Plot: What’s it about?
The notorious M. Bison (Raul Julia) has struck again, this time his forces have taken a group of Allied Nations workers hostage and of course, a huge ransom is demanded. Bison has requested over twenty million dollars to release his prisoners and thanks to a pirate television broadcast, the entire world knows about his plan. Meanwhile, Bison’s base in Shadaloo is being scouted by more than one outlet, all out to take down the tyrant. Colonel Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and his elite squad are en route for a bold rescue mission, but the others have their own personal reasons for wanting Bison taken down. A young reporter named Chun-Li has revenge on her mind and inside Bison’s camp, double agents work right under his nose. Will Bison’s plan work or will one of these forces be able to bring down the madman?
How can one of the greatest video games ever be turned into such a horrible movie? Street Fighter II is an iconic video game, not to mention the tournament plot is a simple one to port over to cinema. Just throw out some motivation for the colorful characters and conjure up some wicked fight scenes, seems simple enough. What should have been a surefire home run however, turned out to be a total disappointment of epic proportions. A chain of poor casting decisions, a convoluted plot that sinks like a stone, and the lack of well crafted fight scenes dooms Street Fighter. How a movie can be made about one of the greatest fighting games ever and not have a single decent fight scene is beyond me. This is just a lame duck, complete mess of a movie, sure to disappoint fans of both the game and the genre. Universal has released Street Fighter on Blu-ray, but a bad movie is still a bad movie, even in glorious high definition. Never, ever watch Street Fighter.
Video: How does it look?
Street Fighter is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The DVD release of this film was non-anamorphic, so as you can guess, this new transfer buries the old one. I didn’t expect too much here, but this is a fine treatment with plenty of bright spots. I did notice a lot of grain, sometimes worse than others, but softness isn’t much of a concern. The detail is solid throughout, with good depth, but not up with the format’s best offerings. I was a little let down by the colors, as some scenes are vibrant and others have dull hues, so that is inconsistent. In the end however, this is a good presentation.
Audio: How does it sound?
A DTS HD 5.1 option is present and while not all that dynamic, this is a solid treatment. The film isn’t as action driven as you might expect, which results in a front channel dependent mix. The rare instances where some action does kick in, the surrounds open up, but not that much. The action scenes sound fine however, just not overly powerful or remarkable. The ambiance is minimal, so this is a rather dull sound design, which is a shame. The music sounds good however, while dialogue is clear and no lines are lost in the shuffle. This disc also includes Spanish and French language tracks, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
A lot of bullet points, but not much substance. Steven de Souza’s director’s commentary track is not worth a listen, as he has no clue that he’s made an abomination out of a classic video game. This should have been a “fans strike back” style track, where people discuss how badly de Souza dropped the ball on this movie. This disc also includes two deleted scenes, a brief outtakes reel, a five minute promotional featurette, and extensive artwork & photo galleries.
