Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Great Film overall

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A lot of fun.

The fact that TEKKEN was not a perfect movie isn't shocking, but it is surprising how significantly worse its successor is. Director Wych Kaos is not exactly known for making great films and his video game movie does not bolster his reputation. KAZUYA'S REVENGE is not so much an adaptation as a lazy spin off, and though it does some things very well, its deficiencies are overwhelming and make this an unenjoyable outing for all but niche viewers.The story: Haunted by confusing memories, an amnesiac martial artist (Kane Kosugi) is kidnapped by a crime organization and turned into an assassin.The best thing that can be said about this movie is that Kane Kosugi is, at least, a much more apt choice for the lead role than Ian Anthony Dale was before him. A stellar performer just coming off one of the best fight scenes of the decade in NINJA II, Kosugi does what he does best in delivering fights that range from endurable to pretty good. The low number of characters from the series limits the dream matchups this one can present (and the one it does give us – Kosugi versus Gary "Bryan Fury" Daniels – is rubbish), but Kane manages some respectable bouts with genre regulars Ron Smoorenburg, Eoin O'Brien, and Brahim Achabbakhe. Karate fans won't be completely bored.Normally, my satisfaction for that regard would garner at least an average rating, but the movie is a metaphor for how a table cannot stand on only one leg. Aside from the fact that the plot in no way resembles the TEKKEN series and would probably make more sense without the label, the screenplay of KAZUYA'S REVENGE appears to have been written with a license to pad and instructions to only tell a fractional story... Many scenes are given over to time-killing flashbacks and montages of Kazuya aimlessly wandering around. The motivations of and relationships between characters are frustratingly enigmatic. Several times, Kazuya will enter a new locale, and with some unclear understanding known only to the characters, he will engage in an unprompted and unexplained fight scene. The movie ends without any resolution, clearly teasing another sequel that I hope will not see production – at least not under the same director.The upcoming reboot – THE KING OF THE IRON FIST TOURNAMENT - will constitute the third TEKKEN-inspired feature within a decade, and the fact that fans are a lot less happy about this than you'd assume says a lot about the missed opportunities of the series as a film franchise. The creative decisions this particular one makes are genuinely frustrating, and sends the impression that not only did the producers not care about representing the characters, they did not even care about telling a coherent story. Perhaps the politics of direct-to-video filmmaking are to blame, but no one ought feel compelled to sit through this.

I've quite enjoyed playing Tekken video games, a fact that makes watching this movie that much more unbearable. Let it be known that this movie is in no way, shape or form a representation of Tekken franchise. Simply slapping the namesake to some random script, which the movie clearly did, will not fool anyone. Regardless of how familiar one is to the game, the movie is undoubtedly terrible for anyone unfortunate enough of watching it. Its abysmal story revolves around an amnesia-stricken man unceremoniously named K, but we all know it's Kazuya since the title spoiled it. After strings of strange events K is forced to join a fanatic group to become an assassin, doing strings of strange murderous tasks. The film should have used CG videos for the game or just random montages of martial arts, at least they would have made more sense. There is no structure at all in the storytelling, let alone clear motives and character developments. The game itself, being a fighting game, is infamous for its quirky story, but in comparison to this movie, it's Academy Award material.The camera spams slow mo until the very last frame, even the simplest action such as going to market, cooking, staring blankly got hit by the slow mo. Not to mention the repetitive scenes, often the characters, especially K, have flashback of events from five minutes ago. K would walk the same path over and over while having this boring deep contemplation. His acting range consists of dumb stares and phone-in dialogues of internet tech support. He may very well be just a random guy, not the cruel notorious antagonist.At least the production team could give him the Kazuya look or hairdo, but they either had such low budget they couldn't afford it, or were too lazy to even care. Setting is downright uninspiring, the whole movie is shot in some back alley, empty warehouse and shady village. This could be filmed at the wrong side of my city for all I know. With low acting quality of the cast and stupid logic of the movie, it's near unwatchable. In the pantheon of awful game adaptations, Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge ranks as one of the worst, alongside its Uwe Boll's brethren.

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.

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.