andyajoflaherty

Serving as an origin tale of sorts, Scorpion's Revenge follows Hanzo Hasashi as his whole clan and family are slaughtered by the Lin Kuei, before he himself gets slaughtered by their cold blooded leader Sub-Zero. Finding himself in the Netherrealm, he makes a deal with the leader of the underworld Quan Chi to get revenge in exchange for his service. Returning to Earth as the vengeful spectre Scorpion, he finds that Sub-Zero has entered a fighting tournament between Earth's greatest warrions and the Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung and his legion. It seems more than revenge is at stake here...

I'd heard good things about this animation, and I must say I found it highly enjoyable. It has pretty much the same plot as the 1995 live action Mortal Kombat movie, but with a fleshed out Scorpion/Sub Zero plot and more characters. One thing to note though is that unlike the 1995 film, this is extremely graphic and has gore galore. The action scenes are really good, and the plot and characters are all faithful to their video game counterparts if you are a fan of Mortal Kombat then this is pretty much essential viewing.

Based on the long running video game series of the same name, Tekken takes place in a dystopian future ruined by war and run by corporations, where only the strong survive. Jin Kazama, a young street messenger waits patiently for a chance to seek revenge on the leader of the notorious Mishima corporation, who is responsible for the death of his mother. He might just get his chance when they decide to host a televised martial arts tournament within their corporate grounds...

So, more B... or perhaps even C tier straight to video slop based on a video game that stars nobody relevant and is pretty much completely terrible, right? Well, that is certainly what I was expecting going in, but you know what? It's actually not that bad. Now, don't get me wrong - it's not great, but it is definitely a damn-sight better than I was expecting, that's for sure. The plot is pretty basic, but it fits in with the game series well enough, and the fight scenes are actually pretty good, considering the obviously low budget. The characters on display here are surprisingly faithful to their game equivalents (although sadly my 2 favourite characters, Paul and King were nowhere to be found), and it doesn't waste any time in getting to the action. Oh, and the guy who played Shang Tsung in the '95 Mortal Kombat movie plays Heihachi, which is a nice little nod to that series...

Overall, I suppose this is one of those films where you are aware its cheap and not very good, but is still entertaining all the same. And in the grand scheme of video game to movie adaptations, I'll take that!

Following the ridiculously popular TV show of the same name, this feature length effort picks up with the Autobots defending themselves from an attack from their arch rivals the Decepticons. The Autobots are successful in the encounter but both sides suffer terminal losses. However, a greater threat in the form of Unicron, a giant planet eating transformer sets his sights on consuming Cybertron, so we end up with a 3-way war between good, evil... and I guess even more evil...

I must admit that as a kid despite owning a few transformer toys I was never that into the TV show - I was more a Ghostbusters/TMNT kid myself. I never even knew this movie existed until I was an adult, and this particular viewing is only the second time I've seen it. So, bearing that in mind - how is it? The animation quality is probably on par with the TV show despite the significant increase in budget. The voice cast is utterly stacked I must say (this is probably where the budget went), but there are so many characters coming and going its hard to pick anyone out. Which brings me onto the plot, which is a bit haphazard and messy if I'm being honest. The first time you watch this you'll probably be thinking what on Earth is happening... and it's doesn't become any clearer with subsequent viewings I'm afraid. At least the soundtrack is pretty cool.

When you read up on the behind the scenes shenanigans going on here, it all starts to make sense. Hasbro wanted new toys to promote and sell, so ordered for this film to kill most of the old cast to allow space for new characters. To them, it was just a business and they needed to make money. Of course, this caused an outrage - kids were traumatized that their favourite characters were murdered on screen, and parents were angry that they needed to buy a whole new range of toys. Letters were sent, complaints received... and by all accounts Hasbro were genuinely surprised by the backlash, despite the people involved with the show telling them they were making a mistake. And once you know this, this whole film becomes tainted - made purely with an "out with the old and in with the new" cynicism that bows to profits rather than making a worthwhile viewing experience.

Still, I suppose it's entertaining enough for what it is, but personally it's not a film I particularly enjoy... well, aside from Lion's AWESOME rock rendition of the main theme of course!