“Street Fighter” Review: A 6th Grade Love letter to The game
To understand Street Fighter, look no further than its soundtrack. A film set in 1993, that has used Tupac’s “Ambitionz As A Ridah” as its hype music in the trailer and film. A song that came out in 1996 for those who don’t know. This is Street Fighter. The music is of the era but not quite historically accurate. The writing is in the area of a good homage, but not quite on target. It’s a campy, zany film that tries its best to write a love letter to the game on a sixth grade level!
The film starts with an animated look back at the 1987 World Warrior Tournament in which martial artist Ryu (Andrew Koji) defeats Sagat by tapping into his dark side. After his master Gouken (Don Lee) sees this, he quickly tells Ryu’s best friend/brother Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) that he must protect his brother. From there we are in live action and present day 1993. Ken is a has-been doing commercials for Jolt energy drinks and Duracell. He’s the playboy, MTV star of the moment but he is missing something. In part, it’s his best friend, Ryu, who has been missing since the World Warrior Tournament. The other part is he doesn’t believe in himself as an ultimate warrior.
Meanwhile, M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) is on a mission to increase his own power by draining the best warriors in the land of theirs. What better way to do that then to have a World Warrior Tournament to gather them all together? “That’s all I have to say about that” in my best Forrest Gump voice.
Here’s the deal. It’s extremely difficult to put all the characters that people love from Capcom’s game into a live action script. Co-writer/director Kitao Sakurai is my age. As an elder millennial, I know he lived through the era of the game. I assume he remembers going to an arcade and putting your quarters down to play it in the mall. Or playing with friends on Sega. The love for the characters is there. Getting the wardrobe, hair and makeup, and in game nods are on full display. Cinematographer Ken Seng drenches the frame with neon, desaturated video game colors at times and diffused light beams that noticeably shine through windows. The love and desire to get it right is there, but the script is chaotic.
The film starts out strong and then goes in various directions in order to bring characters into the story. How can we get Blanka (Jason Momoa) in the film? Let’s have Ryu have to do this. How do we get E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) in the film? Let’s have Ryu do that. Let’s make other well known characters M. Bison’s henchmen but not explain why they are. Let’s not give them anything to do except serve Lord M. Bison. This is the movie’s achilles heel. In an effort to give fan service, it abandons Hitchcock’s famous quote: “To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script, and the script.”
The performances are a mixed bag. Koji is an anchor as Ryu bringing gravity to his character. Centineo is a solid Ken. Callina Liang is a fresh face as Chun-Li. While David Dastmalchian is always playing a strange character, his take on M. Bison is up for debate and feels like he watched The Dark Knight and the ’94 Street Fighter for inspiration. As much as I’m a fan of Cody Rhodes as a character in the WWE ring, acting in a legit film isn’t for him. He’s supposed to provide comedy but Guile is absolutely cringe. Everyone else is either not in the film long enough to make a remark or they bring their usual bro performance, just another role cough Jason cough Mamoa.
Unfortunately, this script is bloated. It abandons ideas soon after it puts them on the table. If it stuck to a story about two brothers overcoming guilt, shame and working to trust each other again, that probably would have been the right call. Oddly, it takes a bet on itself that there will be a sequel. I don’t know if the public will present enough quarters to continue!
Rating: D+
"Eternals" Review: A Step In A New Direction!?
Eternals is far from the Marvel films we’ve come to expect. There is generally a formula to these films. You have a problem that occurs, heroes who respond, big action set pieces and spoon fulls of comedy sugar along the way. Co-writer/director Chloe Zhao takes this film in a dramatic direction with spoon fulls of action along the way. With a complex story and multiple characters to get to know, this is another step in the staircase of Marvel that feels like a set up to take us somewhere new.
A group of immortal beings have been on Earth since BC time. They came and have helped civilization advance forward, but have remained in the shadows trying not to interfere as much as possible. The Eternals are a rag tag group with special powers. Ajak (Salma Hayek) leads the group as the maternal figure who has the power to heal and give wise advice. Ikaris (Richard Madden), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), and Thena (Angelina Jolie) are the frontline warriors, each imbued with unique powers to fight. The thinkers of the group are the young illusionist, Sprite (Lia McHugh), speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), master inventor Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and telepath Druig (Barry Keoghan). Sersi (Gemma Chan), whom much of the film revolves around, can transmute inanimate matter and finds herself somewhere in between the warriors and thinkers.
The non-linear story jumps through history while grounding itself in present day, not long after the events of Avengers: Endgame. With fifty percent of the planet back, a countdown to an apocalyptic event has started. The Eternals must decide if they will intervene to protect the species they’ve grown to respect and love or continue to stand by.
Zhao’s vision for the film is fully manifested. Much of the movie’s flashbacks are shot at golden hour, giving a soft, warm hue to the cinematography. Her camera frames subjects in an affectionate way. She bottles the feeling you have when you’re falling in love with someone and in a room full of people, it’s just you and that person, and pours it on screen. It’s that tenderness that infuses throughout the film to give MCU fans something that feels wholly different and unique.
As beautiful as the film is, it can drag along at times with its two and a half hour plus running time. The character building and backstory that has to occur in an origin story is hum drum at times with certain characters receiving more love than others. With ten Eternals to introduce to an audience, that can be a task. Overall, the task is achieved but not without the price of a bit of fatigue in getting there.
Then there’s the topic of sexuality. Sexuality in this film feels forced rather than the “firsts” it desires to display. Parents of younger children be warned, two of the Eternals get busy in a mid-shot that shows them naked (while bodies cover private areas) but leaves no question to the thrusting going on. So if you haven’t had the sex talk, you’re going to have to after this. There’s a same sex kiss as well. The reason this all seems forced is because, well (semi-spoiler alert if you haven’t read the comics ahead), the Eternals are humanoids and can’t breed amongst themselves. So logically, reproduction and sexuality doesn’t seem to make sense as the story unfolds in this world.
Special attention needs to be given to the performance of Harish Patel as Karun. In the film, he follows Kingo around as his manager/personal cameraman. Patel provides not only humor throughout the film, but touching moments that would be hard to perform in the hands of a lesser character actor! Even though he is a side character, we should give that man his props and flowers for his performance!
Zhao and company shoot for the stars and land somewhere in Earth’s orbit. This isn’t a bad film. You can get lost in its entertainment. However, it truly feels like a stepping stone to open other parts of the MCU. This film feels like a door to opening more of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in two ways. One is that the Eternals unlocks a new characters layer in the MCU as we learn about Eternals, Celestials and deviants. The second is the arthouse influence from Zhao’s direction that will shift the blockbuster feel we’ve experienced in the past to possibly give us more of an independent vibe in these films. We’ve seen the shift in Disney+ shows, but this is certainly different. Overall, if you’re a fan of the MCU you’ll be entertained. If not, you can catch up to this when it streams!
Rating: C+