Wow, its been a while since I've posted on my poor little blog. Well today, I wanted to talk about the Tekken movie. I used to play Tekken quite a bit, especially Tekken 3 back in the PS1 days. I haven't really kept up with the franchise lately but I hear there's a Street Fighter vs Tekken game coming out soon which is pretty exciting!
But anyway, the movie! We finally got around to watching it. First off, I'd like to make it known that I love 'bad' movies. I say 'bad' because that's what most people tend to call them. I loved the Street Fighter movie with Van Damme and I thought the Dead or Alive movie was awesomely hilarious. However I didn't like the Chun Li movie, it didn't seem to reach the target of "so bad its genius". In my own terms, it was just normal bad. So when I heard about the Tekken movie a while back, I was quite excited! I was hoping for epic corniness mixed in with awesome fighting.
Let's get through the story outline first. The main character of the movie ties in with the main character of the game, Jin Kazama. In the movie, he's some street smart guy that makes his money illegally stealing stuff from the Tekken corporation. The Tekken corporation are what is equivalent to the government in this future world of Tekken. Near the start of the movie, Jin's mother who taught him how to fight is killed by Tekken. Around this time, the Iron Fist tournament run by Tekken is starting. To get revenge for his mother's death, Jin is determined to enter and win Iron Fist in order to get close to and kill the head of Tekken, Heihachi. Little does he know that the true evil guy is not Heihachi, but Heihachi's son Kazuya who is determined to take over Tekken from his father and called for Jin's house (and subsequently mother) to be blown up. And little does he know that Kazuya is actually....drum roll....well if you're a Tekken fan, you will know how I was about to finish that sentence.
Along the way you get to meet other Tekken fighters like Marshall Law, Brian Fury, Yoshimitsu, Raven, Eddie Gordo, the Williams sisters and a couple of others. There is also Steve Fox who plays the part of a retired Iron Fist competitor who has now taken Jin under his wing.
So how did the movie fare for me? The fighting was pretty good. However it did look a bit too choreographed and they did one too many leg bars. So I would say it was adequate but not the best fighting for a movie that is based off a fighting game. I didn't get very bloodlusty or flinchy watching the fighting which meant it was just alright. I think a lot of it was due to the sound effects, I know real fighting isn't bish-bashy like those old Kung Fu movies, but it does make watching a fight a whole lot more enjoyable and the sound effects in Tekken just wasn't supporting the choreography as well as it could have.
The story...lol well yeah. Hmmm...I'd say pretty good given that my expectations were very low and for a movie like this, I don't really care much about the story at all. It does follow the Tekken lore from the games but also misses out on a lot of it. Like the whole demon thing in the game! How awesome would it be if Jin just suddenly burst out in demon-ness in a fight? That could have been awesome! Or really really awful...
The writing in this movie is awesome according to my standards of awesome bad movie writing. I did enjoy the corny lines and the bad acting that went with it. Okay, it wasn't bad acting, it was just there's no way to say those lines without it being funny and over the top. So I loved that aspect of it. And the predictable flashbacks with wise advice given to Jin at key moments, so predictable and corny! Just all round goodness.
One thing I really did like was the video game homage they've given to the movie. As its set up as a tournament, they've got the contestants introduced in the similar manner as the game would, from the fight selector screens to the pre-battle poses. And I loved how each fight would have a location and the stage then transforms to be that Tekken battle arena, with ancient ruins, or beautiful blossoms in temple grounds. Completely pointless and made no sense when you think about it but just a lot of fun.
There's also a fair amount of eye candy to be had whether you're a guy or a girl. There's a fair share of scantily clad female fighters with (I have no idea why...) more than a fair share of butt crack showage. Have we moved on from cleavages to butt cracks for sexiness? Last time I was out on the street in real life, any cleavage I see is still way sexier than all the butt cracks out there! For the girls, there's plenty of ripped muscly guys fighting to feast your eyes on. Jin is pretty hot, though he's perpetually covered in blood even when he's not fighting. He's also got a weird accent that I can't really place. In terms of which character looks most like their game character, Heihachi and Eddy Gordo win I think. Steve Fox loses miserably as he's meant to have hair and be a whole lot younger than Nina Williams.
So in summary, I did enjoy it overall. Not the best fighting game movie there is, but definitely way better than the Chun Li movie. Not quite up to Van Damme Street Fighter awesomeness though. Watch it if you're a fan of Tekken or you like corny action flicks. Give it a miss if you're into complex stories and character development.
Here's the movie trailer:

















