For this version of Street Fighter, embracing the campiness is paramount (pun intended, since the film is released by Paramount).
In all seriousness, this adaptation of one of the most popular — if not the most popular — beat-em-up video games of all time takes pride and joy in its unseriousness.
I mean, take a gander at the story: in 1993, Chun-Li (Callina Liang), a secret Interpol agent, recruits Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo), along with master fighters Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal, excellent) and Guile (Cody Rhodes), to enter the World Warrior tournament in Metrolao City in the fictional country of Shadaloo — a dictatorship run by the power-hungry M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).
The roll call of contenders includes popular characters E. Honda (actor and professional wrestler Hirooki Goto), Zangief (Olivier Richter), Balrog (50 Cent) and Vega (Orville Peck)… while Cammy (Mel Jarnson) and Juli (Rayna Vallandingham) serve as Bison’s unhinged officers. The villain’s master plan is to siphon power from the world’s best fighters to augment his own ‘Psycho Power’, which fuels his power moves.
This campy, kooky adaptation of the iconic video game Street Fighter embraces its outlandish fighting moves, colourful characters and anime influences, even if its villain fails to inspire dread
The entire tournament, though, is a ruse to lure Ryu, the winner of the last tournament in 1987, who disappeared off the face of the Earth after defeating Sagat. In the fight, Ryu lost control of his own restraint, unleashing his dark side, which ultimately brought forth the fabled power-mad villain Akuma (Joe Anoa’i, aka Roman Reigns, the WWE wrestler). Akuma wants Ryu to lose power once again so that he can beat a worthy rival in combat. When Ryu chooses restraint, Akuma kills his teacher, Gouken (Don Lee).
The death fractures the relationship between Ryu and Ken, who were raised as brothers by Gouken. Chun-Li, meanwhile, wants revenge because Bison killed her father. All that’s left to say is: Round One, Fight — Hadouken! (For the uninitiated, Hadouken is the game’s signature power move.)
Story writers Dalan Musson and Gary Dauberman, along with screenwriters T.J. Fixman and Kitao Sakurai (who also directs), have reverence for the material. It is quite cool that the production happily trades reality for faithfulness.
For once, the fighting moves — including the Whirlwind Kick, Shoryuken (Dragon Punch), Hadouken (the blue fireball), Dhalsim’s elongated limbs and E. Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap — look as they do in the video games. Unlike other adaptations, which save a big fighting move for a crucial, climactic finish, here every fighter unleashes their real-world-defying special attacks as if they come naturally in this reality.
Fans will be pleased not just by the moves but by the costumes, sets, cars, props, background score, and minor video-game characters in good supporting roles (two in particular are Jason Momoa as Blanka and Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, an admirer of Ryu and Ken from the games).
There’s also an absolute indebtedness to the 1994 anime feature film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie which, to this day, continues to be a benchmark for all serious beat-’em-up game-to-film adaptations.
In fact, the flashbacks in this movie are animated in an anime style; these sequences strengthen the film’s connection to the wider world of Street Fighter, including its anime and cartoon projects.
While the 1994 anime movie took pride in its seriousness, this film also takes inspiration from another Street Fighter release in 1994: the live-action Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li, and the late Raúl Juliá as M. Bison (Juliá died before the film’s release). At times, one wishes it hadn’t.
Dastmalchian, a fine character actor who has been in Dune, Prisoners, The Dark Knight, and Oppenheimer, feels as caricaturish and ill-fitting as Juliá was; the latter too was a celebrated actor best known for his roles in Kiss of the Spider-Woman and the two Addams Family movies in the 1990s. No matter the campiness of the enterprise, the villain, at least, should inspire dread.
That is, in my opinion, the biggest turn-off in an otherwise fine, compact, kooky action-comedy spectacle whose narrative stakes never rise above video-game level. Don’t expect excellence; settle for an entertaining two hours — minus a hasty last 20 minutes — and you’ll be fine.
Released internationally by Paramount and HKC Entertainment in Pakistan, Street Fighter is rated U, and is suitable for all audiences… provided they are fans of ‘Hadoukens’.
The writer is Icon’s primary film reviewer
Published in Dawn, ICON, October 25th, 2026
