Video Game Movie Double Feature #3 Part 1: Tekken

Well we have another video game movie to discuss and this
one is not a tired lackluster effort.  It
is actually a decent action flick but does it hold a candle to the franchise
itself?

No I’m afraid not, while it is better than the dismal Tekken
OVA/Animated Movie from 1993, it has its share of problems and what happens to
certain character appeals. It is well put together in terms of the music, and
fight choreography which is some of the best I’ve seen in movies in a long time
let alone a video game flick.

The movie starts with our hero Jin going to the ring than
flashbacks to him fleeing Jackhammers (The Jack Robots) from Tekken City into
the slums, and narrating that it has been 5 years and the world has become
divided by corporations and is called collectively the Iron fist.  The largest of these corporations is called
Tekken founded by Heihachi Mishima (Portrayed by Cary Tagawa from Mortal
Kombat.)  However to keep things orderly
amongst the corporations they hold a tournament called the King of Iron Fist
every year (A Deathmatch/Rollerball plot).

Jin lives in a the slums on the outskirts of Tekken City
called the Anvil which looks very much like it was pulled from Final Fantasy
VII.  He goes on scavaging runs in order
to acquire currency ranging from Red Tekken Dollars to Rare Blue Global
Dollars.  He conducts his trade with an
anti-Tekken radical named Bonner who speaks that Jin would be a good asset to
the revolution taking place.   Jin
declines the offer, collects his money and goes about his way.

After leaving Bonner’s place he ventures about the slums
showing viewers how horrid the conditions have become for commoners.  Meanwhile Bonner plans to hack Tekken using
the device Jin traded with him in order to announce/broadcast the truth.  Jin comes home seeing his mother Jun Kazama,
and speaks with her about his latest scores from his outings.  Jun isn’t happy about the dangers her son
places himself into and tells him there is another way to make ends meet.  Jin interjects by mentioning fighting for
Tekken, and the two start arguing with the traditional angst/tragic
backstory  plot but Jin leaves the house
to go spend time with a girl named Carie.

Moments later, Tekken corp traces the device back to
Bonner’s place, where jackhammers led by Kazuya Mishima raided and taken the
device back and in hunting for Jin finds his mother’s home and executes her.
Jin comes back to find her dead and decides to enter the Iron Fist Tournament
and take revenge against Heihaichi Mishima. 
Jin is participating as a People’s choice against one of the low tier
fighters (In the movie anyway) Marshall Law. 

This is where the movie gets good, Jin goes into the fray
gtting into a blood free for all against Law, and it is glorious the way the
direction and fighting mixes.   Everything
about the battle just keeps me focused and wondering what’s going to happen
next.

Jin becomes an overnight celebrity after defeating law, and the
man who allowed Jin to participate is named Steve Fox, who decides to become
his manager and yes, if you played the games…that’s totally not Steve Fox but hey
this is the adaptation not the great games themselves.

Meet Steve Fox

Once these traits are established we leave
the slums and venture into the vast Tekken City where we meet the leaders of
Tekken, Heihachi and his son, Kazuya.

Unlike the source material, Kazuya is working alongside of
his father apparently as a composite of him and Lee’s characters.  It works for this movie because there’s
already one revenge story and we don’t need another right now.  We do see that Kazuya wants to take over the
Tekken reigns from his father but Heihachi doesn’t think he’s ready yet so the
father/son conflict theme is where it needs to be.

As Jin is welcomed into the fighter landscape, we get a good
look at the other fighters from the game series who made the cut.

1) Raven
2) Nina Williams
3) Sergei Dragunov (Unless you played Tekken 6, you won’t know him)
4) Eddy Gordo
5) Jin Kazama (You should all know him by now)
6) Bryan Fury
7) Anna Williams (She doesn’t do anything in the Tournament at all!)
8) Christie Monterio
9) Miguel Rojas (Unless you played Tekken 6, you don’t know him)
10) Yoshimitsu

The second match has Jin fighting to prove his worth and
this time around earns the interest of Heihachi and the obsession of
Kazuya.  Much later Jin begins to fall
into a mutual attraction with Christie, and ventures on a lovely evening with
her.  Kazuya still bothered by the move
set and abilities of Jin begins to go on a private investigation about him and
begins to harbor intense hatred once he finds out the connection between them.

