Street Fighter (2026) Review

It seems that 2026 is the year for Video Game adaptations of fighting games. We had the Mortal Kombat sequel earlier this year and now we have Street Fighter. I watched the film yesterday and here is my review for the film. The premise of the film sees a pair of fighters recruited to take part in a tournament where they aim to take down a criminal overlord. 

Main Character

Noah Centineo plays Ken and he is fine. For the first half of the film I found myself rooting for Ken and wanting to see him succeed and that is a lot down to the performance over the material. However, the 2nd half of the film just sees his character arc super rushed and feel unearned. 

Andrew Koji plays Ryu and though his story is well laid out, I actually thought he was pretty bland in the role. He is very monotone and soft spoken which compared to Ken made him a pretty dull main character. 

Supporting Characters

Callina Lang plays Chun-Li and I thought she was one of the better characters. She gives one of the stronger performances and her character arc, though rushed is actually portrayed well and I enjoyed watching her on screen. 

The real star of this film is Guile played by Cody Rhodes. He is so lively and energetic and is the one person who really seemed to care about his character and the film. He really isn't in the film enough as he is easily my favourite person in the film. 

David Dastmalchian plays Lord Bison and this was just a weird performance. I think this was a performance that was close to working but it is just too much and way too cheesy. He isn't a particularly interesting villain and some elements just didn't work for me. 

Jason Mamoa plays Blanka and he gives a truly bizarre performance. It is this massive CGI creature and he is just a weird addition that offers very little and to be honest didn't need to be included here. 

Story

The story does a pretty good job of explaining the origins of the Street Fighter tournament and the relationship between Ken and Ryu, this is done through beautifully animated flashbacks which are a highlight of the film. But the overall plot is incredibly dull and convoluted. The tournament is barely shown and even addressed that it isn't important, then other storylines are introduced and then dropped for no reason. It is fully concluded with a frustrating ending that feels like it cares more about setting up a sequel instead of giving this film a conclusive ending. 

Script

The script is easily the worst part of the film. It has no real memorable dramatic scenes and sometimes the actors rise above the shoddy material that is written for them. Also the film isn't really funny, if you are going to be ridiculous and over the top, then you better be funny and this film just isn't. 

Style

For a franchise that focuses on fighting, I actually thought the fight scenes were really fun and a real highlight for the film. I also mentioned how the animated flashbacks were used and they were really well rendered and added plenty to the feel of the film. Unfortunately, this film has pretty poor pacing. We barely see any of the actual tournament and it feels really rushed in places and dragging at others which means this film has pretty poor direction. 

Overall

Overall, Street Fighter is a below average film. I think for die hard fans of Street Fighter, you might enjoy this film but I can't look past some weak acting, poor writing and dull storytelling. It has good fight scenes but there isn't really much meat to the film here which is a big shame. 

Rating - 4/10