Tekken Blood Vengeance - Review

Um... it's a little embarrassing to admit, but I really enjoyed this movie. A lot. More than a lot. I walked in with zero expectations. I walked out of the theater giggling because I liked it so much. And I'm not even sure why.

Yesterday I attended the Tekken Blood Vengeance 3D one night movie premiere. I've been a fan of the franchise for over ten years now, so when I heard about the movie, I knew I had to see it.  Two-thirds through the movie, I needed to pee - really bad. But I held it in because I was so entranced. Yes, I was that into it. So for 30 minutes I practiced clutching my uh, bladder muscles, as I glared on in pure fangirl joy.

Video game movies and others in that genre usually spell bad terrible. I tend to walk away feeling like it wasted my time (I'm looking at you Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: The Pyramid of Light, which had zero relevance to anything). Admittedly, Tekken Blood Vengeance had its plot holes as well (Shin Kamiya was rather useless, other than as eye candy) and the 3D felt unnecessary. What I did appreciate about Tekken Blood Vengeance was that it helped flush out some of the characters in ways that the game could not, and I couldn't help but smile every time I recognized a fighting stance or move. Sigh. I know, this is probably one of the most ridiculous confessions I have ever made.

Anyways, I thought I'd write a review to justify my pure adoration for this movie amongst all the negative reviews its gotten. Three paragraphs later and I still don't have a solid reason. A number of hardcore fans of Tekken have voiced their dissatisfaction with the movie, namely because of its shortage of fighting scenes and a lack of full character coverage and for being non-canon. If you haven't seen it and you can't decide if you should...

How to know if you should watch Tekken Blood Vengeance:

1) You are a fan of Tekken. Obviously.
2) You are not a hardcore fan of Tekken.
3) You have no expectations for this movie. It appears the consensus is that if you walk in with high expectations, you will likely find yourself disappointed.
4) You like eye candy. CG'd eye candy. There are multiple shower scenes. Seriously.



At the end of the day, I love this movie for what it is: a 90 minute visual hailstorm of one of my favorite video games of all time. It was funny, beautifully created and it thrilled my inner child like no other to watch something I've loved so long on the big screen for—well, 90 minutes straight.

I graduated!

This past May, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a double major in Advertising and Journalism (concentration in Photojournalism), and a Business Foundations Certificate.

To celebrate, I got a haircut.





I don't break walls, I eat them.

So early in the morning...

shirt, skirt: forever21 | shoes: h&m | watch: tko

The last few months kind of rolled by and I haven't found the time to breathe, post, or write. My passions were tugging left and right into grey areas, and I've finally aligned myself to this one again. I love blogging because I have a public platform to display whatever it is I want. One person might read it, maybe ten, maybe hundreds. But it's there for the world to see. I like that notion.

I'm still doing my photography thing. Launching two new portfolios soon (but never soon enough) as well as working full-time now post graduation as a Social Media Associate for a social media management company. It's a start-up with a very start-up type environment, which gives me lots of room to stretch my mind muscles to be creative, make things work and grow. Life is a routine I'm settling into and trying to break at the same time. Currently addicted to this song: "Main Street" by Late Night Alumni.



*Many a thanks to my roommate Ari Morales for taking these photos!

An Update on Life: Running from a raging cheetah

The past few weeks have been a blur. Like a cheetah running behind you and all you're trying to do is not get eaten. And then at some pivotal moment in life years from now, you could potentially win a million dollars on a game show if you could recall how many spots the cheetah had. "Impossible!" you say, "It was far too hectic and dangerous for me to just casually lay about and count the spots on the cheetah. I would've DIED AND BEEN EATEN."




Yep, that's how the past few weeks have felt like and how I perceive I'll feel about it in the future. Like a blur I was trying to escape from, but later wish I could've remembered it better and enjoyed it more -- but it really would just be a meaningless wish because I would've gotten EATEN if I slowed down.

But that's not to say I didn't take a few moments for myself over the past few weeks. One of them was a recent development where myself and a couple of photographer friends get together and have a goofy fun time over food.

