What’s It About

Estranged street fighters Ryu and Ken Masters get thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament — a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. However, behind the battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons from their past.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Hollywood has been raiding our childhood game consoles for years now. Mario, Sonic, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, and Halo have all made the jump to the big or small screen. This weekend, though, the big dog of fighting games finally steps back into the ring. Capcom’s Street Fighter has been building serious hype ever since its first look dropped at The Game Awards, and I’m happy to report that the hype mostly holds up. Let’s be real about the history first. Street Fighter has been burned on screen before. The 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie has its fans, but it was a mess, and handing the role of Guile, an all-American soldier, to a Belgian action star with a thick accent never made sense to me. The 2009 Legend of Chun-Li was so rough that you’d be forgiven for never wanting to see this game in theaters again. The only version that truly got it right when I was growing up was Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie from 1994. That cartoon introduced a whole roster, gave each character a reason to be there, delivered wild fights, and still captured how crazy that world is. The franchise basically built itself around that movie, and director Kitao Sakurai clearly studied it. Sakurai, the mind behind Bad Trip and The Eric Andre Show, sets his film in 1993, back when Street Fighter II ruled every arcade on the block. He goes all in on the ’90s energy, splashing the screen with loud colors and throwing in needle drops from the era. This is the kind of movie where a fight to the death plays out to The Offspring’s “Come Out and Play,” and where 50 Cent, as the Tyson-style boxer Balrog, knocks people out to his own songs. It’s loud, goofy, and sometimes makes zero sense, which honestly describes the games too. The story centers on Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo), two fighters who grew up like brothers under the same teacher, Master Gouken (Don Lee). The movie opens with Ryu battling his rival Sagat, and he wins, but only by giving in to a dark, demonic force inside him tied to Akuma, played by WWE star Roman Reigns. When Gouken falls in tragic fashion, Ryu and Ken split up for years. Ryu walks away from fighting completely and runs a sad little noodle stand, while Ken turns into a flashy celebrity who smashes parked cars for show and fights in glitzy exhibitions for cash. Then Chun-Li (Callina Liang) shows up and recruits both of them for the next World Warrior Tournament, hosted by the mysterious M. Bison (David Dastmalchian). The tournament is really a trap, and Bison wants what’s buried inside Ryu. When the cast was first revealed, it was like someone just picked names at random for the sake of filling seats in the cinema. And there was Jason Momoa looking like a superhero with green CGI muscles. 50 cent has a hairline that was sharper than a ruler. It was unbelievable to see so many wrestlers, comedians, UFC champions, and a singer with claws just like Vega from Street Fighter. It all looked like a video game for me when I was scrolling through it. Koji does a fine job carrying the film; he is able to shift from Ryu’s calm nature to the dark side that’s slowly filling him. I didn’t expect much from Centineo but was pleasantly surprised. Ken is a dude who likes to show off and likes to party, but you can see how he’s trying to prove that he’s more than just a silly buffoon. The arc of their friendship falling apart, dictated by a sense of jealousy and guilt, supplies the film with its best moments and is, in fact, one of the few places where the script really shines. Finally, Callina Liang deserves a ton of praise for her performance as Chun-Li, where she portrays the character as someone consumed by vengeance who actually has her own agenda as opposed to just being a sidekick for the guys. Cody Rhodes is perfect as Guile, playing the corny American hero with a flat-top so straight-faced it’s hilarious. Andrew Schulz takes Dan Hibiki, one of the lamest characters in the whole franchise, and makes him fun and likable as Ken’s best friend and manager. Pro wrestler Hirooki Goto shines as E. Honda, slapping Ryu silly in a cool bathhouse brawl. Vidyut Jammwal, making his Hollywood debut as the yoga master Dhalsim, gets some of the biggest laughs just by taunting opponents like a stretchy Yoda. Dastmalchian, who might be the best in the business at playing weird dudes, makes Bison kooky instead of scary. Nobody’s topping the late, great Raul Julia, but this lighter take fits a movie that never takes itself seriously. Not everybody eats, though. Momoa brings a childlike energy to Blanka that seemed weird coming from a character of his size, and his steel cage match against Ryu was largely uneventful. Eric André, as announcer Don Sauvage, tries way too hard and mostly misses. And while 50 Cent clearly had a blast, Balrog is more of a walking music video than a real character. With a roster this deep, plenty of fighters get a cool entrance and then not much else. The biggest problem is the screenplay, which is honestly pretty weak at times. Nobody walks into a Street Fighter movie expecting Shakespeare, but the characters keep stopping to explain their own life story out loud. I guess that was for the newbies. Speeches about honor and redemption land like people are talking to a wall. I know the key audience is kids and adults that played it as kids, but they cram in so many fights and game references that the heart of the story suffers. The writers do know that they didn’t need to put every character in the movie, right? Leave out a couple of backstories to concentrate more on Ryu, and everything (I think), would have been fixed. Ryu’s pain over losing his parents and his war with his dark side deserved more room to breathe. His choice to enter the tournament feels rushed, and the final showdown, built up from the very first scene, ends up being mostly fan service. What saves it is the style. Flashbacks, including the opening Sagat fight and the scenes with Akuma and Gouken, play out in a slick anime look that tips its hat to the 1994 cartoon. It’s so good that I wished the whole movie looked like that. The fight choreography is sharp, the costumes and sets pop, and the Easter eggs are everywhere. Hadokens fly, Bison busts out his Psycho Crusher, Honda unloads his hundred-hand slap, and Ryu’s white gi burns black as Dark Ryu takes over. Street Fighter is cheesy, but in the most lovable way. It’s made for the kids who grew up on Bloodsport and the ’95 Mortal Kombat, and you can feel the love the filmmakers have for these games from the jump. It’s more fun than the recent Mortal Kombat movies, even if newcomers might feel lost. If a sequel comes, I’m dropping my quarter in the machine on day one.

OUR RATING – A REMINISCENT 7