REVIEW: 'Street Fighter' is a hard-hitting win
An early scene in the new Street Fighter movie features karate practitioner Ryu (Andrew Koji) facing off against sumo wrestler E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) in a traditional Japanese bath house. As steam billows around the two opponents, the heavyset Honda flings himself fully across the screen, hurtling towards Ryu like a human missile.
The sudden attack, and the moves that follow, are near-picture perfect translations of moves that gamers will recognize instantly, moves that—for whatever reason—had been largely absent from previous live action attempts. While this isn’t the fight that opens the film (nor is it the most impressive), it is the first to fully reflect the filmmakers’ understanding of these characters, their world, and the effort needed to do them justice.
Where the similarly themed Mortal Kombat II marked a clear course correction from its 2021 predecessor, Street Fighter director Kitao Sakarai (Bad Trip) makes it clear from his opening frames that this videogame reboot is fully rooted in the vibrant, freewheeling spirit of its source material. On that front, Street Fighter has a clear advantage over its gorier counterpart, while simultaneously atoning for the sins of the (delightfully) infamous Jean Claude Van Damme version from 1994 (the less said about 2009’s godawful Legend of Chun-Li, the better).
The story (such as it is) is composed of plot points from different eras and iterations of Street Fighter lore, with dictator M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) organizing a tournament to steal the powers of the world’s greatest martial artists. As Chun-Li (Callina Liang) travels the globe to recruit fighters, incumbent champion Ryu emerges from exile to protect his friend, Ken (Noah Centineo), from Bison’s plan. But with Chun-Li pursuing her own agenda, and Ryu haunted by personal demons, will these unlikely allies muster the strength to save the day?
Action-wise, the chance to finally see Street Fighter matchups on the big screen is absolutely worth the ticket, with the combatants’ signature moves realized through a fun blend of martial arts skill and visual effects. At the same time, the majority of the cast manage to successfully embody their characters’ larger-than-life, garishly-attired personas.
Granted, Centineo may not sport anything resembling his character’s traditional countenance, but he turns in an adequate take on Ken’s undisciplined nature. This is most evident in his interactions with Ryu, whose take on the wandering warrior borders on Zen. When the two finally cut loose on their foes, the resultant action plays out as an extension of their mutual character development.
Sure, this movie makes about as much sense as a bag of rocks, but this is in no way a bad thing, nor does it stop Street Fighter from being unreasonable amounts of fun. Indeed, it’s likely that Street Fighter will hit fans in much the same way that Masters of the Universe did, as an exciting, Easter Egg-laden treat for anyone who grew up with the franchise. The biggest difference here is that the latter film possessed a conviction in its ridiculousness that Street Fighter occasionally struggles with, to say nothing of a stronger villain in Skeletor.
Bottom line: Dastmalchian is a gifted actor, but he ain’t got nothing on Raul Julia’s gloriously demented megalomaniac. Why anyone would follow this guy to wage war on the world is anybody’s guess.
But then, this is a universe where Jason Momoa plays a Brazilian orphan raised by electric eels, so logic is probably the least of anyone’s worries, and it’s doubtful that anyone would go to a Street Fighter movie for its narrative in the first place. The video games’ conceit of story being less important than the experience of actually playing them is one that the film wears proudly on its sleeve; it’s a good choice, and one arguably worthy of celebration—after 32 years, someone finally made a (live action) Street Fighter movie that can be enjoyed unironically.
It’s about damn time.
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