Road to Street Fighter (2026) - Street Fighter (1994) Review

 

Back on the road to Street Fighter (2026). And this time I'm looking at the more infamous Street Fighter movie.

Street Fighter (or as it's fully titled Street Fighter: The Ultimate Battle or sometimes called Street Fighter: The Movie) is marital arts action movie based on the video game series of the same name, more specifically Street Fighter II. It was also one of two Street Fighter films released in 1994. Edward R. Pressman Productions and Capcom Co. Ltd. produced with Universal Pictures acting as distributor. Steven E. de Souza both wrote and direct.

The story is, M. Bison has kidnapped sixty-three relief workers and has demanded twenty billion dollars in three days or he'll kill all of them. Colonel Guile refuses to give in to Bison's ransom and instead leads his team to put an end to Bison once and for all.

• Negatives

The biggest problem with the movie is it really doesn't follow the source material it's supposedly based on. For starters a lot of the characters don't look like how they look in the game. Let me quiz you, tell me. Who is she supposed to be? 👇🏻

Don't know? Well I can't blame you. This is supposed to Cammy White. Yes, she is supposed to be this character.

The only thing they got was the blonde hair and pig tails. And it's not just Cammy that has this problem. A huge majority of the characters are like. Gulie's not only not wearing his green tank top shirt or camouflage pants, instead his colors have been swapped for a blue color palette. He doesn't even have his exaggerated flattop. And as for the poster boys of the franchise, Ryu and Ken, they're unrecognizable. Ken doesn't have his long blonde hair and Ryu never wears his red bandana. Okay, let's say you can forgive the characters not looking like what they're supposed to be, do they at least act like themselves? Nope. Gulie is an All American American but Jean-Claude Van Damme doesn't even sound like him. He just talks like Van Damme, accent and all. Then you've got Ryu and Ken. In the game Ryu and Ken are both warriors, with Ryu in particular being a wandering warrior. But here they're con men/gun runners. And oftentimes they're the wise crackers. They don't even have a friendly rivalry between them. Chun-Li isn't an interpol agent, here she's a reporter. The only thing the two Chun-Li's have in common other than their names is the fact they want to avenge their dads' death. But the biggest change of them all is Blanka. In the games Blanka is a mutated feral fighter from the jungle, in the movie he was one of Gulie's soldiers and exterminated on to be a super soldier. And there's so many other things that the movie doesn't get right.

Alright let's get into storytelling. Now at first it seems simple enough, Bison demands a ransom or people will die but the good guys want to stop that. But as the movie goes on the story becomes more and more of a mess. For instance, Gulie and Chun-Li want to put a stop to M. Bison whether it's personal or not. Okay, simple enough and that gives those two good story arcs. But then out of nowhere characters who really haven't done anything all of a sudden get storylines. Ryu, for example, man they got nothing right with him did they? Anyways, Ryu spends most of the movie being a con man turned inside spy for Gulie. But then during the climax of the movie he [Ryu] and Ken have a brief argument and Ryu mentions about finally fighting for something worth fighting for. I'm sorry...what? 😆 When did this deeper arc happen? 😆 There was zero indication that he was having a philosophical struggle about fighting for something. It's like Souza remembered at the last minute "Oh yeah, Ryu is a fan favorite who's deep character. I should probably do something about that". 😆

There's also a tone problem. One moment it's played as a straight face military action thriller, then out of nowhere it's being campy. This makes the film very uneven.

• Mix

It's the action. Now gun fights maybe standard but fun. When it comes to explosions, shootouts, vehicle chases, and the raid on Shadaloo, it all works in a fun 90's action flick way. Martial arts on the other leaves a lot to be desired. Van Damme is great helped by the fact he knows martial arts. So his movements are both authentic and powerful. Others are decent but there are times when you can tell a quick edit or camera angle is used to hide weaknesses.

• Positives

So is there any redeeming qualities to this? Well yes, there are! Starting with some genuine, and that's Raúl Juliá as M. Bison. He actually delivers a truly magnetic performance with some campy moments spread throughout. And if you ask me his "It was Tuesday" quote is probably a very underrated villain line. He was so good in this he was actually posthumously nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. That's how good he was.

The last thing I'll praise is the movie does have an infectious energy to it. From the campy one-liners to over the top villiany, the movie is actually pretty enjoyable to watch despite how bad it is.

Guys, this a beautiful mess of a film. If you want to watch something cheesy, you gotta give this a watch.

My final rating is, So Bad, It's Good.

That's all for now. Due come back on Thursday, Jun 11th, for my review of an indie comic book. Which one? Come back on Thursday and find out. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.