugal was funny in all his weird costumes when he changes the setting of the game to, for example, a hockey match.

When some action does come once in a while, it is an utter let down and a complete joke especially when one knows what kind of awesome action Hong Kong is capable of. The fight choreography is generally uninspired, almost dull. Many B movies have had better fights than this; heck even Legend of Chun Li had some better fight choreography. Ray Park and Will Yun Lee were the only two actors who had some convincing fighting moves (thanks perhaps to their martial arts training). Speaking of "Legend of chun Li", remember that lesbian tease scene? Well King of Failures has its own lesbian tease scene. But the biggest sin here is Gordan Chan's wonky camera-work which uses way too many "dutch angles"(oblique or slanted tilting of the camera while filming) and an irritating purple lighting that seems reminiscent of "Battlefield Earth".

NINE companies collaborated on this project (count it in the "company credits" section) and all they managed to cough up was a 12 million dollar budget for this piece of junk?? How could Gordon Chan, renown director of great films like "Painted Skin" and "Fist of Legend" sink so low? (It pains me personally to see the name of a Singaporean company listed among the production credits). It is as if there is some perverse secret global competition for "crappiest video game movie creators of the century": Hollywood has entered Hyde Park Entertainment and Andrzej Bartkowiak, Germany has Boll K. G. and Uwe Boll, France has Xavier Gens, . And now, CONGRATULATIONS to Asia who has officially added Gordon Chan and all 9 of those production companies (who are mostly also Asian) to vie for the "crappiest video game movie creator" title.

Seriously,what the heck those Hollywood guys think?

I mean this story is based on the game that involved ancient japan folklore with obviously with Asian characters as the central story so anyone can tell KYO KUSANAGI is a Japanese,and i can't even see a bit of oriental in Kyo,not to be racist but ,now Sean Farris as Kyo??no offense man but you're not even close,grow some hairy face and cast yourself as Ralf--The most acceptable character for this movie storyline but unfortunately left out--and leave Kyo's casting to any young Asian movie star.

Not just this movie,look at DoA,Tekken,and Dragon Ball,as a fan of those games & anime title it truly hurts me to see kazuya not played by an Asian,hell even goku changed stayed as a super saiyant all the time in the movie version??

And finally : Maggie Q as Mai Shiranui,google for Mai Shiranui and you'll see there's no physical resemblance apart from the long hair and slim legs.

Definitely this is one of the most horrible adaption movie.

I've been watching video game adaptations ever since I was little and pretty much have a realistic sense of what to expect in movies like these, i.e., they tend to be less than stellar and deviate severely from the source material. I saw King of Fighters after I saw Tekken, so the latter became my point of comparison and, therefore, wasn't expecting much from the KOF movie. However,KOF just epically sucked.

Based on the credits, there seemed to be so many people involved in this movie and I can't understand how, with all these people, they couldn't come up with a decent movie. The movie had a pretty good A list cast that are all mostly well-experienced and well-respected in the action movie industry, but they all deliver their career worsts in this one movie.

The story was idiotic and the script was pointless. The movie runs at a snail's pace and all the action scenes were bland, at best, because just when you think that it's going to be better, it just disappoints.

I'm usually very forgiving of movies and understanding of their flaws, but this movie was an epic fail. Maggie Q, Will Yun Lee, Ray Park, and Sean Farris should all be ashamed. It looked like they just did this movie to pay the bills. This is a great example of what not to do in a movie, not just for video game adaptations. They'd have been better off making a porno.

The King of Fighters is based from a video game of the same name. As far as adaptations go, this film is a lousy one. It is mediocre, lame & cheesy. Except for the CGI who gave this film a little bit of oomph, the other aspects fall flat.

Fans of the game would be very disappointed with this film, as they have expected more than this. The casting is poor, Ms. Maggie Q included. The acting was unbelievable, and lacks any impression.

I expected more from this film, and it is very disappointed to have to watch this mediocre film for the hour and a half I spent which was a waste of time.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie knowing that video game adaptations usually suck... but I was really surprised.

The King Of Fighters strikes the right mix between "realism" (taking fantasy characters and give them a boring normal life) and video game movie adaptation for the fans (and kids).

