Street Fighter The Movie

Yep we gotta do some video game movies before Detective Pikachu.

I'm gonna be honest I don't know much about Street Fighter. I know a bit, I recognize characters and some of their traits, a handful of moves, and other things I've absorbed from pop culture. So when I decided to sit down and watch this movie I didn't know what to expect but I had a blast guys! This movie, to an absolute newbie to the franchise is really dang good. But why? Well I think a big part of it comes down to not being familiar with the games so I can't go all fanboy rage if something isn't adapted correctly. I know about Mortal Kombat and how the movie isn't a perfect adaptation, so it's a liberty I don't have here. But screw it, I really enjoyed this movie! Granted you don't get non-stop hand to hand combat but you get decent fights, and strangely enough though the movie is close to 2 hours it feels short. By the time the movie begins it feels like 30 minutes of buildup have been dropped and we're right in the preparing phases where our hero Guile is after the villainously brilliant General M. Bison who's taken hostages and put up a $20 billion dollar ransom. And believe me, I have no issue saying the only reason I wanted to see this movie was because of Raul Julia who plays M. Bison, and I think it's very sweet that this was a role he took for his kids and the film is even in memory of him. He gets lots of screentime, great lines, plays it so absurd it's actually genius, and looks like he's enjoying every last bit of it. The reason you watch this movie other than being a hardcore fan is because of Raul Julia. Van Damme on the other hand plays Guile very straightforward and I'm just gonna say it, bland. Also, good thing I watch movies with subtitles all the time, because I know I would be scratching my head at some of his lines! Plus though my knowledge of Street Fighter is lacking, I can tell they threw in a lot of characters, almost too many even because they don't get a lot of time and they have fun and colorful personalities so you want to see more. It's a no win scenario I know, you either have too few characters and people complain about the roster or you have too many with not enough time for them all, it sucks and no format can do it justice besides the video game. But they do fine, they got good fun actors for these crazy parts, the sets are nice, the action though sparse is good, and surprisingly it's really damn funny! I was shocked how much I was laughing at this, they got good funny dialogue, most of it more subdued comedy than actual attempts at jokes, just keep your ears open and you'll hear it. So yeah, Street Fighter is a pretty good movie and I was shocked to see not even a 4/10 star rating on IMDB, I mean it wasn't that bad! I enjoyed it, I'd probably watch it again, I can certainly recommend it for a fun movie night with a group of friends! Yeah, big thumbs up for Street Fighter The Movie from me!

And next time we go straight to Japan for our next adaptation of an acclaimed and beloved video game franchise.