Review of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) by Justin M — 29 Aug 2009

Street Fighter makes a comeback with this new film. Surprisingly, it's not as godawful as the original Jean Claude Van Damme movie. The cast is pretty decent, the story well-paced, and the action is professionally mounted.

It's still junk, but at least it's competently-made junk. The skinny-minnie at the center of this, Kristin Kreuk, isn't exactly the most engaging leading lady, but she's cute and looks convincing in her fights and stunts.

Chris Klein (of 'American Pie' fame) tries to show some edge as an Interpol agent but is too bland to pull it off. Exotic-looking Moon Bloodgood (is that her real name?) is more interesting as his partner.

Neal McDonough, with his steel-blue eyes and white hair, is always a scary-looking villain. As is the man-mountain known as Michael Clarke Duncan. Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang in those 'Mortal Kombat' movies so long ago, has aged into a credible martial arts guru who trains our heroine.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak did 'Romeo Must Die,' 'Exit Wounds,' 'Cradle 2 the Grave,' and the movie version of 'Doom,' so don't expect much. The story is nothing more than a revenge tale, with masked thugs dressed in black as generic fighting foes.

The dialogue and voice-over narration is laughably arch. In the end, though, this surpassed my expectations, if only a little.