 If there's one category of film worse than comic book movies, it's video game movies. It all depends on the game's plot. If the game has a tight plot, then it may make a good movie. If there really is no story to the game, then the film's writers will have to come up with something of their own...ugh... Such is the case with "Street Fighter", an abhorrent adaptation of the popular video game series. The problem with fighting games is that there are at least eight characters, each with their own backstory and ending, and no truly cohesive plot altogether. The writers have to find a way to fit as much in as possible without contradicting anything, and they must be faithful to the game's plot threads. No, this movie fails when it comes to faithfulness; in fact, it fails at just about everything. Charlie as Blanka? Ryu and Ken as hustlers? E. Honda as a Polynesian ex-sumo champ? Balrog as a good guy? Dee Jay as a greedy little runt? Ohhh, this movie sucks. Van Damme doesn't even need to make it worse with his "acting"; this movie can't get much worse. And Raul Julia as M. Bison? Umm...no disrespect to his memory, but he sucked. I think the worst aspect of this film is the writing. A lot of the game's backstory has been omitted, except for the more pressing details (Guile seeking revenge against Bison, Chun Li seeking revenge against Bison; see a pattern here?). As a result, the Ryu/Sagat feud doesn't even exist, Dee Jay has no ambition to be a great kickboxer, and, well...Balrog's a good guy. I probably touched upon it before that the writers mixed up a lot of stuff, and inserted a lot of their own touches. Thanks to this, "street fighting" isn't even the theme of this movie. It's about a mission to rescue a bunch of hostages held on Bison's secret island, but there's really no mention of street fighting. Just about every character has been ruined, but then again, they were ruined the moment they stepped into this film. Any initial pleasure I derived from seeing this movie left after a while, when I was able to think about what I had just seen. I had seen a piece of crap. If you value your time, avoid this movie, please... You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
