Ryu and Ken Masters.
Once inseparable brothers of the fist, now sent on different paths after
the death of their Master. Those paths
have reunited them at the Second World Warrior Tournament, hosted by the
maniacal M. Bison. For some, it’s a
matter of honor. For others, it’s a
matter of proving who is the strongest.
For Ken and Ryu, it’s about settling old scores and confronting the past
that drove them apart. Together, they
answer the call to see who will be crowned the world champion Street Fighter.
Something about the way the new Street Fighter movie was
marketed got me right away.
It didn’t look
like a generic but goofy 90s action vehicle for Jean Claude Van Damme or a far
too serious to be taken seriously Dark Knight wanna be with a terrible Chun
Li.
The trailers looked colorful,
humorous and unafraid to embrace the craziness of Capcoms’ legendary fighter.
The end product certainly is all of that and
when you switch your brain off, it is a great time.
Putting it up against most recent Video Game
adaptations though, you can tell Street Fighters heart and energy is in the
right place.
It’s just a shame the script
is in desperate need of a few rewrites that keep it from a perfect Round 1.
I freaking love the cast of this movie.
Everyone looks like they’re not just having a
blast but are genuine Street Fighter fans who grew up with the games and are
committed to the parts 100%.
From Noah
Centino’s tortured playboy Ken to David Daslmatchian’s quirky and creepy take
on Bison to Callina Liang’s commanding and pitch perfect take on Chun Li, there
are no real weak links in the group.
If
anything, they are let down by a story that is trying to shove too much of
Street Fighter into one movie as if they have a bad feeling they might not get
a sequel.
Oh yeah everyone gets a moment
to shine or show off a signature move but some either have nothing to do with
the overarching plot or just vanish altogether.
Zangief and Cammy are the biggest casualties.
Zangief is just gone without a word or
tournament fight scene (more on that in a bit).
Meanwhile Cammy is delightfully dangerous just by being on screen but
never gets to do any actual fighting.
And when you build up a hot showdown between her and Chun Li and don’t deliver…well
sorry but that’s gonna knock off an entire point from your movies score even if
everything else was perfect.
The overstuffed problem extends just about everywhere
with the plot really.
You have Ryu and
Ken’s unsettled rivalry, the tournament and Bison’s master plan, the threat of
Akuma.
Sure you can make all three of
these major plot lines come together coherently but the movie instead
sacrifices and cuts a lot out…like the actual tournament.
Oh yes we do get to see some of it and it is awesome
but other fights happen off screen or not at all, as if the tournament itself
is an afterthought…and it kind of is but we still wanna see it.
And while Roman Reigns’ Akuma is nicely
portrayed, he robs the film of any final boss fights with Bison himself.
Here’s what should have happened: tease Akuma
but leave him out of the film outside of the flashbacks.
Have Ken and Ryu settle their differences
then take on Bison with Chun Li and Guile with a couple of Bison’s lackies like
Vega, Cammy and Juli waiting in the wings.
Take down Bison, then have Akuma be the main antagonist of the
sequel.
It worked well enough for Street
Fighter II: The Animated Movie, so why couldn’t that be done here as well?
Also the fact that they are sequel baiting so
soon is either a sign of immense confidence or worry, take your pick.
Ok, I’ve ragged on the flaws enough.
That doesn’t mean I dislike the movie.
Far from it.
Like I said, there’s a energy and reverence for Street Fighter in much
of the movie and it improves on past iterations in almost every way.
The 94 film famously ran out of prep time so
had everyone fight the same way.
Here,
everyone’s clearly studied the various and distinct martial art styles of their
respective characters from 50 Cent’s powerful boxing blows as Balrog to the aforementioned
Callina Liang’s perfect execution of Chun Li’s rapid fire kick.
And unlike The Legend of Chun Li, this isnt
ashamed to be a Street Fighter movie.
Rather than try to ground or Dark Knight up the place, we get to embrace
the zaniness of a world where a Shaman has Mr. Fantastic stretch abilities or a
CG Jason Momoa can roll around as an electric Green beast man.
Just because it’s cluttered for sure doesn’t mean
Street Fighter doesn’t have a strong sense of fun about it.
There’s an extra bonus of having every flashback in the
film being done in an Anime-esque style.
While Animation studio Titmouse (Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Legend of Vox
Machina) could have just handled the opening sequence of Ryu fighting Sagat in
the first tournament, they continue to flex their skills with each subsequent cut
to the past.
There’s just as much love
and care put into these scenes as their animated counterparts and are so well crafted,
it makes you want another animated Street Fighter movie from these guys.
Is this a way to save costs on filming more live
action sequences: maybe and that argument is valid.
Personally though, we get some Anime (kind
of) in our Street Fighter movie and I’m perfectly ok with that.
Of the two big Live Action Video Adaptations to come out
this year based on popular fighting games: Mortal Kombat II is the better
movie.
Street Fighter comes to play and
comes prepared with a ready and fun loving cast, a visual understanding of the
source material and excellent fights.
What it doesn’t come with is a more ironed out script and a clearer
direction of what it wants to accomplish with its plot.
If you can ignore the overcrowdedness of it
all, Street Fighter is still incredibly fun to watch if only to see these fighters
of legend brought to life near flawlessly on the big screen.
Cause even if the plot is all over the place,
I wanna see more of these guys in action (especially Chun Li, man did Callina
Liang do such a great job with her, give HER a remake of The Legend of Chun Li and
do it right…ahem, sorry).
Ready for Round
2 whenever they are.
6/10
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