Join Us
Star Cast: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Vidyut Jammwal, Rayna Vallandingham
Director: Kitao Sakurai
What’s Good: The action and the acting
What’s Bad: Not applicable!
Loo Break: Not applicable either!
Watch or Not?: Bring out the kid as well as the actioner within you!
Language: English
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 120 Minutes
User Rating:
The story, as they say in a lot of Hindi movies, is really “one-line”. Ryu (Andrew Koji) wins the first World Warrior tournament in 1987. Akuma (Joe Roman Reigns Anoai), a deity, is incensed and murders his mentor, Gouken (Don Lee). The latter has another protégé, Ken Masters (Noah Centineo). And Ryu and Ken, thanks to their respective backstories from childhood and to common godfather Gouken, are like brothers. But after Gouken’s death, they are separated as Ryu disappears.
Bison (David Dastmalchian), dictator of Shadaloo, decides to have a second World Warrior tournament in the city of Metrolao in 1993. Ryu is invited, but declines. He then changes his mind as he does not want Ken to participate. When Ken chastises him and refuses his advice, Ryu takes his spot in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Interpol officer Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who is recruited by Bison as one of his team, also has a private agenda—Bison had murdered her father. On the night before the tournament, all the fighters get into a brawl at a pub. Bison’s soldiers take Ryu to Bison’s ‘castle’. Bison wants Ryu to join his empire, but when he refuses, he is forced to fight his prisoner, Blanka (Jason Mamoa), a strong man with an emotional past. And then a time comes when Ryu tells a secret to Ken about their early years. There are many more twists in store for the viewers in this first-ever movie adaptation of a very popular video game.
Street Fighter Movie Review: Script Analysis
As said before, the plot is flimsy, but the screenplay is so fast that one registers only the moments. Drama, messages and (mainly dry) humor— Dalan Musson with Gary Dauberman’s story is elemental. The screenplay (which in Hollywood includes the spoken lines, termed “dialogues” in India!) by T. J. Fixman and director Kitao Sakurai zooms from the animation beginnings to the end. Animation replaces the live narration at the right intervals and for the right reasons at crucial dramatic and psychological points and the humor in the words (dialogues!) comes at intermittent places and evokes chuckles as well.
Some sequences and tenors in this film are very similar to good old Hindi and South cinema. But then, it is worth a thought pondering on whether they are (as in many Hollywood films in the past few decades) been influenced by Indian cinematic structure or not.
Suffice to say here that the last sequence, which I cannot narrate as it would be a massive spoiler, also indicates a sequel being planned.
Street Fighter Movie Review: Star Performance
The finest performance comes from Noah Centineo as Ken, who excels in his egoistic avatar best. David Dastmalchian as Bison is an uber-cool villain and his hard menacing looks and ways vindicate his range as actor-writer-producer-comic book writer and podcast host. Eric Andre as Don Sauvage is a scream—he overacts with planned finesse. Jason Momoa as Blanka is absolutely lovable.
Callina Liang as Chun-Li is a scene stealer many times, while Rayna Vallandingham (a half-Indian) as Juli is good too. Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim gets a raw deal and his Indian and global fans are likely to be acutely disappointed. The rest of the huge cast fits their roles and does well.
Trending
Street Fighter Movie Review: Direction, Music
Kitao Sakurai knows exactly what he has to do and does it impressively, without the slightest tackiness or overdrive. Not only is he in control of the actions (this proving his mastery over the action team and the technical supervisors like VFX teams) but he knows how to pulls out all the stops to make this film a feast of entertainment. And if Jammwal fans are disappointed, rest assured advocates of actioners and lovers of the video game Street Fighter by Capcom will find this 120-minute motion picture a delight.
The music by Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson is impressive, and I liked the way the use of previous songs is directly mentioned while they come on screen. This is something Indian and especially Hindi cinema must emulate, given the flurry of re-creations from all sources, including older films.
Street Fighter Movie Review: The Last Word
‘There’s nary a dull moment!’ as sailors of the past would talk in vintage English. So go in happily with a mind set to get spirited entertainment!
Three and a Half stars!
Street Fighter Trailer
Street Fighter released on 16th October, 2026.
Share with us your experience of watching Street Fighter.
For more recommendations, read our Hollywood Movie Reviews here.
Must Read: The Social Reckoning Movie Review: This Unwanted Sequel Makes You Miss The Social Network
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Google News
