TEKKEN BLOOD VENGEANCE vs. TEKKEN MOVIE 2010 Comparison

This has been a long time coming.

Back in my Tekken Tag 2 Endings post, I fleetingly mentioned my disdain for the animated Blood Vengeance movie, something which - after rewatching it - I feel should not need explanation.  However, there are still many, too many, ostensible Tekken fans out there who not only cling to BV as a good interpretation of the series' themes and values, but also as a superior feature to the much-maligned live action Tekken film produced by Crystal Sky, which I'm here referring to as Tekken 2010 even though I'm fairly sure I first saw it in '09...and it didn't reach the US 'til 2011...but, y'know, IMDB says 2010 so we'll just go with that.

Anyways, this pisses me off for a whole mess of reasons, not the least of which is that I legitimately LIKE Tekken 2010 despite some issues with it, and consider it one of the few acceptable game-to-film adaptations yet made (the others are Silent Hill, DOA and Resident Evil Extinction, fyi).  So to explain and hopefully settle things, I'm going to break down both films into their constituent parts before comparing and contrasting their performances.  Some of these factors will pertain to how faithful they are to the source material, others are based more on simple filmmaking qualities/decisions, but all are important.

And I'm not covering Tekken: The Motion Picture because it is a movie based on a fighting game that does not contain any worthwhile fighting so its failure should be obvious to everyone.

The Plot

The importance of plot/story shouldn't require an explanation, but just so we're clear: no form of entertainment media - be it movie, book, game, comic, anything - that features entities which could be called 'characters' can succeed as entertainment without a functional narrative.  It doesn't have to be complicated, original or lengthy, it just has to succeed in justifying why the characters are doing what they're doing.  Look at the Super Mario games - how many of those have stories that boil down to 'save Princess Peach'? (not as many as you think, actually, but that's another topic) And sure, snarky internet types might find that to be a source of neverending jokes, but it works.  It justifies why Mario is running a crazy gauntlet of Thwomps and Goombas and bottomless pits, and it gives us as players a reason to want to defeat Bowser.  Now, granted, when it comes to games, yes, you don't always need story.  Tetris does not have a story, neither does Space Invaders, or Geometry Wars...the list goes on, but you'll notice these games do not have characters in them. The player's presence is limited to an invisible hand or a nondescript object (which might be a spaceship, or maybe just a floating triangle), and so narrative can be excised as we aren't being given any viewpoint to sympathise with.  Tekken games have characters - loads of them - and so narrative does matter.

Tekken 2010 will never win awards for freshness or originality where plot is concerned; a gifted teenaged (or young adult) martial artist with a rebellious streak witnesses the death of his mother and mentor, and his unrestrained need for revenge drives him to join the fighting tournament held by the man responsible, in the hopes of getting close enough to kill him.  You've heard it before, one way or another.  That said, clichés tend to exist because they work, and the same is true here.  We completely understand Jin's desire to kill Heihachi, and are behind him in his quest all the way.  Every one of his battles is justified as a roadblock, an obstacle on his path that he must overcome either by himself or with the help of the allies drawn to his side.  And when the (clearly foreshadowed) twist comes along, we still feel some of the inherent gut-punch because we are made to give a damn about the boy and his journey.

By comparison...I am so tempted to say that Blood Vengeance has no plot, but that's not true.  The problem is it has two plots and neither of them are complete.

For the first...let's say hour of the 90-minute runtime (probably more, actually) we follow Xiaoyu and Alisa as they chase down, and squabble over, Shin Kamiya, a sullen schoolboy whose DNA holds the secret to...a secret, which we aren't told about except that it's really important.  Eventually, they follow the seemingly-captured Shin to Kyoto Castle, where Heihachi makes a surprise appearance and reveals that, um, actually, Shin is irrelevant, simply part of a ploy to lure out the other Mishima men for a climactic throwdown, and the boy is thus dismissed fatally without impacting anything of note.  Thus, the girls' arc concludes without an actual ending and without them learning anything or undergoing much change, and we instead focus on a big fight that has been set up with...uhm...I think it was mentioned fleetingly earlier, except without Heihachi, and wasn't stressed enough to seem important.  So we have a coda without build-up and a first 2 acts without a 3rd.  Again - it's not that there is no story; it's that there isn't a complete one.  As a result, nothing that happens within the story - not one conversation, accusation or battle - has any meaning, and all of them fall flat.

