by Nick Ferro, Editor
In 1995 a movie came to VHS that I rented probably 100 times. I now own it on a beautiful Blu-ray Steelbook: Street Fighter (1994). I played the arcade version of this game all the time growing up, so seeing a movie that took the very basic fighting game format and tried to add the most convoluted, ridiculous story, was wild! Filled with every character from the games (at the time) all of whom were given new jobs and team ups was the closest thing we got to a superhero movie back then. I know, I know, I live on an island when it comes to my love of Street Fighter (1994), but you cannot tell me that they didn’t know what they were doing when they made that insane movie! So, when I saw the first trailer for Street Fighter (2026) I knew that they were finally giving me the spiritual successor that I had been craving for 30 years! My only hope was that the goofy tone of the trailer wasn’t lost in the film itself.
Street Fighter (2026) opens in, what I found to be, the coolest way possible: Animated. I couldn’t believe that they were going to attempt to pay homage to not only the 1994 live action classic but also the 1994 animated classic as well! The animated segments (used mainly for flashbacks) are gorgeous and a great way to stage both past events and offer some context to the heightened reality that occur in the live action segments. The story essentially follows Ken (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji), two orphans(ish) who trained in martial arts to become ultimate fighters. To put this in Star Wars terms, Ryu has great power but a tendency to fall to the dark side, something that Akuma (Joe Anoa’i), the evil brother of their master, wants to exploit. Mysterious circumstances, that are revealed slowly throughout the film, cause Ken and Ryu’s friendship to fall apart and go their separate ways, but when a new tournament is being thrown by M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) Ryu must enter to save Ken from Akuma’s wrath.
Street Fighter is also the story of how M. Bison wants to capture Ryu to steal his “hadoken” powers (the blue fire balls he shoots in the games) to power-up his own “Psycho” powers (the purple electricity he shoots in the games).
Street Fighter is also, also about how Chun-Li (Callina Liang) wants to get revenge on Bison for killing her father.
Oh! And Street Fighter is ALSO, also, also, about a lot of cool characters with special skills and powers fighting each other in tournaments, clubs, prisons, and most importantly on the street! It’s a lot, I know, it was last time too, but clocking in at just under two hours still leaves what I felt, was a lot of opportunity on the table. I completely believe that there is a 150 minute cut of this movie somewhere so I will be starting the new hashtag: #ReleaseTheLongerStreetFighterCut… which doesn’t quite have the ring I was going for, but you get the picture.
First the positives. I think this movie looks amazing. The costuming and set design especially, they all felt like they were ripped right out of the video games. The costumes especially. I am a huge sucker for “source material accurate” costumes, so to see these characters come to life in costumes that looked just like they do in the games was awesome. I also really enjoyed the humor. There is a very weird and intentional quirkiness that both the 1994 and 2026 versions share. That feeling of intent. Does every joke or goofy moment land? No. But a lot of them do. I was impressed with the sheer volume. I couldn’t help but think of Masters of the Universe and The Naked Gun (2025). The former because the humor in Street Fighter is exactly what I wished Masters of the Universe had been, and the sheer number of jokes to success rate ratio reminded me of the latter. From prat falls to dialogue to the bizarre behavior of characters (looking at you Guile), I was sold. There is an added level of meta humor where it almost feels like Ryu is in a completely different and very serious movie, while a bunch of Looney Tunes masquerade as fighters around him that I just found to be delightful.
The performances are also really entertaining. Every single actor seems to know what movie they’re in (even if their particular storyline is different in tone from the rest of the movie). Ken is dumb, goofy and yet endearing as the quasi-lead. He has his moment of revelation which Centineo executes seamlessly. Dastmalchian is somehow incredibly intimidating while toeing the line of being a little weasel too. Andrew Koji is Andrew Koji, I will not be elaborating further. Liang is giving it all despite her character being written to deliver exposition and be an almost carbon copy of Ming-Na Wen’s version of Chun-Li in the original. She makes this character her own despite the role being very underwritten. Also, Jason Momoa is Blanca, and he gets to be incredibly silly when he isn’t being incredibly awesome. Which reminds me, everyone gets to do their own special moves from the game. They do not shy away from the crazy, physics-defying moves that a video game is meant to have. Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal) gets to move all weird and do stretchy limbs! Guile (Cody Rhodes) does his backwards kick! Blanca does electric rolls! E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) does his super-fast palm strike where his hands get really big and go really far! And don’t even get me started about JOE! Everyone gets their moment to shine and remind audiences why they loved the games without it feeling forced. Except Zangief (Olivier Richters) who never ONCE crushes man’s head, like sparrow’s egg, between thighs! IYKYK
This movie is not without its negatives however, and to talk about those I must invoke the name of its rival in the fighting game space: Mortal Kombat. The 2021 reboot had one glaring flaw: the lack of a tournament and the use of this movie as set up for the not-guaranteed-sequel. Apparently the writers of Street Fighter saw Mortal Kombat, saw the negative reaction that fans and audiences had towards it, and said, “what if we did the same thing… again… but this time add a tournament that we only occasionally show on screen?” To paraphrase Cotton from Dodgeball, “it’s a bold move, lets see if it plays out for them.” I cannot understand for the life of me, why they would try to do what already didn’t work AGAIN! But credit where it’s due, I did have a much better time with Street Fighter, because at the end of the day, it was way more fun, and the writers clearly knew what kind of movie they were making.
In addition to having a tournament but only showing two of the ten rounds on screen, this movie’s biggest flaw is its lack of attention to the fight scenes. There is not a single fight in this movie that I can point to and compare to the likes of anything from The Raid, Shang-Chi or the Kung-lao/Liu Kang fight in Mortal Kombat II. While most of the fights are a step above typical action movie fights full of cut-to-death action, they aren’t as elaborate as they should be, in a movie about the world’s best fighters, fighting… on the street. There is one standout fight in an alley towards the end of the film that was pretty awesome but mainly because it made up for in visuals what it lacked in choreography. In fact, I will say that most of the fights were incredibly well shot and the design of everything around them from the lighting choices to how the camera moved with the actors was impressive even if the fight itself left me wanting.
My final gripe comes in the form of the editing. As I alluded to earlier, this movie felt like a lot of footage was left on the cutting-room floor. However, it also felt like rather than filming transitions scenes to accommodate the removed footage, they just jumped to the next segment which often times felt jarring. If this was intentional and not the result of missing scenes then, to me, it’s all the more egregious. Aside from the pacing being a bit off, there are sudden changes in format that didn’t sit right with me either. It is entirely possible that director Kitao Sakurai was attempting to replicate Japanese anime, as I know they sometimes do similar things. Or it could be that I’m just not used to unconventional filmmaking choices (unlikely). But overall, it hurt my experience with the film and was a consistently irritating element that ripped me out of the story every time.
Street Fighter (2026) is not a home run by any stretch; I don’t even know if I would compare it to the ground rule double that was Mortal Kombat (2021). It definitely gets on base, but it does so in the weirdest way imaginable, and I think that’s okay. Because at the end of the day, I had fun, the audience I saw it with had fun, and I think if you go into it with expectations set accordingly you too will have fun.
Rating: Liked It
Street Fighter (2026) is currently playing in theaters.
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