Movie Review: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
"Okay, punching isn't your thing..."
Despite our better judgment, Jesse and I braved the theaters to check out the new Street Fighter movie, “The Legend of Chun Li.” This was knowing full well that it contained zero percent Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (Van Damme to you), nor did it attempt to find an actress who resembled the character of Chun Li in any way. Also, it was an origin story. Hollywood seems obsessed with those. Even that recent Superman movie, fifth in it’s franchise (you can’t escape the third and forth movies Hollywood, try as you might), started with an origin. It’s SUPERMAN. We get it.
But I digress…
The movie begins with the titular character as a small child, learning to be a concert pianist with some martial arts thrown in on the side for good measure. The fairy tale dream is shattered when Bison kidnaps Chun Li’s father and Balrog punches her mother so hard she gets cancer (I wish I were making that last part up), which set Chun Li down the path of vengeance. When she gets around to it.
After jumping ahead, we see her dream has come true. She is a concert pianist. One thing leads to another and she is trained by Gen (Gen is played by Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat films, so I guess he’s done it all now). He tells her that her father is still alive and is being held by Bison. After a bunch of running around and some fight scenes, mostly involving guns, they give us more origins. This time of Bison. In this movie he is Irish, for some reason, and is trying to take over the world. Or at least the slums of Bangkok. But really it’s just an elaborate plan to get his daughter back.
Remember Charlie? Guile’s friend who disappeared, and is the whole reason for Guile entering the Street Fighter tournament? He is in this movie. For some reason, he is an Interpol agent, and assists Chun Li in the final showdown, along with a small army of S.W.A.T. members. This is a good example of where the movie really falls flat. Nearly all of the characters in the film used firearms instead of martial arts. Even Balrog is often using a gun, and at one point an RPG, instead of just punching the hell out people, like he’s good at.
Like most video game movies, this one sets itself up for a sequel. A part of me hopes they do get to make one. Not because this movie was good, because it wasn’t, but because the second movie would theoretically involve the actual Street Fighter tournament.
Tags: Balrog, Chun Li, Movie Review, Street Fighter, The Legend of Chun Li
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 2:59 am and is filed under Movies and Shows, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Scott Reeser says:And I was hoping they’d just feature about 10 2D fight sequences where Chun-Li proceeds to helicopter kick the hell out of everyone else…oh well :-/
February 28th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Shaolinjesus says:Are you trying to say a movie that features Cancer Punches isn’t the greatest thing ever? I am hearing some definite Oscar buzz.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:This movie had a severe lack of Carlos Blanka
February 28th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
ChooChooCharlie says:Hahaha. A punch that causes cancer?! How did they even explain that?
February 28th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Wesley says:Dang, the whole time I thought it was Ken. I saw your tweet @ me about “Gen” but was confused. hehehe.
February 28th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Jonah "spambot" Gregory says:Yeah, they never really made it that clear who Gen was in the movie. He is originally from Street Fighter, and returned in alpha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gen_(Street_Fighter)
February 28th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:he was missing his wicked old man beard
March 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am
MechaJesus says:A punch so mighty that it has the ability to give one cancer, eh? Science!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
weezer says:There was about 8 people in the theater counting me and my friends on the second night. I was wondering why Chun Li’s mother was dying now I know cancer punch. The best scene was when the lesbo right hand women of M. Bison and Chun Li fought in a bathroom while water was raining on them.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Wesley says:I saw a freeze frame and there’s actually several lit cigarettes in his hand when he does the cancer punch.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory says:My favorite scene was when she did spinning bird kick and her spinning bird necklace spun. Classy.
March 1st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Dave "shaolinjesus" Corvin says:Getting away from Cancer punches for a sec, I did think you had a good point about the way Hollywood always wants to go back to the origin. Why keep going back to the beginning over and over? They need to start going to the end. How crazy would it be to see an old Superman’s last stand? Or Batman’s final fight? I just look at stuff like MGS4 or Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come and wonder why aren’t Hollywood movies like that?!