Street Fighter Film Review

It's really safe to say that for a long long time video game movies were not only really hard to find but were for some strange reason nearly always done badly. This is something that has thankfully almost stopped being a thing right now as while yes we do get video game movies that are pretty bad like Assassin's Creed for example we also get movies like The Super Mario Bros. Movie as well and so then join me as I review the film that despite not being named after the sequel is actually based off of Street Fighter 2 with the film in question being called simply just "Street Fighter" enjoy.

The plot of the film is when dictator General M. Bison launches a scheme to overtake the entire world by using an army of super soldiers it's up to Colonel William F. Guile and his team of elite fighters to stop him before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the problem as the plot of this film isn't all that good either as it is a rather predictable plot that's been done better in other films and even the films plot twists are thing that we've seen done dozens of times as well all of which combine to make this film plot feel at best generic and at worst just down right uninspired and uncreative with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Raúl Juliá as General M. Bison and Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel William F. Guile. Also starring in this film is Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li Zhang , Damian Chapa as Kenneth "Ken" Masters , Kylie Minogue as Lieutenant Cammy White , Byron Mann as Ryu'ichi "Ryu" Hoshi , Grand L. Bush as Gerard Balrog , Robert Mammone as Carlos "Charlie" Blanka , Gregg Rainwater as Sergeant Thunder Hawk , Peter Tuiasosopo as Edmond Honda , Andrew Bryniarski as Zangief , Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Dee Jay , Jay Tavare as Vega , Wes Studi as Viktor Sagat , Roshan Seth as Dr. Dhalsim , Kenya Sawada as Captain Sawada and Simon Callow as a A.N. Official.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I im all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually feature / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. However that's also the problem as this films acting isn't all that good either as while Raúl Juliá and Ming-Na Wen are really fun to watch and both are quite clearly having a really good time starring in this film both of them just cant turn in the kind f performances that we know that they can do with this not really being helped that the acting from the rest of this film just isn't that good which for the likes of Kylie Minogue for example does make sense as she's not a trained actress but for somebody like Byron Mann who is trained actor it is something that is an issue with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there characters personality traits are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this film.

Even tho this film is based off of what was at the time a really popular video game this film is afraid to be a video game movie. As this film plays everything straight and yet at the exact same time tho the film has alot of campy moments that would have worked better if the film didn't take itself so seriously and wasn't afraid to be nothing more then what it is and that's a dumb video game movie and that's it and yet because of the fact that it's afraid to be exactly that the film does come of as being rather unintentionally hilarious and moments in the film that should be really serious moments now come across as being rather comical where as if this film wasn't afraid to be a dumb video game movie then those moments would come across as being alot more serious as the film could then become alot more intentionally comical and have moments of levity in it something that would help the film out in the long run and if you want prove of the fact that being nothing more then a video game is something that works all you have to do is look at the first Mortal Kombat live action movie as that movie knew exactly what it was and wasn't afraid to be nothing more then that and while yes the movie itself is still pretty bad it's also alot more better then what this film is and ever will be. 

This films villain General M. Bison is a wonderfully campy villain in this film with alot of what he says and does being done in a really over the top way. Which while that isn't something that works for the games version of the character who was a straight up bad guy here he's not afraid to be the centre of attention and just chew up every single piece of scenery that he's in as he's just that over the top of a villain which is something that does work for this version of the character as it is something that makes the film alot more entertaining to watch with alot of his scenes alone being the best scenes in the whole entire movie and alot of that is due to the charming performance by one Raúl Juliá who seems to be the only one that understands what kind of movie that he's in and because of that he just doesn't really care that his performance isn't as serious as alot of the other actors and because of that the character does come across as being a really fun villain and while yes his character could have been handled better it doesn't change the fact that he was an entertaining villain and is quite easily one of if not the best aspect of this film.

For some reason even tho this film is called Street Fighter it's instead based off of it's sequel Street Fighter 2. Which does in some way make alot of sense as that video game was a really popular game at the same time but at the same time it's not something that works as outside of the plot of General M. Bison trying to take over the world is the same everything else about the film from a plot point of view is very vastly different as in the game Bison sets up a world fighting tournament to find his fighters and work with his organization via brainwashing is gone from the film and isn't replaced with something that's nearly half as fun which makes it pointless as there only half of a game at that point and not the whole game as a result of this is the fact that it would been better if the writer and director of this film Steven E. De Souza really should have come up with an original story as that way all of the changes that the film makes wouldn't be that bad as there not adapting one of the most popular games in the franchise at that point as instead they'd be coming up with an original story that would allow them to use the characters in anyway that they saw fit to do so and not use them just because of the fact that there in game regardless of if there important to the actual plot of the film or not.

Even tho General M. Bison is an entertaining villain he like alot of the films characters aren't that well written. As even tho he has a clear end goal of conquering the world it's the most basic of plans that the makers of this film could have given him and yet it's also the only aspect of the game that they straight up adapted but at the same time tho he's not that interesting of a villain as the audience dont even get the chance to find out why he;s evil which just makes it come a cross as him being evil for the sake of being evil and not loke any of the hero characters are written any better because alot of them aren't infact the only hero character that's written fairly decent is actually Chun-Li Zhang as we at the very least get to find why she , Gerard Balrog and Edmond Honda want revenge on Bison it's not enough to make those characters interesting but at the same time Chun-Li comes across as being interesting because of the fact that we see how far she's willing to go to achieve that goal and even she , Balrog and Edmond Honda get captured off screen it doesn't change the fact that all of the hero characters that Chun-Li is the only one that's a slightly interesting character and because of that you really do want to her succeed in her quest for revenge against Bison 

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty two minuets and ten seconds. Which is a bit on the long side for this film as this film really doesn't have alot there interms of plot to really cover that large amount running time which means that we do get alot of scenes that could viewed as filler scenes as they add nothing to the actual plot of the film nor do they add anything to any of the characters either which means that scenes that could have been used to further develop the films characters and to make the films plot actually good is instead used and taken up by pointless scenes that would have been better of if they were on the cutting room floor and not in the final cut of the film as this is a film that would have been alot more better of if it was a short film as the film doesn't have a strong enough plot to carry a feature length film but it does have a strong enough plot to cover a short film tho and that's really it but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us un this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which is something that does make sense as when you hire someone like Jean-Claude Van Damme you hire him because you know that he can fight and that he can make action scenes look good and that's exactly what he does here as he makes all of the films action scenes look really good on top of having some really good action in his own right as well but with that said this films action for the most part isn't that well done as we don;t get to see what it is that all of the hero characters bring to the team from an action point of view as the film has some really terrible editing which is something that really comes into play in it's action scenes as while we get to see alot of what Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá can do in there final fight scene every body else gets there action cut to the high heavens which makes it hard to tell what it i there actually doing in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall while it's hard to say if this film is good adaptation of Street Fighter 2 as i've not played the game I can say for sure that it's dreadful adaptation of the Street Fighter franchise as a whole and while it might not be the worst video game movie ever made it is certainly very highly up there in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 4 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen  personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Street Fighter fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality with all the images that are currently up and on the great Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.