Review of Tekken (2010) by Johnny A — 12 May 2012

Tekken is a film that can't decide whether it wants to base itself from the game with shiny and colourful, almost cartoon like costumes or go all gritty and urban in the area now known as the "anvil", an area seperated from the inner city of "tekken" where the worldwidely known fighting tournamment, the "iron-fist" takes place. In a strange sense, the mix of the two appeal visually, which is something the tekken film seems to do alot of throughout the duration of the movie, however short it may be.

However, if your looking to watch this movie as a fan of the tekken series, you should seriously consider what you believe you want to see before watching the film. It's a movie based on a game, and we all know how well those title's normally work out. Therefore you can't just expect to load up your DVD or sit in the theatres and see an exact replica of the game, that would make a senselessly boring film.

The tekken film focuse's around the story of one of the more popular characters in the tekken series. Jin Kazama (Played by Jon Foo). Jin witnesses the death of his mother, Jun, right before his very eyes. The death of his mother was carried out by the infamous group "Tekken", in the urban envioronment of anvil. After finding what appears to be a tekken ID card amidst the rubble after his mother died, Jin then decides to investigate and seek vengance for his mothers death.

The movie begins by sharing you a little bit of back story, and a few clips from what happens near the end. It's one of those "We'll tease you about the ending near the beginning then replay those clips again later" sort of movies. Now this doesn't really work well because unless you watch it twice through like I did you most probably won't notice it as it doesn't handle it very well. Shortly after the backstory theres a nicely paced chase scene were jin is being chased by a gang of thugs. The pace changes throughout this scene between rapid to slow creeping around to try and hide, and this effect works well.

Throughout the film you get most of the same old stuff. Fight 1. Fight 2. Find out the evil guys your dad. Fight 3. Revenge. End. It really is that simple, theres no twists or anything to keep it interesting throughout which isn't very fun, but the fight scenes in general are very asthetically pleasing and gory. The special effects are very nice and well in conjunction with the pace of whats going on on screen.

However, the film ends rather abruptly and leaves you with possibly a few unanswered questions. What ever happened to your father? Did the assassins who attempted to kill Jin ever get caught? What happens next? Lot's is forgotten to be concluded, which is rather dissapointing.

Pros:

- Visually Impressive.

- Fairly Decent Storyline.

- Exciting, Fast Paced Fight Scenes.

Cons:

- Generic Structure.

- Cartoon Style Or Urban?

- Leaves Much To Be Answered.

- Very Short.