Street Fighter II: O Filme

Well you don't have to be familiar with the lore of the games to enjoy this movie, it would definitely enhance it and clear up any confusion. The action scenes definitely make this movie feel somewhat believable. It's well choreographed, and well illustrated. Another place where this movie shines is in its writing. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes the dialogue sounds so far in left field it doesn't even remotely sound like a normal conversation. But some of the conversations between Chun-li and Guile are great and they seem so cute together! My biggest complaint is the unnecessary panning shots of unimportant scenes, and unimportant fights. And by unimportant fights I mean fights that don't have enough time or story relevance to be impactful. But over all I enjoyed it! It's a good movie for it's time and sense I knew the lore of the main characters I feel like they did a great job staying faithful to the series! 7/10.

Viewed on: Amazon Prime Video.

Adaptation of the popular fighting game franchise of the same name, it follows a wandering warrior known as Ryu (the "face" of the franchise) as he's hunted down by the villainous M. Bison (series long villain & usual endboss in the games, here he heads off a terrorist organization known as Shadaloo that is capturing powerful "street fighters" & brainwashing them into supersoldiers). Interpol & the U. S. military (represented by series regular good guys Chun-Li & Guile) involve themselves by trying to warn Ryu before he's endangered.

It doesn't have a deep narrative, and it probably won't appeal to anyone not already familiar with the games, but if you do fall into the fan base there's a lot to like here. Ryu's wandering nature provides ample opportunities for most (if not all) of the playable characters of the time to make an appearance, most of which are involved in at least one scuffle. The fights themselves (as well as the true to the game character design) are expertly animated & detailed, with weighty, crunchy impacts that hit hard. The infamous Chun-Li shower scene is another plus (& uncensored on my viewing platform of choice), and is directly followed up by the most tense confrontation in the entire film.

I was one of the many Street Fighter fans that left the theatre in withered disappointment after seeing the live action movie. One would have thought that, after several incarnations of this classic videogame, they'd at least get the storyline right. It was a massive letdown to see them mangle all the characters, too. So, when I heard there was an animated movie being released, I literally jumped with excitement; there was no way an anime would (or could) screw up as badly, after all. To my delighted surprise, it not only didn't screw up, it brought each character from 'Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers' to life.

I've heard people complain about it lacking plot and depth; IMHO, these people have missed the entire point of the movie. The main protagonist, Ryu, is a wandering warrior seeking to improve his fighting skills by constantly testing himself against other fighters in different parts of the world. He is an uncomplicated, unpretentious person with a gentle soul and the heart of a dragon (no pun intended), with no notion of the destiny that lies before him. He and his fellow trainee/best friend Ken parted ways ere they could settle who was the better fighter. The way this part of their fates was handled is well done; and the introduction of each supporting character within this deceptively simple storyline kept me rooting for more, with the buildup to the final minutes masterfully accomplished.

There is no debate whatsoever that both the art and animation in this movie is nothing short of amazing; every movement is smooth and clearly visible, from the flexing of Ryu's toes as he takes a step to every single punch and kick thrown in a fight. The music and dialogue, both in the original and the dubbed versions, is quite suitable (there has yet to be a soundtrack for the dub, pity), and although the dialogue at the end seems anti-climactic, what a setup for a sequel!

An elegantly simple story that captures the essence of the Way of the Warrior personified. I'm still watching it happily more than four years later.

Now this is what the live action street fighter should have looked like. At least in this movie the characters stories are right (most of them). The fight scenes in this movie are really good. Especially the bloody fight between Vega and Chun-Li, for the most part of that Chun-Li is dodging Vega's claw as KMFDM is playing in the background. The soundtrack was changed for the dubbed version, adding bands songs that we know or don't know so well for a few scenes but leaving most of the film score the same during most fight scenes. The songs actually fit with what's going on. The only one that I think was playing in a fight scene was Ultra, and that went really good matching the fast paced action that was happening on screen. The only thing that bugs me a bit is that part of the shower scene was cut. It was a scene that showed Chun-Li's breasts for about 5 seconds. It's not the fact that the nudity was cut out that bugs me it's the fact that I don't like it when I movie gets cut and I find out about it knowing that if I was in another country it could see it. The movie was great overall and anyone who wants to see a good Martial arts film should see it.

My review 8.

I haven't played a Street Fighter game in twenty years, so I didn't approach "The Animated Movie" expecting spot-on character treatments, backstories, etc. The story on this thing's fairly nonsensical, everyone's either a mercenary or government op. But it does benefit from great production values; this looks damn good. And no one comes to this expecting anything deep, I mean it's full of 'roided out physiques squaring off against each other. It's whether or not the movie delivers on the fight scenes, which are top-notch (especially the tense Vega/Chun Li face-off). I imagine that, were I a more devoted fan of the games, I would've given a rip about the story. But again, fights and quality animation are the focus. My only gripe with the U.S. version are the songs, none of which fit (Korn, seriously?).

Scratch that, I've got one more gripe. Internet lore tells of an extended Chun Li shower scene, the juicy parts of which were missing here. Manga Entertainment apparently forgot that "sex and violence" is a package deal. You put that T&A back where it belongs! Are we really pretending teens aren't this movie's target audience?

6/10