Protagonist

Though a fair part of getting the viewer on the main character's side is based around the handling of the plot, straight characterisation of the protagonist can be just as important.  A good example would be the 2009 Star Trek reboot-a-thon directed by JJ Abrams; though I don't have much issue with the plot, it's hard to care about James T. Kirk's journey when Chris Pine is acting like a complete arsewipe in every.  Single.  Scene.  A lead doesn't have to be likable, but they do have to behave in a way that fits with what we learn about them.

Jin Kazama in Tekken 2010 is an angry, impatient kid who always takes the direct route out of any problem scenario and pretty much thinks with his fists.  The film does not delay in setting these character traits up; it's all there very clearly when he's talking with mummy Jun at their home.  Both of them are living under the oppressive yoke of Heihachi's regime, and Jun has been trying to teach Jin just to keep his head down and go along with it, for which he becomes angry and storms out - a decision that saves his life but perhaps seals her fate, ultimately.  This also gives him something of a guilty conscience, which makes his repeated flashbacks to Jun's teachings over the course of the film more logical (even if that device does outstay its welcome).  Once he's in the tournament proper, he nearly kills his first opponent in a blind rage, then gets distracted by Christie Monteiro's attentions, both moments showing points of weakness in the character to demonstrate that he has a lot of growing up to do, which he eventually does, becoming a stronger fighter and realising there's more to the tournament, and life, than revenge.  The important things to note here are that he is both focused on a tangible goal AND he is not a monk.  Monks are boring; they stick to their guns so solidly there's no hope for drama or risk.  The fact that Jin can falter on his path because some girl has a nice butt both emphasises the youth of the character and provides some light relief.  On a similar line, the comedy antics of Bruce Lee in something as otherwise-serious as Way of the Dragon (blithely following a nice lady to her house assuming it's all innocent then running in fear from OHMYGOD NAKED BREASTS) provides the same function.  And you're not about to argue with me when I say Bruce Lee did it so it must be good, right?  No, you're not.

Ling Xiaoyu in Blood Vengeance is a harder nut to crack.  She's an immature, rebellious schoolgirl, except she's willing to take commands from apparent strangers who clearly have shady motives because...well, because.  She varies between extremely competent - sneaking into Shin's room and a high-security lab without trouble - or being virtually useless for the last 30 minutes of running time.  She has a pet panda which can run at 60+ miles per hour and take out a squad of armed soldiers in seconds, but gets freaked out by a humanoid robot removing its own head.  Why?  I...I can't answer that.  There is no answer.  Xiaoyu's skills and attitude shift purely based on what the screenwriter and director felt they needed for the next scene in the film to work best, ergo she shifts from determined to curious to confused to doe-eyed wurrrve to just plain dumb from moment to moment in a fashion befitting a junior Alzheimer's patient.  By the time the credits roll, she has not undergone even the slightest bit of growth; any change to her persona is almost immediately retconned the next time we see her.  This renders it virtually impossible to sympathise with her - not because she's not relatable (a helpful but unnecessary trait in a protagonist), but because not a single aspect of her being aside from her appearance is set in stone.

Pacing

One of (IMO) the more undervalued qualities of filmmaking, pacing is the somewhat intangible suggestion of how fast or slow time is moving within the film, communicated by how rapidly events appear to be moving along.  For the record, there is nothing inherently wrong with a slow pace, but when it comes to action movies - and any film based on something like Tekken is invariably going to be an action movie - faster is better.

