Tekken.
By far my favourite beat 'em up on any console. It's got class, a great fighting system, fun characters and really, really hot characters. The mythology of Tekken is simple despite having nearly 40 fighters (since Tekken 6). The Mishima Zaibatsu corporation organise the Tekken tournament each year and fighters around the globe assemble to see who will be crowned the King of the Iron Fist ('cause that's what Tekken means, duh). Every game sees the patriarch of the family (Heihachi) fight off his son Kazuya and, later, his grandson Jin as he tries to gain ultimate power from the Devil gene. Kazuya is evil. Jin is not. Jin becomes the Devil. Heihachi kills Kazuya. Kazuya comes back and leaves Heihachi for dead. Most of the other fighters' stories coincide with this little tiff but some have completely no relationship what-so-ever.
The game is rich in fighting styles. Every single character (besides a few who are a punch of throw different from their progenitors) has a fully realised and unique style. Even those who began as carbon copies of originals (Anna Williams, Armor King, Hwoarang) have developed their own bafflingly large vocabulary of combos and attacks and stance.
The move from game to movie should have been great. After all, the only other amazing beat 'em up (MK) managed to make a brilliant, if not cheesy, transition from game to movie. Somehow, the creators of Tekken have failed in every respect.
First of all, they eschew the entire mythology set down by the game in favour of a very basic revenge scenario. Tekken is now an American term (really?!) and the tournament is a way for Tekken, the establishment, to show that it's better than the other 7 establishments around the globe. Thankfully for America, I mean, Tekken, everyone speaks English. Here, Jin is presented as a wet, English/Chinese streetfighter who lives in some dystopian slum with his tai-chi classy mother, Jun. Jun is the innocent girl who tried to save Kazuya in Tekken 2 but tragically died when Kazuya went all Devil on her ass. Here, Kazuya is a misogynist who raped her. She, shockingly enough, is killed early on, spurring a reluctant Jin to enter the tournament as the people's choice. He meets a few of the favourite fighters from the game (Nina and Anna Williams, Christie Monteiro, Marshall Law) and a few of the rather dumb characters (Dragunov - who's made extra specially gay in this one - and Miguel - who doesn't seem like a tortured Spanish heart throb at all). Not a single one gets to do more than even pretend to look bad or good - it's all about Jin. He fights his way through, facing unfair match ups and assassination attempts before, miracles of miracles, he well.. you know.
Lesson 1; if you are going to make a good martial arts film, you need good fight sequences. Take a leaf out of Jackie Chan or Tony Jaa's book - you can have a dreadful story so long as the fighting is good. Or be like Jet Li and have one or two fights and a really good story. Or be like Hero and have them both. Tekken has neither. The fight scenes must have been the one part that the director didn't want to include because they are slowly paced, all too short and not a tad bit inspired. It's MK 2 all over again. The final climactic fight between avenging son and evil father is over in a whopping 10 seconds. Oh, and Jun pops up in every fight that Jin has to give him some sage advice that will see him pull back from the brink and kick butt.
Then there's the direction of the remainder of the film. It's slowly paced, uninspired and short. Sadly for the actors, half seem to have been told they're in a cheesy martial arts flick and half seem to think they're in a Jet Li epic. The only decent performance comes from Heihachi who's a very serious yet noble dictator. He knows exactly what film he's in and is by turns Fu Man Chu evil and slightly poetic. Classy. The action moves away from the tournament to some dreadful siege/ rebellion thing in the middle which completely destroys any build up that the film has put together. It then returns to the tournament but by this point nobody cares.
The only creative thing the movie has done is included the stage selection aspect. After the two fighters have been randomly chosen on massive monitors, a third screen will randomly pick out an arena and the ring will take on the display. Some of the stages from over the 6 games are visible and it makes a pretty sight but they aren't enjoyed long enough. The women aren't enjoyed long enough. Lots of butt shots and tummy shots but 2/3 girl fighters are ugly as sin. The lighting is too dark in the arena to get to drink it all in. The guys get topless a lot (and in great light to boot!) which is great for some, not so great for others.
Overall, this film has quite possibly the worst direction ever. Had they played Tekken? Did they have any desire to make a good movie? No and no. The fights suck. The story sucks. The acting is dreadful (the director's fault, not the actors). the themes and tone of the film changes a hundred times in the first few minutes and then dissolves into muddy waters for the actual tournament.
Save your money. Play Tekken. Watch Mortal Kombat.
