My roommate came across this movie the other night, but changed the channel after a few minutes saying that it was turrible. Since it is an anime, and since it was available to watch on Netflix's instant play, I thought I would take another crack at it. Street Fighter had been adapted to anime before, and the animated movie was pretty good, so how bad could this one be, right?
The answer is quite bad. The animation's OK, and the voice acting is tolerable for the most part, but the movie fails on almost every level.
There isn't much in the way of character development at all. Ryu is the only one who has any noticeable story arc, and even that one isn't all that compelling.
While I played the games back in the Sega Genesis days, I don't remember Ryu ever having demonic influences. It was an interesting idea, having that act as a source of his powers, but ki is also used by other characters. Ken says that it's a battle that all martial artists must face, but aside from Ryu's "brother" no one else seems to have this problem. I think it's supposed to act as a metaphor for blood lust or love of needless violence, but it's still a pretty jarring plot element.
The story is all over the place. Characters show up in places only because the plot demands it. It's made worse by needless characters. Honestly, did Sakura and Wallace contribute anything to the overall story? No. Nothing happens as a result of anything, we just kind of meander for an hour before something finally happens and by that point, you don't really care anymore.
M. Bison sits this one out, instead Dr. Sadler acts as the main villain. His backstory, motives, and personality are thrown to the wayside, heck he doesn't even show up until the last third of the movie. He's just a one dimensional villain who wants to, you guessed it, take over the world.
OK, but a movie that lacks in character development can still be entertaining. I mean, this is Street Fighter, so maybe the movie will make up for it with some awesome fight sequences.
Nope, sorry, the movie fails on that regard too. What few fights there are in this film are rather short. There are one or two decent ones, but overall it's not that impressive. This results in the movie being extraordinarily boring, which makes it that much worse.
The animation is decent, although some of the characters look weird (Chun Li in particular).
I did like the score as it added weight to several of the movie's "powerful" scenes. While the opening sequence makes little to no sense, the ominous tune that plays displays a sense of menace and does get you somewhat intrigued.
I did like the cameos, seeing Vega and Dhalsim (even briefly) was a nice touch. I was a bit worried when Zangief started getting pummeled by a little kid, but he eventually steps up and becomes a formidable threat despite being a mindless brute.
The fact that characters referred to it as "the martial arts" as opposed to naming one in particular was amusing. Also amusing was the fact that the title card referred to it as "The Animation" as opposed to "animated movie" or something like that.
I can kind of see what the movie was going for, there were some interesting ideas put forth, but it just wasn't executed very well. Maybe with better writers, they could've paced it better and made you care about what was going on. This didn't. It's only an hour and a half long, but it feels longer. I found myself glancing down at the run time to see how much more was left, which is never a good sign.
You're better off passing on this one.
Street Fighter Alpha: Generations
It's unclear what this is supposed to be. The Netflix summary lists it as a prequel to Street Fighter Alpha, but the film's Wikipedia page says it's unrelated to the film. It's an either or situation. The movie works on its own, but you can see the link in that both stories prominently feature Ryu coming to terms with his fighting and battling the dark temptation of the Hado.
The movie only has a runtime of 45 minutes, which minimizes the drag, but it's still present in this film. Where as the original Alphahad several recognizable characters appear, this time it's basically just Ryu. Ken shows up later, but he doesn't really do anything.
The writing is a tough one to judge. The dialogue is pretty terrible, but you do get a better sense of progression with this film than with the other. The monk was the only character who had any weight to him.
There is one scene of gratuitous fan service where two of the female characters are bathing together. The monk takes this opportunity to watch, because apparently that sort of behavior is charming? I don't know, they seem to laugh it off though, so whatever.
There does seem to be a bigger focus on action this time around, though again I was left feeling underwhelmed.
While the movie has some pros, it also has a lot of cons. As such, it comes out to be about the same as the last film in terms of quality, and that's not a good thing. You're better off passing on this one as well.
Street Fighter II animated movie
OK, Alpha stunk, Alpha: Generations wasn't much better. Let's see if the official animated movie will help wash the bad taste out of my mouth. Now, I had seen a part of this years back and remember it being pretty good, I hoped that this would hold true as the franchise really needs a good adaptation.
Having seen the film in its entirety, I can sum up my feelings in one word. Finally! Honestly, why do people seem to have such a hard time making a good Street Fighter movie? It's not that complicated, you just take the characters we know and recognize from the game, and have them fight, utilizing their iconic moves that we know and recognize from the game. That's what this movie does.
While a lot of characters show up, it's mostly cameo appearances. Characters like Dhalsim and Blanka make appearances, but don't play pivotal roles in the plot. It's fine though, with a ninety minute run time, there's only so much they can do and at least they took the time to work them into the script. You also get a good sense for their personalities. Sagat and E. Honda only have a handful of lines, but they still come off as 3 dimensional people.
The four main characters are Ken, Ryu, Chun Li, and Guile. It's funny, as much emphasis as the other movies put on Ryu, here he's the least developed of the group. Luckily, there's no "dark hado" demonic influence or any nonsense like that. All we really get is that he trained with Ken and that he's a generally good person. At one point, after bumping into a girl carrying a pitcher of milk, he apologizes and reimburses her for it, claiming responsibility.
Beyond that all he does is kind of wander around. Suddenly, he's in India, or Japan without a purpose. One scene he's fighting and the next Ryu's climbing a mountain. Why's he climbing a mountain? To hug the mountain. To envelop the mountain. He wants to make love to the mountain. Why does he climb the mountain? Because he's in love. He's like the Incredible Hulk in that he just goes from place to place, roaming the Earth. Heck, even the end credits run while Ryu walks away with a bag over his shoulder.
Chun-Li and Guile come together to stop the villainous M. Bison, who is brainwashing the world's best fighters to do his evil deeds. Bison makes for a great villain, he's imposing, a legitimate threat and the voice actor does a pretty good job. It sounded a bit like Clancy Brown, but upon looking it up, I saw that it was someone else.
The voice acting for everyone else is a bit iffy. It's not bad, but it didn't really stand out as amazing either.
I pointed out in the other two films that the fights were lackluster and boring. You don't have that problem here. The fights are intense and gripping. The final showdown even turns into a 2 on 1 battle where Ken and Ryu take on Bison and, darn it all, I'm a sucker for those kind of fights.
Chun-Li is pretty good looking once she lets her hair down. I wasn't sure which version of the film I was watching, as apparently there are a few, but the shower scene makes it clear that this was the more recent "uncut" version. I have to wonder what the point of the shower scene was though. It was pretty gratuitous and it only provided an explanation for why she would fight Vega in her bathrobe (which gave them a convenient excuse for a series of upskirt panty shots).
I liked the addition of American rock music, though I can't help but wonder how cool it would've been to have the Korn song play during a fight sequence as several of the Dragonball Z movies showed that metal and fight sequences go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Hearing Alice in Chains Them Bones play while Ken speeds down in his car was awesome though.
It's not kid friendly, there's quite a bit of violence, language, and nudity. So you might not want to pick this up for your kid thinking that it's a Saturday morning cartoon, but if you're of the appropriate age, this is the Street Fighter movie you've been waiting for.
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