Without spoiling anything, basically in this movie you have two universes (literally): one in which the characters live normal lives with normal clothes and normal laws of physics, and then there's an alternate universe where things look like the video game, with the over the top costumes, fire balls and super jump kick flip lopping whatever! That separation was really smart knowing that the KOF video game had some pretty ridiculous costumes and moves.

The story requires a fair doze of disbelieve to be suspended... but it's worth it if only for the fight scenes and ridiculously funny dialogs.

Violence is kept in check, so feel free to buy this for your kids (not too young though!).

The King of Fighters is a recent adaptation based on a fighting video game. The previous one is Tekken. I believe this is only released in Singapore. I prefer Tekken to this. Actually, this isn't so bad, it is just...average? Again, I am not a video game fan but by seeing the comparison chart between the video game's characters and movie characters, this fails. And the thing is the acting isn't that good, even Maggie Q's is sort of sloppy. Still, the acting is better than Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li but that is not saying much. The only thing good is the fighting scenes with some CGI added.

The story: Nothing much actually...it is actually boring if not for the fight scenes. The story is straight forward, the good guys want to catch/kill the one and only bad guy. I can clearly see that this has a small budget and I think this will be released straight to DVD in other countries. The acting is disappointing. Maggie Q is also not doing her best acting. Ray Park, well, acts like a generic bad guy. Evil eyes and laughing evilly. The fight scenes are okay, the CGI is okay for a movie with a small budget. The music is over-the-top and generic. I feel that the music does not even match some scenes and is just there for the sake of being there. When they talk, there is techno music...just plain weird.

Overall: It is just mediocre. It is nothing special. It is just disappointing too. I believe it can be improved in ways. Gordon Chan's directing is also disappointing. This is a movie that if you miss it in cinema, you won't miss much. Except for the cool fight scenes with CGI and Maggie Q, there is nothing much this movie can offer.

There are some movies that if you are fan of what is about to be told in that movie, you can say "errr.. It's a bad movie i know but what can i do? i love this cartoon/anime/video game etc."

i have been playing KoF games more than 11 years but i have never imagined that a movie about this game would be so painful to me. It was total agony. All the characters obviously have been killed by the script writers. Cast is dead. There is a soundtrack in the movie but believe me, if the movie would be a movie without soundtrack no one would argue that.

Everything was 'so' awful in this movie that i couldn't believe this movie took rating more than 2.

Total mediocre. Pain. Agony. Disaster. Catastrophic.

0/10

I've just watched recently & I must say The King Of Fighters movie is a pile of junk, it's not even the miscast problem but the whole thing in this movie is extremely mediocre. & this is the worst movie I've ever seen in 2010, thank God I didn't have any expectation at all on this because I knew it... OK, from my point of view why the whole thing is mediocre is from the story itself were inarticulate & slight over from the game(Sigh, video games adaptation), the setting isn't appealing & clearly out of the budget, special effects are way too flashy & completely stupid looking, little fight scenes & yet too short, & the most bugged me is the miscast of the characters. Here's my opinion:

Mai Shiranui: Maggie Q ruined the character a lot. Nothing look alike from Mai which got a trademark sexy bouncing boobs, yet she didn't have any Japanese style at all. In here she's depicted to be carefree & serious, not funny like in the game. The fighting style were inartistic & she didn't feel like a good fighter. Mai as main character is fail, totally fail.

Kyo Kusanagi: Sean Faris really destroyed the character with his inappropriate looks which is Caucasian ! Here his role is inarticulate, he didn't have his Kusanagi flame trademark, he's incredibly weak to be a fighter, & his fighting style is pathetic. Funny thing, his young version is Asian in here. Gordon Chan... This is a big mistake of what you've done to Kyo Kusanagi.

Iori Yagami: Even though Will Yun Lee is Asian he's not suitable to be Iori Yagami, yet, stupid hair cut that he had. Here he act like a rich man & charismatic, his personality is serious & good. Unfortunately in the game he's a violent person. Actually, I kinda like his character if he's not Iori in here. The fighting style is pathetic like Kyo but skillful than Kyo, his special effects are way too flashy & why blue? The reason why I want to watch this movie, is because of my curiosity on Iori turning to Orochi Iori. & Honestly only this thing that cheered me when watching this flick, unfortunately I hate the story why he got the Orochi blood. Too bad, Iori is also my favorite character.

