Street Fighter

The movie opens with a genuinely exciting high-impact anime-style title card sequence introducing our dual protagonists. It starts out strong but cannot keep it up for the rest of the runtime. There are a few cool fight sequences and animations sprinkled throughout, but it’s nowhere near enough to hold your attention once they’re over, much less hide any of the movie’s bigger flaws.

It was painfully hard to endure. Here’s what’s wrong with it, plain and simple. The story has absolutely no forward momentum, it reduces all of its women to scantily clad sex objects, and, unless you’re familiar with the Street Fighter franchise, it makes no sense at all.

The script sucks. The setup is weak. There’s no real reason to care about either protagonist. One is a vain and selfish pretty boy who exploits his physical strength for quick and easy advertising money; the other is completely off the grid, and when we do eventually meet him, so rough and jagged that he’s plain boring. All the story threads and secondary characters, and there are way too many in this movie, feel gimmicky and superficial. If they’re women, they’re sexualized. If they’re men, they’re doing the sexualizing. And worst of all, after dragging on for way too long, it doesn’t actually end. The main conflict of the movie isn’t resolved; instead, everyone just drives off into the sunset seemingly trying to set up a sequel, which I personally hope I never have to see.

I can understand that the actors here are portraying video game characters who, historically, were dressed provocatively. This was probably done to accentuate each character’s key features in order to make them unique and recognizable, like an American flag and crazy blonde hair, a mask with a claw hand, or, generally, muscles. Lots and lots of muscles. The problem is, all of the women are simply in different variations of as-little-clothing-as-possible. In a nearly 40-year-old 2D game about fighting to the death, that’s understandable. In a new 2026 movie that, no doubt, many impressionable young men will see, it feels a little reductive. All of the women in this are sexualized, either by the camera, costuming, or another character. And it gets old, fast.

I can’t say that I’m an expert in the Street Fighter universe. I can’t even say that I’m a novice. I’ve maybe played it a few times in passing at arcades, friends’ houses, or as the SF playable characters in Smash Bros. (if you count that). Any reference to the game’s story or characters’ motives or tics went completely over my head. That’s a me problem, granted, but it made me feel like I was watching something meant for someone else. If you know the franchise, you might find some enjoyment here. If you don’t, you’re probably in the same boat as me.

On the bright side, the camera, lighting, sound, makeup, and other production elements were all great. The fight choreography was particularly well done. You’d hope so. A film called Street Fighter with poor fight choreo would be like an umbrella full of holes. It’s a small silver lining, and frankly I’ll take what I can get, but it’s not enough. I’d like to hold films to a higher quality standard than this.

Can I recommend this? No. Would I watch this again? Hell no.