Tekken: A Man Called X

As a player of the game Tekken from the introduction of the very first game I was excited as all get out when I saw the first Tekken movie which was animated. After feeling like my hard earned money was wasted I still had faith in the people who would make a great Tekken movie. I believed that SOMEONE would do this game the honor it deserves and produce a great film adaptation. I saw Gary Daniels connected to the film and having loved his work for years as a big screen martial artist I had reasonably high hopes for this film to at least be bearable. This movie was not. I applaud the success of those who were able to bring their vision to life, but this was really really bad.

If you've seen the first Tekken movie - whether you liked it or not - and expect a similar content, you will be disappointed. This movie felt like a waste for over 90% of its runtime and comes nowhere near to the first Tekken movie.

It seems like a low-budget movie. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, sometimes even the opposite. After finishing this movie it felt like I was stuck for ages in slow motion visions of the past. Half of the whole movie seemed to be filled with these probably due to alck of content, so try not to fall asleep if you take upon the challenge of watching it. Other than that there's a few good fight scenes (not the first ones) but way too few to make any difference and rescue the foreseeable and almost non-existent plot.

Overall an anticlimactic experience, best suggested to be ignored or watched while being pre-occupied. If you like to get papers done, or study with some background-noise, this might be the right movie for you.

As in: Maybe they should stop making Tekken movies and just concentrate on the games. Though I have to admit, I didn't connect this with the games at any point. Which is either a good thing (making it a unique story) or a bad thing (going too far away from the source material). Whatever the case, it's the viewer who has the last word on it. And some might wish they had amnesia after watching this.

Seriously though: The fighting is pretty decent, though you do wonder how they get some people involved in movies like this. I guess everyone needs money after all. Gary Daniels makes more sense I reckon though, but the movie/script might have sounded better than the finished product after all. Because there are a few nice touches/ideas that almost shine through, but never seem to really capture the viewer ... there are worse movies out there, but there are far better ones too.

I am an avid Tekken player, and I too loved the story line of the games. This movie had nothing to do with the games, and it was just a waste of time. I barely made it through. The first live action movie they made wasn't great either, but it had a lot more to offer than this did. At least in the first one there were more than 2 of the original players in the game, and there was an actual tournament! Fight scenes were poorly done, and believe it or not, I would rather the first 'porn' actor that played Kazuya than the guy they got for this one. If you have to, watch it because you liked the games, but trust me, don't expect anything out of this.

The fact that TEKKEN was not a perfect movie isn't shocking, but it is surprising how significantly worse its successor is. Director Wych Kaos is not exactly known for making great films and his video game movie does not bolster his reputation. KAZUYA'S REVENGE is not so much an adaptation as a lazy spin off, and though it does some things very well, its deficiencies are overwhelming and make this an unenjoyable outing for all but niche viewers.

The story: Haunted by confusing memories, an amnesiac martial artist (Kane Kosugi) is kidnapped by a crime organization and turned into an assassin.

The best thing that can be said about this movie is that Kane Kosugi is, at least, a much more apt choice for the lead role than Ian Anthony Dale was before him. A stellar performer just coming off one of the best fight scenes of the decade in NINJA II, Kosugi does what he does best in delivering fights that range from endurable to pretty good. The low number of characters from the series limits the dream matchups this one can present (and the one it does give us – Kosugi versus Gary "Bryan Fury" Daniels – is rubbish), but Kane manages some respectable bouts with genre regulars Ron Smoorenburg, Eoin O'Brien, and Brahim Achabbakhe. Karate fans won't be completely bored.

Normally, my satisfaction for that regard would garner at least an average rating, but the movie is a metaphor for how a table cannot stand on only one leg. Aside from the fact that the plot in no way resembles the TEKKEN series and would probably make more sense without the label, the screenplay of KAZUYA'S REVENGE appears to have been written with a license to pad and instructions to only tell a fractional story... Many scenes are given over to time-killing flashbacks and montages of Kazuya aimlessly wandering around. The motivations of and relationships between characters are frustratingly enigmatic. Several times, Kazuya will enter a new locale, and with some unclear understanding known only to the characters, he will engage in an unprompted and unexplained fight scene. The movie ends without any resolution, clearly teasing another sequel that I hope will not see production – at least not under the same director.

The upcoming reboot – THE KING OF THE IRON FIST TOURNAMENT - will constitute the third TEKKEN-inspired feature within a decade, and the fact that fans are a lot less happy about this than you'd assume says a lot about the missed opportunities of the series as a film franchise. The creative decisions this particular one makes are genuinely frustrating, and sends the impression that not only did the producers not care about representing the characters, they did not even care about telling a coherent story. Perhaps the politics of direct-to-video filmmaking are to blame, but no one ought feel compelled to sit through this.