In 1994, the success of "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" rocked the anime world. Three years later, ASCII and studio deen collaborated on "Tekken: the motion picture" in a possible bid to replicate the success of the previous video game anime adaptation. The result however was less than satisfying: a sub par product that was inferior in every way as an anime movie.If the opening monologue about the nature of "the tekken" (supposedly the "complete knowledge of one's flesh, blood and fist" that would be the "key to life") does not confuse you, the rest of the movie might. The story somewhat follows that of the first two Tekken games: Special investigator and martial arts expert Jun Kazama is made to join the....."Tekken" tournament hosted by the mysterious Mishima corporation under Heihachi Mishima. This is a pretense for her to infiltrate Mishima's island fortress and ascertain whether they are producing dinosaur-like bio weapons. In another part of Singapore (OMG! this anime takes place in SINGAPORE!!), Kazuya the rogue son of Heihachi Mishima is attacked by an assassin Nina. This prompts him to stowaway aboard a ship destined for Mishaima's island in order to exact his revenge upon his father.Along the way, it is revealed that Jun and Kazuya have a shared history. When they were young, Kazuya tried to help Jun. His father Heihachi saw that act as an act of weakness and, believe it or not, THREW KAZUYA OFF A CLIFF! All the while, waxing philosophical about how Lions throw cubs off cliffs as a test of strength. Thats to that event, Kazuya is now a cold heartless fighter obsessed with vengeance. Running at 60 minutes, it barely has enough time to develop the main story of Jun and Kazuya. To make things worse, other fighters like Lee (who is jealous of his brother Kazuya and wants to kill him), jack (who's story seems ripped from Terminator 2 about the machine who values human life) and Nina hog the screen time with their own little story arcs. This leads to none of their characters being fully developed. Although the voice actors do a great job, Cheesy lines about "grasping your own truth with your hands" and "don't let the darkness in your heart take over" permeate the entire narrative. Along with some drivel about machine self-awareness, justice and truth and the purpose of fighting, iT gives the feel of an anime desperately trying to sound as complex as its contemporaries. Instead it all sounds very silly and juvenile once given a little bit of thought.And then there is the animation, which looks no better than a standard 1997 TV series animation. It does not do justice to the quality of anime movies which are meant to have a bigger budget. Character movements are lazily animated, frame rate is barely adequate and the fights lack a certain energy. Every motion comes across and stiff but at least the level of detail in the art is consistent. Cost cutting techniques are obviously used. For example, Conversations involve a long pan over a still scene, Motion lines on a still picture and there are even some repeated scenes thrown in.Fans thinking that this could not be worse than the recent live action Tekken movie, think again. This is worse. Though the characters look exactly like they do in the game, the entire thing is ludicrous. Invisible dinosaurs, boxing kangaroos, cyborgs, psychic powers, devil energy, genetic alterations and Jun's ability to sense a "fighter's spirit", all concepts that are never explained. Even the final duel between Kazuya and his father is sadly anti-climatic.Tekken The motion picture fails in every way to mimic the success of Street Fighter The Animated movie despite even lifting some scenes wholesale from that anime: A nude shower scene, an attempted assassination in a bedroom and even a sumo wrestler character that parodies Street Fighter character E Honda. Overall a major disappointment, not even worth the time to watch on youtube.2/10 for this horrid let down.An extra point since its set in Singapore for 3/10

I was really disappointed and mad after I watched this movie. My expectations were too high. The beginning of the movie was the best part because it was giving the information of the story. Beyond that it started to decline more and more. The thing that really made me mad was why show characters from Tekken 3 at the opening credits if they weren't in the rest of the movie. That's just stupid in my eyes. Once the tournament started, what happened with all the characters? Yoshimitsu, Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, King, Armor King, all were seen and didn't show them throughout the tournament. Everyone had a story to tell in that game, but they only centered it on Jun and Kazuya. They only thing that was a plus was that it was filled in some of the blanks on Tekken 2 between the two of them. Lee Chaolan was just an idiot on the movie. I understand that in game story he was obsessed about controlling the Mishima Zaibatsu, but he would never go as far to kill himself and and destroy the company so no one else would get it. He's not that insane.Overall, the movie really let me down. Like I said before the only thing that was good was the information. At least now we know that how Jin came to be born. I just wish we could've learned more about the other characters. That's the only thing that was wrong about the movie. Hopefully, if they do another movie they would get it right, but that's only going on hope.

