Street Fighter (1994) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Everyone knows that the 90s was a rough patch for beginning the trend of video games getting film adaptations. The likes of Super Mario Bros. and Mortal Kombat were definitely, but then there is Street Fighter that definitely didn’t know its lane in comparison.
PLOT
The 1994 film is an adaptation of the second game in the iconic franchise created by Takashi Nishiyama & Hiroshi Matsumoto. The story involves a civil war between General M Bison of Shadaloo and Colonel William Guile of Allied Nations. Bison continues a reign of terror by kidnapping 64 relief workers and demanding a $20 billion in three days. Guile refuses and plans to track him down. Thanks to Lieutenant Cammy White, they track him and narrow down the general to be in a river delta region outside the city. Bison would single out Sergeant Carlos Blanka (Robert Mammone) to be a super solider experiment to spite his friend Guile, but the lead scientist Dhalism (Roshan Seth) has a change of heart and maintains his humanity after the procedure that still disfigured him with orange hair and green skin. Elsewhere in Shadaloo, the con artist duo of Ryu Hoshi & Ken Masters try swindling arms dealer Viktor Sagat by selling him fake weapons, but he sees through the ruse and forces Hoshi to face his cage fighting champion Vega (Jay Tavare). Ryu survives thanks to Guile arresting on sight for violating curfew. However, Ryu & Ken still escape with Sagat to get to Bison as he is his arms supplier. Since the duo are double agents for Guile, they earn Sagat’s trust by faking the Colonel’s death as they escape. Also in the city is reporter Chun Li Zang who vows vengeance against Bison for murdering her father 20 years prior. Edmond Honda & Gerard Balrog are part of her crew as they vow vengeance towards Sagat for ruining their careers as professional fighters. The news trio do try to kill both villains against Guile’s objections, but Ryu & Ken prevent it by revealing them as conspirators, simultaneously keeping their cover. The duo would break out Honda & Balrog from imprisonment and when Chun Li tries to face Bison in his quarters, he quickly escapes before trapping the others with sleeping gas. Back at AN, Guile still plans to attack the General’s base despite his superiors agreeing to pay the ransom. Just when Dhalism’s deception is discovered by a guard, Blanka kills the latter to protect him. When Guile reaches the base as planned, he’d be stunned to see his friend in his new predicament but would listen to Dhalism in sparing him rather than mercy kill him. With the ransom’s deadline expiring, Bison plans to summon Blanka to kill the hostages, but Guile emerges and fends off most guards until reinforcements arrive. As all his allies rescue said hostages, he duels with the General who arms himself with his weapon of choice being his suit that is powered by superconductor electromagnetism. As Ryu & Ken defeat Sagat & Vega, Honda would face off against one of the bodyguards named Zangief. The latter would soon escape with everyone upon realizing Bison was the true villain. As Guile beats the general by kicking him into his monitor wall, he tries to leave with Dhalism & Blanka but they stay behind as his friend doesn’t think he’ll be accepted for his mutation and the scientist wants to atone for what’s happened to him. As the two stay behind, the film ends with Guile surviving with his remaining comrades, arresting what is left of Bison’s army.
THOUGHTS
I wasn’t a big fan of Street Fighter the way I was with Mortal Kombat, but that never made me dislike it one bit. Whenever I played either game with my cousins, I had a good time but I just didn’t rush to this movie or The Legend of Chun Li because I still wasn’t that much of a fan. It’s honestly a good decision for me to do so because it didn’t feel like I was missing much to begin with. Like a lot of movies of this decade, the set pieces and costumes are amazing, but I wasn’t so nuts about the editing for half of the fight scenes. Punch after punch and kick after kick is another cut and another, it all felt overwhelming to pay attention to what was going on. I do think most of the cast was cool embracing the theme to know the difference of Freedom & Tyranny, but it’s very straightforward to the point where the plot gets very predictable even for someone who doesn’t play the games. Personally, Jean Claude Van Damme is my selling point going into this having seen some of his 80s hits in advance. He may have not had the same flat top Guile had in the games, but he straight up owns the role in being a commanding protagonist that knows the importance of stepping up when no one else will. It is a shame he lost a friend in the midst of war, but it wasn’t all for nothing since he seemingly overcame it with great allies. I did think Cammy was a bit underdeveloped which bothered me because I felt like Kylie Minogue had much to give as the dedicated soldier. I think the reason she’s nearly shelved is due to Ming Na Wen which is fair because she was on point in being so tenacious in her quest for vengeance. I want to enjoy seeing Honda & Balrog, but there is not enough chemistry between Peter Tuiasosopo & Grand L Bush that too makes them feel one noted. Hell, I keep forgetting Gregg Rainwater is playing Thunder Hawk because not even he gets enough attention. And to get this out of the way, Miguel A Nunez Jr looked nothing like Dee Jay which made him not match the tenacity he was all about in the game. It even felt so awkward seeing how dumb Andrew Bryniarski has to depict Zangief because he’s far from it in the games. Surprisingly, I did think Byron Mann & Damian Chappa had solid chemistry as the dynamic duo of going from cocky to reluctant heroes that develop their moral code as things happen. What I don’t think enough people talk about in this movie is Wes Studi because he was great in making Sagat as cunning as the games depicted him. He makes a lot of mistakes for a leader that I’ll get to in a bit, but his biggest one is trusting Bison just a little too much. Had he thought it through much more, he would’ve prepared being ripped off by him. Enter the late Raul Julia who passed away of a stroke two months before the film’s release. For a man that had been acting since back in the late 60s, it had always like he was destined to be Bison and he is in his element being charismatically evil, earning a posthumous Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He truly believes what he is doing is gonna change the world for the better. Had the actor not died, I would like to believe a sequel would’ve happened due to the post credit cliffhanger implying the character’s survival but we’ll never know. Having said all the good that I can, there are far too many cons storywise as there were many things that didn’t make much sense. Like from the get go, Cammy should’ve been tracking the signal way before Guile tells her to. Hell, Guile even had no reason to announce on tv he was gonna save Blanka. Singling him out cost him his life and I refuse to see it the other way since even though he didn’t expect him to be mutated, he should’ve known Bison would’ve done something to him. Not only is he lucky to recognize Blanka in his mutant form when he didn’t even know Bison was gonna have him mutated, but he even waits the last minute to go stealth mode and that’s just super unnecessary tension right there. I don’t even see why Vega would take off his mask when the whole point of it is to protect his visage. Ryu & Ken are even quite lucky Sagat’s spies didn’t get any whiff that Guile pulled them out of the infirmary before their escape. Hell, I’m even trying to figure out how did Chun Li get the circus act or if she and Honda & Balrog replaced the original circus crew to get to Sagat & Bison. It then made no sense for Bison to want Sagat to stay after Chun Li got made when they were literally about to kill each other over ripping him off with his Bison bucks. And lastly, it was quite weird Balrog had to ask the guard where the hostages are when he just saw. He should’ve asked how to free them instead. To wrap up, writer/director Steven E de Souza makes an entertaining action flick, but not a more faithful adaptation of Street Fighter as many must’ve hoped for. If you didn’t enjoy this, then I hope the 2026 version impresses you more.
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