(Those who have played the games know full well what it is.)

The revelation of events drive Kazuya insane and once Jin
and Christie return from the flirtatious evening.  The Williams sisters wielding ninja swords
ambush Jin in his room and they practically make cole slaw out of him until
Christie breaks the door down and sends them off into the night.  The two reunite with Steve Fox whom deduces
that the Tekken Corp targeted Jin due to his popularity and that Jin should leave but once Fox learns
of Jin’s mother Jun.  It becomes a scene
about how Tekken is a corrupted and how Jun was a great fighter with Fox from
the past.  Unfortunately the scene goes
nowhere as they still decide to have Jin forfeit but Jin objects and
states he is there to kill Mishima. We’re back at the ringside again where
Heihachi and Kazuya have another dispute about Jin, and Christie gets into a
match with the infamous assassin of the series, Nina Williams.

The Christie vs Nina match is a brutal follow up to the
assassination scene and I commend the direction with this battle.  Christie wins and Steve gives the wounded Jin
a present for his damaged hands, and they are the iconic Iron Fist Tournament
gloves basically a symbol for the Tekken Franchise as a whole.  

This must be a Soul Calibur reference in disguise.

Jin takes to using the gloves for the next
match against Yoshimitsu. Who is nowhere near his representation in the games
as a benevolent swordsman, he is another warrior who is promised money by
Kazuya if he kills Jin.    In true
villainous fashion Kazuya’s desperation takes its toll and he begins to take it
upon his own hands to overthrow Heihachi. Heihachi was going to cancel the
Jin/Yoshimitsu fight and save it for the semi-finals but Kazuya plays his hand
at this point and the match resumes.

In the ring, Jin is put against the ropes while he battles
the swordsman but as per usual in his fights, memories of his mother’s training
causes him to rise up and fight with all of his might.  Jin defeats Yoshimitsu finally causing Kazuya
to overreact and Heihachi puts his hatred of Jin into a forgone conclusion.

“You have a son?”

Indeed Kazuya admits to his violation of Jin’s Mother from
the past and it is his intention that this company is his and he has no
intention of letting it fall into another’s hands.  Seeing that his son’s mentality is long since
gone, Heihachi hits an emergency alarm and causes a small commotion but Kazuya
advises the Tekken Fighters to be detained for the rest of the tournament.  Some of the fighters from Steve, Jin, Raven,
and Christie attempted to get away in the commotion only to be swarmed by
Jackhammers. Unfortunately Raven is captured, and the remaining few scurried
away into the slums along with a retreating Heihachi to a safe house that Jin
knows of (Really?).

The movie wasn’t about fighting or the plot because of the
getaway scenes, I guess it was just a way for producers to fill in the time by
opening up the landscape around the fighters even if you saw in the picture is
pretty narrow and dull. The movie turns into a bang bang shootout sequence that
could make both Steven Seagal and Michael Bay proud.   It was very out of place even if it is a
stumbling attempt to give the audience something different to see.  In the safehouse, Jin confronts Heihachi and
finds out the connection to the Mishima Bloodline, and not too long after the
group is ambushed by Jackhammers who destroyed a sizeable portion of the
slums.  So there was really nowhere else
they could hide at and Steve is killed this time around, Heihachi is taken away
by a Jack to be executed, and Jin and Christie are taken back to Tekken City.

This whole sequence occurs abruptly and feels forced, so as
a viewer I’m wondering why did they even leave Tekken City in the first place?

Once we’re back at the Jail cell where we were two scenes ago, Jin has a bitter
heart to heart with Kazuya.  We find out
that the next Tekken battles will not be for honor but for death, and to make
sure Jin fights out his last matches. 
Kazuya takes Christie Hostage which is interesting because I thought she
was a competitor but anyways  Jin is a wreck at this point. In case anyone is concerned about Dragunov, he’s unfortunately used in the movie to show off Fury’s superior strength in a forced Worf Effect so he gets brutally killed by Bryan Fury to show that tournament is going in a darker direction. Fortunately for the movie’s plot and Jin’s direction, his next opponent is Bryan Fury.  

