‘Street Fighter’ Review: Fan Service Meets the Arcade Cabinet, But Who Wins the Round?

Kitao Sakurai’s ‘Street Fighter’ finally arrives in theaters on October 16, bringing Capcom’s legendary fighting franchise back to the big screen. The story is set in 1993, where estranged fighters Ryu and Ken Masters are pulled back into combat when Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament.

Expectations are sky high for a few reasons. The 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme version still lingers as a campy cult curiosity, and this new film comes packed with a roster that includes Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Jason Momoa and 50 Cent. That is a lot of fighters for one movie to juggle.

Here is where I land after sitting through it. The film works best when it leans on its three leads, because Koji gives Ryu a weary, wounded gravity that grounds the silliness around him. Centineo turns Ken into a cocky, oafish showboater you end up rooting for anyway, and Liang gives Chun-Li real fire and presence.

The fights are the other reason to buy a ticket. Sakurai stages much of the action with refreshing clarity, so you can actually follow a punch from start to finish, and set pieces like Ryu’s sauna showdown with E. Honda and a rain soaked brawl between the two old friends are genuinely fun. The animated flashbacks that sketch out the history between the heroes are some of the prettiest minutes in the film.

Not everything connects, though. Momoa’s CGI heavy Blanka looks like a punchline that forgot to be funny, and some of the humor lands at exactly the wrong moment, deflating scenes that need to breathe. The plot itself is stock material, a mix of secret agendas, betrayal and villains inviting heroes to join them, and it never quite earns the emotional weight it reaches for.

I did find plenty of charm in the sheer commitment of the ensemble. Dastmalchian plays M. Bison like a man having the time of his life, and Vidyut Jammwal’s Dhalsim and Orville Peck’s Vega add a strange, colorful texture to the world. The downside is that a cast this big means many fan favorites get a single scene and a costume, which can feel more like a checklist than a story.

The runtime stretches things further than it should. At around two hours, the final act loses momentum instead of building it, and a misplaced musical gag overstays its welcome. A leaner cut would have kept the energy of the opening rounds going all the way to the final bell.

In the end, I came out of ‘Street Fighter’ entertained but unsatisfied, charmed by the performances and the choreography yet frustrated by the thin story and uneven tone. It is a loud, colorful and often goofy adaptation that knows exactly who it is made for, and for those fans it delivers enough hadokens to be worth the trip. My final score is 6 out of 10.

Did ‘Street Fighter’ win you over or leave you wanting a rematch, and do you agree with my verdict? Tell me in the comments.