Street Fighter, 2026.
Directed by Kitao Sakurai
Starring Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Cody Rhodes, Orville Peck, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Vidyut Jammwal, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, David Dastmalchian, Eric André, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, Andrew Schulz, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham, and Alexander Volkanovski.
SYNOPSIS:
Street Fighters Ryu and Ken reunite when Chun-Li recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament. As they face a hidden conspiracy, they must confront each other and their past-or face destruction.
Before we press play on this review, let’s get one thing straight. I was rubbish at Street Fighter. My memories of the game extend to broken SNES controllers from button-bashing and not being able to get anywhere near fighting Sagat, even on the most basic setting. What this means is that beyond the more recognisable characters and catchphrases, a lot of which were bellowed out by the excitable press screening audience, I can’t tell the difference between a Hadoken or Shoryuken. As such, it’s hard to decipher a lot of what’s going on in Kitao Sakurai’s adaptation of the $14 billion grossing videogame, aside from the fact it’s intermittently good fun.
Starting off like a 90s Van-Damme flick, which is appropriate considering the muscles-from-Brussels starred in the most notable attempt to get this franchise off the ground with ’94’s boring beat-em-up, Street Fighter kicks-off in classic meet-the-gang style. Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) get a serious backstory about the fallout from the original World Warrior Tournament. Part Starship Troopers live-action, and part super-serios anime, which is a decent way of surmising the entire film, their friendship provides the driving force of what’s kindly referred to as the plot.
Their eventual reunion at World Warrior Tournament II tournament allows the film to introduce the character selection screen of Cody Rhodes as Guile, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, among others. It also affords the latter the opportunity to hatch a plan ripped straight from Batman which will allow him to harness the power of the Hadoken from the returning-from-exile Ryu. Throw in something-or-other about Chun-Li working for the U.S. government and Jason Momoa’s Blanka searching for his mother, and you have yourself a movie.
The strongest element of Street Fighter can be found in the knowing, nudge-nudge way that the film approaches the characters and material. It’s similar to how Masters of the Universe tackled the inherent silliness of that story. There are no better examples of this than Noah Centineo’s dumb as a box of rocks Ken, who is genuinely funny in a Dude, Where’s My Car kinda way, and Cody Rhodes’ straight-talking Guile, whose zero-filter provides some of the film’s biggest laughs.
The fighting itself is pretty straightforward, especially in the arena. The thrills are to be found in the aforementioned anime sections, and playful scenes such an inventive hotel suite showdown that’s reminiscent of peak-Jackie Chan, in which the passive Ryu refuses to engage with Ken’s aggressive fighting style, so manoeuvres away from every attack in increasingly funny ways.
On the comedy, intentional or otherwise, the use of 4 Non Blonde’s ‘What’s Up’ will have you humming it as much as you’ve actually been thinking “what’s going on?” throughout the entire bloody movie, while David Dastmalchian is also having a lot of fun as the rather unthreatening M. Bison. It’s a tone that will work for the more casual Street Fighter observer, but which might upset fans seeking something slightly more reverential to the game.
Street Fighter is better when it isn’t taking itself too seriously, and with as many needle-drops as special moves, standout turns from Noah Centineo and Cody Rhodes, who both definitely got the memo, there’s enough to ensure that this isn’t a total K.O.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★
Matt Rodgers – Follow me on Twitter
