Tekken: A Man Called X

As if the production credits alone are not a clear warning sign of the type of quality we are expecting here........A while ago, this movie was to have been directed by The guy who did ONG BAK, that excellent Muay Thai movie. Instead we got that hack who made one of the worst movies of all time BALLISTIC: Ecks vs Sever.

TEKKEN 2: Kazuya's Revenge aka A Man Called X is a movie with an identity crisis. Ironic that the movie itself features a main character with a similar identity crisis. TEKKEN 2 is not a sequel, and has little to do with the beloved video game franchise it claims to be based on. The "man" in question is called "K", not "X" and "Kazuya's Revenge" is possibly the worst case of spoiler in the title, especially since the main plot is about K rediscovering his identity as Kane Kosugi, oops sorry, I mean, the titular Kazuya, after an unexplained bout of amnesia.

Waking up In a dystopian corporation run future which looks an awful lot like a present day south East Asian slum, K (who is obviously Kane Kosugi) is haunted by an obnoxious voice in his head, hunted by rent-a-cops in old army wear, and discovers he knows kung fu. Still he gets knocked out and recruited by a criminal Organisation run by "the minister". This Organization (consisting of mostly homeless Asians and stunt people) pits its members against one another in fights to the death. The victors are sent on assassination missions, something about cleansing the world or some dope like that. So when K gets tasked to take out Gary Daniels (who everyone mistakes for a Tekken character called Bryan Fury) he finds out that the Minister is not the holy man his followers think he is.

There's a bit more to the story about K discovering he is really Kazuya and a showdown with Tsang Tsung.....erm, wrong franchise....Cary Hiroyuki (although he claims to be one Heihachi Mishima) and a couple of thugs but one's patience would be truly tested by then. The story is just THAT badly paced that it actually comes across as tiresome. For example you have this whole 10 minute sequence of K taking a walk through Slum Town.......doing nothing. For 10 whole minutes while the voice-over from the Minister goes on and on about how his army of homeless beggars, sorry looking ruffians and old ladies are going to rid the world of evil. It is laughable, really.

Laughable too his how this movie is obviously not related to the Tekken franchise at all. The first TEKKEN movie starring John Foo and Ian Anthony Daniel at least looked like Tekken. Despite the mixed up story, Characters looked like how they do in the games, they wore familiar costumes and hairdos, and many familiar set pieces are showcased. In TEKKEN 2, it is a completely unrelated movie which had some characters names changed to names from Tekken.

Martial artist actor Kane Kosugi is wasted on this misbegotten prequel. Having had nothing but supporting roles so far, Mr Kosugi deserves a good movie as a main character to really showcase his skills. He does his own stunts, he is a trained martial artist with a flair for movie fighting. He could have been Hollywood's Donny Yen or at least followed in his father's footsteps (Sho Kosugi) in becoming a cult classic Kung fu star. Instead, he gets shoehorned into a production directed by "Wych Kaos".

Instead of looking like a Hollywood movie, The whole film has that "shot in my backyard" feel and visual nature akin to those cheapskate Malaysian or Singaporean TV productions. Some good camera-work does show up in the fight scenes, eschewing the usual close ups and jitter cam for wide sweeping angles that gives you full view of the fight. Unfortunately many of these scenes are edited like some amateurs on YouTube. You have a scene where K lifts his leg to kick but when the blow connects, the next cut shows K punching the guy.

Boring for the most part, tediously paced, and obviously done on the cheap, TEKKEN 2 would not have been judged any less harshly had it discarded the video game's moniker and presented itself as a martial arts movie. Kane Kosugi's fights and stunts are impressive no doubt, but their impressiveness is undermined by amateurish directing and editing. Take this sorry excuse for a movie, splice together all the Kane Kosugi fights, then trash the rest. You'd get a far more entertaining short film than TEKKEN 2.

If you've seen the first Tekken movie - whether you liked it or not - and expect a similar content, you will be disappointed. This movie felt like a waste for over 90% of its runtime and comes nowhere near to the first Tekken movie.

It seems like a low-budget movie. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, sometimes even the opposite. After finishing this movie it felt like I was stuck for ages in slow motion visions of the past. Half of the whole movie seemed to be filled with these probably due to alck of content, so try not to fall asleep if you take upon the challenge of watching it. Other than that there's a few good fight scenes (not the first ones) but way too few to make any difference and rescue the foreseeable and almost non-existent plot.

Overall an anticlimactic experience, best suggested to be ignored or watched while being pre-occupied. If you like to get papers done, or study with some background-noise, this might be the right movie for you.

As in: Maybe they should stop making Tekken movies and just concentrate on the games. Though I have to admit, I didn't connect this with the games at any point. Which is either a good thing (making it a unique story) or a bad thing (going too far away from the source material). Whatever the case, it's the viewer who has the last word on it. And some might wish they had amnesia after watching this.

Seriously though: The fighting is pretty decent, though you do wonder how they get some people involved in movies like this. I guess everyone needs money after all. Gary Daniels makes more sense I reckon though, but the movie/script might have sounded better than the finished product after all. Because there are a few nice touches/ideas that almost shine through, but never seem to really capture the viewer ... there are worse movies out there, but there are far better ones too.

I am an avid Tekken player, and I too loved the story line of the games. This movie had nothing to do with the games, and it was just a waste of time. I barely made it through. The first live action movie they made wasn't great either, but it had a lot more to offer than this did. At least in the first one there were more than 2 of the original players in the game, and there was an actual tournament! Fight scenes were poorly done, and believe it or not, I would rather the first 'porn' actor that played Kazuya than the guy they got for this one. If you have to, watch it because you liked the games, but trust me, don't expect anything out of this.

I know the first live-action movie was not well-received by fans and critics alike but I enjoyed its decent fight scenes. It was a guilty pleasure. I guess I could say that because I am not a fan of Tekken though I have watched the CGI Blood Vengeance. Now, back to this movie, the prequel is shockingly inept; it is extremely low-budget and features some half-baked choreography, story and editing. I may not be a fan of video games but I know if the movie tries to recreate the moments of the games and this has none. The characters do not look anything like the characters in the game. I thought I could let it go since I am not a fan but the fight scenes do not even make up for it or the lack of story.

The story: Kazuya wakes up in some unknown hotel room. He is confused about his identity. Shortly, some action happens. I thought it will be an action-packed ride given the short runtime. However, the thought was short-lived. It does contain some fight scenes but they are shockingly normal; none of the characters have distinctive fight styles. Unlike the first movie, the choreography is boring and uninspired. Each fight scene is quite short; shorter than one and a half minutes. Take out the name, Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge, and you will get an uninspired action movie that is almost pointless to watch. There are many annoying pointless slo-mo scenes of characters walking and walking…and bad editing. The acting is not that good too. Music is alright.

Overall: There is almost no saving grace in this. It makes the first one looks like a classic. I could at least see some efforts used to create the look in the first movie but in this, there is none. There is no distinctive style, no interesting things happening and it looks like it is shot fast with not much consideration of locations. There may be many tepid movies based on video games but this is one of the worst movies. It just does not look appealing. Not much to recommend here.