To change things up, let's look at Blood Vengeance first.  The film certainly starts quick, with the opening highway crash and Nina/Anna scuffle leading to heads-up infodumps with both Jin and Kazuya, establishing Shin as the MacGuffin in human form that everyone wants, all in around five minutes of screentime.  This is fast, but not so fast it's unintelligible.  Good.  Unfortunately, things take a misstep once Xiaoyu gets involved, as the movie holds off on delivering more action in favour of endless scenes of Xiaoyu talking to Alisa, or talking to Shin, or talking to herself, usually ignoring plot relevance in favour of clunky attempts at emotion (and fair play to the English translation here, because even in Japanese it's a mess) or twee comedy that's so sugary it threatens to rot the viewers' teeth.  Bad.  Even when we cut away from our heroine to see what's happening, it's still just talking.  Nina talks on her phone!  Anna talks to her teapot!  Lee talks to an empty room!  Think about this: this was a CGI film.  They have no budget constraints; when it comes to making things happen, the only limit is the creators' imagination.  And the best they could come up with for these insanely crazy kick-ass characters to do was talk for an hour.  By the time another fight happens (Alisa/Xiaoyu, for...something) the viewers' attention has waned past the point of no return.

JESUS CHRIST SHUT THE FUCK UP

Tekken 2010 doesn't have a problem here.  Yes, there is talking - of course there is - but what is said is kept economical and to-the-point.  We don't linger on talking scenes any longer than we have to, and where possible something else is actually happening while the talking is occurring to keep you watching, just in case you miss something good.  Granted, this doesn't magically make the dialogue better (the banter is generally functional, but does lack true wit) but you're never required to endure it for longer than you can take in one go.  And there's also far more action, spread far more sensibly, in Tekken 2010.  There's a lot more fights - 8 at the least - and even beyond that the film keeps things noisy and fast, with the opening chase scene, the 'ninja' attack, the jail break; hell, even Jin and Christie going clubbing.  No, that's not exactly 'action' but it's something happening, which beats out 80% of Blood Vengeance.

Action

Does this one need explaining?  Any adaptation of Tekken in any form will live or die based on how much 'action' there is, and how good it is.  This doesn't have to be straight 1-on-1 (or even 2-on-2) fights, but obviously that's what the audience would expect.

Whatever else I may think of Blood Vengeance, when it stops sitting on its hands and lets the Tekken cast do Tekken things, it gets pretty fantastic.  The fighters regularly pull off recognisable signature moves from the games (along with weird shit like whatever Nina's doing up there), everything's super-fast and gorgeously animated, and the camera choices are dynamic without getting in the way.  If I have a problem with the fights it's in the lack of 'selling' (to use the pro-wrestling vernacular); none of the characters remain hurt by any assault, no matter the severity, for more than a matter of seconds.  It's like dealing with an army of John Cenas!  Even so, I'm inclined to give the filmmakers a break here, as I've had the same problem with pre-rendered story sequences (and in some cases actual gameplay) in the games for a long while.  What I won't give 'em a break over is the scarcity of this sort of thing.  I know I mentioned it before under 'pacing', but c'mon, there's 3 fights in this 90-minute feature, the first of which lasts under a minute and is both one-sided and meaningless (Anna claims "It's all a distraction!" but it doesn't seem to distract anyone from anything), the second of which ends without resolution and the third...well, it's just batshit insane, which I wouldn't normally mind, but thanks to the editing going ADHD on us, it's hard to keep track of everything once the Devils start flying.

Tekken 2010 caught a lot of flak for its fights, mainly due to most of the cast not really fighting much at all like their in-game selves.  I will concede that point, though oddly it never really bothered me too much.  Maybe I just never expected flesh-and-blood humans to match the craziness of true Tekken, or maybe I'd seen enough preview material to be forewarned of this issue in advance, and thus made my peace with it.  There were also complaints about the fighters using weapons, but this I will defend...later. ;) Anyway, this is another case of fans focusing on what was wrong without acknowledging what was right; even if the fights aren't 'game-accurate' they're still exciting.  The choreography is smart, everything's shot clearly, the editing doesn't mangle things (often) and the performances of the cast and their stunt doubles are generally on the mark.  Better still, as I mentioned earlier, there's like 8 fights across the film, and smartly each differentiates itself from the other in one way or more.  There's a cage fight, an Eddy Gordo dance-off fight, a swordfight, a catfight, a chain-vs-spear fight...variety is the spice of life, after all.  And going back to my point about 'selling', Jon Foo as Jin does a fantastic job of convincing the viewer that he's feeling the pain of repeated ass-kickings over the course of the film, aided by the make-up department.  It's a small thing, but it makes him a touch more sympathetic and gives his journey more meaning - he's paying a price in blood for his victories.

