Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

The Armor of Mars, once thought lost to history, is being sought out by the power made Laocorn, who seeks to dominate all.  In an effort to stop him, Laocorn’s sister, Sulia, tracks down Terry Bogard, a world traveling fighter who’s just defeated one of the deadliest warriors in the world, Wolfgan Krauser.  Along with Terry’s brother, Andy; Andy’s sexy girlfriend Mai; and celebrity fighter Joe, Terry and Sulia race across the globe to beat Laocorn to a complete set of armor that, in the wrong hands, could mean the end of life as we know it.

In the era of fighting games of the 90’s, the cast of the SNK games, particularly Fatal Fury: King of the Fighters, kind of flew under the radar here in the States, save for the occasional crossover appearance in Dead or Alive and Tekken.  Still, Terry Bogard and his video game adventures were crazy popular in Japan, enough to merit a trilogy of Anime stories: two OVAs and this feature length motion picture.  As a series that constantly gets compared to Street Fighter, I couldn’t help but go into Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture thinking about the Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie I reviewed around the same time last year.  I was a little hard on that flick though I appreciated it for the dumb action fest it was.  Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is…just ok, maybe a bit below that but not enough to say I truly hated it.

Fatal Fury TMP tries to go big on a number of levels from the power of Terrys opponents to the Indiana Jones style worldwide quest to find an ancient artifact.  Both fall flat due to the villains being very one note and forgettable and the quest in question being boring as all get out.  There aren’t any temples of doom and dangerous traps to avoid, simply everyone sitting in rooms talking or just wandering around aimlessly looking for the next big action sequence…of which those are kind of in short supply of.  There was very little to make the central story feel special or surpass its run of the mill plot.  It doesn’t help that, like most Video Game to Film adaptations, Fatal Fury TMP litters the movie with random cameos from other Fatal Fury characters who have no bearing on the plot itself and are there for just…well I don’t know, maybe to set up another Anime that wont happen?

What about the good?  It’s in short supply but it is there.  I’ll admit, Terry and Andy are kind of boring as protagonists, Andy more so.  At least Terry has an air of cool with his style and kick ass trucker hat.  Andy is dull as wood.  He and Terry don’t even have a lot of screentime to further their (apparently still developing) brotherly bond.  The other two members of their central quartet are a bit more enjoyable.  Joe is more flamboyant and full of fire and fun one liners to merit being the star of his own movie.  As for Mai…well she is Fatal Fury’s Chun Li, the sexy poster ninja of that franchise.  And while she brings the bouncy energy and more sex appeal than any female character in the series, Mai is so underutilized in anything else it made me wonder why she’s even in the movie than to just be ogled.  She doesn’t even get a stellar action sequence all to herself like Chun Li vs Vega in the Street Fighter II Movie.  Come to think of it, all of the female characters in Fatal Fury TMP arent given their just due and are treated as barely capable (Panni), worriers (Sulia) or sex objects (Mai).

Luckily, the action does make up for some of the films shortcomings, when it arrives and stays for more than a minute.  Terry, Andy and Joe all get some good battles and the team match of Terry, Andy, Joe and Mai vs. Laocorn in the finale is as over the top and fun as a battle against a demigod should be.  Much like Street Fighter, Fatal Fury does give off the sense that the animators were looking closely at the video games themselves and trying to mirror each characters unique fighting style.  Surprisingly, everything is helped by a rousing soundtrack that gets going big time during the action and sound surprisingly like Raiders of the Lost Ark during the quieter (more boring) moments.  In fact I think I found myself lost in the soundtrack more than Sulia’s attempt to dump truck loads of historical exposition on Terry can crew.  And then you cap it off with the most overhyped end theme…trust me you wont be getting it out of your head anytime soon once you hear it.

Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is serviceable, an ok distraction that can be forgotten but not because its flat out terrible…its because its just ok.  The animation is fine, but not the prettiest (especially for a movie); the action is solid but takes a backseat in an action movie; the characters are half entertaining and half dull; and the main story never reaches the heights it sets its eyes on.  All in all, it’s just ok.  Even with its many flaws Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie still managed plenty of stellar set pieces that saved a slightly unfocused movie.  Again, not enough to hate it but also not enough to really recommend it to anyone who isn’t aware of Fatal Fury (or Mai Shiranui) at least.  If nothing else, wait for that end theme and prepare to get hype…as the movie ends.

5/10