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"Street Fighter" (2026) Movie Review
It's not often that Retro Injection reviews a contemporary movie (the last time was 2024's Cocaine Bear), but since Street Fighter is based on a classic arcade franchise and is set in 1993, I'll make an exception.
I grew up playing Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers at my Time-Out arcade and on my Sega Genesis, which still gets love. While my 2D fighting fix was also quelled at the arcade with The King of Fighters '94, that was on a Neo-Geo exclusive, and I couldn't play it at home at the time. The Street Fighter cartridges, purchased from Kay-Bee Toys, claimed the majority of my butt-whooping sessions. These days, I love to play Champion Edition on my PC Engine Duo RX and Super Street Fighter II Turbo on my Capcom Big Blue arcade cabinet.
When I first heard about the 2026 Street Fighter movie, I waited with baited breath for months. I missed the opening Friday (stupid work), and went to the wrong theater on Saturday, but my wife Adrienne and I were able to catch it on Sunday. The theater was almost empty, with eight people total. Was this a bad sign? The teaser trailers looked stellar, but the IMDb reviews had proven divisive. I'd never disliked any Street Fighter movie or series. Would this entry prove different?
Ken and Ryu are to take part in the second World Warrior Tournament, hosted by the nefarious M. Bison. Meanwhile, INTERPOL agent Chun-Li, whose father was murdered by Bison, is infiltrating his totalitarian regime. Ken is a washed-up sellout, and Ryu operates a sub-par ramen cart in Japan, not wanting to fight anymore. (Ah, the classic kung-fu movie trope.) There's a lot going on in Street Fighter, more than this review will attempt to recap, but the movie generally succeeds in interweaving the storylines. While some of the jokes fell on a silent audience, there were some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and the fights never disappointed.
The film presents a decidedly different take on the characters, while staying true to the series canon. This is OG Street Fighter territory, even featuring a deep cut with Joe, the one-off fighter from the almost-forgotten 1987 Street Fighter. Because the movie is set in 1993, we get to see some characters before they debuted in the later Street Fighter games: Interesting additions include Cammy in her "Bison's lackey" era, and everyone's favorite loser Dan Hibiki rocking a mustache.
The animated intro to Street Fighter was absolutely incredible, and got me pumped for the rest of the film: Rendered in the style of the Udon comic books, the animation perfectly captured the intensity and the magic of the games. In fact, the several animated flashbacks are a high point of Street Fighter. They honestly made me wish that the whole movie was animated!
Obviously, you can't make a movie like this without CGI, so I won't even hate on that. All the characters' trademark special moves were rendered in a believable way; nothing looked cartoonish. For example, Chun-Li delivered her Spinning Bird Kick with her hands on the ground; she didn't fly across the screen like in the games. But even the really crazy stuff, like Bison's Psycho Crusher, looked good. Legendary Pictures used tasteful restraint with their computer graphics, almost making up for their Godzilla movies.
All the characters looked great. The movie features a cast of mostly little-known actors, to good effect. I thought the weakest link, strictly visually, was David Dastmalchian as Bison. He was quite puny for the legendarily-imposing figure. But Bison's dialog acknowledges this immediately, making it a plot point. Dastmalchian has the chance to shine as a Bison with a Napoleon complex. His performance was top-notch, rivaling the late Raul Julia in the same role. The best character doubles were Callina Liang as Chun-li and 50 Cent as Balrog. They embodied these characters, in my opinion. Andrew Koji as Ryu is no slouch, even having a similar look to Mike Moh from the excellent 2014 web series (later released on DVD) Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist. And let's give credit to Cody Rhodes, who confidently sports Guile's signature tower of hair.
As a period piece, Street Fighter worked pretty well. On the constructive criticism side, I wish that all the songs used were from 1993 or earlier: One fighting sequence used the 2000 Baha Men hit, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" While the song worked for the action, in my opinion it detracted from the period accuracy. Balrog's fighting was showcased with 50 Cent's "Many Men (Wish Death)," released in 2003, but since Balrog was played by 50 Cent, I guess an exception can be made for this one. These soundtrack anachronisms are my biggest beef with Street Fighter. I'm sure this kind of thing wouldn't bother most people.
I'm a heavy-duty Street Fighter fan, and I give 2026's Street Fighter a solid "B." You could certainly do far worse for a fighting game movie adaptation. (The 2009 stinker The King of Fighters immediately comes to mind.) There are a lot Easter eggs for the die-hard street fighters out there, and the movie is very much self-aware, maybe too much at times. But I bought the above Street Fighter cup and keychain at the theater in addition to the tickets, and Capcom will get my money once again when the DVD hits Walmart shelves, so as Dan Hibiki would say, "they gave the people what they wanted."
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