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Coming out more than three decades after the Jean-Claude Van Damme stinker Street Fighter, this all-kicking, all-punching action movie reboots the Capcom video game franchise with more positive results.
Plotwise, Street Fighter sticks close to the heightened camp of its source material, opening with laughably expository but well-crafted anime flashbacks. Best mates Ken (Noah Centino) and Ryu (Andrew Koji) fight and train together in the ’90s, eventually falling out after the lazily-named World Warrior Tournament. Meanwhile, Interpol agent Chun Li (Callina Liang) is set on reuniting the duo to seek revenge from the tournament’s fascist, power-hungry organiser M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).
Any semblance of a proper storyline stops here as it’s just one battle after another from here on. Director Kitao Sakurai zooms in on the character details, sticking to fighting styles and finishing styles of the games (‘Yoga fire!’ etc). But unlike this year’s dud Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter extends its gaming influences with hypersaturated neon colours and a sense of silliness to deliver an entertaining, if somewhat exhausting gladiatorial tournament.
Centino is a bratty, insecure Ken, coming across as ’90s Logan Paul. His frat-bro swagger is contrasts nicely with the Bruce Lee stylings of Koji, a dedicated martial artist in real life. Sakurai’s penchant for gross-out comedy (he previously directed Eric Andre’s Bad Trip) can be off-putting, from characters referring to Chun Li as a ‘hot Asian’ and commenting on her buff thighs. Efforts at Deadpool-like comic riffs don’t really land.
It’s The Expendables on nitrous
The ensemble of muscled hunks and goofy jesters are much funnier. The troupe includes rapper 50 Cent, bodybuilder Olivier ‘Dutch Giant’ Richters, Indian action star Vidyut Jammwal, wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, Jason Momoa as a green-skinned beast, along with comedians Eric André and Andrew Schulz. It’s The Expendables on nitrous.
A dramatic standout is Dastmalchian, who plays Bison like an old-school Bond villain. It’s a delightfully over-the-top performance that evokes the incongruous gravitas of the great Raul Julia in the Van Damme film.
The fights go on forever, replicating the dizzying experience of playing an arcade machine with unlimited coins. But in an age of grim, desaturated superhero films and self-serious video game adaptations, Street Fighter sticks the landing.
In cinemas worldwide Oct 16.