Is Street Fighter Worth the Watch?

During the late 1980s, one of the only home consoles was the SNES, a remarkable device that was considered a luxury to own. Instead of purchasing the console, many people would go to arcades, playing games like Pac-Man, Galaga, and more until one cold day in December 1987, when Street Fighter was released in America. This was not the first fighting game to be released, and in all honesty, it was rather atrocious. The arcade machine had rubber controls instead of normal buttons that broke frequently, and the gameplay was mediocre, only allowing you to play as Ryu (if you were playing solo). The game was largely forgotten until 1991, when Street Fighter II came out. The sequel was a massive success, fixed all of the gameʼs previous problems, dominated arcades, and sold six million copies when it was released to the SNES. It made a total of $10 billion, leading to a best-selling franchise that I still love to this day.

Some of my favorite childhood memories were playing Street Fighter II with my parents, as they relived their own childood. I could see the childlike wonder in their faces as we dueled, spamming “Hadoken” and getting beaten badly by their Chun-Li combos (NOT a favorite memory). When I found out Street Fighter was getting a movie, I was ecstatic. Now that it has finally been released, I went to see it, preparing myself to see the heart of the game on the big screen. The 2026 Street Fighter movie follows estranged friends and martial artists Ryu and Ken as they are pulled into an underground tournament by Chun-Li. To survive the tournament, Ryu and Ken must work through their broken past and unite. Now, without further ado, my spoiler-free review:

I really enjoyed this movie overall, but it was not without flaws. The animated scenes were amazing; you could see the level of detail created for those specific sequences, and they were the best part of the movie...which sounds bad for a live-action movie, but they worked hand in hand together. I loved when a fight occurred, because it felt as if it came straight out of the game, so many people who have played the original Street Fighter or Street Fighter II will get a kick out of it. While the limited fights did not always occur for a reason, it is Street Fighter after all; they donʼt need a reason!

Sadly, this movie had many flaws that hurt the experience by the time the final credits rolled. The first blemish is that the plot was entirely underbaked. I understand the desire to include the full Street Fighter cast of characters, but they added so many characters to the mix that the scope was too broad to focus on any one character developing. The pinnacle of interest for many in this movie was that they brought the entire Street Fighter II roster to the big screen, leading fans to expect legendary matchups. Although the movie had a runtime of two hours, half of the runtime focused on Ken alone in the tournament. Then the other half was focused on a mix of Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, and M. Bison. The final result was the roster being underused, with most characters only being used in one fight!

Additionally, Ryu and Ken were not united for almost the entire runtime of the film. Each character is left to do their own thing, with Ken competing in the tournament and Ryu being forced into a side quest. While Ken was an amazing lead, due to his incredible character development and charm, Ryu felt more like a side character, even though the intention was for them to be teaming up.

The fatal and final flaw with this movie was the plot. In the trailers and advertisements, it showed numerous fights and focused almost exclusively on the tournament. However, this was not the case, as there were only thirteen fights in the movie, with a good amount taking place off-screen!!! The whole point of Street Fighter is fighting! Instead of being a movie about fighting, action, and pizzazz, it was more yap than fight. Let the hands do the talking! Also, many of the battles were super rushed, especially the tournament fights. The plot and fights, both juggling numerous storylines, did not help the pacing at all. It was as if the writers were trying to create three different (yet major) storylines in one movie, and the vision did NOT pay off. The flow made it difficult to follow each characterʼs arc, and some sections of the plot were entirely pointless, needlessly dragging on the movieʼs runtime and taking away the spotlight from other characters. The movie ended on a cliffhanger that wasnʼt too dramatic, but it was rather fruitless and left a bit to be desired.

While I did enjoy this movie, the experience could have been better with a stronger vision, a more fully developed plot, and saving some of the characters for future movies. I give this movie a 6.5/10, and recommend that you watch it if you want to turn your brain off and watch a funny, semi-action-packed movie. Even though the film did not live up to my expectations of what a Street Fighter movie should be, it brought back fond memories of my childhood; I could see the kid in my dadʼs face as we watched the movie, and it was moments like those that made the movie valuable to my heart.