Review of Street Fighter (1994) by Bill S — 16 Apr 2015

The problem with the movie is that it's not a screen adaptation of Street Fighter, it's just another Van Damme movie. I can't imagine being a Street Fighter fan back then who doesn't watch Van Damme movies, then going to see this. The movie would have been much better from Ken and Ryu's perspective instead of Gulie's military perspective. Ken and Ryu are barely even in it. The movie feels like a big joke being played on gamer culture of the 90's.

You see this kind of thing a lot in movies and I don't understand it. What happens? A studio gets the rights to turn a video game into a movie, the screenwriters brain storm and end up deciding to alter every detail? Why? it's not for people who might actually like to see a Street Fighter movie. It's for people who wouldn't see it, and if they were forced to they'd be thinking "oh, God, I hope it's not like the video game." Well, if you hate Street Fighter and someone forces you to watch the movie you might actually like that it insults the game. I saw Dragon Evolution a little while ago and they did the same thing in that movie. What's the point to make these movies if you're just going to warp everything so that it barely recognizes the source material?

I'm giving it two stars. I like the game, but it doesn't bother me that the movie is such a distortion. And it's fun to laugh at. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and Battlefield Earth are arguably the funniest movies ever made.