DOA: Dead or Alive (2007)

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Overview

DOA: Dead or Alive is martial arts film based off of the video game series of the same name by Tecmo. The film takes place on a remote tropical island in the modern day. It is directed by action choreographer and director Corey Yuen and written by J. F. Lawton, Adam and Seth Gross.

Plot Summary

Ayane and Kasumi

Kasumi is in her ninja clans remote mountain palace but is determined to leave to seek the truth about what happened to her brother. She intends to leave and after a brief encounter with Ayane and a daring escape she receives an invite to the DOA fighting tournament, as do Tina Armstrong and Christie Allen. The three meet on a jet which is heading for a remote island, where the tournament is taking place, with all the other participants in the tournament. Among them is Hayabusa, a ninja from Kasumis clan who was also invited. He and Kasumi discuss what may have happened to her brother Hayate in the previous years tournament but are then told to make it to the island everyone must parachute out of the jet know. The tree girls land together at the foot of a temple and use team work to reach the top before the time runs out. Once there they are introduced to Helena and Donovan, their hosts and the rules are explained that fights can take place at any time, and they are injected with nanobots to track there progress.

Anyone for volleyball

With the start of the tournament all of the key people make it through to the second round, while Christie discusses the with her lover Max the chance to steal $100 million from the island vault, their real reason for being there. Tina defeats her father to advance, and Kasumi is matched against Leon the man responsible for her brothers death. Kasumi defeats him and is now more sure than ever that Hayate is alive. With the next day the girls have an impromptu volleyball match and Hayabusa uses this as cover to do some snooping around the labs but after fighting every guard on the island becomes trapped in a security trap. Meanwhile the volleyball match is interrupted when Kasumi notices Ayane and heads off to find her, the two fight but Ayane is forced to flee when the other girls come looking for her. With the final round of the tournament approaching the semi finalists become Tina, Christie, Kasumi and Hayabusa, who is currently missing.

Eric Roberts is the ultimate warrior

Kasumi decides to find Hayabusa and the other choose to come with her, but they do not get far before the are captured and secured in the nanobot data harvesters. It is then revealed that the whole point of the tournament is to gain the data of the best fights to be uploaded into a pair of sunglasses that allow the wearer to become the ultimate fighter. To test them Donovan then reveals he has kept Hayate locked put and challenges him to a fight and easily defeats him. Things look bleak until Helena and Weatherby, the tech specialist turn up and free the prisoners. They all then team up to defeat Donavan who is killed after being paralyzed in an explosion he set of by setting off the self destruct in the lab.

Production

The film began principal photography on May 4, 2005, and concluded on July 19, 2005. Filming locations include Bangkok, Guilin, Hengdian and Hong Kong. The production budget was estimated to be $21,000,000. The film was released first in a number of markets during September 2006 including the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines. The film was released in North America on June 15, 2007, without press screenings.

Critical Reception

In non-US markets the film was somewhat successful, making over $6,000,000 in the foreign box office, with almost 1 million in both the U.K. and Australia. In the USA though, the film was a box-office bomb, making only $260,000 in its first week. The movie received negative reviews, only receiving a rating of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 41 reviews. It was voted number 10 on Gametrailers's "Worst Video Game Movie" countdown, but found praise with Ryan Davis of GiantBomb in an episode of TANG.