Leading Lady/Main Supporting Character

Every hero needs a partner, be it of the romantic or platonic kind.  After all, they need someone to act as a sounding board when they've got something to get off their chest and don't wanna look like a weirdo who talks to himself, and the way they treat those closest to themselves can say a lot about their persona.  Additionally, the supporting player can knock them down a peg and be a source of wisdom/common sense for the protagonist to tap, so they don't look like they just instinctively know everything about the world from the get-go.  And frequently, these characters tend to be ladies, because why not.  Such is the case for both films here.

Alisa Bosconovitch was tasked with aiding and abetting Xiaoyu's stupidity in Blood Vengeance and, in fact, often feels like she's threatening to steal the star billing from her inexplicable new BFF.  Indeed, most of the (constant, unceasing) dialogue of the film is fixated on this robot girl and her struggling to define what 'human' is and if she really is 'human' and 'humanity' and blah blah blah...look, this is an interesting theme.  I'm on record as listing the Battlestar Galactica reboot as my favourite TV series ever and that show got incredible mileage out of mining that idea.  Thing is, in Galactica the 'robots' really had evolved to the point where the differences between them and the humans were almost entirely semantics, whereas here, Alisa rarely (if ever) is allowed to behave like anything resembling a rational human being.  Her mood swings are just as random and baffling as Xiaoyu's, her higher brain functions can be switched on and off by Nina's iPhone (!), she needs to be recharged by plugging herself into a wall socket, and even if that all wasn't an issue there's a bunch of other robots (the ED-209 things that Nina has a 'copter full of) in the movie that are treated as nothing more than mute cannon fodder, which basically undoes what little good Alisa may have accomplished.  Also:  "I'm your refridgerator!"  Punch me in the face.

I should probably save this point for talking about faithfulness-to-source later, but let's just get it out of the way - Kelly Overton as Christie Monteiro in Tekken 2010 is as good an example as any where it's absolutely right of the filmmakers to embellish upon the source material.  Christie in the Tekken games is a borrowed moveset, a chirpy voice and a sexy body, and not much else.  She has few storyline relations to other characters, shows very little range of expression beyond happy-go-lucky, and has undergone little in the way of change since her debut in Tekken 4 (she was chasing Eddy then, she's still chasing him now).  If the filmmakers wanted to get any use out of her at all, they'd need to put some work in, and they did.  Movie Christie is still sexy, and chirpy at times, but she also has a full range of emotions that are employed in reaction to what goes on around her, and tell us a lot about who she is.  Yes, she goes after Jin purely out of lust, but her interest in him is tempered by her disapproving of his blind anger; couple that with her obvious hatred of anything that isn't clearly 'fair' or 'right' and we can tell she has a strong moral code and no hesitation in backing it up.  She gets understandably upset by her friends being hurt but doesn't suffer a full breakdown over it, and even after she's captured she refuses to yield internally to Kazuya and his minions, showing true strength of heart.  Movie Christie is, frankly, superior to her inspiration in almost every way, and equal credit is due to writer Alan McElroy and actress Overton for pulling that off.  What?  Why was Christie the lead in the first place?  Uh...no idea, really.  I'm just glad it was a good Christie.

Visual Design (Faithfulness)

There's obviously a lot of work by a lot of different people that goes into setting the 'look' of any given film, but for the sake of simplicity here I'm going to put the various facets of 'set', prop and costume design (and other such things) under one banner, because this post is already crazy long and I'd like to finish it some time before I'm 30.  However, there are 2 different aspects of visual design which are important, with the first one being the one that invariably gets the most fan attention - faithfulness, aka 'does it look just like the game?'.

