Street Fighter movie roughed up by reviewers

By thorsen-ink, GameSpotPosted Feb 27, 2009 4:58 pm PT

For the first time since Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia (in his final role) duked it out in 1994, a Street Fighter film is premiering across the US. News Corporation subsidiary 20th Century Fox is opening Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li in more than 1,100 theaters today. The studio is...

For the first time since Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia (in his final role) duked it out in 1994, a Street Fighter film is premiering across the US. News Corporation subsidiary 20th Century Fox is opening Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li in more than 1,100 theaters today. The studio is hoping the film's roots in Capcom's video game series and the recent launch of Street Fighter IV will attract young males, with young females all but guaranteed to flock to Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.

Unfortunately for Fox, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li won't be riding a wave of hosannas from critics to box office glory. The first reviews of the film have hit Metacritic, and they range from tepid antipathy to venomous scorn. The least negative summary so far is from Variety's Rob Nelson, who calls it "neither the best nor the worst of movies derived from videogames...at least [it] gives action fans plenty to ogle besides the titular heroine."

The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck was less diplomatic, declaring, "Yet another video game crashes and burns upon its translation to the big screen with this cinematic rendition of the venerable franchise."

However, the sharpest barb comes from Entertainment Weekly's Adam Markovitz, who gave the film a grade of D-minus. "It's an anonymous soup of pan-Asian action cliches slopped into the story of a fast-kicking hottie out to avenge her kidnapped father," he writes. "The fight scenes are saggy, the actors are stiff, and the sleepiness of it all is enough to make you nostalgic for the simple smackdown charms of the movie's namesake videogame."

Markovitz singles out Chris Klein (Rollerball) and Kristen Kreuk (Smallville) for particular scorn for their flat portrayals of classic canon characters Charlie and Chun-Li. The film costars Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile) as Balrog and Robin Shou (Liu-Kang in the Mortal Kombat movie) as Gen, with Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman), Edmund Chen (the original Hong Kong version of The Eye), rapper Taboo (of the Black Eyed Peas), and Shaw Bros. legend Chang Pei Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in supporting roles. The Legend of Chun-Li was directed by former cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, who is already infamous among gamers for his direction of the slightly less panned big-screen version of Doom.

567 Comments

  • hyper_apple4U

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 8:36 pm PT

    The only part that I liked about the movie was when Kristin (via special effects) pulled off Chun-li's signature move, the Spining Bird Kick. The rest of the movie however had a whole lot of nothing related to the real Street Fighter story.

  • DoeJohn531

    Posted Mar 5, 2009 4:12 pm PT

    Hmm, I think this was almost as bad as the Hitman movie.

  • Cabal23

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 11:11 am PT

    At least they didn't include red and blue APC's driving though the streets. Oh and Mick Jagger got asked not to return.The new movie certainly looks more stylish, but it definatley could have been straight to video.

  • frazzle00

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 2:41 am PT

    That's strange. I thought that the Shawshank Redemption did alright at the box office. According to Wikipedia it had a budget of 25 million and made over 28 million in revenue (not sure if that's the worldwide figure or just for the states). Then off course you'll have the VHS/DVD sales to add to this so in all I think the movie did alright. Let's not forget all the critical acclaim it received as well.

    I do agree with you lister82 with regards to reviews. People should make up their own minds. We don't experience games, books, movies, or music vicariously so why should we care what someone else thinks? If you like something then go out and enjoy it. After all you are your most relevant critic .

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 12:32 am PT

    lister82
    "Btw look at The Shawshank Redemption if u haven't already, did terrible at the box office, but when it went to video, its one of the best movies ever made (not all will agree of course)."

    I agree, Shawshank Redemption is without a doubt one of the best movies ever made, however i dont quite see this pap aspiring to the same level somehow.

  • lister82

    Posted Mar 3, 2009 12:01 am PT

    Haven't seen it but im sure their gonna feed like fuk off the original, like the recent X-Files movie (they should get sued for false advertising of aliens in the trailer!)