Bryan Fury, the wildly mad cyborg in the franchise whom is
pretty much Yoshimitsu’s arch nemesis by Tekken 5 is the champion character in
this movie, and Jin having lost a few people close to him is broken, tired, and
having Christie’s life in his hands is in an understandable state of mind.   It actually plays out pretty well because
you can feel for him that despite his initial journey to kill Mishima, he is
technically a Mishima and fell into a Heroic BSOD.   Meanwhile Raven decides to step into the
temporary mentor role and pull Jin out of his slump by saying that Jin has the
potential for greatness and can inspire hope as long as he doesn’t give into
revenge.

This rekindle Jin’s spirit a bit and inspires him to put on
the gloves, and by the way it’s filmed it makes you think that it’s going to be
for one last time and probably could be because a lot is at stake right
now.  Kazuya sets up the match and we’re
back in the first scene of the film where Jin is walking to the ring to face
his challenge.  He’s on his way to battle
Bryan Fury not just for the championship or his life but for the world’s
salvation.   Soon as our hero is in the
ring with Byran, we notice that Mr.Fury is unlike any of the combatants that
Jin has faced before.  Fury has a secret
within his body that only Kazuya knows and it is that he’s a cyborg modified
with plenty of Tekken tech (least in the movie).

This fight as like the other fights is brilliantly
choreographed and it is good to see Martial Arts champ, Gary Daniels still
showing that he is a master of his craft.  How Jin manages to fight Bryan was awesome and even though I could feel the
producers were quickly trying to end this film by due to production costs and the match’s
length.  It’s fine with me because the
most important fight that happens in all of the Tekken Games is about to begin, the battle between father and son.

That was it? Unfortunately it was the most underwealming fight in the entire film.  Kazuya walks into the ring sporting two mini
axes to battle his son (Which never happens). He taunts and entices Jin to kill
him as he does in the games but Jin manages to use Kazuya’s arrogance against
him, and wounds him using one of the axes. 
I was annoyed by how short this fight was and thought if they didn’t
waste time making the damn shootout scenes the movie could had enough runtime
for a better final battle.  After all the
stuff, Kazuya did to torment Jin, He deserved a better beat down than what was
presented.

Jin reunites with Christie and decides its best that he
returns home since he’s now the champ. 
So he starts leaving from Tekken City as she watches and narrows how Jin
became a symbol for hope and freedom.  Jin
walks back to the slums as a noble warrior would do in terms of finding another
pathway in life aka like Ryu does at the end of Street Fighter II.   It’s a good ending if used right and well
just like certain transition scenes in this movie, it wasn’t.   His home was destroyed in the beginning of
the movie, his romance with Christie was just a fling, and everyone chants for
him like he just ended poverty, and it was nothing but a mundane/shallow
victory.

That’s not all however, in the post credits we see
Kazuya rising up from his wounds and running somewhere else, and Heihachi was
able to prevent his assassination from the Jack.   Perhaps in hopes of making a sequel or
keeping some of the source material spirit intact for the feature’s sake. 

Well we did get a sequel of sorts but it was so bad that it
made this one look incredible. I’m not going to say this movie is a bad video
game adaptation but it raises more questions than answers.  It left a lot out from the source material while
understandable in making a based on property it could’ve had a little more
direction with it was using.  Now the
direction in general outside of the fights is very “Huh?” or –annoyed
sigh-.  Plus outside of Yoshimitsu, some of
the weapon usage in this film belongs in an entirely different Namco property
altogether (see Soul Series).  Just little things like that
lead you on a road to nowhere and honestly when watching entertainment you want
to see the conflict get resolved with purposeful scenes.

Now is it watchable or not? 
Yes, it is watchable and it is a decent fighting flick. Would it win
awards? No certainly not and if it did, it wouldn’t be those big prestigious
awards you’re thinking of but I was entertained for the most part. It
lacks the charm of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat while remaining miles ahead of
Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat Annihilation. You do have to think this though “What can you
do?” Sometimes it is hard to bing certain elements into live action form but if
you can get pass some of the wooden characters and head-scratching moments, you
can enjoy this film but for video game fans it’s best to just stick with the
games instead.