Tekken: The Motion Picture is based on a popular sort of arcade fighting games and a series of console ports as well. Anime and even live action films based on such fighters are quite common, ranging from series like Street Fighter, to movies like Mortal Kombat and everything in between. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Tekken:The Motion Picture falls somewhere in the "they don't" category.Before I get to the English version problems I'll start with the animation itself. For the most part the movie plays well with only a few moments of very noticeable poor work. Usually during panorama sequences for some reason. The fights themselves are interesting and dynamic. But all far far too short and some end very abruptly or unexpectedly. The direction and pacing in this movie leave a lot to be desired. but better than some other efforts that seem to end with no real closure or wrap-up. At a mere 60min, Tekken could have seriously used an additional 30 min of fighting and development. And far too much of the film is spent re-hashing at least 3 times an opening moment.Now for the English version. The voice actors were good at least. ADV does at least keep a good stable of talent and each character has a distinctive voice that fits to one degree or another. Only Jack with his stilted talking came off slightly less, but was still acceptable. The decision of ADV to totally rework the music track though for the most part failed. While none of the music was particularly bad. None of the music fits quite right either. Some more-so than others.Now for the movie itself and what it is about. Some spoilers may follow. Young Kazuya and Jun have a opening comment that will be replayed several times throughout the movie. Kazuya is hurled from a cliff by his father, Heihachi Mishima and left for dead. But determination and a powerful will for revenge save him. We move forward to the present, which appears to be a near-future date and a government organization that polices the uses of outlawed bioweapons and other problems. Jun is now a member of this force and is by chance mysteriously invited to the Tekken tournament along with wise cracking inter-pol agent Lei WuLong. They plan to investigate mysterious and likely illegal activities on the island while attending the tournament. Elsewhere Lee is plotting against Kazuya and sends Anna to assassinate him. This fails and later Jun and Lei meet up With Jack and a little girl. The story progresses from here to the island and the tournament. We get to see some cameos from main and side characters of the game (Looks to all be Tekken 2 crew,) and some sparring along the way to the climax, which is slightly anti-climatic.Good for a rental or for those who must collect everything Tekken. not a bad entry really, just not a good one either. Wasted potential in the end. But do give it a try if you like fighter anime. Judge for yourself. You might enjoy it more, or less.

When I first began to watch this movie I was awash with curiosity. I hadn't heard of a film version of Tekken before, and it didn't look too promising, but as Tekken 3 is my all time favourite fighting game I thought I'd check it out - A genuine waste of an hour of my life I will never get back.I don't usually post reviews on IMDb, but I just had to warn anyone who felt as curious as I did about this that it WILL disappoint you unbelievably. The voice acting is horrendous, each actor doing the worst they could from a clunky script that has each character stand there and explain there entire back story in between fighting. As for the fighting, it was just silly. The few fights there were managed to conquer the market in pure dull punch and kick tedium.The story itself barely goes through any of the characters. Obviously we get the main story between Heihachi and his son, but favourites such as Paul are left to pose all "fierce" in ensemble shots while dull characters such as Lei steal all the limelight.Now for some good news. Unfortunately, all I could think of was to work the "so bad it's good" angle, and if that's what you're after there are a few unplanned giggles here and there from the use of the boxing-gloved kangaroo and some invisible dinosaurs (don't ask). Don't give your hopes up, though, as these will evoke no more than minor chuckles from the embarrassment you will feel for the people that thought up such a ridiculous mismatch of illogical plot and, in the female lead, the most irritating protagonist this side of...well, ever.In all, the only movie I've ever seen which I would actually pay money to avoid seeing ever again. I'm sure if you're a fan of the games that you're curiosity is bound to overpower you, but YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...