STREET FIGHTER

Director
Kitao Sakurai

Starring
Andrew Koji
Noah Centineo
Callina Liang
David Dastmalchian

After rising to fame for winning a fighting tournament in the late 80s, adoptive brothers Ryu [Koji] and Ken [Centineo] become estranged due to the death of their master. 6 years later they’re separately summoned to a second tournament – but with the nefarious Lord M Bison [Dastmalchian] as its organiser, it’s clear the competition is undoubtedly a trap. A trap that Interpol agent Chun-Li [Liang] intends to expose.

Much like the recent Masters Of The Universe and Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter feels like wonderful, immature fun that genuinely loves the source material; no matter how fantastical it is or how much blunt exposition it has to wade through. The 90s production and setting is well executed – essentially bringing to life a fever dream of all the heightened “extreme” excess. What’s more, this movie unabashedly and unapologetically leans into the cartoon silliness. Hair, make-up and costumes are accurate to the games, as is the gravity defying combat, and the impossible elemental projectiles and powers. Which will delight fans but also potentially ostracise those who want something more grounded.

With all the attention on the lavish visuals, it would have been a crying shame if the direction was bare bones or utilitarian. Thankfully, there’s lots of inventive, kinetic camera work and production design. And while the CGI doesn’t always hit the mark, it mostly succeeds in its ambitions and never detracts too much. The music and sound design are also a wonderful mix of homage, era appropriate themes (synths, grunge, hip hop and wailing guitars) and perfectly fitting, if a touch obvious, needle drops.

The cast is a tricky one, and for anyone approaching this project, it was always going to be a challenge. Granted, over the years, the video game lore has expanded but the initial setup was a sentence or two after each winning bout and that wasn’t exactly detailed or complex. On top of that, the ensemble is vast – sitting at around 15 familiar names and faces. That said, the film handles the line up pretty well, giving each character enough of a moment to standout, but all the while keeping the core duality of Ryu and Ken in centre focus. More than that, this movie puts all its chips on the Ryu and Ken dynamic, and I genuinely believe it pays off. Koji is charming, disciplined, and steadfast, whereas Centineo is every bit the brash himbo Ken needs to be. Their chemistry is brotherly and the hot-cold contrast is incredibly rewarding.

As stated earlier, the main subplot follows Chun-Li trying to infiltrate Bison’s operation, and while it doesn’t always engage as it should, it’s a reasonably strong secondary thread that pushes things forward. Speaking of Bison, Dastmalchian had such a staggeringly difficult task. Not only to be the adversary in a confused script with multiple true adversaries (Joe Anoa’i as Akuma for example), but to step into a role that the late Raul Julia elevated beyond an incredibly dire movie. Now, does Dastmalchian exceed Julia’s scene chewing gravitas? No. But his version of Bison is gleefully silly, sinister and driven. The only snag being the handful of callbacks and references (such as the now infamous Tuesday line) which only serves to highlight the chasm between the two portrayals.

All this minor praise to one side, the writing is trash. Clumsy exposition, ad libbing that doesn’t always land, a sea of fantasy lore and world building that’s sometimes rushed through, and a pretty scant central story when you trim off all the frills and distractions. But, for the most part, the cast understands the task at hand and delivers accordingly. Whether that’s painfully stupid dialogue such as “Don’t you have a plane to fix?” “I don’t fix ’em, I fly ’em titty boy.” and “He’s an orphan like you. Only he was raised by eels. Electric eels.” Or stunted intonation like, “He murdered my father… so drive…. the car.” it all sort of works, providing you meet the movie on its turf.

**Spoilers**
But I cannot excuse the ending. I may have had a lot of fun but to abruptly slam on the brakes and slap up a “see you next time folks” is arrogant, unnecessary, and insulting. Sure, there’s an element of closure and enough of a resolution to feel somewhat complete. But rushing into an unresolved cliffhanger gives the impression this movie was always planned as a two parter, or even the bumper opening episode of a TV series. One could argue cinema does this often with films like Back To The Future or Dune having very open-ended setups, almost as a way of bargaining with both the audience and the studio, but it’s still a gamble and in the unlikely event there’s no sequel, it’d be painfully frustrating and kill any sort of retrospective enjoyment or rewatchability.

Ultimately Street Fighter did its job. The real post mortem debate will be if it aimed too closely at and for its target demographic. To my mind, this feels like it was made for Street Fighter fans, wider audiences be damned. But is that a problem? Do we need genre films to compromise their ambitions and shave off the edges and personality just to gain broader appeal? Or is it better to be true to your source material and have a whale of a time regardless? I favour the latter but a more engaging, tighter script wouldn’t go amiss next time round.

Release Date:
16 October 2026

The Scene To Look Out For:
I loved that all the flashback scenes and initial cold open were animated. Both tonally for what’s to come and in service to the only successful/beloved version of Street Fighter on screen – the 1994 anime.

Notable Characters:
I have quite a few to highlight here because there’s such a range of performances. You’ve got Eric André’s shrill screaming grating if you’re not into his style of comedy, Andrew Schulz showing a surprising amount of heart as Ken’s friend and promoter Dan, Jason Momoa being amusing as Blanka but I felt he didn’t need to be CGI (a green body- painted Momoa would have been sufficient), and Cody Rhodes feeling like he’s having the most fun. But there were two characters that were lacking. The first is Kyle Mooney as Interpol agent Marvin. Yeah, there’s plenty of sophomoric references to sex but his horny simp character felt just a touch unnecessary. Also Mel Jarnson as Cammy. Again, we could argue that all these characters are paper thin but her presence is probably one of the weakest.

Highlighted Quote:
“Remember, envy is the seed from which evil grows.”

In A Few Words:
“Energetic, loud, bombastic, irreverent, fun. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Total Score: 3/5

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