Tekken: Blood Vengeance

I got to see this at the special premiere event held at select theaters across the US, and I'm glad I did! After one lackluster animated film and one downright disappointing live-action one, a film adaptation of the celebrated fighting game hits it out of the park. Rather than trying to force-feed the viewer as many of the 44-to-date major characters as they can while explaining the history of the King of Iron Fist Tournaments to people who may or may not have played/loved the games, this movie takes a different track. Focusing on a very limited cast of characters--yet a cast drawn from all the way across the history of the games--this piece tells a story which falls squarely within the universe of the games (as opposed to one merely "based on" them). Occurring between the events of Tekken 5/Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection and Tekken 6, this follows popular character Ling Xiaoyu as she is recruited by a powerful corporation to do some undercover investigation of a handsome high school student. Along the way, she encounters and befriends the quirky Alisa Bosconovich, unaware that she is on a similar mission--not to mention unaware of some other secrets Alisa is keeping. As the two work their way closer to the truth, dirty secrets, both little and big, about their employers are uncovered, and plots within plots lead inevitably to a generational confrontation which could potentially alter what it means to be human.

This movie has a fair amount of depth and character development. Thanks to the small cast, tightly focused story, and an understanding of what makes a good game as opposed to a good movie, the audience is treated to something special--learning who these people we fight with in-game truly are, and how they got that way. Characters were clearly selected because relationships which already existed between them could heighten the drama, or because they were foils for each other, allowing new relationships to form while informing the audience of important plot points. Don't get me wrong: There's plenty of action, and plenty of fights. Characters even use those wonderful combos players are so familiar with. The Nina/Anna encounters provide a deeper understanding of their relationship than we can get in-game--yes, even while they're fighting!--and avoids being reduced to cliché. And near the end is the battle royale that gamers all wished we could have seen at the end of Tekken 4, but the consoles lacked the power to make happen. It's glorious.

There are moments when it gets a bit campy, of course, but overall, the nice mix of characters, the nice mix of action and development, and the crisp, true-to-the-game visuals make this movie the unicorn of gaming: A game-based movie that's actually good!

I am not a fan of Tekken and have never played the games. The only thing I have done is watching the live-action movie in 2010 and animated movie. And that's all I know about Tekken. But the visuals in the trailer has attracted me to watch this. The visuals are pretty and realistic like in Final Fantasy: Advert Children and Resident Evil: Degeneration.

The story: Yeah, as what the other reviewers complain, the story is dead simple and is probably an excuse to string various fight scenes together. But the beautiful visuals and cool fight scenes make the movie more watchable. You can marvel at the detailed animation and fight scenes are almost flawless like in a live-action movie. The few fight scenes for an CGI movie are top-notch. Although action fans will have to patiently wait for the action-packed third act which features one of the best fight scene in animated and CGI movies. The story in fact is not too bad. It has a bit of the spy stuff. Music wise is good. Best to be viewed with the Japanese voice-over. The English one sounds weird.

Overall: It is supposedly a Tekken movie for the fans who are enraged by the live-action movie. I guess the fans will enjoy this better than the live-action movie. The hybrid Blu-ray is interesting. It plays the 2D and 3D version on Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray players plus the game on Playstation 3.

After 13 years of playing the game, after seeing how namco stated they would do a proper movie to redeem themselves for letting that disappointing live-action movie to be made, I had high hopes for this animated movie. It is every tekken fan's dream for there to be a true masterpiece of a movie.

Unfortunately, it did not happen. this movie turned out to be yet another mediocre attempt. Better than the live action for sure, but still fall way short of what was expected of it.

First problem is the general directing and "acting", too much pretentious "I am cool" crap, mostly from Anna, Nina, Jin and Shin, yuck! if tekken was aimed at 15 years olds then I would understand, but most long time tekken fans are now in their mid twenties to mid thirties. these high school wannabe facial and body expressions simply come off superfacial and repulsive.

Second problem is voice acting. I watched the English version, after the 3rd line of the whole movie, where Nina and Anna exchange greetings, I was like "oh boy..". The voice acting is closer to a cheap DVD localised release of anime series than a mainstream feature animated film. it was as if voice actors had no proper direction or had not understood their characters, several characters come off as cheese and pretentious. since it's just like their acting, maybe it was intended after all.

third and the biggest disappointment of this movie is the way the final battle had taken powers so out of proportion, almost as if we have moved from Tekken universe into Dragon Ball Z universe. this sort of elevation is not a problem if the movie did not have tekken in its roots. the whole point of tekken is balanced fighting power between its characters that makes a fight possible. Turning it into a plasma canon feast completely destroys the fundamental dynamic between the characters. and in the end one super Saiyan characters seemingly seriously but obviously jokingly tells a teenage girl, "some day you will defeat me" .

Having said all this, Blood Vengeance is not without merits. I really enjoyed its animination in general, Ling has a difference face in every tekken game she appeared but she looked the best in this one, yet still maintains a very oriental look. some perverted shots from below hers and Allisa's short skirt were amusing. Music and sound effects are top quality. Lee's comical presences was great, it was a pity that they did not handle Anna and Nina in a similar less-serious more-fun approach.

All in all, Tekken fans will see it regardless what people say, non fans will find plot somewhat puzzling and over movie lacklustre, but semi- decent entertainment nevertheless.

Not really a Tekken fan otherwise I would have loved the movie. I enjoyed the music and the fight scenes but I had a hard time focusing on the female characters. The problem is with the way there bodies react.

I am accustomed to watching people body muscle move in a certain fashion when they're moving and when we have 4 main female characters, it's really hard to avoid noticing that part. Hence, throughout the movie it kept bugging me.

If only they moved it around a bit, the whole movement would seem natural. The CGI was a bit repetitive when it comes to the scenes but I guess you can't really complain about that considering what the movie is based on.

Apart from all those minor issues that I noticed and personally felt, the movie is indeed fun to watch, although I have to skip the dialogues because the dub was just messing up everything. I guess this movie should be watched in it's original language with subtitles enabled.

Again, don't get me wrong. I liked the movie, I am just a bit put off by certain things that I couldn't stop noticing. Didn't see other Tekken movies and honestly reading the reviews, I am glad a didn't.

The movie does contain some good action, perhaps a bit more of it would be awesome. Good job NAMCO.

apart from the nude scene from Shin Kamiya, kinda miss that guy since he was awesome in the film, even though this was a girly film its also better than the other 2 rubbish Tekken film this one was actually better. But they should make a sequel because they didn't explain how Alisa ended up in a cell when Lars found her in Tekken 6 scenario mode, and namco should put shin in the future Tekken game also i recommend that this film won't be a let down to a Tekken fan because the final fight scene was epic and thought how would Jin fight in a Tekken film. the voices were not too bad to me anyways. finally a film with a plot line related to the Tekken franchise