WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: Street Fighter embraces its old-school roots and mostly lands the knockout

When it comes to unapologetic video game film adaptations that embrace the silly goofball nature of their source material for a fun time, Paul WS Anderson’s 1995 take on Mortal Kombat has been the champion for many years. But here comes a new challenger!

In Street Fighter, writer-director Kitao Sakurai brings to screen Capcom’s long-running historic fighting game series with wild abandon. It is by no means “Perfect!”, with many a misstep, but its reckless and relentless “button-mashing” energy sure is infectious.

This may look like an adaptation of the Street Fighter video game (or more specifically 1991’s genre-defining Street Fighter II: The World Warrior), but it actually draws most of its inspiration in story and tone from 1994 anime feature film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, 2005 anime feature film Street Fighter Alpha: Generations, and the 1995 Street Fighter live-action movie.

The anime inspirations are very obvious from the get-go as Sakurai’s film opens up with an incredible hand-drawn animated sequence. Set in 1987, this is the first of several jaw-dropping cartoon flashback scenes throughout the movie, which shows young fighter Ryu (voiced here, and played in live-action, by Andrew Koji) beating Thai powerhouse Sagat to win the first World Warrior martial arts tournament.

To accomplish this, Ryu was forced to tap into a vast power – the Dark Hadou – much to the concern of his master Gouken (Don Lee) and adoptive brother/fellow student Ken Masters (Noah Centineo). This power – and the demonic presence drawn to it – scares Ryu to the point that he disappears from the world to live, instead, a life of quiet anonymity.

Fast forward to 1993, Ken is now a global superstar, but more for his product endorsements and celeb party boy antics than for any real combat accolades. His friend and manager Dan Hibiki (Andrew Schulz) can just barely keep him on track.

Ken’s carefree life is interrupted by the arrival of the no-nonsense Chun Li (Callina Liang), who comes bearing a message. A second World Warrior tournament is being organised in Metrolao City, hosted by the power-hungry dictator M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).

Eight of the best martial artists in the world have been invited and Ken is finally one of them after not being picked for the first tournament.

Secretly, however, this is all an elaborate ploy by Bison to place Ken in danger and lure Ryu out of hiding so that he can claim the Dark Hadou to charge up his own Psycho Power. And if you only rolled your eyes a tiny amount during that last sentence, then you will probably have a good time here.

As the heart of the story, the reunion and rivalry between Ryu and Ken has the most weight in the film. And while Koji and Centineo won’t be winning any awards for dragon-punch-to-the-gut emotions, they know how to insert just enough drama and levity to make it work. Centineo also deserves praise for keeping up with a well-established martial arts star like Koji.

Sakurai shoots the dynamic action scenes with appreciably focused cinematography, so there aren’t many edits to hide behind. Liang as Chun-Li also deserves credit, with Chun-Li serving as essentially the film’s third protagonist, on a quest of personal revenge. Here Liang holds her own very well in both the drama and action.

Outside of those three, Sakurai populates his film with some of the franchise’s most well-known characters and tosses them together in various situations – some martial and some comedic, all visually exciting.

While some characters are perfectly realised (Dhalsim, for instance) others have awkward and strange spins put on them (like Bison’s foot fetish). Guile suffers the most here, not just because he’s presented as a loud-mouthed weirdo for some reason, but also due to Cody Rhodes’s lack of thespian skill when it comes to selling the gags.

Some characters, such as Cammy (Mel Jarson), don’t feel like they serve any purpose at all. And then you have Blanka, the electrified green mutant fighter from Brazil played by a CGI Jason Momoa, who looks amazing in action but then rambles on about armpits smelling like hotdogs.

Sakurai clearly let his wilder filmmaking flourishes get away from him at times. However, when he does manage to walk the fine line between cool and cartoonish, Street Fighter is a blast. Moments like that abound, showing Sakurai’s love for the franchise. Some scenes are inserted as unabashed fan service, including a cheeky spin on one of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie’s most famous moments.

Similarly, the filmmaker lifts one instantly recognisable line of dialogue almost verbatim from the 1995 Street Fighter movie. In fact, it’s clear that Dastmalchian’s performance here is intended to be a direct love letter to the late Raul Julia’s version of Bison; however, he never reaches the latter’s level of unforgettable theatricality. He comes across as just plain creepy instead of enjoyably villainous.

In the end, Sakurai’s Hadou-can-do attitude is what wins out over individual failings like these. He doesn’t always hit his mark, but inspired touches like the animated sequences, a pumping musical score and eye-catching visuals elevate Street Fighter creatively.

Much like the combatants around which this story swirls, the film moves with consistently high energy, barrelling towards that inevitable set-up for a sequel. Hopefully, it gets its “Round two!” DM

Street Fighter is in cinemas. This review was first published on Pfangirl.