By far my favourite beat 'em up on any console. It's got class, a great fighting system, fun characters and really, really hot characters. The mythology of Tekken is simple despite having nearly 40 fighters (since Tekken 6). The Mishima Zaibatsu corporation organise the Tekken tournament each year and fighters around the globe assemble to see who will be crowned the King of the Iron Fist ('cause that's what Tekken means, duh). Every game sees the patriarch of the family (Heihachi) fight off his son Kazuya and, later, his grandson Jin as he tries to gain ultimate power from the Devil gene. Kazuya is evil. Jin is not. Jin becomes the Devil. Heihachi kills Kazuya. Kazuya comes back and leaves Heihachi for dead. Most of the other fighters' stories coincide with this little tiff but some have completely no relationship what-so-ever.
The game is rich in fighting styles. Every single character (besides a few who are a punch of throw different from their progenitors) has a fully realised and unique style. Even those who began as carbon copies of originals (Anna Williams, Armor King, Hwoarang) have developed their own bafflingly large vocabulary of combos and attacks and stance.
The move from game to movie should have been great. After all, the only other amazing beat 'em up (MK) managed to make a brilliant, if not cheesy, transition from game to movie. Somehow, the creators of Tekken have failed in every respect.
First of all, they eschew the entire mythology set down by the game in favour of a very basic revenge scenario. Tekken is now an American term (really?!) and the tournament is a way for Tekken, the establishment, to show that it's better than the other 7 establishments around the globe. Thankfully for America, I mean, Tekken, everyone speaks English. Here, Jin is presented as a wet, English/Chinese streetfighter who lives in some dystopian slum with his tai-chi classy mother, Jun. Jun is the innocent girl who tried to save Kazuya in Tekken 2 but tragically died when Kazuya went all Devil on her ass. Here, Kazuya is a misogynist who raped her. She, shockingly enough, is killed early on, spurring a reluctant Jin to enter the tournament as the people's choice. He meets a few of the favourite fighters from the game (Nina and Anna Williams, Christie Monteiro, Marshall Law) and a few of the rather dumb characters (Dragunov - who's made extra specially gay in this one - and Miguel - who doesn't seem like a tortured Spanish heart throb at all). Not a single one gets to do more than even pretend to look bad or good - it's all about Jin. He fights his way through, facing unfair match ups and assassination attempts before, miracles of miracles, he well.. you know.
Lesson 1; if you are going to make a good martial arts film, you need good fight sequences. Take a leaf out of Jackie Chan or Tony Jaa's book - you can have a dreadful story so long as the fighting is good. Or be like Jet Li and have one or two fights and a really good story. Or be like Hero and have them both. Tekken has neither. The fight scenes must have been the one part that the director didn't want to include because they are slowly paced, all too short and not a tad bit inspired. It's MK 2 all over again. The final climactic fight between avenging son and evil father is over in a whopping 10 seconds. Oh, and Jun pops up in every fight that Jin has to give him some sage advice that will see him pull back from the brink and kick butt.
Then there's the direction of the remainder of the film. It's slowly paced, uninspired and short. Sadly for the actors, half seem to have been told they're in a cheesy martial arts flick and half seem to think they're in a Jet Li epic. The only decent performance comes from Heihachi who's a very serious yet noble dictator. He knows exactly what film he's in and is by turns Fu Man Chu evil and slightly poetic. Classy. The action moves away from the tournament to some dreadful siege/ rebellion thing in the middle which completely destroys any build up that the film has put together. It then returns to the tournament but by this point nobody cares.
The only creative thing the movie has done is included the stage selection aspect. After the two fighters have been randomly chosen on massive monitors, a third screen will randomly pick out an arena and the ring will take on the display. Some of the stages from over the 6 games are visible and it makes a pretty sight but they aren't enjoyed long enough. The women aren't enjoyed long enough. Lots of butt shots and tummy shots but 2/3 girl fighters are ugly as sin. The lighting is too dark in the arena to get to drink it all in. The guys get topless a lot (and in great light to boot!) which is great for some, not so great for others.
Overall, this film has quite possibly the worst direction ever. Had they played Tekken? Did they have any desire to make a good movie? No and no. The fights suck. The story sucks. The acting is dreadful (the director's fault, not the actors). the themes and tone of the film changes a hundred times in the first few minutes and then dissolves into muddy waters for the actual tournament.
Save your money. Play Tekken. Watch Mortal Kombat.