And thus we arrive at Blood Vengeance's biggest points-scoring opportunity so far.  With direct access to Namco's past character renders and concept art, not to mention the luxury of being CGI and thus not having to worry about finding actual human beings that look like Tekken characters, Digital Frontier made sure that every name character from the games who makes an appearance in their movie, if nothing else, looks exactly how they should look.  Every strand of hair, every flawless female curve, every one of Heihachi's old man wrinkles - it's all there.  And the costumes!  Everybody either dresses exactly how they do in the games, or wears something that's still believable as a fashion choice made by them; no, Lee's never worn an all-white suit before, but why wouldn't he?  That's easily eye-catching enough for the big campy buffoon.  Of course, nothing in Blood Vengeance is perfect, and so I direct my ire towards the armoured blokes in the above shot.  They look like Tekken Force, right?  Yes, but they're not, they're G-Corp soldiers.  Remember they were in Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign mode?  With green body armour, sunglasses and largely-exposed faces?  I.e. not looking like the Helghast?  Also, the Mishima Zaibatsu don't use ED209 knock-offs. (NANCY doesn't count) They have the Helghast-lookalikes.  Who got this one jumbled up, eh?  Actually, I'm just gonna make a broad statement here and say every new thing the Blood Vengeance team had to design for the film was a failure.  Shin is just the single most boring, generic anime male possible, Heihachi's ridiculous Mokujin Force Voltron thing at the end got lost on its way to Fern Gully 3, and the new stage-2 Devils?  Errrrrgh.

Seriously, look at that cluttered mess of green-legged nonsense.

And that's the LESS-stupid-looking of the two.

Tekken 2010, by comparison...well, it tries.  Most of the fighters wear something at least resembling their character's signature gear, although the results are mixed at best, with Miguel especially looking like a last-minute improvisation.  Then there's the odd few characters that are practically reconstructed from the ground up; I spoke favourably of Christie before, but when you're dealing with Kazuya - probably the most unfuckup-able character in the whole franchise - making any sort of change seems wasteful.  Granted, I think the version of Kazuya they wound up with (essentially a mash-up of his origin and a more serious version of Lee) works within the context of the movie, and Ian Anthony Dale frequently kills it with his line delivery and bastard smirk, but this is certainly a far cry from the demonic, nigh-invincible ass-kicker of the games.  The same could be said of Heihachi; I get what they were going for, and I wouldn't want to lose Cary Tagawa's presence from the film, but taking away his status as a fighter diminishes the character to no little degree.  Then there's Steve Fox, who really isn't Steve Fox in any way besides being English.  I figure that role went by another name until they hired Luke Goss, then they checked the games again to see if there were any English characters there they could name-drop as a reference, since the alternative would be forcing Goss to use his pretend American accent and, by god, does that voice sound awful.  And going back to the Tekken Force, I get the joke behind their new name (they're Jackhammers, the city is called the Anvil...between the Hammer and the Anvil, get it?) but was that really worth ditching their real name?  They already have a Tekken City and Tekken Corporation, why not Tekken Force too?

Visual Design (Consistency/Worldbuilding)

The other side of the design coin is more introspective.  Here, I'm talking about how well the films create a believable world in which the characters and the events taking place feel like natural fits.  This isn't always easy, as it requires all the various design departments to be working hand-in-hand toward a common goal, and with some smart people overseeing everything and making sure it all sticks together sensibly, even when the individual components aren't that sensible at all.

