Tekken is a long-running series of fighting games made by Bandai Namco. At the time of the writing of this review, I think the series has about six million different games on a plethora of systems. Unlike The King of Fighters series though, I have delved ever so slightly into the realm of Tekken, or as it translates into English, Iron First. Weirdly enough, that means in this movie the Tekken, or Iron Fist company sponsors the Tekken or Iron Fist tournament. So, are they fighting in Iron Fist's Iron Fist tournament? Or is it The Tekken company's Tekken tournament? It seems like they need to get creative on that issue.
I am not sure of the plot of the Tekken games, which from what I remember included a lot of people being thrown off cliffs and into volcanoes, but I don't know if they also took place in a dark dystopian future like this film. Also, by dark, I mean literally dark, as it seems the world of the Tekken movie is in perpetual night. In this future, eight super-wealthy companies took over the globe after the collapse. It was a generic collapsing of the world through some mundane means or another, so it doesn't deserve more than the title of the collapse. America is run by the Tekken group who holds a fighting tournament called the Iron Fist as a way to spread peace and prosperity. Maybe it was honor and money, it's unimportant. The main character Jin, who has no last name given until the appropriate time, loses his mom to an attack by the Mishima security group after he stole and delivered some Tekken tech. With his mom dead, Jin decides that he should join the tournament to exact his revenge, as he thinks it was the head of the company who orchestrated the attack. Lucky for him, the one place they are holding open tryouts is only a few seconds walk from his bombed-out home. He beats tournament regular Marshall Law...yup, that's the name they went with, by using his mom's secret technique of not losing. Seriously, the flashback he has during his fights shows his mom going "If you don't want to lose, then don't lose. Instead, you should win." Wow, thanks, mom. Jin then goes about the rest of the film on a route to some slap fight revenge.
I did enjoy that the movie actually featured a fighting tournament and for the most part we got to see it right through to the end. Unlike in say, King of Fighters. Here you get to see the characters fight each other one-on-one for glory, honor, and bragging rights, although the tournament is of course rigged in the favor of the son of the Tekken Corp, as he is involved in a coup to oust his dad. There are some lost side plots about metal bones, double girlfriends, sexy lady assassins, and a bunch more, but not delving into them is probably for the best. Also, Jin drops his girlfriend from the poor area for another fighter in seconds. He doesn't even think about her at all when getting ready to get his fight on under the sheets.
The fights are solid, the action is good, the need for Jin and others to do their moves from the game is appreciated but a bit cheesy in the way they are shoved into the fights just for the fact of having them. It ended up being a lot more entertaining than I thought it would have been. It's not Shakespeare with fists but for an okay action movie, it will do in a pinch.
More importantly, though, how does it stack up in the Action movie Showdown? Let's find out!
The Scores!
1 – Tournament Fighter – 5/10 – Although it all goes to shit near the end, Tekken is mostly about a fighting tournament. Mostly.
2 – Mom Knows Best – 5/10 – Stupid or not, I love how Jin's mom's advice is basically don't lose. If you find yourself losing Jin, just stop losing and start winning. It's genius really.
3 – Dating the Poor – 2/10 – It's just in bad taste how quickly Jin drops his poorer girlfriend. All she wants is chocolate and sex Jin...that's it, at least according to her character arc.
4 – You Look Fabulous! - 6/10 – I wholly support any movie that goes out of its way to use costume designs from a video game. They look amazing and ridiculous, with extra points added to the movie for slowly revealing Jin's costume pieces and giving them a backstory. Them gloves have lived.
5 – Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa: Villain for Life - 6/10 – man this guy was born to play the villain in every live-action movie based on a fighting game.
Bonus Round
+1 - Costuming - Although mentioned before, the idea that Jin slowly gets his costume throughout the movie is really entertaining to me. He only has pants with flames on them and goofy gloves. But, I admit I enjoy the movie needed to give those pants a backstory.
Final Score
Adding it all up plus the bonus point, Tekken scores an exact average 25/50. In conclusion, if you want average but entertaining, Tekken is your movie.