4/12 ForReel Score | 2/5 Stars

Video game adaptations recently feel like they could go either way. Something like Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil can feel fresh, clever, and exciting whereas something like Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat II can be dull, long, and empty. I ultimately found Kitao Sakurai’s Street Fighter to be unfunny, overstuffed, and abrupt. While it does have its moments in some well put together fight scenes and occasional character moments, it constantly feels bogged down by a lack of stakes and some questionable one-liner jokes. I was about as confused as the movie itself by the time it ended, as it felt bloated and unsure of what direction it wanted to go in at any given moment. To its credit, it does have some pretty funny moments and bits (Cody Rhodes’ Guile steals the show), but for every good joke there’s about twenty that just don’t land.

The movie opens on a gorgeous animated flashback of Ryu, played by Andrew Koji, in a fight against Sagat during a tournament. Ryu taps into a dark power and wins the fight, opening a door for Akuma to rise. Ken, played by Noah Centineo, and Ryu both train under their master, Gouken. Gouken tasks Ken with protecting Ryu. The film takes us to the present where Ryu is nowhere to be seen by the public eye, but Ken is everywhere. He’s become a washed up party animal who fights for entertainment. Evil Lord M. Bison grows hungry for power, and demands for Ryu to be brought to him in order to steal his power. A second tournament is announced on Bison’s orders with Ryu and Ken both being invited. Their reunion isn’t a pretty one.

To get something that I want to talk about out of the way early, I have to mention the animated sequences. The film uses them to indicate to the audience that what we’re watching is set in the past. They’re often paired with some intense music from Leo Birenberg and Zack Robinson’s fantastic score for the film. Those flashbacks are so compelling that you almost wish that was the movie you were watching instead. The movie isn’t all bad. There’s a few well directed fights in there that draw you in, as well as a few small character moments that are sweet and funny that connect you better to the characters and their relationships with one another. For a movie that’s frequently missing with the humor, there are a few surprisingly funny bits. Cody Rhodes sells every line as Guile. He was cracking me up almost every time he opened his mouth and it was a little frustrating because it felt like no one but Eric André’s Don Sauvage was playing well off of him. It’s hard when you know that level of humor is doable in the movie, but it instead opts for cheap one liners with rough deliveries.

There are some aspects of this movie that are pretty irredeemable. It’ll be hard to find a live action shot from it that doesn’t look like sludge processed through a beige filter. There’s a few scenes that are well lit, but it’s not a high number. The acting is completely hit or miss. Andrew Schulz’s Dan specifically is hard to watch sometimes, as is David Dastmalchian’s M. Bison. The latter makes some acting choices by pulling a few character quirks straight from the game that just don’t translate well at all. There’s a line about halfway through the movie where someone asks why they’re even fighting, and I was beginning to mentally echo that sentiment around that point in the movie too. Many scenes felt aimless and out of place, and it often felt like main characters didn’t even really care much about whatever was going on in the other plotlines.

Speaking of aimless and out of place, the ending is pretty egregious in its sequel baiting tactics. It boldly promises a followup film to this one, even though I walked out of the theater thinking they could easily wrap everything up had they had another twenty or so minutes to work with. It was confusing and abrupt, which already doesn’t bode well for its potential sequel. Finally, Chun-Li was barely treated like a real person. The movie does try to say that the people fetishizing these video game characters are obvious evil freaks, but that doesn’t mean it does away with the creepy leering shots or frail character motivations. Callina Liang herself is a very good actress, it’s just that the script doesn’t serve her as well as it should.

Overall, the film is a pretty big disappointment. I’ve been a fan of the series for a long time, and it was rare that I felt invested in the movie. It lacked any kind of focus and was frustratingly paced. Hardly any jokes or emotional beats landed in the way they were most likely supposed to, and it’s a shame that such fantastic animated sequences are attached to an otherwise shameless and ugly looking movie. It’s a fun movie at times! There’s some stuff to enjoy for both fans and newcomers to the series, just not enough. And with all that being said, if I have to hear “What’s Up?” from 4 Non Blondes one more time this year I might lose my mind.

Movie Review: “Street Fighter” Fights Hard To Keep You In The Theater