Tekken

I personally am a huge fan of the Tekken series (specifically 3 and Tag Tournament), and when I saw that there was a Tekken anime, I was thrilled. Since I couldn't find it anywhere, I set it to download on Kazaa. It took two or three days to download, building up the anticipation of seeing one of my favorite video games brought to life. When I finally watched it, I was thoroughly disappointed. This movie had very little redeeming qualities to it: the characters were mostly annoying (ie- Lee Chaolan, Nina and Anna, Heihachi, Jun Kazama), and as has been mentioned before, the fighting and character development were minimal. Seemed like the most interesting character was Jack and the little girl, though it seemed a little corny and done before (the whole machine learning how to feel, etc...). The plot line went all over the place and ended up barely resembling the game. What also bothered me was that some of the more interesting characters from the series (Paul Phoenix, King and Armor King, Yoshimitsu, etc...) were in it for about 5 seconds in the background in the final scene. Much of the movie was completely gratuitous (Anna's shower scene, the stealth mutant dinosaurs). This movie gets a 2 for effort and the couple half-interesting scenes with Jack.

I'm a huge fan of the Tekken series, as well as of anime movies, so it was only natural that I would see this film eventually. Here's my quick take on it.

The Tekken video games, despite popular belief, have very deep storylines. There are over fifty characters, all connected to one another via relationships, grudges, sordid pasts, and anything else imaginable. The filmmakers decided to crush this level of depth into sixty minutes of screentime. Obviously, only a few of the characters could be focused on, but they made a gosh-darn good effort at trying to squeeze every last character they could in there anyway. Some fighters were touched on, then lost, others existed solely to be killed by the more popular characters. The ones that did last long enough to have a real storyline were horrendously twisted from their video game counterparts', again, all in an effort to fit as much as humanly possible into an hour long movie.

The Tekken part of the movie was mangled, but sadly, also was the anime part, which could have been it's redeeming quality. In true anime style, there were long-winded speeches, sappy emotional connections, over-the-top fisticuffs, and more gore than you can shake a proverbial stick at. However, the movie takes these elements to such a level that they appear to be almost a charicature of anime. The conversations are dull and pointless, punctuated by awful voice-actors and unnecessary background music that mercifully drowns out parts of it. The emotional scenes are overdone and don't evoke any real emotions. The fights, when they do occur, consist of talking mostly, with the occasional bloody beat-down. When dinosaurs get released all over the island...well, things just get ridiculous in that department.

With all the bashing this movie has received from other critics and me, don't think you necessarily have to avoid it at all costs, either. There are some good, action-packed scenes that make it almost worth suffering through the bad ones. All in all, Tekken: The Motion Picture is good, campy fun that should be seen by all fans of the games once...and only once.

I was really disappointed and mad after I watched this movie. My expectations were too high. The beginning of the movie was the best part because it was giving the information of the story. Beyond that it started to decline more and more. The thing that really made me mad was why show characters from Tekken 3 at the opening credits if they weren't in the rest of the movie. That's just stupid in my eyes. Once the tournament started, what happened with all the characters? Yoshimitsu, Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, King, Armor King, all were seen and didn't show them throughout the tournament. Everyone had a story to tell in that game, but they only centered it on Jun and Kazuya. They only thing that was a plus was that it was filled in some of the blanks on Tekken 2 between the two of them. Lee Chaolan was just an idiot on the movie. I understand that in game story he was obsessed about controlling the Mishima Zaibatsu, but he would never go as far to kill himself and and destroy the company so no one else would get it. He's not that insane.

Overall, the movie really let me down. Like I said before the only thing that was good was the information. At least now we know that how Jin came to be born. I just wish we could've learned more about the other characters. That's the only thing that was wrong about the movie. Hopefully, if they do another movie they would get it right, but that's only going on hope.

From the video game 'Tekken' comes an anime movie, 'Tekken: The Motion Picture'. The story begins the same as the story of 'Mortal Kombat'. As in 'Mortal Kombat' the main villain makes sure another person has to seek revenge, as in 'Mortal Kombat' martial art experts get on a boat to arrive on an island, and as in 'Mortal Kombat' a tournament is the reason to do so. We follow a couple of different persons who all want to kill the villain, all with their own reasons. On their journeys they encounter some strange enemies and of course hidden secrets are revealed.

Although the animation is not as good as we normally see in this kind of movies there still is some energy, especially in the fighting sequences. This is not a very good movie but since it is not that long, less than an hour, it was quite watchable. Although most things are ridiculous, even for anime, I was entertained. Because of its running time it doesn't find a chance to become really boring. There are better movies from the genre but for only an hour there is a good chance you will like it.

OK, Tekken the movie..... First of all, the cons are that it is far too short, seemingly will lead into a sequel yet at the same time will not, and most of the minor characters only show up and do not interact with the story in any way.

However, for the most part the pros beat out the cons. For one, the story does go into Kazuya, the main character of Tekken 1 and 2's story, the dubbing isn't horrible (Except for Law), the soundtrack is amazing with Stabbing Westward, Offspring, and some other late 90's rock artists, and often fits with the action.

Overall, if u like the game, see it first then think about buying it from there, if u haven't played the game, its a good rent, but you probably wont want to buy it