'Street Fighter' Review: A Chaotic and Surprisingly Entertaining Video Game Adaptation
By Jack Ransom - October 17, 2026
When it comes to the Street Fighter franchise I have no real nostalgia or investment in any of its entries — having briefly dabbled in Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 and have played a bit of V, I think…? — having always been a Netherrealm guy (Injustice & Mortal Kombat) when it comes to fighting games. Unfortunately, the prior Street Fighter movies also alluded me, so I was purely going into this based on how goofy the trailers were which piqued my interest.
What is Street Fighter about?
Based on the hugely popular fighting game series. Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) reunite when Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament. As they face a hidden conspiracy, they must confront each other and their past-or face destruction.
Maybe I was on a sugar buzz from my pancake breakfast that morning, but man I had an absolute blast with Street Fighter, for the most part. Make no mistake, the plot is barely tangible and essentially a complete afterthought. The core and heart of the film is supposed to be the bond between Ryu & Ken (which is retold via incredibly badass animated flashbacks, which we’ll get to), however it is laughably generic and barely has a thread of emotional investment. There is also an extremely flimsy villainous motivation for M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) as he hungers for “Psycho Power!” , which he needs to siphon from Ryu.
What Street Fighter wants to do is barrage you with 90s nosttalgia in its soundtrack (including Soundgarden, The Offspring and a killer foot-stomping White Zombie drop in the final brawl), MTV-isms, as well as tap into a gloriously mid-00’s cheese, gratuity and fun that I am a complete sucker for. Where 2021’s Mortal Kombat almost seemed hesitant to delve into inherent absurdity of its material, Street Fighter completely embraces it: the costumes are game-to-screen translated perfectly and there is genuinely a ‘cosplay’ feel to some of them at adds charm, the beatdowns are fast, frenetic and utilise slow-motion, speed-up’s and spinning camerawork.
The animated sequences are surprisingly frequent throughout, and their impressive craftsmanship makes them a real highlight. Once again tapping into that 2000’s visual flair (I could instantly imagine them as a YouTube fan edit backed by Linkin Park) and adding some hyper-kinetic, bloody energy to the proceedings. Whilst not as stagy looking as the recent Mortal Kombat outings, the lighting and sets can look a little too ‘movie-set’ like. However, the CGI for the powers and Jason Momoa’s absurd electricity fuelled, green skinned Blanka.
Performance-wise everyone is locked into the silliness. Noah Centineo’s jacked, egotistical-yet-self-loathing doofus with a heart of gold Ken and Andrew Koji’s solemn, deadpan and subtle Ryu have a fun brotherly dynamic. Calliana Lang’s no-nonsense Chun-Li is a strong presence (the scene of her infatuated colleague losing his mind over her beating up a bunch of dudes is hilarious). Mel Jarnson’s playful, sleazy, magnetic and snide Cammy is fun. Andrew Schulz (Dan Hibiki), Cody Rhodes (Guile) and Eric Andre (Don Sauvage) deliver in the comedic beats. The standout has to be David Dastmalchian who is hamming it up beyond 100 as M. Bison. Tapping into 90’s era Jim Carrey, caressing feet, weirdly chowing down on snails and bellowing cartoonishly villainous dialogue. Great stuff.
Street Fighter was far more entertaining than expected. It embraces its bonkers, camp, excessive tone with utter glee. The fights come thick and fast, the performers are clearly having a blast, the animated sequences are killer and the needle drops rock. Street Fighter's plot weakness is undeniable and it rattles through every cliché in the book… but man it’s damn fun!
'Street Fighter' is out now in cinemas following its release on October 16, 2026.
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Jack Ransom
Senior Writer
Jack loves to talk films: After a regular cinema trip, he likes to review them, rank them, react to them or even adding to his physical media collection!
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