I Can Already Tell I’m Going To Love The Upcoming Street Fighter Movie Way More Than The Original

Nineteen Ninety-Four? I was there, man. Day one. What am I talking about, you ask? Well, the debut of the first Street Fighter movie, of course. Ming-Na Wen, Raul Julia, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Good times.

Actually, wait. What the hell am I saying? The 1994 Street Fighter movie sucks! Because while I know some people unironically LOVE that movie, I remember HATING it as a kid! Today, I've kind of softened on it, as I view it as a so-bad-it's-good kind of movie (Though it doesn't hold a candle to 1995's Mortal Kombat). That said, it's still more bad than good.

However, just judging from what I've already seen from the new Street Fighter movie, I can already tell that it's better than the 1994 original. Here's why.

For One Thing, This New Movie Is Not Embarrassed To Have The Characters Doing Special Moves

I brought up the 1995 Mortal Kombat earlier, and here’s why that flick is still one of the greatest video game movies of all time - it leaned heavily into the video games. Like, this was a film that knew it was a video game movie and embraced it. Liu Kang did his bicycle kick, Scorpion shot his spear, and Johnny Cage did his nut puncher. In other words, if you were a fan of the game, then it was mindblowing to see a movie that really drew from the source material.

This is especially after the first Super Mario Bros. Movie (which I now love), Double Dragon (which I still abhor), and yes, 1994’s Street Fighter, all seemed to almost be embarrassed by their source material. And, I come to this conclusion for the Street Fighter movie since the characters didn’t really do many of their special moves from the games. Yes, Guile did his flash kick, and M. Bison was sort of doing psycho crushers, but Ryu’s “fireball” was blink and you miss it. Most of the other characters didn’t do special moves at all.

However, after watching the epic trailer for the new movie, I can already tell that it’s going to be better than the original since it FULLY embraces the special moves. Ryu throws a real fireball, Chun-Li is doing spinning bird kicks, and Ken even does a game-accurate Shoryuken (though, I wonder if it will come with flames).

I swear, if I had gotten THIS as a kid…boy howdy, it would have been my favorite movie of all time; just from the moves alone!

It Is Intentionally Ridiculous, Whereas The Original Felt Unintentionally Ridiculous

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the 1994 movie was trying to be this big, serious drama. Much like all live-action video game movies from the ‘90s, Street Fighter firmly had its tongue in its cheek, and you know, that’s fine. It’s kind of the reason why I appreciate it today, and hated it back as a kid (Especially since we had that amazing Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie back then).

That said, even the moments that were supposed to be taken seriously in the original movie, like Charlie’s transformation into Blanka, or Dr. Dhalsim (the hell?) feeling bad for working for Shadaloo, were all just laughable, and ostensibly not on purpose. Even Raul Julia's monologues, which have become the stuff of legend ever since, are all pretty comical, even though Julia did a stellar job with his performance.

This new Street Fighter, though? I mean, just look at Cody Rhodes as Guile! He’s got the silly hair and everything. One complaint I’ve actually seen online is that the movie looks TOO silly. In fact, some people were hoping that it would take a serious approach, but I'm all in for the goofy tone that’s been set by the teasers and trailer we’ve seen thus far.

Because Street Fighter IS goofy, and I’m glad that this movie is making the story intentionally silly, given what we’ve seen so far. I like that a lot better than it being unintentionally silly. But, I’m also excited because this movie has characters that the last movie DIDN’T have. Such as…

I Mean, Hello. It Has Akuma In It

Now, to be fair to the original, it did a good job of including pretty much the entire roster up to that point (Even Sagat, who seems to be absent in this new one). Sure, not all of the characters really made sense when compared to the game - like, when did Balrog become a good guy? When did Dhalsim get his doctoral degree? If you liked one specific character from the games up to that point, then they were likely in the movie.

EXCEPT for Akuma (Oh, and Fei Long. Poor Fei Long). However, do you know who’s in THIS movie? That’s right, the raging demon himself, the master of Satsui no Hado, Akuma! Played by Roman Reigns (let it rock), Akuma is in this movie, and you know what? That’s all they really had to do. Add in the fact that he has a flaming Hadouken, and I’m sold, man.

It goes even deeper. Akuma’s presence in this movie feels like it’s justifying something that was missing from my childhood. I’ll explain. I’m one of the few people who actually really liked the arcade game, Street Fighter: The Movie, and one thing that ALWAYS bugged me was that Akuma was in the game, but not the actual movie!

You have no idea how much this irked me. Upon rewatches, I just wondered WHY Akuma was put in the game, but was absent in the film. I don’t have any problems this time around, because Akuma IS in this movie, and he’s played by my Tribal Chief. So again, BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL.

It Also Looks Like There Is Actual STREET FIGHTING In This Street Fighter Movie

Lastly, can I just say how good it is to see actual STREET FIGHTING in a movie called Street Fighter? The original movie had some strange military plot (Oh, by the way, thank GOD Guile isn’t the main character this time around), and it didn’t feel like Street Fighter AT ALL. This was another thing that bugged me as a kid. Yes, some of the actors wore similar costumes at times, but the plot didn’t feel like the games in any way whatsoever.

However, right off the bat, we see Chun-Li looking for “champions” (Editions?) and there seem to be several fights in what appear to be streets and arenas, harkening back to the games.

I also like that the fights seem to be plentiful, as I honestly don’t come to Street Fighter for the story, but rather, to kick some ass (Mostly as Dhalsim, because yes, I’m a Dhalsim main).

So, the fights in the trailer alone are better than any of the fights seen in the original movie, and I already love it. So, it’s your move, Mortal Kombat. You’re up next. I sure hope it’s “dynamite,” because I’m already in love with this Street Fighter film. Everything I've seen so far is just “perfect!”