Review of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) by Lewis C — 01 Jun 2010

The Legend of Chun-Li is a perfect example of why video game movies make both video game fans and the general public cringe. I don't think I've ever seen so much foolishness in one movie. Kristin Kreuk is pretty enough (in an extremely waifish way), but she's no Chun-Li. That fits in with the rest of the casting ,though, because none of the other actors in the movie really resemble the characters that they are supposed to be representing. That was supposed to be Gen? REALLY?

The police officers who were investigating Bison were unnecessary additions, but Moon Bloodgood is such a gorgeous woman that I can't complain too much about their presence. Her character and Balrog were the only two people that I liked in the entire movie. I know that these actors could have found projects that were more worthwhile, so why did they even agree to do this?

The plot is unsurprisingly bad. All the scenes of Chun Li wandering around Bangkok (looking very pretty and clean for someone who was supposedly living on the streets) and talking about how she had completely forgotten who she was were just priceless. And I never really understood why she was the only one who could defeat Bison, but whatever. It just seemed like there wasn't anyone involved in the creation of this movie that even had a passing familiarity with how to tell a story. And the fight scenes...how did they manage to be even more boring than the rest of the movie?

This was just a poor effort all-around. It basically just ignored all of the things that make Street Fighter a popular franchise. As short as it was, it still felt much too long.