Plot: The story follows Jin Kazama in his attempts to enter the Iron Fist Tournament in order to avenge the loss of his mother. The story is pretty silly. Some young guy from the most destitute neighborhood enters a tournament of the highest stakes because of his untapped potential. A cliché if ever I saw one. One of the biggest problems of the story is that it feels completely rushed. From the moment Jin’s mother gets killed the story just takes off with no believable build up. Jin’s progression through the tournament, Kazuya’s grab for power, Jin and Christie’s relationship; just everything feels so damn rushed. There’s no character development. Also, it’s pretty predictable at that. Kazuya usurping Heihachi was no surprise. The ending was surprisingly anti-climatic with no real closure. (2 out of 5)
Characters: The characters are what you would expect from a video game adaptation. Almost all of the characters lack depth. Jin is such a one dimensional character and displays none the hardcore attitude of his video game counterpart. Kazuya is just a typical power hungry asshole. He is probably the weakest character in the bunch. He runs around whining pretty much the whole time. Probably the best is character is Steve. He shows depth without seeming over-the-top. Really none of the other characters are even worth mentioning. (2 out of 5)
Cast: Now, I’ll admit that despite the lackluster characters, the casting and performances aren’t all that bad. The most standout is obviously Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. He’s always great at playing villains. He was one of the better aspects of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film (despite being over-the-top). I didn’t really mind Jon Foo’s performance but he isn’t Jin. He would play a better Liu Kang in a Mortal Kombat reboot. Even though I didn’t like Kazuya I thought Ian Anthony Dale did a great job. Supporting cast includes Kelly Overton, Cung Le, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Luke Goss, Tamlyn Tomita, Candice Hillebrand, Marian Zapico, Gary Daniels, Gary Stearns, Roger Huerta, Lateef Crowder, Anton Kasabov, Mircea Montoe, John Pyper Ferguson, and Kiko Ellsworth. (3 out of 5)
Visuals: Visually the movie does look good. There is a great use of the make-up, clothing design, set designs, and practical effects. The fights are decent. I mean the choreography is decent but the awkward camera angles and quick editing make the fights hard to follow and even makes them less intense. A lot of the costumes look great translate well into live action. However, some not so much. The action is decent with plenty of gunfire and explosions but with no real substance. All-in-all, it’s a good looking film. (3 out of 5)
Score: The music isn’t bad but it certainly isn’t memorable. It’s what one would expect from an action flick with no real substance. John Hunter does a decent job but he could’ve raised the bar just a little. (2 out of 5)
Writing: What can you expect from a video game movie about a tournament. I have to point the finger at the writer(s) and director Dwight H. Little for what could’ve been a good movie. First, the characters are poorly written. They have nothing interesting going for them other than to fight and even the fights aren’t really that memorable. The film also takes a lot of liberties with its pacing. Everything is just put out there with absolutely no buildup. There is no tension. The film does take time out to establish the setting but not really flesh it out. What are the other corporations doing? How will they use the tournament to their advantage? None of the numerous questions are really addressed. The dialogue is horrible. The film’s direction is all over the place and it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Video game movies always have terrible writing and this one is no different. Even this idea that Jun had to killed off early in the movie to have these dumb flashbacks was bad writing. (1 out of 5)
The Verdict: In the end, Tekken is one of those video game movies that completely misses the mark. I know the standards for video game movies are high but come on. This movie can be entertaining but the level of nonsense is just overwhelming. The characters are lackluster, most of the fighting is either lazy or quickly edited, the story is stupid, and the writing is subpar. Tekken gets 2 out of 5.
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