Given the constraints of being live-action and a relatively modest budget, it's fair to say the team behind Tekken 2010 worked their ass off trying to come up with a world that was relatable but still new and alien, and frankly I'm impressed with the results.  There's a clear shift between the grimy Bangkok-alike slums of the Anvil and the clean, concrete-and-glass skyscrapers of Tekken City - and more importantly, everything within Tekken City looks like it belongs there.  In the real world, a platoon of private militia wearing kendo face-masks would be weird, but here, with the overt Japanese stylings of everything under Heihachi's rule, that seems natural enough that we don't question it.  The fighters all wear gaudily-coloured outfits, but when placed inside the arena, with its mix of deep shadow and sharply contrasted neon, not to mention constantly swirling lights, they look like they belong.  You don't doubt for a minute that this is how pro martial artists are supposed to dress within this universe.  Also, because I said I'd cover it earlier and haven't, the whole weapons thing?  Makes sense to me.  Although there's a lot that's recognisably Tekken about the movie's world, it's also a lot closer to reality, with even the toughest characters having their 'power level' scaled back to a degree that's only a little more than human.  By that logic, Kazuya introducing weapons to what's normally a hand-to-hand fighting tournament to 'raise the stakes' makes sense; these are not the kind of Tekken fighters who see Yoshimitsu, with all his armour and nasty swords, as no more dangerous than Asuka Kazama and her weirdly large man-hands.  If someone points a gun at them, they'll freeze because they're not bulletproof.  This is a rule the film establishes early on and sticks with throughout, and that sort of consistency is what makes the world of Tekken 2010 interesting to me, because it fits together logically.

Blood Vengeance...doesn't do that.  I suppose Namco weren't going to be much help to Digital Frontier here, as rarely do the games offer any clue as to exactly how advanced technologically the world of Tekken is compared to ours (sentient robots are commonplace, huge corporations run the world with private armies, but most known countries look the same, people still drive normal cars etc.).  That said, Namco COULD have taught them something about art design; one thing that's not often appreciated about the stages in the games is that they have the right balance of colour and hyper-realism to blend with the crazy character roster - you never doubt that these people belong in these locations.  By comparison, none of the environments in Blood Vengeance have the same feeling; they're not visually interesting enough, and even the ones that are somewhat 'dynamic' like the collapsing Kyoto Castle at the end are still too dull and bland to the eye to match the game-accurate characters.  Rarely does the film shake the notion that these virtual people are just standing on virtual sets, and that hurts things considerably; the fact that I can't buy the world these people live in as genuinely existing is another barrier blocking me from giving a damn about their plight.

BONUS ROUND: But what about Nina?

Oh, I knew you were gonna throw this in my face!  "But Craig, Blood Vengeance sooo had the better Nina Williams in it, so you can't hate it, meh-weh-weh!"  Well, you may think you know what you're saying, but hold onto your seat, buster, 'cause this ain't an open and shut case.

To get the obvious out of the way first: yes, Blood Vengeance Nina is pretty drokking gorgeous.  I would've liked her to have a little more muscle definition, especially in her arms, but it's not the first time she's looked like a supermodel so I'm not gonna cry over it.  She also gets 2 new outfits over the course of the film aside from her signature purple combat suit, the choker-tied top you see above (which we don't see in full because Digital Frontier are such teases) and the black pleather motorbike suit she rocks in most of the advertising.  She's sexy as all hell and her (English!) voice actress sounds the part...it's just a shame she has literally zero reason to be in the damn movie.  Seriously, her biggest contribution to the plot is remembering to switch Alisa's brain back on in time to let the robot and Xiaoyu escape Lee's massive house before Anna shows up to shoot them.  That's it.  Her fight with Anna?  Pointless, as mentioned before.  Talking to Jin on the phone? Tells us nothing.  Dialogue exchanged with Anna?  Fucking god-awful, and tells us nothing too.  Seemingly getting captured by Anna?  Amounts to nothing since that's basically the end of the movie for both of 'em.  Honestly, the only reason Nina seems to have been put in Blood Vengeance is because, at some point, writer Dai Sato looked back over his 90-minute high school comedy yawnfest and realised he'd forgotten to include anything that resembled Tekken in it, so he stuck a Williams sister fight at the start.  Does that make the film better?  Slightly.  Does it make for a good outing for Nina?  Hell no.

