If you’re a fan of 90s fighting games, you’re a winner this year. Not only did we have Mortal Kombat II this year, but the latest attempt to give us an authentic Street Fighter movie just hit the big screen. Does this one work or should it have stayed off the big screen? Let’s find out.
As a note, unlike Mortal Kombat, I have no real experience or nostalgia for Street Fighter. I may have played quite a bit of the former, but haven’t played much of the latter. I know some of the overall basics, and the design of many others due to their cultural impact, but for all intents and purposes, I’m going into this not as a fan.
Street Fighter largely follows the story of Ryu and Ken, two best friends who were trained together in Japan by Master Gouken. Ryu is a natural talent and is the inaugural winner of the World Warrior Tournament, with Ken sitting it out for being Ryu’s training partner. But not long after his victory, he vanished, and Ken has become a wannabe has-been who does easy fights only for fame and money. But when M. Bison launches the Second Tournament, fighters from across the world are brought in to compete, and the question everyone is asking is: will Ryu and Ken finally get to face off?
Street Fighter is definitely a mixed one. It does some things really well, and some things end up feeling quite messy.
So let’s start with the positive. The cast is overall quite good for this material, with everyone seemingly understanding the assignment of camp and zaniness. Ryu and Ken are definitely the leads, so they get the most to do, and often the movie finds a good rhythm in exploring their relationship and fallout. I really think the movie should’ve focused more on this aspect of the movie, as this is the heart and the more engaging aspect. The other fighters are largely just there in the background as one-dimensional inclusions, but they’re still on point, especially Cody Rhodes as Guile; he just leans into the silliness of it all. The costumes also feel lovingly recreated from the games. The movie also features 2D animated flashback sequences, and these parts straight up rule, to the point where I think the whole movie should’ve been like this. They’re far more convincing and engrossing than the live-action sequences.
Street Fighter is set in the 90s and also boasts a really fun 90s soundtrack. It may not make a lick of sense in terms of the years of release, as the film takes place in 1993, but that’s a bridge I can get over if it means we get the likes of 2Pac, Offspring, 4 Non Blondes, Too $hort, and Soundgarden in the movie.
While the cast may have realized their parts well, it’s ironic that the best actor in the movie is also the one who struggles the most. David Dastmalchian plays Bison and is definitely miscast in the role. He lacks the menace to come off as a scary villain, but can’t chew the scenery enough to make it a fun villain either. It’s never fair to compare, but from what I’ve seen of the 1994 version, Raul Julia gives a far more convincing turn as Bison, as he treated the role as he would any other role, with complete class. Dastmalchian’s turn feels very one-dimensional, flat, and boring by contrast. It’s a shame, as Dastmalchian is such a good talent in general.
The movie is also a bit of a mess in the edit. There were a few instances where the movie jarringly jumps ahead without offering any context or explanation; there’s just missing scenes in the movie, and we’re expected to deduce why this one character who was captured one scene ago is now free, for instance. The movie also relies a bit too much on humour, much like the Masters of the Universe film, and sometimes it can derail the movie. There’s an awful lot of Eric André in this movie, at the expense of a lot of the other fighters, for instance.
There’s also not a lot of the tournament, with most of those fights happening off-screen, and that feels like the same mistake the 2021 Mortal Kombat made. I would’ve focused on the tournament and Ryu and Ken’s relationship, rather than Bison’s whole quest to look for Psycho Power. There’s a lot going on in this movie, between Chung Li’s (Callina Liang) recruitment and secret mission, Ryu’s darkness, Ken’s comeback, Bison’s master plan, and the more supernatural element of the demon Akuma (Roman Reigns). Street Fighter also abruptly ends, not even with a cliffhanger perse, but it builds up momentum and simply pulls the cord at a baffling spot. I guess the studio is hoping for a sequel.
So I’d say if you’re a fan of the games, or are jonesing for a 90s throwback movie both in style and execution, you may have some fun after checking your brain at the door. It’s got style, and some fun camp to be had, but I also feel it was messy and was trying to do too many things at once.
