The New Street Fighter Movie Misses the Knockout Blow: Review

From the beginning, there was one fight that the 2026 Street Fighter movie was always very likely to win: being the best Street Fighter movie ever made. This is because 1994’s Street Fighter and 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li are two of the worst video game adaptations of all time. Ergo, this new martial arts comedy/adventure would have had to be catastrophically bad in order not to achieve this dubious honor — and it is not catastrophically bad.

It is, however, chaotic, a movie that would be described as cartoonish even if parts of it weren’t literally animated (key flashback sequences are presented as ’90s-style anime produced by Titmouse Animation). Even during the live-action sequences, multiple actors are playing things to the level of Looney Tunes mayhem, and they all look pretty much identical to their video game counterparts, even occasionally growling out their video game catchphrases. In so many respects, Street Fighter works exactly the way you want a big screen adaptation of Street Fighter to work. Making the ways it doesn’t work all the more frustrating.

Plot-wise, here are the basics: In 1987, world-class martial artists/BFFs Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) end their longtime friendship after Ryu wins the first World Warrior competition and their longtime mentor Gouken (Don Lee) dies. Six years later, Ken has become MTV famous but also a joke to the general martial arts community, while Ryu has gone into hiding. But they’re destined to be reunited when the evil M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) decides to hold a second World Warrior tournament.

The world’s greatest fighters, having been recruited by Bison’s operative Chun-Li (Callina Liang), arrive in Metrolao City to compete; everyone has an ulterior motive for being part of this tournament, or Bison’s criminal network, or both. Everyone also has a lot of aggression. Fortunately, they have a lot of opportunities to fight it out.

It’s a pretty massive ensemble, all playing characters drawn directly from the games. And not just the headlining guys, we’re talking about some very deep cuts here, like Joe. Remember Joe? From the first 1987 game and nothing else? Sure you do. He’s played by UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski. He’s very blonde.

But his blonde flattop pales in comparison to the one on Cody Rhodes as Guile, a character literally introduced hair-first. (It’s a magnificent ‘do. No wonder they made a popcorn bucket out of it.) For those unfamiliar, Rhodes comes from the world of professional wrestling, and brings just that level of subtlety to his character — which generally works, in his specific case.

Rhodes is actually one of three professional wrestlers featured here (Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i is the evil Akuma, while Hirooki Goto is sumo favorite E. Honda), in addition to multiple actor-slash-martial artists — meaning that most of the cast definitely knows how to take a hit, something which definitely pays off in the fight sequences, which all operate in a heightened reality.

Of course, there’s also Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog, growling his way through his scenes and delivering some very convincing punches, and the famously masked Orville Peck as the famously masked Vega. The “Dead of Night” artist, making his film acting debut here, doesn’t get much to do — it doesn’t help that any actor would struggle to emote his way through a hard plastic mask like the signature Vega one, but it kind of feels like he was hired solely on the basis of his on-stage persona (specifically, the mask) without much consideration as to whether he actually could play a real character on screen.

At least David Dastmalchian is having a delicious time, not afraid to get very, very weird with Bison’s reactions to… everything. He even makes a meal out of a brief homage to 1994’s Street Fighter, paying tribute to the late great Raul Julia’s singular take on his character. And Eric André, whose on-screen persona has been “live-action cartoon” for the majority of his career, fits naturally into the mix as ring announcer Don Sauvage. (Director Kitao Sakurai has worked closely with André over the years, making the movie’s whole vibe make a whole lot of sense.)

With a cast this big, all playing characters this over the top, it shouldn’t be a surprise that most of them don’t get much development. There is some effort made to transcend the broad cultural stereotypes underpinning many of them, usually thanks to their performances — Bollywood star Vidyut Jammwal’s take on Dhalsim might be the most successful example of this.

Meanwhile, Andrew Koji (the star of the streaming series Warrior, a must-see for any martial arts/period drama fan) is burdened with perhaps the most grounded role in the ensemble, though he still brings some personality to Ryu, especially opposite Noah Centineo’s goofy take on Ken. Their bond is set up more through telling than showing, and the actual ups and downs of their relationship make very little sense thanks to the script. Yet without question the movie’s best fighting sequences all feature the two of them together — whether they’re fighting each other or a collection of other dudes.

At its best — and for a good percentage of its screen time — Street Fighter operates like a deranged live-action cartoon, which is exactly what I wanted from it. The soundtrack, packed with ’90s hits, is a fun bonus. However, this makes critiquing its fundamental filmmaking flaws, like the incoherent character relationships or the more confusing editing choices, feel like missing the point on an epic scale.

Even nitpicking feels unproductive. As an example: As teased in the trailer, the movie heavily features the song “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes, which was first released in 1992 on the band’s debut album. However, Ken and Ryu are seen enjoying the song in flashbacks taking place in 1987 or earlier. Is it fundamentally ridiculous to complain about a release date goof-up like that in a movie where dudes blast fireballs out of their hands and Jason Momoa plays a CGI Blanka who just wants to find his momma? This is the existential question this movie inspires.

There is one issue, though, that does matter on a primal level — because it’s the one way this movie really fails to deliver the perfect Street Fighter experience. In a way, the film’s writers were smart enough to avoid the sins of the past: One reason both of the previous Street Fighter movies didn’t work was that neither actually bothered to incorporate a fighting competition into the plot. Not that a movie should be totally beholden to its source material, but the core concept of this franchise is, well, people fighting in a tournament, and it makes sense to honor that in some way.

The plot of the 2026 film does in fact include an eight-man fighting competition, with a big bracket on the wall of the arena and everything. However, only two actual tournament fights are seen on screen — one gets completely cut out of the movie, and then there are some random forfeits. The movie does feature action sequences outside of the tournament context, but it still feels like a cruel tease. This summer’s Mortal Kombat II is looking a lot better by comparison, considering that it did manage to make a fighting competition the spine of its plot in addition to a larger narrative about saving the world.

Based on the way this movie ends, it’s clear the filmmakers are really hoping to make a sequel. And the gung-ho energy that powers this movie, in addition to the level of commitment brought by most of the cast, does inspire some interest in what happens next. Again, this does happen to be the best Street Fighter made to date… But hopefully, the next one will be better.

Street Fighter (2026) Hadoukens into theaters on Friday, October 16th.