Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie

Street Fighter 2 - The Animated Movie Review

The Story:

Based off the legendary video game, the film follows Ryu, a wandering, simple martial artist who scowers the world in search of street fighting and his soul. Also scowering the world is M. Bison, leader of the maniacal terrorist organization called Shadowlaw, bent on dominating the world by brainwashing the best street fighters into loyal killing machines for Bison. Ken, Ryu's best friend becomes abducted by Bison, and it is Ryu's mission along with the likes of US military captain Guile, Interpol agent Chun Li, and a host of other street fighters to defeat Bison and Shadowlaw.


The Good:

This was actually my very first expose to anime, I first came across this movie by buying it in my local video store for a cheap price. Needless to say after rewatching the movie on DVD, I'm quite happy this movie was my first exposure. Street Fighter the animated movie is a wickedly fun guilty pleasure for fans and newbies of the classic video game series and those who have never heard of it. Not every anime needs to electrify our brain cells and entice us with compelling complex storylines and philosophical life lessons. Street Fighter is a fighting anime movie and it does a damn good job of exploiting that point. The first thing you'll notice is the unremarkable masterpiece like quality of the animation. The explicitly detailed visual designs of the characters is incredibly exquisite, detailing water droplets from hair strands to even ankle bones in feet. Its hard to imagine what some would call "mindless entertainment" to house such top notch animation artwork.



Obviously one has to wonder "what about the fighting, how does that look?" considering this is a movie based on a fighting game. Needless to say the fighting is brilliantly displayed. All of your favorite Street Fighter characters are proudly displayed in vast, colorful descriptions with all of their trademark techniques in full view for game fans to grin with excitement. What works best for the film is realistic use of the fighting moves. Many fans have had their brains supremely tainted by Dragon Ball Z's god like fighting style, expecting little that can impress after seeing spiky haired people blow up planets with beams from their finger tips. However, what Street Fighter excels at is the simplistic execution of their attacks. They don't come off too flashy to make them seem god like, and they are not too toned down that you can't recognize them. The voice work is great in some, average in others (I'll mention them in the "bad" portion later).

Bison is masterfully played with a fantastic evil voice that never fails to miss its malicious mark, our leading lady Chun Li has a nice blended mix of changeable tones. She comes off convincing as a hard as nails FBI agent at one point, then a giggling little minx the next. The likes of E. Honda and Ken's voice actors are also given some exceptional performances as well. But what really nailed the punching bag for me was the music. Some may complain the hard rock and grunge music felt dishonorable to the original Japanese version, I found it quite accurate to the fight scenes, especially the brilliant song by KMFDM played during Chun Li's battle with Vega (the movie's biggest highlight). I liked the music in almost every area and mood it was used in, didn't feel tacked on or out of place in the least bit.




The Bad:

Those who played the game long before grabbing a wii remote or XBOX 360 controller will know right off the bat that a movie based off the Street Fighter game is going to have the exact same problem: story. There is virtually no existent story here, the plot merely surrounds the same two basic points: fighting Bison's organization and having a bunch of street fights. All the incredible animation and accurate character representations/attacks fails to make up for a story that was paper thin even when the video game first hit the shelves way back when. Another problem falls with our main hero, Ryu. While his muscle mass is far from weak, his personality and character sure is. Ryu is a character with little sustenance behind his personality and his average vocal performance fail to help.

While it certainly fits him, it fails to make him interesting. This could have been solved had the film not wasted an exceptionally good side story with Guile and Chun Li, which was charming, interesting but ultimately wasted by their limited time together by the second half of the film.


The Conclusion:

Street Fighter 2 the animated movie is a great popcorn movie that satisfies typical action requirements and tops it off with a buttery coating of excellent animation styles and kick ass hard rock music. Fans of the game and fans yet to come can easily sit down and watch this movie without fear of confusion, selective tastes, or difficulty in simply enjoying the movie for what it is. The movie's story is as dry as bone, leaving you little plot to chew on or even taste for that matter. Street Fighter is an action movie pure and simple, it will not satisfy your brains hungering for a deep and meaningful plot, but its hard not to find even the most basic forms of contentment or enjoyment from watching a bunch of over muscled anime guys beat the crap out of each other.


Voice Acting: 5/10
Visuals & Animation: 10/10
Story: 2/10
Music & Sound: 7/10
Overall: 6/10


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