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I've never been a big fan of fighting games, but I do get their appeal. Just some mindless fun to pass the time. And that's what I expected from Kitao Sakurai's video game adaptation, "Street Fighter." I didn't go in with expectations of great storytelling or heavy themes, but I did expect to enjoy a goofy action movie. Instead, this was a threadbare story somehow both stretched over and crammed into a 2-hour movie that ends out of nowhere with one of the most egregious sequel pitches ever.
After Ryu (Andrew Koji) wins the World Warrior Tournament by tapping into a dark, corrupting power, he leaves his brother Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) to be a simple ramen chef. Meanwhile, M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) has been chasing Ryu's power for years, draining the strongest men he could find to create "psycho power," with little success. He finally decides to hold a new World Warrior Tournament, hoping to lure out Ryu. Reporter Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who has a personal beef with Bison, is trying to uncover his plan.
If you're a fan of the "Street Fighter" video games from Capcom, there will definitely be parts of this that you will very much enjoy. The costumes and staging of a lot of the fights feel pulled straight out of the game. But if you're looking for something more than watching 2 hours of someone else playing a game, held together with a convoluted but still thin plot, you are likely to be disappointed.
Some of the movie’s best moments are the animated flashback scenes. They have impressive style and actually have some kind of narrative structure to them. The live-action sections promise a lot more fun than they deliver. There is great chemistry between Koji and Centineo, and it's a shame that they didn't have more time together. Likewise, Dastmalchian felt like he wasn't able to really cut loose and be as ridiculous as he could have been.
One of the greatest assets of "Street Fighter" is the bevy of characters it includes from the game. Cody Rhodes is hilarious as Guile. Masked country singer Orville Peck gives a great turn as Vega, the masked henchman. Vidyut Jammwal is an absolute scene stealer as Dhalsim. However, all of these characters are among the greatest liabilities as well, because they don't really serve the story and get in the way of allowing the main characters to have space to breathe. Or at least make a few more jokes.
Video game movies have definitely been improving over the past few years. It seemed like perhaps filmmakers had cracked the code on how to bring a game to the big screen in a way that honored both media. Unfortunately, "Street Fighter" feels like a step backward in the progress of game-to-movie adaptations. You could spend two hours watching this movie, or you could spend two hours playing the game. I think the latter would be a lot more fun.
Rating: 2/5
Alise Chaffins is a freelance and Tomatometer-approved film critic.