    Who cares what critics think anyway, over the past five years, ive enjoyed alot of films that critics say are utter sh*t, its just a persons opinion. Those who determine a film over a critics review should start thinking indepentantly and determine a movie on your opinion not someone that lives 2000 miles away. Every critic ive seen on tv are arrogant and think their view on a film is the gospel. Some like pure action , some like all story, but its all personal opinion.

    Btw look at The Shawshank Redemption if u haven't already, did terrible at the box office, but when it went to video, its one of the best movies ever made (not all will agree of course).

  • Viper_1989

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 3:19 pm PT

    How many more churned out movies that rely on a video game fad are there going to be until one actually turns out to be any good? We've still got to endure Dragonball Z (though technically not based on a game), Prince of Persia (could be good, though they've already given the prince a name, bad move (Dastan if anyone doesn't know), the Halo movie was already abandoned once and then resurfaced. There's World of Warcraft this year, Gears of War in 2010, BioShock in 2010/11, but the one I'm hoping to god they make it good and stays true to the games is Metal Gear Solid, which is supposed to be out this year. Hmmm, we shall have to wait and see...

  • adultgamer77

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 2:17 pm PT

    No offense, but this movie should of been "straight to video", or as we now call it Video on Demand (VOD) with cable companies or Amazon. I would of honestly paid $2.99 at home to rent this movie this past weekend because of the fact that it is part of the Street Fighter world, and my curiousity would of gotten the best of me.

    I do have a question though.....did they preview the movie before making the decisions on how and where to release it? Who previewed the movie and said that it was ok?

    BTW! NBC 4 did a segment on the Jonas Brothers movie and there was two guys standing in line to see the movie at midnight....thought that was so funny...my niece passed on the movie

  • gulamh

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 2:05 pm PT

    Dear lord! I thought this was going to be one of the oscar contenders alongside the Dragonball Z movie.

  • FallenAngelXBL

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 2:02 pm PT

    ok, in all honesty who actually thought this was going to be good...i mean seriously, if u thought this was not gonna suck then u should be shot at dawn.

    On a side note, the anime found in SF2 on the PS2 (i think...) is pretty good.

  • bam226

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:49 pm PT

    no surprise here

  • belgariontietje

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:47 pm PT

    Seriously, WTF did the critics expect? It's not like SF ever had a cohesive or strict storyline to follow, and the characters themselves have never been anything except 2D, so why should they expect the movie to be any better at those things than the game was? Altruistic morons.

  • puppiemaster

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:54 pm PT

    Have seen it, it's that bad, the first 1 was actually better

  • gamer082009

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:47 pm PT

    I won't be watching it, maybe if they stuck to the core of what the game was they might fair well in theaters. Leave out the bad acting and dumb one-liners and you might appeal to the mass. Probably just another washed out movie that's trying to appeal to a general audience.

  • resurrectionjoe

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:26 pm PT

    Is anyone really that surprised this is getting panned by reviewers?

  • frazzle00

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:18 pm PT

    @Otanikun

    As bad as this movie may be I doubt it is anywhere near as bad as the Jonas Bros. movie. Do we really need another (less talented) Hansons?

  • JackHoleFace00

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:17 pm PT

    Is anyone really surprised? This movie looked like total garbage from the get-go. Have you seen the trailer? You know how usually they can edit them in a way where it makes the movie look at least somewhat watchable? Not at all the case here; they couldn't pull 2 minutes of even decent footage from this giant pile of crap of a movie. What a joke.

  • DesertClawX2X

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 12:00 pm PT

    Honestly, I don't think that anyone should be so surprised by the backlash. I could smell the failure miles away.

  • younglinkx

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 11:59 am PT

    ah street fighter the kicks, the punches, the special moves its a classic......... unless you put into a movie what were they thinking the first one it was ok could of been better but ok but this one, this one just sucked.

  • LindBergh2007

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 11:39 am PT

    I'm shocked to learn that Hollywood failed to realize that a live action Street Fighter movie has already been done before: IN 1994!!!

    Who the hell would want to go see another terrible live action SF film? 15 years isn't enough time to pass for people to forget that disaster starring Jean Claude Van Damme.

    Watch NC's review, "Or course! We want to take over the world!"

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