POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Dalan Musson, Gary Dauberman, Kitao Sakurai, and TJ Fixman, the characterization remains equally sketchy in the film Street Fighter. Both the protagonists Ryu and Ken remain cardboard cutout characters here – the former taking refuge in a foreign land, content with serving Ramen mixed with fermenter pigeon eggs to tourists, and the latter being a flamboyant version of the already flamboyant WWE wrestlers from the attitude era. Even their backstories are pretty generic, positioning atleast one of them to be a perennial underdog, and the other – a pulpy version of privilege, given the antics pursued by him. After years of friendship, their separation is tagged to their master Gouken who was killed off by an evil demigod Akuma (Roman Reigns). Needless to say that even the demigod feels like a sticker here, hardly coming across as terrifying outside the static display picture peeled onto the wall.

The tone applied in the narrative is pulpy, while mixing it with a dash of 80s nostalgia – layered with neon lights that are equally distracting. And here, you also notice the manipulative beats in the narrative that is designed to bring the two separated protagonists together. The occasion remains the second World Warrior Tournament hosted by a dictator M Bison (David Dastmalchian), who wishes to attain super powers for himself, by extracting them from the winner of the tournament. For the same, he hires Chun-Li (Callina Liang) to assemble the group of warriors from across the globe, without doing a background check. This is because she is secretly on an undercover mission in order to extract revenge from Bison. I was reminded of the famous words from Baburao in Phir Hera Pheri (2006) – ‘Kya Gunda Banega Re Tu’ (How will you become an antagonist with this sort of lapse).

The writing is devoid of a solid storyline, almost playing out like a TV commercial between a sports event. The latter is the warrior tournament that also brings to us other outlandisj warriors – Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal), Cammy (Mel Jarnson), Balrog (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), Zangief (Olivier Richters), and Vega (Orville Peck); each of whom are treated as sidekicks. There is a fight that transpires as a foreshadow to the main tournament, almost like a wacky character introduction of all warriors that had me facepalm in the moment. This, while intercutting its focus onto multiple subplots that start and end in a heartbeat.

It is a cardinal sin on how not one action set-piece feels remotely exciting, in a film that is centered around action. The events in the ring are laced with bouts of comedy that are increasingly flattened out with its outlandish tone, even whilst a parallel action sequence inside a jail felt like a variant of the video game from the 90s, with even worse moves to boast of. It almost felt like a pirated version of the game itself, that would rely the first copy moves of the characters to infuse life into the drama. This, even as the fights itself felt pointless and devoid of any emotions between the characters.

In fact, the flattening dynamic between the two protagonists was an absolute eye-sore; particularly given how the camaraderie was woefully missing, even in the midst of the supposed darkness that was apparently meant to be a pivotal moment in their dynamic. The recall value from the first scene was an non-existent as the trust people would have with the cops these days. It also didn’t help that there was no real face-off between the antagonist and the protagonists, with the writing opting for a sequel-bait to carry forward the already non-existent tale. As a result, even the finale felt abrupt – making the whole screenplay feel rather pointless, similar to the idea of selling hyper-nationalism to a soldier.