Last Tuesday, we went to Hopdoddy's for burgers on South Congress and had a photo walk and ice cream afterwards.




The Goodnight Burger, which I devoured.









PATTY CAKE!





All photos with me in it taken by Ari Morales. All other photos taken by me and all are edited by me. No cheetahs were harmed nor any small Asian girls during the posting of this blog post.

Why my blog is crap

 


My blog sucks. Here's why:

1. I don't update enough
Well, this is obvious. I update like twice a month. It's really sad. The problem is I don't think I have anything interesting to say! I'd rather not bore people with random babbles about absolutely nothing just to fill up space. On the other hand, not filling it at all = this blog sucks.

2. There is no real content
So I throw up some cutesy photos every once in a while, and then what? There's no real content on this page, it's all fluff and that brings up my next reason...

3. This blog is censored
Yes, this blog is mad censored. No one is forcing me, but I censor the crap out of myself. Why? Because I fear my "future employer" will find it and disapprove of my colorful personality should I choose to display it.

Schools, HR staff, working professionals, et al -- ALL throw this threat down students' throats these days. "What you post on the internet is permanent." "Don't post anything online that you wouldn't want your grandma/mom/future kids to see." Taking all of this into consideration, I've completely shut myself up and filled this space up with perfectly good and likeable things. I mean, when you come here and read this space, I seem like a perfectly normal, fun-loving, likeable girl right?

No bitchyness (no one wants to hire a ranting brat), no crude jokes (must be politically correct in office spaces), no scandalous photos (not that those even possibly exist), and worst of all, nothing that shows any personality in me. BUT THIS BLOG IS ABOUT ME!! WHY IS IT NOTHING LIKE ME?????

4. I'm writing to please others
In relation to above reason, I am pleasing others rather than myself. The conundrum is I also thrive on comments. It's nice when someone takes the time to pat you on the back and throw you a little nibble known as a "comment" to show that they spent time to read your post, and actually took the time to tell you their opinion on something that took you quite some time to produce.

So I started noticing that the more pictures I posted, the more comments I usually got (I guess because it's easier to skim and easy to throw up a comment like "Nice pics" rather than something of more time, thought and substance). However, on the posts that I ventured out to be slightly more "edgy" and honest (where I talk about insecurities, fears, whatever) -- NO ONE COMMENTS. WHY??

It got to be discouraging. Maybe my worries just aren't relateable. Maybe I shall be FOREVER ALONE with my gripes about life. Maybe people just don't care. Or maybe people feel awkward to say something about a personal topic when they don't know the person that well. Eitherway, it got to feel kind of pointless even posting these musings to the public if no one wanted to see it.

5. It's not really valuable
What the heck is the point of visiting my blog anyways? I know a lot of people say they write their blog "for themselves." I'll be honest and tell you that's not why I'm here. I'm here because I want people to read and see my stuff. If it was for me and me alone, I'd keep a private journal (which I do, for those really melodramatic moments in my life). This place exists on the internet and even has a custom domain because I want people to read it!! Maybe it's an egotistical sense of self-importance where I feel like people should care about what I have to say, but I have to be honest with myself and admit this blog sucks because there is absolutely no value behind it. There's no reason to read it, really, unless you're just obsessed with me.

I had an epiphany that if I really want people to read my blog, I have to change the aforementioned five things that are murdering it right now.

Why five? I could've probably condensed it to three, or expanded and added on to it to eight or ten, but I like the way the number "5" looks all big and bold, so I went with five. Five is a pretty number.

Anyways, it would be nice if you commented. I mean, you don't HAVE to. But you'd be invalidating everything I said above. And that would make me sad.

= SAD





On an ironic and self-suicidal note, I am publishing this blog post as I am beginning my job search. This blog is indexed by Google and shouldn't really be hard to find as I link to it on my Twitter and LinkedIn too. But my hope is that either a) they won't dig so deep, or b) whatever place I work for will ideally value my honesty and ability to self-analyze and critique and view that as admirable! Or c) I will become independently wealthy within the next month.