Written by Matthew Raab
Good live action adaptations are becoming fewer and far between as time goes on. Even before watching Street Fighter, the cliches of the trend are obvious. Big names like 50 Cent and Andrew Schulz elevating the movie’s roster. The revival of a popular IP among both older and younger generations. Annoying cinematic remixes for the trailer. When watching, however, those cliches become more glaring while accompanied by eye-rolling jokes and needledrops, as well as an uninteresting plot that hopes its celebrity-lined cast can keep you engaged (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).
Street Fighter follows world champion Ryu (Andrew Koji) on a mission to take down his master’s murderer, Akuma (Roman Reigns), while managing the darkness within. His childhood best friend Ken (Noah Centineo) and see-through leech Dan Hibuki (Andrew Schulz) navigate their way through Lord M. Bison’s (David Dastmalchian) Second World Warrior Tournament meant to draw out Ryu. Akuma has threatened to kill whoever wins the championship and Interpol agent Chun-Li (Callina Liang) is on the trail to uncover Bison’s ulterior motives.
To get it out of the way: if you have any inkling of a negative thought regarding Andrew Schulz, your money is better spent at another movie in the theater. It is aggressively grating how useless his character is in the grand scheme of the plot despite his prominence on screen. Almost every character Dan interacts with reminds him that he is nothing but a washed up leech—so much so that it almost starts to feel metatextual. Despite staying by Ken’s side the entire movie as childhood friends, it almost feels like Schulz himself instead of Dan is the one wedging himself into these scenes, especially with his attempt to ruin what would’ve been one of the more serious moments of the movie. Dan Hibuki might be a favorite among fans of Street Fighter, but was casting Andrew Schulz really a love letter to those fans?
The American Nightmare (or, in this case, American War Hero) Cody Rhodes delivers the best performance in the movie, though the bar is near the ground. But not too much on Rhodes; his Guile is the most consistent source of comedy throughout the movie. His cocky, macho style from the ring translates perfectly into the Air Force hero, with his matter-of-fact realness and patriotic charisma. Despite being one of the characters with the least time fighting on screen, his presence still shines through in a relatively boring movie. Alternatively, Roman Reigns just isn’t felt at all. While Akuma was meant to be a looming threat with the darkness resting inside Ryu, when he arrives, what stands out more than his performance are the red eyes poorly edited onto him.
The humor in this movie ranges from decent to cringeworthy every time the shot changes. This might be the first movie to actually insert a pause to the music when making a gay joke. Three separate gay jokes flew out within the first half, all sticking out like a sore thumb. Throughout this, it feels like this movie was somewhat made with anyone who’s ever thirsted for Chun-Li in mind. The “obligatory” thigh remark from Cammy (Mel Jarnson) and her handler at Interpol who loves being degraded by Chun-Li felt incredibly forced. The needledrops are equally annoying, like the groan-worthy “Many Men” needledrop during Balrog (50 Cent) and Ken’s fight, or the weird obligation to throw songs like 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” in for the older crowd (spoiler: if you’ve seen Supergirl, prepare for another serious third-act moment to be ruined by this song).
Fight choreography throughout the movie also ranges, although it consistently looks great. Live action translations of moves like Ken’s use of the Shoryuken as well as Dhalsim’s (Vidyut Jammwal) elasticity look great, although the execution of other moves leave much to be desired with their stiffness. The fighting looks even better during the animated flashback sequences, which are already the most visually stunning parts of the movie. The incredibly detailed and fast-paced animations make the fights feel so much more visceral and intense, especially Akuma’s fight with Gouken (Don Lee).
While Street Fighter leaves a lot to be desired, there are a couple glimmers of a good movie littered throughout. Despite Rhodes playing what might be the best fit possible for him as a role, as well as the movie featuring several dazzling animated scenes, it does not do enough to redeem the overall movie. Chun-Li was a decent part of the marketing for this movie, and watching her character be throttled until she finally gets her fighting outfit in the last act of the movie is disappointing. More effort seems to be put on delivering nostalgia-drenched fan service rather than giving a respectable plot to a movie based on a franchise loved by millions.
