What do we think of the video game classic turned movie?

By: Jermaine

I was lucky to catch this movie on the second day it hit theatres. Having grown up with the video game, I was excited to watch the movie. I may have been too excited as it did have its good moments, but there were also some disappointments.
First of all, the casting of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li was genius. Her mixed heritage provides mainstream appeal while also bringing credibility to her character Chun-Li. She portrayed the character of Chun-Li perfectly, although I must say that at times, I felt her accent (when speaking Mandarin and Cantonese) was unbearable.

In the movie, the evil Bison blackmails Chun-Li's father to do his dirty work in exchange for not hurting his daughter. When Bison is done with Chun-Li's father, he gets rid of him; this sets off a domino effect of events.  First, Chun-Li is "led" to a kung-fu master (Gen) in the slums of Bangkok, where he takes Chun-Li under his wing to train her. As soon as Li is "ready", he sends her off so she can find her own way — to avenge the death of her father. Along the way, the viewer also gets a glimpse of Bison's past and why he is the way he is. The whole film is set against the backdrop of the Bangkok slums, it is well written and I found myself being drawn into the story.

Castings in the movie include Michael Duncan Clarke (The Green Mile) as Balrog, Neal McDonough as Bison, Chris Klein (remember Oz Ostreicher? from American Pie?) as gangland unit detectives Charlie Nash and Moon Bloodgold (Below Zero) as detective Maya Sunee. Taboo (from black-eyed-peas) is Vega, and Robin Shou, who played "Liu Kang" in the Mortal Kombat series, is master Gen.

Now that I have had a few days to think about it, there were more than a few spectacular moments in Street Fighter. It had some great special effects and the fighting scenes were decent.  The major let down was that despite all the good in the movie it still didn’t  do the classic video game any justice. I give it 6.7 out of 10. Don't watch it unless you are a diehard fan of Street Fighter!

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