We should’ve known Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil was a one-time thing. The video game film adaptation has been a hot topic this year, with September’s Resident Evil grossing over $300 million worldwide and earning a spot as one of the best-reviewed video game adaptations of all time. This set an incredibly high bar for video game films going forward, revealing that yes, you can make one that isn’t 90 minutes of pointing at the screen and recognizing something! Surely Street Fighter is going to continue the trend that Resident Evil set?

Kitao Sakurai’s new film based on the 1990s fighting game series “Street Fighter” is the most frustrating film of the year. Although I didn’t have the highest expectations going into it, the initial teaser from last year’s Game Awards captured my attention, and it shot way farther up my most anticipated list than it should have. I was willing to try something new, give it the benefit of the doubt, and maybe, just maybe, I would have a good time at the movies. Unfortunately, this film is an absolute mess, one that not even the bells and whistles of a good cinematographer and stunt team can distract from.

Street Fighter follows a group of warriors training for a tournament orchestrated by a power-hungry authoritarian. It opens with an incredible animated flashback sequence that’s repeatedly called back to throughout the film, chronicling Ken (Noah Centineo) and Ryu’s (Andrew Koji) training and what led to their falling out. These sequences are the best parts of the film, outshining the rest of the live-action. They allow for some visually impressive callbacks, but otherwise they fail to save what’s already a lost cause. The sequences actually made me wish the film would have been fully animated; at least it would have distracted from the horrible script. 

The non-animated sequences of the film were visually more interesting than most of the video-game adaptations released in recent years, but to quote an infamous Joker review on Letterboxd: “If you’ve never swam in the ocean […] of course a pool seems deep.” Street Fighter is bathed in neon lights, but this feels more like a cop-out than a genuine stylistic choice. The film’s disingenuous attempt at a distinct visual identity fails to give the film any artistic authenticity. While this is unsurprising for a major studio release, it particularly stings because the trailers made the film seem like a step forward in terms of cinematography.

Annoyingly tonally inconsistent, the rest of the film overexplains its world yet shrouds it in such a confusing fog that I struggled to understand what was happening. No motivation is clear, and the film forgets about one set of characters until it remembers and randomly cuts to whatever another set is doing. This culminates in one of the most unusual endings of a film I’ve seen this year, with a clear setup for a sequel that will likely never see the light of day. Sakurai and T.J. Fixman’s script should have undergone some serious revisions.

Centineo and Koji lead the film, with Centineo surprisingly providing the more compelling performance. I’ve known him since his To All the Boys (2018-2021) days, and never expected him to turn in a performance beyond “the boy next door” he seems to have perfected. Koji feels more generic, but shows promise as an action performer. Give him a leading role in an 87North production, and he’s sure to shine more than he does in this. 

The surrounding ensemble works with what they can, with Cody Rhodes in particular having the most compelling screen presence of the entire cast. Even Callina Liang does well with what she has despite being either a direct source of exposition or objectified on-camera. I was especially surprised to see Orville Peck doing well in this type of film, as I’m only familiar with his musical endeavors. On the other hand, I was baffled that David Dastmalchian was giving such an abysmal performance as the film’s antagonist, Lord M. Bison. He was hamming it up so much in comparison to his co-stars that he stuck out like a sore thumb.

Last month’s Resident Evil captured the essence of the survival horror titan without engaging in egregious fan service and references that bogged down the entire runtime. It showed audiences that recognizing a character, plot device, or object does not necessarily equate to a good adaptation. While Street Fighter is a wholly different game genre, its commitment to accuracy is what leads to its downfall. Its characters are near cartoonish in their designs, and while sometimes I found it charming, it ultimately feels like a cheap group Halloween costume. It beats over-designed and complicated takes on the costumes, but the film refuses to really indulge in the cartoonish nature of the world it’s set in.

The only time the film actually understands what it’s adapting is when any two characters are stylishly duking it out to a 90s needle drop. The fight choreography tries its best to save the film, but it simply isn’t enough when everything surrounding it is cheap at best and unwatchable at most. A few of these sequences are watchable, but the only one that really stood out features The Offspring’s “Come Out and Play.” It actually felt like the film cared about being entertaining and not about satiating swaths of fans that complain when their favorite character doesn’t show up.

Street Fighter has so much potential to be a compelling, campy ‘90s time capsule paying homage to one of the most iconic fighting games of all time, but it’s too bogged down by references, accuracy, and a horrible script that it can’t quite realize what it sets out to. It’s an incredibly disappointing endeavor that especially stings due to the stacked cast of actors and professional wrestlers. After September’s Resident Evil, I expected much more from this film.

Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain

Feature Image Credit to Paramount Pictures