Tekken: Blood Vengeance

Ling Xiaoyu and Alisa Bosconovitch are two high school students unaware they’ve been tasked with the same assignment by two competing corporations.  Their mission: shadow Shin Kamiya, a fellow student with the abilities of an immortal.  Within Shin’s blood lies the key to unlocking a devastating power, on a certain family has been fighting over for generations.  As three generations of ferocious fighters reunite for another epic duel, Xiaoyu and Alisa must do whatever it takes to protect Shin from the curse of the Mishima bloodline. 

Sometimes when it comes to adapting Video Games into feature length films, it’s best to leave things to the studios that created them in the first place.  Now that’s not to say that’s a recipe for perfection.  Square Enix might’ve given us Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children but we also got The Spirits Within and Kingslglaive: Final Fantasy XV.  Still, someone had to get a Tekken movie right eventually and Namco Bandai stepped in personally to handle the production of the all CG film, Tekken: Blood Vengeance.  Like any of Square’s Final Fantasy film projects, Blood Vengeance might not work on every level but it is by far and away the best Tekken movie in existence thus far.  Hey a wins a win, even if that bar is set pretty low by now.
 
Sort of like with Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Blood Vengeance has much of the story centered around long time Tekken regular Ling Xiaoyu (first introduced in Tekken 3) and the still relatively new Alisa Bosconovitch (introduced in Tekken 6).  This is an unusual pairing for a serious Tekken movie and I know some might think that they couldve built a movie around other popular characters like Nina and Anna Willams, who both feature in Blood Vengeance in supporting roles.  But I think having Xiaoyu and Alisa front and center is a next subversion of expectations.  Their initial meeting at Shin’s High School and the antics that play out during it aren’t great, feeling more like a tropey High School Anime.  Once they exit that setting, things get much better and their infectious and genuine friendship becomes the heart of Blood Vengeance.  Also, while they may not be the aforementioned Willaims sisters, both leads are very easy on the eyes and look spectacular in the CG animation.  Also you have Xiaoyu’s pet Panda, which is an element that really sells the crazy and chaotic wackiness of a proper Tekken World.
 
However, just like with Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Blood Vengeance, the film makes you think this is Xiaoyu and Alisa’s story…but in fact its not and its made very clear by the films finale.  Everything they do and are part of is a long build up to what the makers of this movie really wanted to do: have the most epic of epic throwdowns between the three generations of Mishima who headline the Tekken franchise.  Once you see Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi standing in the same room together, you can just feel how small and inconsequential Alisa and Xiaoyu and especially Shin, the kid who’s basically the maguffin of Blood Vengeance, all become.  It’s a disservice to our lead heroines that they get pushed aside when they were doing an admirable job carrying the film themselves.  That said, the 1v1v1 Mishima throwdown is probably the best action scene in the movie.  It could not have been easy to animate three opponents fighting like this but damn they pull it off nigh flawlessly.  It certainly puts anything in the Tekken OVA movie and Live Action film to shame.
 
The CG Animation is one of the biggest selling points of Blood Vengeance and really, I while I think a live action film is possible if you’re doing it right, this is the best way to experience Tekken.  From the fast paced and unique fighting styles of each character to how powerful every blow feels, this movie feels the closest to the games than anything else.  Not once did any scene in Blood Vengeance feel like I was watching a video game demo, though some moments like the sexy opening showdown between Nina and Anna are certainly framed that way.  The ending gets a little to big for its own good but looking past that, the fights are all excellently crafted and lovingly animated.  Same goes for all of the characters who look pretty damn cool all across the board.  Some may be a little stiff with the facial animations like Jin and Kazuya.  But you also have standouts like Alisa and Heihachi, who embody pure happiness and madness with their performances. 
 
While it’s leads get the sideline treatment in the last act and several characters don’t really have a proper role in the story than just be there, Tekken: Blood Vengeance is still the best Tekken movie to date by a mile.  The animation and  CG action is done to near perfection with great fights featuring fan favorites.  Xiaoyu and Alisa provide a cute and upbeat optimism to juxtapose the dour and brooding nature of the franchise poster family, the Mishimas, so much you realize how criminal it is they hardly matter for the ending.  Just saying, if you want to have a Tekken Movie with the Mishima’s front and center, do it.  Don’t give us a great tale with cute leads and a lot of heart and then push it off so the big guys can duke it out.  Anyway, not perfect but still a movie I’d recommend to anyone looking to get into Tekken or is a longtime Tekken fan.  I award Tekken: Blood Vengeance…
 
7/10