‘Street Fighter’ Review: A Nostalgic, Overstuffed Tribute to the Game That Never Quite Lands a Hit
The endless parade of video game adaptations continues, and this time it’s Street Fighter’s turn to get the big-screen treatment once again. The franchise, which has been around since 1987, has already seen its share of cinematic glory and embarrassment. There was the 1994 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which became a beloved piece of cheesy nostalgia for many. Then there was the 2009 attempt, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, a movie that most fans would rather forget. Now comes a new version directed by Kitao Sakurai, a filmmaker whose background in absurdist comedy might seem like an odd fit for the iconic fighting game series. But Sakurai, along with co-writer T.J. Fixman, clearly loves this material. The result is a film that tries desperately to honor the games while also welcoming newcomers, and in doing so, it ends up in a strange middle ground where neither group is completely satisfied.
There is no question that Sakurai and Fixman are passionate about the source material. Their enthusiasm is evident in every frame, from the deep-cut character references to the loving attention paid to the visual details that fans will recognize. It feels like the work of people who spent countless hours in arcades, mastering combos and memorizing character backstories. But that passion becomes a double-edged sword. The film is a jumbled tonal mess, swinging wildly between deadly serious drama and self-aware parody. One moment, characters are mourning the loss of a beloved mentor; the next, the movie is winking at the audience with a silly cameo or a ridiculous costume. The whiplash is real, and it makes it hard to invest in any single emotional thread.
One of the film’s most distinctive choices is its use of 2D anime-style sequences for flashbacks. These animated segments are meant to provide backstory and context, and they are genuinely striking. In fact, they are so vibrant, so full of energy and visual flair, that they end up overshadowing the live-action footage. Every time the film cuts back to the real world, it feels a little duller by comparison. That is a significant problem for a movie that is supposed to be a live-action spectacle.
For a reviewer who is not a hardcore gamer, and for whom the previous Street Fighter films are just a distant memory, this new installment proved only sporadically entertaining. The fight scenes, which naturally dominate the proceedings, are colorful and well-choreographed, but they feel underwhelming when compared to the modern action landscape. Franchises like John Wick have raised the bar for cinematic violence and hand-to-hand combat, and by that standard, Street Fighter falls short. The fights are fun in a video game sort of way, but they lack the visceral impact and creative staging that audiences have come to expect.
The story begins with an animated prologue set in 1987, followed by a mock tabloid television segment that tries to bring viewers up to speed. The main narrative takes place six years later. Ken Masters, played by Noah Centineo, and Ryu, played by Andrew Koji, are brothers-in-arms who have fallen on hard times. Their mentor, Gouken, played by Don Lee, was murdered, and the two have not handled the loss well. Ken has become a drunken mess, spending his time warbling karaoke versions of 4 Non Blondes songs. Ryu, meanwhile, has let himself go completely, running a ramen shop so bad that even a stray cat refuses to eat there.
The pair are brought back together by Chun-Li, played by Callina Liang. She is an underling of the evil M. Bison, played by David Dastmalchian, and she recruits Ken and Ryu for the upcoming World Warrior tournament. But both Chun-Li and her boss have ulterior motives. Bison wants to exploit the fighters’ powers for his own nefarious purposes, while Chun-Li is secretly an Interpol agent trying to bring Bison down for the murder of her father. That is about as much plot as the film offers. From there, it essentially becomes a parade of fan-favorite characters, many of whom are introduced and then given very little to do. Describing them all would be pointless, because fans already know who they are and newcomers probably will not care. Suffice it to say, they are a very colorful bunch.
The cast is a mix of inspired choices and head-scratching oddities. Singer Orville Peck shows up as a fighter. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson also appears in a fighting role. Former SNL cast member Kyle Mooney plays Chun-Li’s Interpol handler, who has a major crush on her. Jason Momoa, who also produced the film, appears as a CGI-altered, green, Hulk-like Blanka. Director Sakurai’s previous credits include The Eric Andre Show and the film Bad Trip, which explains the presence of his frequent collaborator Eric André as a bellowing ring announcer. The ensemble is certainly memorable, even if not every performance lands.
The film is packed with vintage pop music needle drops. Ken enters the ring to, what else, “Who Let the Dogs Out.” The movie also lives up to its oft-repeated mantra, “To live is to fight, to fight is to live,” with an endless procession of fight scenes. There is a steam bath battle between a barely clothed Ryu and a corpulent opponent that would be impressive if it had not been done better in Eastern Promises. But that David Cronenberg film did not feature such extravagantly costumed and coiffed fighters. The design and special effects teams here are working overtime to make the actors look like their video game counterparts, and they deserve credit for the effort.
Centineo is entertainingly oafish as Ken, bringing a certain charm to the role. Koji, meanwhile, infuses the proceedings with some much-needed gravitas as the emotionally tortured but still kick-ass Ryu. Liang displays impressive charisma as the formidable Chun-Li, and she is sure to set many adolescent pulses racing. As for Dastmalchian, he inherits the villainous role played so memorably by Raul Julia in the 1994 film. Rather than going for the same campy approach, Dastmalchian opts for something creepier. His M. Bison is mainly distinguished by his perverse olfactory pleasures, a strange but memorable character choice.
The film also seems to have confidence in its own future. Unlike the recent Masters of the Universe, which crashed and burned with its latest big-screen incarnation before finding some life on streaming, Street Fighter ends with an open ending that all but guarantees a sequel. Whether that sequel will actually happen remains to be seen, but the film certainly positions itself as the beginning of a larger story.
In the end, Street Fighter is a movie that tries to beat you into submission. It throws so much at the audience, so many characters, so many references, so many fight scenes, that it becomes exhausting. Fans of the games will likely appreciate the effort and the love that went into the production. Newcomers, on the other hand, may find themselves struggling to keep up and wondering why they should care about any of these people. The film tries to thread the needle between fan service and welcoming the uninitiated, and the result is that neither camp is likely to be fully satisfied. It is a noble failure, a labor of love that is too messy and too tonally inconsistent to truly succeed. But for those who grew up with the games, there is something undeniably endearing about seeing these characters brought to life with such enthusiasm, even if the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Street Fighter is rated PG-13 and runs 1 hour 59 minutes. It is scheduled for release on Friday, October 16.
