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SYNOPSIS: The
critically acclaimed Namco videogame franchise TEKKEN is set
to come to life on the big screen. Rising from the ashes of
a crumbled civilization, Gladiatorial combat has replaced
warfare and ruthless fighters pit themselves against one another
in a bid for global supremacy. In the midst of the greatest
tournament ever known, one warrior attempts to fulfill his
destiny and become King of the Iron Fist.
Civilization as we know it has been destroyed and in it's
place a dystopian world order has arisen with seven all powerful
corporations controlling the planet. America is under the
totalitarian leadership of the mighty Tekken Corporation and
it's CEO Heihachi Mishima who rules absolutely from the capital
of Tekken City. Those outside the metropolis's walls lead
a life of fear and despair, fioghting for survival as outcasts
in a harsh world where resources are scarce. Rising from this
poverty is Jin who is driven by nothing more than a desire
to murder the man who killed his mother. In order to exact
his revenge, Jin must defeat the world's most elite fighters
and win the 'iron fist' tournament. However, this journey
will show Jin a past that his mother had tried to hide from
him and force him to realize a future that threatens to tear
him apart.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
Pardon the bias- this reviewer tends to automatically lower his expectations for any live-action video game adaptation, especially if it comes from Hollywood. Besides the Resident Evil movies (the first three at least; the last in my opinion was god-awful), there isn’t a single Hollywood adaptation that is worth your while. And so the tradition continues with this latest adapted from the Namco Bandai series of arcade games- just one more piece of proof that video games don’t make good big-screen material.
The excuse of a story here is so simple it can be summed up in just one line- our hero Jin Kazama (Jon Foo) has to enter the Iron Fist tournament to avenge his mother who was killed at the hands of Kazuya Mishima (Ian Anthony Dale- you may recognise him from NBC’s The Event) and his grandfather Heihachi Mishima (Cary Hiroyuki- Tagawa). The Iron Fist tournament plays exactly like you would in an arcade- two players mano-a-mano against each other, the last man standing advancing to the next round and so on.
Plot development, like most if not all video game adaptations, is minimal and mere filler to get from one fight to another. Screenwriter Alan B. McElroy appears to try to make the movie matter more than just an extended video game commercial in the first half-hour, setting up Jin’s entry into the tournament. But once Jin is in, he gives up almost too quickly, and the rest of the movie is nothing but predictable, right down to the sequence of the characters being killed.
Not that you will actually care- none of the characters are more memorable than the avatars they are in the game, and leave no deeper impression than playing the arcade game would. Still, the saving grace is that fight choreographer Brian J. Reynolds does a decent job crafting the various fight sequences, and even though you don’t get to participate, just watching them is enough to give you an adrenaline rush. Reynolds also doesn’t shy from brutality, the fight scenes turning out vicious and hard-hitting where it counts.
Even if there isn’t much directing to do, Dwight H. Little (better known for his work on episodes of Bones and Prison Break) keeps the pace moving along briskly. Of course, by the time the 92 minutes is up, you’ll still be left feeling inconsequential- but at least the journey isn’t too much of a drag. “Tekken” isn’t about to shatter your expectations for a video game adaptation- in fact it fits right in with its one-dimensional characters, one-dimensional story and two-dimensional fighting. Lower your expectations as you should for any video game-based movie, and you won’t be too disappointed.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 doesn’t do much justice to the fighting scenes. Visual transfer is without any visible flaws.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 1 November 2010
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