The Tekken 2010 version of Nina has been, it's fair to say, one of the most loudly-rejected parts of the whole movie.  Take your pick from whichever of the many complaints were thrown out: "She doesn't look ANYTHING like Nina!" "Her outfit is horrible!" "She doesn't do Aikido stuff!" "She doesn't hate Anna!" "She loses to Christie!" "She loses to Christie way too easily!" "She's not in enough of the film!" "Seriously, fucking CHRISTIE?!"  Yup, a lot of that was thrown around.  And none of it by me.  No sir, I am the guy who's going to stand here and stick up for this version of Nina, because however much is different and odd about this interpretation, I understand the reasons behind the changes and have come to peace with them.  Starting from the top: no, Candice Hillebrand does not look exactly like Nina.  I don't know anyone who DOES look like Nina except...Nina.  Charlize Theron is close but, well...I didn't really expect her to turn up in this film.  For what it's worth, Hillebrand is a natural blonde with blue eyes, is in pretty good shape (she has more arm muscle than Blood Vengeance Nina!  TAKE THAT!), and is pretty dang hot.  Her outfit, while admittedly somewhat cheap-looking (it's the plain purple that does it - if they'd worked some camo patterning onto it it'd be 200% better) is still recognisably Nina-esque, in that it's purple and features lots of extraneous buckles and straps, and blends in with the art design of the movie's sets enough that it looks natural within the intended environment.  Fighting-wise, she's not great, I admit; that's something that's generally lacking in Hollywood overall, there's no real crossover between different kinds of actress, meaning the producers were stuck with finding a girl that would look the part or one who could fight well but no chance of having both.  Her being on civil terms with Anna is admittedly strange, but since the film doesn't give any reason for the sisters to hate each other there's equally no reason they can't be on friendly terms.  The fact that movie adaptations represent their own continuity and don't have to kowtow to every plot development of their parent series is something fans really should have accepted by now*...and no, she doesn't have as much screentime as I'd have liked, and yes, she does lose her one official fight very quickly.  I suppose that's the downside of the didn't-cast-for-fighting idea - there's only so much convincing footage you can get with two actresses who aren't martial artists.  That she loses to Christie doesn't bother me so much, since Christie is the leading lady here and, again, is defined as a strong character - plus she had more motivation for the fight, what with feeling all protective over Jin.

As a further note, however little she gets to do with her role, I think Hillebrand deserves fair credit for trying her best as Nina here.  She only gets 3 lines, and like most of the 'extra' fighters she disappears without trace from the film after Jin, Christie and Steve have their little prison break, but in what time she gets she makes the most of it.  She does the sexy business as needed (note the fly wink as she's introduced in the arena), but when it's time for a fight or a bit of ninja-dressed murdering she stops smiling and gets serious, just like Nina would.  When she's fighting Christie, she throws out a slightly flirtatious taunt to get under her opponent's skin, just like Nina would ("c'mon, baby, show me what ya got...").  When Kazuya calls her out on failing to kill Jin, and when Jin and his pals escape before she can get another shot at the boy, she's visibly angry with herself for screwing up, just like Nina would be.  It's small touches, but I'm the kind of guy who'll notice these touches and appreciate them, so thankyou miss Hillebrand for taking a small role so seriously.

~+~

There's other points I could bring up, but I think I've said enough.  Of course, I'm sure plenty of you, even after all this, will still insist that Blood Vengeance was superior, because Harada-san and co. had a direct hand in it so it's more 'official' or something (and if that's true, kindly explain to me how BV fits in with the Tekken 6 story as told in Scenario Campaign mode without screwing everything up - go on, humour me).  Sometimes, opinions just can't be changed, and that's fine.  I can accept that.  Just let me add one final qualifier:

One of these movies is about a gifted teenage martial artist losing his mother and discovering the dark history of his family tree, before choosing to destroy it.

The other movie is about two ditzy schoolgirls arguing over a boy, until the boy dies, some magic dudes punch each other and a bunch of trees turn into a Megazord or something.

Now, which of those sounds more like Tekken to you?

*This is the same excuse I'm reeling out for anyone complaining about Nina and Anna sleeping with Kazuya in the movie.  Look, the only two reasons that wouldn't happen in the games are Nina's understandable hatred of Kazuya over the whole 'you got me frozen for 20 years' thing, and the fact that Japanese games (despite being pervy as all hell) are really shy about acknowledging that sex is a thing that people do for fun.  Nina being cryo-frozen is not mentioned in the movie so it doesn't count, and there's no reason an American movie should hold itself to the same standards of *cough* 'decency' as a Japanese videogame.  So there.