Video game movies are certainly more authentic these days, but are movies like the new Street Fighter too obsessed with looking like their source material?
After debuting at The Game Awards last year with a teaser trailer, the upcoming Street Fighter film just got its full trailer, ahead of its release on October 16.
It offers a bit more insight into the actual plot, focusing on series mascots Ryu and Ken (both looking much worse than usual) as they are recruited by Chun-Li to take part in a fighting tournament.
The film appears to be the most faithful and authentic adaptation of a Street Fighter game so far, but we’re still unsure about its quality as an actual film.
Despite its merits, this new Street Fighter film can’t be any worse than previous efforts. The original 1994 film was a mess that only half resembled its source material, but it is remembered for its campy charm, unlike 2009’s The Legend Of Chun-Li, which was a boring bore with even less ties to the game.
This new effort, directed by Eric André collaborator Kitao Sakurai, is explicitly billed as an action comedy and isn’t afraid to lean into Street Fighter’s more fantastical elements, with the trailer proudly showing off Ryu throwing fireballs, although it jokes about how ridiculous it is.
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At first glance the action also looks very impressive, and the film clearly isn’t too concerned with keeping things realistic. As well as fireballs, you have yoga master Dhalsim flexing his limbs a la Mr Fantastic and Zangief defying physics to suplex Ken.
What’s more, the film doesn’t just focus on the street fighting portion of Street Fighter, Ryu and Ken, who have been the main faces of the game since its inception, end up being the stars.
Combined with the costume design – with every character in the game instantly recognizable – there’s no denying that the new film looks very authentic, as has increasingly been the case with video game films in recent years.
However, we feel that this desire for authenticity has become too big of a priority; that video game movies try so hard to please diehard gamers, that they forget they’re real movies.
This is an issue we raised in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Street Fighter, at this early stage, seems to be making a similar mistake. The trailer doesn’t offer much insight into the general plot, focusing on highlighting the key parts and how many fan-favorite characters appear.
You also get car destruction mini-games, jokes about Chun-Li’s thighs, use of sound bites from old games; it’s more style than substance made for fans to point out for recognition, as opposed to telling a cohesive story. Especially with a pile of players threatening to make everything feel full.
This seems like overcompensation for the early days of video game movies, which were embarrassed by their source material and usually earned the ire of fans for straying too far. We’re glad to be past those times, but perhaps we’ve done the opposite, with new films unwilling to take any real risks to avoid disappointing fans.
But none of this matters, because authenticity seems to be the winning formula. The Super Mario and Minecraft films were panned by critics but are the highest-grossing video game films ever made, due to their close resemblance to the source material; they feel like games brought to life on the big screen.
Therefore, this new Street Fighter film will experience the same thing. The trailer has received a mostly positive reception among fans, with 63,000 likes on YouTube at the time of writing.
Even fans who didn’t expect the film to be good are looking forward to it, if these few Reddit comments are anything to go by.
‘It looks both amazing and terrifying. I’m in,’ MurDoct said.
‘It has a ‘so bad it’s good’ feel to it,’ says Rakyand.
‘This seems like the stupidest, most nonsensical nonsense I’ve seen in a long time. I will be present on opening night,’ said UrienOptics.
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Perhaps the bigger question is whether the Street Fighter community alone is enough to ensure the film turns a profit or whether its adherence to authenticity will move mainstream audiences. Street Fighter is one of Capcom’s biggest franchises but it doesn’t have the same appeal as Super Mario.
This isn’t even the only Capcom-related film releasing this year, as there are plans to bring another live action Resident Evil in September. Simply titled Resident Evil, the film is directed by Zach Cregger of Weapons fame, although it aims to tell an original story.
A new trailer was shown recently behind closed doors and while it doesn’t look like there are any familiar characters from the game, the description of the trailer says that it is very gory and full of zombies. So, it won’t deviate too much from the source material.
Cregger was popular in Hollywood at the time, which may have given him more leeway to make his films the way he wanted, but with lesser-known directors, it seems the current directive is authenticity at all costs.
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