‘Street Fighter’ Review: When an Arcade Fantasy Gets a Hollywood Budget

‘Street Fighter‘ arrives carrying nearly four decades of arcade history and the baggage of two earlier live action attempts that never found their footing. Kitao Sakurai’s new film turns the clock back to 1993 and drags estranged friends Ryu and Ken into the next World Warrior Tournament. It is a premise as simple as a joystick and a punch button, which is exactly how it should be.

Andrew Koji plays Ryu, Noah Centineo is Ken, and Callina Liang is Chun-Li, the mysterious figure who pulls them back into the ring. Cody Rhodes steps in as Guile and David Dastmalchian plays the villain M. The whole thing was shot in Melbourne, runs just under two hours, and leans on a pile of old pop and rock songs to remind you what decade you are in.

Here is where I landed after the credits. I had a good time in pieces, and I was also quietly annoyed the entire way through. The movie is far better in short bursts than it is as a complete story.

The cast deserves real credit. Centineo is clearly having a blast and gives Ken a loose, cocky charm, while Rhodes brings an easy physical presence that suits Guile. Dastmalchian looks delighted to be a Street Fighter villain, even if M never feels particularly dangerous. Koji and Liang commit fully to material that does not always give them much to hold onto.

The trouble is the tone, which lurches between winking silliness and big earnest feelings without ever finding a steady rhythm. The jokes mostly fall flat, and the needle drops, including a very pointed use of 4 Non Blondes, work harder than the script does. When the film asks you to care about Ryu and Ken’s broken friendship moments after a gag, the emotion has nowhere to land.

The animated flashbacks are the surprise highlight. These hand drawn 2D sequences are gorgeous, upscaled for IMAX, and honestly more thrilling than much of the live action around them. Meanwhile a great deal of the tournament itself happens off screen, which is a bewildering choice for a movie with the word fight in its name.

The middle stretch feels sloppy and disjointed, and the finale has trouble pulling the loose threads together. So many characters and references are crammed in that newcomers will struggle to keep pace, while longtime fans may wish the film would just let its fighters fight. It stays watchable the whole way through, but it rarely feels sharp.

Still, I never once felt bored, and when the movie finally commits to a big brawl or a burst of that animation, it is a real treat. I would watch a sequel that fixes the script and simply trusts its cast and its fists. For now I am giving ‘Street Fighter’ 6 out of 10.

Did this adaptation land its hits for you or did the story leave you on the mat, and who was your favorite fighter on screen? Tell me in the comments.