Street Fighter

Justice for Guile!

Street Fighter (2026) is a movie based on the game series, and I should probably disclose one bias before getting into it.

Street Fighter II was my favourite fighting game on the Game Boy Color when I was a kid. It was basically my introduction to the genre. Compared to other fighting games, I found it much easier to get into, both in terms of the setting and the gameplay. So there is probable nostalgia involved in this.

With that out of the way, here we go.

The story is about as elaborate as you would expect from a movie based on a fighting game. It is plain, straightforward and mostly exists to get the characters where they need to be.

The movie is set in the 1990s, although its world mixes old-school futurism with modern cyberpunk. Visually, that combination works remarkably well. The environments, technology, costumes and effects all belong to this strange retro-modern version of the Street Fighter universe.

Some of the characters have been modernized a little too much for the period. Ken, for example, is basically an influencer, which feels far more 2010s than 1990s. It doesn't damage the story, but it does occasionally make the supposed time period feel more decorative than real.

The visuals themselves are exquisite.
More importantly, the creators understood the importance of action in action movie and gave some serious weight to every impact.
The coordination between the choreography, visual effects, sound effects and music is probably my favourite part of the entire movie. Punches seriously HIT. Kicks feel like they could actually break entire human in half. Special moves have enough audiovisual force behind them that you feel the impact instead of merely watching another particle effect explode across the screen.
Every fighter feels heavy when they need to feel heavy, fast when they need to feel fast, and powerful when they are supposed to be powerful.
That is much harder to pull off than simply throwing expensive effects onto the screen, and Street Fighter gets it right.

The music is great too.
A lot of it references the original game soundtrack without simply copying it. Characters often have pieces of their themes worked into the music around them and it's awesome when you hear it.
Except Guile.
Guile apparently did not receive the memo about subtlety, because when he appears, his theme basically just starts banging.

And I approve.

The soundtrack itself is much more modern than the 1990s setting would suggest, but unlike some of the character modernization, this never bothered me. It fits the energy of the movie.

Unfortunately, the pacing causes one of the movie's biggest problems.
Everything happens FAST.
The movie barely leaves enough room for many of its characters to exist outside whatever scene they are currently needed for. Several backstories are missing entirely or compressed into something barely more complicated than "You killed my father!".

Okay. Moving on.
Most of the story focuses on Ryu and Ken, their friendship, their history, their conflict with the villains, and the gradual discovery of the powers and moves we know from the games.

And yes.
Don't worry.
We do eventually get our Hadouken  :hadouken: .

The problem is that Street Fighter somehow doesn't spend enough time on the fighting. Some fights are skipped entirely. We see the setup, then the movie jumps forward and shows us who won.
Even many of the fights we actually get to watch are surprisingly short. The choreography and effects are excellent, but the fights often feel like something the movie has to quickly squeeze in because, well, it is called Street Fighter.
I would have gladly sacrificed part of the plot for longer fights and more time with the individual characters.
The story really did not need all of the runtime it received, instead the fighters did and did not get it.

Poor Guile got hit particularly hard by this. He's one of the characters I was looking forward to the most, partly because his theme has always been one of my favourites and the gameplay with him is great, and I swear the man gets about one or two punches in the entire movie.

Justice for Guile!!

On the positive side, the movie sticks closely to the games. Characters, abilities, references and the general structure of the Street Fighter universe are treated with a surprising amount of respect.
I always appreciate adaptations that aren't ashamed of the thing they're adapting.

There is absolutely zero romance in the movie. There is some humour, but thankfully nobody stops the movie so the audience can acknowledge that A Joke Has Occurred. The humour simply happens within the scenes.
Characters say something funny, the scene continues, and nobody stands there waiting for an imaginary laugh track. It never takes over the movie or damages the tone.
That's exactly how I like comedy in this kind of film. In any film.

Another surprise was the use of anime-style animation.
Whenever the movie dives into certain characters' histories, it switches into animated sequences. I wasn't expecting this at all, but it works. The animation doesn't feel thrown in as a gimmick either. It becomes part of how the movie presents its backstories and gives those scenes their own identity.

The movie ends very openly.
Judging by how much of the story is left unresolved and how the characters are positioned by the end, I would be surprised - no - astonished! if this were intended as a standalone film. It feels like the beginning of a larger story, possibly even a trilogy.
And I wouldn't mind that. It could possibly reveal more about more characters, bringing justice to Guile!

Street Fighter is pure action fantasy. The plot is basic, character development is rushed, several fighters barely get enough screen time, and a movie called Street Fighter somehow skips some of its fights.
But I still had a lot of fun watching it.
It looks great. It sounds great. The moves feel powerful. The soundtrack respects the games. The humour doesn't get in the way. The adaptation embraces Street Fighter.

It also doesn't constantly stop to remind you what happened twenty minutes ago because somebody might have a short attention span. It expects you to remember the movie you are currently watching.
Apparently that is refreshing now that movies tend to tell you repeatedly what you just saw.

Guile deserved better.