This isn’t the absolute horror that is the live-action Tekken film. No, this is the newest CGI film that was created to accompany Tekken Hybrid’s release which should be today! The film hasn’t quite been given Namco Bandai’s full attention then, but you can tell that  a lot of love has gone into making this both a decent film for newcomers and something that Tekken fans can enjoy.

The film starts pretty well with Nina and Anna squaring up after a huge explosion erupts on the middle of the motorway.  We then see that Kazuya and Anna have paired up and are controlling G Corporation, while Nina and Jin have teamed up under rival organisation Mishima Zaibatsu. Both groups are searching for a mysterious young man named  Shin and it is this search that drives the film. After tracing him down Anna recruits Ling Xiaoyu and asks her to spy on the Shin by attending school with him. On arriving at her new school she befriends Alisa who has an interest in the mystery man too.

Eventually things start to heat up and the two groups led by Jin and Kazuya move in for Shin. This is where the film really shines. People get slammed through buildings, lots of things explode and the action is pretty awesome. Generally when Tekken: Blood Vengeance is ramping up the action it is brilliant. The fight scenes are great with characters even puling off the odd signature move every now and then. The penultimate fight scene is brilliant and something which every Tekken fan should see. This takes up the last 20 minutes or so and makes up for the many of the film’s flaws. It does go a bit over the top at times but it all fits in with the movie and as long as you are not religiously invested in the Tekken plot then you should enjoy the explosive ending.

The problem I have with Tekken: Blood Vengeance is that it feels like it was split into two sections, one story, the other action. I enjoyed the film but there could have been a few more action scenes slotted in there instead of just having the two divided. The majority of the film has Xiaoyu and Alisa floating about in their school and speculating about the mystery boy. Then all of a suddern we have a huge (and amazing) finale that lasts over 20 minutes.

Tekken: Blood Vengeance seems to fall into that Japanese hole of over-dramatic preachiness too. Lines like, ‘All this fighting is pointless. It’s never gonna end’ are spurted from Xiaoyu regularly and I wish she’d just shut up and fight sometimes. I know that anime films (which this is inspired by) love their schoolgirls and high moral stance, but this took the biscuit at times.

I’ve mentioned the majority of Tekken characters in the film. There are small cameos from Panda, Ganryu and Lee, but that’s about it. There’s no ensemble of characters fighting it out for a brief segment either. My favourite fighters Bryan, Hworang and Paul were all missing from the film. If you’re expecting to see all your favourite Tekken characters on the big screen this film is not for you.

One thing I noticed about Tekken: Blood Vengeance is how great it looks. The film was worked on by the same team that made Resident Evil: Degeneration and it seems they are only improving with time. Certain shots of scenery even seemed photorealistic. Each character seems to match their look in the games too and I have nothing put praise for how this film looks.

I probably would have given the film a 7 but one big problem was the DVD’s itself. There seemed to be no option to play the film in its native language with subtitles. I am one of those snobs that hates dubbing. It isn’t as bad as dubbing in a live action film but there are occasions where you can tell that it has been dubbed. Worst of all I just find it plain weird that characters like Kazuya sound American when they should have a deep Japanese man’s voice.
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a I enjoyed Tekken: Blood Vengeance quite a bit and while I like the games I am not a die-hard fan. It would have been nice to have a bit more action in the film but I think there was a clear call to not just throw random fight scenes in the film in order to maintain its integrity. Too many games that have their own films try to imitate their source material too closely. Instead Tekken has made the effort to be a decent film first while remembering the family ties and storyline from the games as its backbone. The action scenes are part of the story instead of being a focal point. This may seem odd for a film based on a fighting game, but Tekken: Blood Vengeance is better for it, although it doesn’t quite get the balance right.
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