PLOT: Estranged fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are recruited by Chun-Li (Callina Liang) to compete in a new World Warrior Tournament.
REVIEW: Capcom is having a very good year. They’ve had success with games like Resident Evil 9: Requiem and Pragmata, along with a solid box office outing with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie. So now all eyes are on this new Street Fighter. The 1994 film with Jean-Claude Van Damme has turned into a so-bad-it’s-good cult classic, most of us Street Fighter fans would rather not talk about Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, and the 1994 anime Street Fighter movie is beloved by all the die-hard fans. (I personally prefer the English dub due to all the ’90s rock songs.) Keeping all this in mind, a lot of these films were cleverly referenced in this new film, along with all the Street Fighter games.
This movie is the Godzilla vs. Megalon of martial arts films. What I mean by that is this movie is self-aware, and it leans into it HARD. The fight choreography is well done, the color palette and bombastic colors used are pleasing to the eye, and the film has great comedic beats without going overboard like Masters of the Universe did.
The movie starts off with an anime segment showing Ryu squaring off against Sagat and winning the first Street Fighter tournament. Then the movie flashes forward to 1993, showing Ken Masters living the high life, using his martial arts to make millions. Noah Centineo embodied the character masterfully (no pun intended) and had great chemistry with both Andrew Schulz’s Dan and Andrew Koji’s Ryu. Eventually, they all get recruited for M. Bison’s next tournament by Callina Liang’s Chun-Li, who more than understood the assignment of playing the first lady of fighting games. The movie is just nonstop from there.
What writer/director Kitao Sakurai did best with this film was use nostalgia as a weapon, giving fans of the franchise what we wanted and giving us a good laugh while doing it! The funny thing is, he did a lot of that on the Twisted Metal TV series. Also, this movie has vibes of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where we get these over-the-top fights, with all the special moves we know from the games woven in.
As much as I want to gush about this movie, there are some glaring negatives. One… M. Bison was a disappointment. David Dastmalchian lacks the intimidation the character is known for, and his awkwardness and foot fetish do not work. It doesn’t help that the late, great Raul Julia casts such a big shadow over the role as well. Cammy (played by Mel Jarnson) wasn’t written correctly, and fan-favorite characters such as Zangief, Guile, and others were criminally underutilized. One of the reasons for that may be that Cody Rhodes is an active wrestler and Alexander Volkanovski is still actively competing in MMA; the filmmakers would probably get sued if they got injured on set. (I’m guessing here.) Also, it’s an annoying nitpick, but with the movie set in 1993, they sure play a lot of songs that came out AFTER 1993, which drove me nuts.
Overall, as a longtime fan of the franchise, I went into this movie NOT expecting a Citizen Kane or Lord of the Rings. I went in expecting a lot of crazy fights, with all the crazy moves from the games, and got exactly what I paid for. It’s BY FAR the best video game film of 2026, and with the cliffhanger ending, I hope Paramount finds a way to make another one. Turn your brain off and have a great time!
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