Paramount and Legendary Pictures\u2019 Street Fighter is not a movie that wants to be taken seriously. It has brightly coloured costumes, larger-than-life characters and fights that end with your favourite characters being launched across rooms. The plot tries to give all of this a dramatic backbone, but the movie is at its best when it stops worrying about making sense and simply letting its fighters be as over-the-top as they are in the games.<\/p>\n
That does not mean the story is completely bonkers. Set in 1993, it brings Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) back together for the World Warrior Tournament, while Chun-Li (fun fact: Callina Liang studied in Singapore for four years) has her own reasons for getting involved. Our usual villain M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) is up to no good, and there are enough old grudges and personal histories to give the fighters reasons to face off. The trouble is that the film has so many characters and bits of lore to get through that its main story sometimes feels like it is being pushed aside to make room for the next reference or easter egg for fans to notice.<\/p>\n Image: United International Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n That is probably going to be problematic for viewers who have never played the game or read any of its print mediums. The movie really expects you to recognise the characters, their fighting styles and, in some cases, their background stories too. It never quite stops to explain why, for example, Ryu has darkness in him or how Zangief and Dhalsim fit into the larger picture. I could see how that might make the story feel overcrowded in a 90-minute movie, but for fans, the packed cast is also part of the pull. As a fan, there is a real pleasure in seeing these many familiar faces share the screen.<\/p>\n The casting makes the film feel like a slightly unhinged fan wish-list. Cody Rhodes is Guile, with the flat-top hair that is almost a character in itself. Jason Momoa plays Blanka (I could hardly recognise him though), while 50 Cent is Balrog, Orville Peck is Vega and Roman Reigns is Akuma. David Dastmalchian brings some welcome theatricality to Bison. That said, not every performance was spot-on (I have my reservation about the movie\u2019s version of Cammy played by Mel Jarnson), but overall the cast seems to understand that these are comic-book-sized characters and should be played as such.<\/p>\n Image: United International Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The game references are woven into the action as well as the character designs. Guile showed off his signature Flash Kick; E. Honda has his Hundred Hand Slap and even Ken got to perform his \u201cHell Wheel\u201d throw \u2013 twice. The film knows that fans will be waiting for these moves, and it gives them room to register rather than rushing past them. Admittedly, they can look a little daft in live action, but I suspect that was purposely done so as part of the fun.<\/p>\n Some of the smaller character moments work better than the grander parts of the story though. When Ken and Ryu meet again, their reunion turns into a scrappy fight that plays up their history without needing a long explanation. I don\u2019t want to spoil it but it was one of the standout parts of the movie as it gives the two leads a little room to show who they are beyond their place in the tournament. I would have liked more scenes with that kind of energy, where the film lets the characters\u2019 differences create the entertainment.<\/p>\n Image: United International Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Special shoutout goes to Callina too, who gives a strong physical presence as Chun-Li (yes, her trademark Spinning Bird Kick and Hundred Lightning Kicks are glorious to watch) and , and the character\u2019s directness is useful whenever the men around her start treating every disagreement like a grand statement about honour. She is often the one who cuts through the melodrama.<\/p>\n The film\u2019s camp is also helped along by its \u201990s setting. The pop songs (a proper Now That\u2019s What I Call Music compilation), the costumes and the general air of excess make this feel like a movie that has wandered in from the same decade as the arcade games. It is not subtle, and the humour can be hit and miss, but the dated touches give the film a personality of its own. The animated flashbacks were also a wonderful surprise, and I pray and hope Capcom turns those into an animated series one day.<\/p>\n Image: United International Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n There are times when S<\/i>treet Fighter feels as if it is trying to have it both ways: acknowledging how silly its characters and story are, while still wanting viewers to take their conflicts seriously. The plot gets tangled, and the constant stream of introductions and references can make the tournament itself feel less important than it should. But I did not need every part of the story to come together for the film to be entertaining. I was happy to see familiar characters, moves and bits of lore brought into a live-action setting that does not seem embarrassed by them.<\/p>\n If you want a tightly plotted martial arts film, this is not it. Street Fighter is messy, and its campy all-round action will not be enjoyed by everyone. But it understands that the games are colourful and a little absurd, and it has fun with that instead of trying to sand it down. For fans, there is plenty to spot and enjoy; even when the story fumbles, because just like the game, Street Fighter wants you to watch it for the action \u2013 not the plot.<\/p>\n Street Fighter is now out in cinemas.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Paramount and Legendary Pictures\u2019 Street Fighter is not a movie that wants to be taken seriously. It has brightly coloured costumes, larger-than-life characters and fights…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1251,3444,198,1543,28,310],"class_list":["post-93459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-fans","tag-fighter","tag-fun","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-street","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n