Director Kitao Sakurai Street fighter Frequently portrays Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) as a jerk, but he can actually fight. It’s a bit like the film itself in that sense: editing choices, scene transitions, and even the basic plot are often confusing. And yet he can throw a punch whenever he wants. His fight scenes are mostly well choreographed and well filmed. Its 2D animation sequences, cleverly used to separate scenes from the past from those of the present, are beautifully brought to life by Titmouse. This makes things even more frustrating when Street fighter chooses to spend his time doing the equivalent of Ken fighting a polar bear, reducing his potential to a poorly planned gimmick.
When Street fighter opens (with one of those excellent animated sequences), it’s 1987 and Ryu (Andrew Koji) is fighting in the first World Warrior Tournament. He wins, but things go wrong for him pretty quickly afterward. His master, Gouken (Don Lee), is murdered, and by the time 1993 rolls around, he has disappeared from public life and he has not spoken to Ken, with whom he formed a brotherly bond when they trained together under Gouken, for six years.
Far from retreating from the spotlight, Ken embraced it. By 1993, he was all over MTV, a major celebrity but a joke, reduced to participating in stunt fights with cars and exotic animals (or, at least, men dressed as exotic animals). So when Chun-Li (Callina Liang) arrives and invites him to compete in the second World Warrior Tournament, hosted by M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), Ken thinks this might just be the thing that makes the world consider him a serious fighter again. However, he is not really looking forward to facing Ryu, who, despite some initial reluctance, also finds himself in the tournament.
This all works very well. The film, at this point, is stylish, referential, and campy, clearly appreciating and respecting its source material while doing just enough to string together a basic but perfectly competent plot. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s a good thing. This is the part where Street fighter is everything you hoped it would be, and everything the trailers made it seem like it could be.
However, once the film shifts to the second World Warrior Tournament, this basic but perfectly competent plot explodes, turning into far too many side stories that often go nowhere or are abandoned altogether. There’s an entire 10-minute sequence in the middle of the film that seems to have no narrative purpose. Many scenes don’t connect to previous ones, resulting in stunning transitions; there are many plans that seem to be missing because they would have cost too much to execute.
The editing, too, goes completely off the rails, with a sequence presented out of order for no explainable reason. The way the movie is actually shown is much more confusing than it would have been if they had just played it straight through. And we unfortunately see little of the tournament, as much of it takes place off-screen.
Perhaps the most serious crime that Street fighter The commitment is that it’s so obviously designed to set up a sequel that it feels like half a movie. There are major conflicts that are not resolved. And it wouldn’t even be so bad if Street fighterThe themes of – the few that exist – were linked in a satisfying way, but they are not. There’s both too much and not enough in this film, and it doesn’t seem to understand what story it’s trying to tell.
And yet, for all its faults, it’s easy to see how Street fighter could have been the movie we all wanted. The tone, for the most part, works, even if the jokes don’t always land. The creative team clearly has a real affection for Capcom’s games; there are some really cool Easter eggs that somehow don’t feel like they’re trying too hard, which is a real feat. And even through all the weird choices, Street fighter seems to have the bones of the big, fun action movie with a forgettable plot that it should have been.
We all know that the plot, in a film like this, isn’t the point. The best thing he can do is step aside and allow us to get lost in the show. But it’s exactly there Street fighter stumbles, distracting from the action with inconsistent storytelling and shoddy editing. Street fighter gets points for style, but not much else.
Street fighter hits theaters on October 16.
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