Where do I even begin? This year marks the 35th anniversary of Street Fighter. Well, technically, it’s the 35th anniversary of Street Fighter 2, but no one really cares about the first game because it sucked ass. Most of the cool characters and very little of what passes for a story in a fighting game were present in the original, so most fans ignore it, myself included.

Yes, I consider myself a moderate Street Fighter fan, but mostly the retro stuff. I used to be pretty good until age slowed my reaction speed and I forgot all the moves. But this isn’t about the games, this is about the second movie, the first being the classic 90s cheese-fest from which everyone loves quoting the legendary Raul Julia’s M. Bison. It was Tuesday, after all.

This new movie looks interesting. Not because it’s eye-catching or well-acted or has good dialogue – it clearly doesn’t. No, it looks interesting because I can’t tell if people are going to like the serious tone enough to enjoy the comedy or enjoy the comedy enough to be talking about it in 30 years. I can’t believe the original movie took a Jean-Claude Van Dump on the franchise all the way back in 1994. Let’s be real, Mortal Kombat’s first movie got a much warmer reception from fans and critics with its barebones story but faithful action. At least this version of Street Fighter has some fighting in it and not a bunch of bumbling heroes and a very un-American Guile.

Speaking of which, I see for cringe-sake, they went with Guile’s game-accurate hairstyle, which is a bold move in a trailer with quite a few bold moves:

Another bold move is making Ken Masters a fully grown 8-year-old. I’m already sick of his personality in the movie, and I’ve seen like 1% of it. He’s supposed to be cocky, but he just looks like a brat here. Ryu is supposed to balance him out, but the actor for Ryu just looks tired and a little ashamed to be there.

There are some easter eggs hidden in the trailer that eagle-eyed fans will pick up right away, like Chun-Li getting in the shower and later kicking the hell out of Vega’s face, just like in the Street Fighter anime movie (also from the 90s). Will he slice her up or is the movie too PG for that? Either way, with 2026 releasing a Street Fighter movie and a Mortal Kombat sequel, you can choose your own violence level.

I don’t know if it’ll be a hit. It looks a bit rough, but I’ll watch it anyway. They just better get M. Bison right. The actor isn’t very big or powerful and he doesn’t look cheesy enough to say something that’ll be quoted for decades, but I am happy to be proven wrong.

Exo