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Tekken
(2009) - Directed by Dwight H. Little
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Martial Arts Tournament / Dystopian / Cyberpunk
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(2009) - Directed by Dwight H. Little
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Martial Arts Tournament / Dystopian / Cyberpunk
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"You want to kill me don't you. I understand that."
The movie industry was struggling for fifteen years to deliver a proper video game movie adaptation by the time the adaptation of Tekken came out. It didn't help that the 2010's were all about shameless grittiness and action, and there was more often no saving it. Seriously. I mean, if they got ME to write Loonatics Unleashed, it would've been a damn good show. Not joking. So that's why it took so long for us to get a proper Mario movie. Tekken was a part of that collective, and although I never played the games I was extremely curious.
In 2009, a man named Dwight H. Little (commence envisioning high school photos) decided to direct another cyberpunk martial arts tournament movie. Once again, the world is ruled by mega-corporations. Once again, this particular mega-corporation hosts a martial arts tourney. Once again, a man who wants nothing to do with this world is forced to fight in the tourney and beat the head honcho to avenge his mother. Anybody else wanna throw in a trope or two? Because I think we have plenty.
Oh, wait! Power struggle with the villain's son! Ooooooo!
Suffice it to say that this is one of the most generic things I have ever seen. So, now that the story's ****ed, let's take a look at everything else.
The action sequences were pretty cool. The choreography focused on thrills rather than style, even though there were moments of clunky direction mingled in with the good direction. But the coolest thing about the movie was the set pieces, notably the fighting arena that literally "changed appearance" to fit different "stages" in the video game. It was a bit hokey, but good hokey for the sake of a clever take on source material representation, aside from having a large cast of characters from the games.
And that's all I really have to say about this. I didn't hate it despite the fact that its plot deserved to be hated, because this was a much closer representation of a video game-style scenario than most adaptations. It won't age well due to being so tropy, unlike the implausible but surprisingly faithful and cheesy Street Fighter from 1994. This is something that would probably only please video-game movie historians and junkies for a watch or two. I would only recommend it for people to see how they represented video games, because the kind of things it did in that vein were a breath of fresh air in comparison to the tropes.
Dwight H. Little's Score
Halloween 4: 59
Marked for Death: 56
Tekken: 46
Average: 53.66 / 3
In 2009, a man named Dwight H. Little (commence envisioning high school photos) decided to direct another cyberpunk martial arts tournament movie. Once again, the world is ruled by mega-corporations. Once again, this particular mega-corporation hosts a martial arts tourney. Once again, a man who wants nothing to do with this world is forced to fight in the tourney and beat the head honcho to avenge his mother. Anybody else wanna throw in a trope or two? Because I think we have plenty.
Oh, wait! Power struggle with the villain's son! Ooooooo!
Suffice it to say that this is one of the most generic things I have ever seen. So, now that the story's ****ed, let's take a look at everything else.
The action sequences were pretty cool. The choreography focused on thrills rather than style, even though there were moments of clunky direction mingled in with the good direction. But the coolest thing about the movie was the set pieces, notably the fighting arena that literally "changed appearance" to fit different "stages" in the video game. It was a bit hokey, but good hokey for the sake of a clever take on source material representation, aside from having a large cast of characters from the games.
And that's all I really have to say about this. I didn't hate it despite the fact that its plot deserved to be hated, because this was a much closer representation of a video game-style scenario than most adaptations. It won't age well due to being so tropy, unlike the implausible but surprisingly faithful and cheesy Street Fighter from 1994. This is something that would probably only please video-game movie historians and junkies for a watch or two. I would only recommend it for people to see how they represented video games, because the kind of things it did in that vein were a breath of fresh air in comparison to the tropes.
Dwight H. Little's Score
Halloween 4: 59
Marked for Death: 56
Tekken: 46
Average: 53.66 / 3