got bored. watched tekken blood vengeance. idk what people are talking about when they say this movie is bad but maybe thats my yuri tinted glasses regarding xiaolisa blinding me a little. /lh.
anyways. some thoughts and spoilers for a movie that came out in 2011. also some tekken 8 spoiler mentions. so... beware?
but in all seriousness, i kinda get what they were going for, and i actually like the dynamic of alisa and xiaoyu being connected to the hip, and wished they carried that over into the main games. it gives them things to do outside of being centered around men (jin and lars). Tekken Tag Tournament 2's endings kind of remedy this as Alisa, Miharu, Panda and Xiaoyu have endings in which they all have their own individual ending where they interact with each other.
it seems that the movie is absolutely non-canon, takes place in a hypothetical weird spot where it's taking place BEFORE Tekken 6, and before Jin starts wwiii to lure out Azazel. Or in it's own universe where lars and alisa never even meet, and that she's only working for the zaibatsu. which is a fascinating turn imo. again this movie is non-canon. but like. there are some details that unintentionally lay some groundwork for later.
love anna williams being more villainous than mischief carefree assassin. it's an interesting exploration of what she's capable of, even if a little silly she at least feels like a genuinely physical threat that could order her men to kill xiaoyu and alisa.
I will say the real weak link is Shin Kamiya which... they tried to make a thing. basically a guy experimented on who has a unique gene that makes him immortal, and said gene could be used to kill the devil gene, or make one even more powerful. honestly he doesn't even have a character, he's only really a mcguffin. i at least appreciate them for being ballsy to even do a bane breaks batman's back thing.
oh. also there's a fantastic mishima fight scene between heihachi, kazuya and jin. it's amazing. well choreographed, also SO IN CHARACTER. and in a weird way some of Jin's motives are kinda laying the groundwork for Tekken 7 and 8 hilariously enough. even his second devil design is absolutely a prototype for what occurs in tekken 8.
i will say, take this whole goddamn movie with a grain of salt. it's not great, it's absolutely stupid, a little regressive with alisa only focusing on shin as a romance interest, but by god. it's so fun and extremely entertaining. i do wish its script had another professional rework, and some punching up, but that's kinda it.
honestly this movie only works for me because it's dumb stupid tekken fun, and also. god the xiaolisa in this is so cute. and tragic and adorable. god. bandai namco are cowards for not letting their relationship carry into the main games, or at least a version of said relationship (i feel the foundations for a friendship would have occurred differently if they were close friends in the main games - not just tekken tag tournament 2).