Terry Bogard: Not again, one of my favorite character... Another failed attempt for him, especially making him as an CIA agent, again besides not resembles to Terry. David Leitch really annoyed me, & horrible acting that he played. Plain stupid & totally fail for him.

Rugal Bernstein: Ray Park as Rugal? Thank you Gordon Chan for messing the KOF film & turned down the fans... Rugal here is just another big failure like other characters in here. his villain role in here is depicted to be a powerful fighter with crazy & merciless personality, not charismatic like in the game. In here it is shown that he treat the lady horribly even killing Chizuru & the statue that he had is super mediocre... Definitely not Rugal at all.

Chizuru Kagura: Again & again... OK, I'll just say my opinion on her in here. My thought she's boring but since her role isn't big I kinda confused to judge her completely, yet Chizuru wasn't my favorite character so I don't know much about her.

Vice & Mature: I think their character were too resembles like other video games adaptation, being a henchmen for the bad guy. So, they're completely boring IMO.

Saisyu Kusanagi: Hahaha, he's nothing look alike with his son at all... & funny thing he looked like an comedian instead of fighter. The rest... Well, just like other video games adaptation about family relationship in martial arts. & that's boring once again IMO.

That's all that I can say about the characters, & after u read this you'll be noticed that none of the characters in here were resembles like in the game, but that's just my opinion. Lastly if you loved the games so much(KOF fans), this is a big mistake for you to watch it. Even for action lovers this film had a few action scenes, yet it is short & stupid IMO... But that's up to you whether you want it or not, just judge them by yourself.

"Wow, this just keeps getting better and better."

The King of Fighters is more like the king of movies that have absolutely nothing to do with their source material. That's right, it even knocks Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li off its lofty perch, and almost reaches the heights of Super Mario Bros. You won't recognize any of the characters unless they mention their names, and even then you'll probably think you misheard them (prepare to choke on whatever you're eating or drinking when you're introduced to "Terry Bogard"). The story is incomprehensible, and even the characters freely and often admit that they have no idea what's going on. I wouldn't even know it was a King of Fighters movie if people didn't insist on saying "King of Fighters" as often and as awkwardly as possible. 

Any and all entertainment to be derived from this will come purely from how outright hilarious it is in its awfulness. If there was any kind of script written down beyond drunken scribbles on a stained bar napkin, I'd be shocked. The dialogue is terrible, the actors don't even seem to understand what they're saying (I know I didn't), and the fight scenes are adequate at best, inexplicable much more often, and until the end, they're usually over in a few seconds either way. 

On the positive side, the cinematography is occasionally good, there are frequent opportunities for laughs, and Maggie Q. is hot. Absolutely nothing like the character she's supposed to be portraying and so slender it looks like you'd blow her away by breathing on her too hard, but still hot. The chick playing Vice was pretty sexy, too. That's about it for the "pros" column.   

If you can't appreciate massive levels of camp and unintentional humor, don't come near this. If you can, prepare to laugh and have a pretty great time mocking King of Fighters. It's so bad that it's wonderful. 

Until the end, that is. The last part of the movie is a boring, seemingly endless fight that basically grinds the fun to a halt. It becomes pretty obvious around that time that most of the $12 million budget was spent on CG fireballs. And of course, the door is left open for a sequel. Because the filmmakers knew we'd all be demanding that. 

This definitely is in no way, shape, form, or fashion a "good" movie, but it was a highly entertaining train-wreck...for a while. Fans of the games will be even more amused/horrified.

As a true KOF fan I thought this movie was more than I expected. From start to finish, the characters were great, my favorite was Rugal (played by Ray Park who is notable for his roles as Darth Maul, Snake eyes etc). Maggie Q who is one of my favorite actresses play Mai, and very well at that. Iori looked extremely elaborated, his costume was great and so was his fighting. Kyo Kusanagi did a great job, his acting, his costume, everything about him, and his fighting was great. Mr. Big from the Art of Fighting shows up in the beginning of the film, he faces Mai, great addition to the film, I couldn't believe they included him. The story is extremely well adapted to the game, The basic plot is that they have to retrieve the Kusanagi sword which Rugal stole, it was one of the three relics. Iori, like in the game holds the orochi, which contains infinite power, which is why he stopped fighting in order to prevent him from hurting anyone, like Kyo's father, Saisyu Kusanagi. Overall, Great Movie to a great game!