I’ve seen review headlines calling Street Fighter a mess. And, well, it very well may be. But it’s a damn fun mess, knows exactly what it’s trying to do, and got everyone in it on the same page to deliver a ton of wild fun.
Yes, the plot “progression” is a bit disjointed and makes some pretty big leaps at points. But that’s kind of classic “action movie” stuff going way back. The important thing is, it still manages to maintain internal consistency. In some cases better than more “serious” movies.
Yes, some of the effects look ridiculous. But this is a movie based on a video game… and none of that stuff is even within the realm of realistic to begin with. So, if a green spiky dude who can roll up into an electrically charged ball and zip around a fighting arena doesn’t look realistic enough to you… uh, I think that’s a “you” problem.
Yes, some of the dialog is absolutely ridiculous in both content and delivery. But that kind of the whole schtick of the film itself. Every character is there to chew scenery at some point–heroes, villains, henchmen, everyone–and it works because it’s consistent and just cheesy enough… on purpose. If they’d been aiming for a “better” movie and landed here, yeah, it would be a serious failure… but this is exactly the target and they hit it dead on.
If you grew up playing these games in the arcade or on a home system, you’ll find a lot of great little nods to those days in here. Level backgrounds are settings for scenes. Background characters are right out of those game backgrounds. Things the character say are lifted right from the game. Everyone’s moves are game-perfect in most cases (or, at least close enough without doing absolutely insane things to human bodies).
The two main quibbles I have are things that are common with a whole lot of modern films.
First, there are some scenes that are just too dark. That loses details that I know designers have put a lot of work into and hides performance nuance (yes, even this movie has some nuanced acting in it) that actors put a lot of work into. It also makes it easy to lose track of what’s going on in some fights. Which brings me to…
The fight choreography seems pretty solid. They’ve got a lot of these people moving like they know what they’re doing well enough (again, well ahead of a lot of other films). It’s not on the level of, say, a classic Shaw Brothers martial arts flick… but it’s not bad. Unfortunately, between the dim lighting in some scenes and the quick cuts and other editing/camera work choices, you can’t always get a full appreciation for everything going on in a fight. Nowhere near as bad as a Michael Bay film… but definitely trading off the ability to be wowed by the fight design for the short attention span crowd who needs something new on the screen every half second.
Since I’ve been avoiding a lot of stuff about this for the past long while, I wasn’t aware as much of it was going to be animated as was the case. Starting right up front with an animated title sequence/intro that was just plain awesome. Then, throughout the film, every flashback was done as animation. That’s just super creative and I greatly appreciate it. And the animation seems to have been done by Titmouse, who has also done a number of other animated shows that I love.
The real MVP of the film, especially for people around my age (late-cohort Gen X thru mid-cohort Millennial… the ones who really remember the 90s) is the soundtrack. Setting this film in 1993 was a brilliant choice. So many solid hits of nostalgia and just rocking tunes that are perfect for action films like this. And some that are prefect counterpoints/punchlines to everything else.
Compared to the Mortal Kombat sequel that hit earlier in the year, it feels like Street Figher hit the target a lot better and harder. More importantly, it felt a whole lot more fun and moved a whole lot more quickly most of the time (while still giving us some depth to important characters).
If you’re looking for a good, cartoonishly violent time, punctuated by wild dialog and rockin’ tunes… check this out.
I need it to do well enough to get the sequel they’ve set up at the end…
- Street Fighter (2026) – October 15, 2026
- Cemetery Man – October 12, 2026
- V/H/S/Mixtape – October 10, 2026
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