‘Street Fighter (2026)’ Review – A Cluttered Video Game Adaptation That Button Mashes Its Way To A Self-K.O.

With them ever growing in popularity, it seems like we’re destined to continue discussing the many lows (and sporadic highs) of video game adaptations, as it seems for every Resident Evil (2026) we have 5-10 more “for the fans” flicks like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Five Nights at Freddy’s. An even more interesting conversation to be had, however, is the spectrum of adaptations that are based on fighting and brawler games, which are even more difficult to adapt for various reasons. Both the 90s and now 2020s Mortal Kombat films struggled to expand the basis of arcade fighting material to full-on threads that are feature-film worthy, and while Street Fighter (2026) is slightly more creative in showcasing quick and flashy fun, it is a film that runs out of gas real quick.

Street Fighter is the equivalent of slurping down a sugary drink of choice or swallowing a full bucket of candy whole. For the first handful of minutes, the rapturous style is enticing enough, and it embraces the absurdities of its source material in a way that’s charming to watch unfold, but just like when you eat too many sweets too fast, a headache starts to kick in and leave an aftertaste you regret when you have to sit with said sugary experience for 2 hours. For a film that purely sells itself on embracing its campy nonsense, it’s so seriously devoted to all its disjointed plot threads and sequel-setups that the baseline standard of being even a self-aware silly time isn’t ever met, and with a complete non-ending being the final death knell, Street Fighter brings back the careless button-mashing qualities of the weakest adaptations.

The film takes place in when else but the 90s, introducing us to the brotherly bond of Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo). The two have been long separated ever since they lost their great master Gouken (Don Lee) in the aftermath of the 1987 World Warrior Tournament when the dark entity Akuma (Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i) attempted to drive Ryu away from his teachings and embrace his dark powers of Hado. Nowadays, Ken works with his manager Dan Hibiki (Andrew Schulz) as an ego-boosted superstar more engaged in MTV brand deals than legitimate fighting, and Ryu has gone completely off-grid within Japan selling ramen while hiding his true power in fear of losing control.

Little do the brothers know that their paths will soon collide again with the nefarious M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) deciding to conduct a new World tournament in an attempt to lure Ryu out so he can claim his own dark powers for himself. One of Bison’s cohorts, Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who has her own reasons for working under his rule, is sending out the invitations to the best fighters in the world, with Ken and Ryu being top priorities on the list. With Akuma revealing to Ryu that he plans to kill whoever wins the tournament, Ryu’s forced back into the limelight to try and warn his brother, and the ensuing character introductions and plotlines that follow offer just as much whiplash as the recurring punches to the face that occur in the ring.

The clear stylistic highlight of Street Fighter that begins right at the movie’s opening scene is the recurring usage of the anime-inspired hand-drawn animation that’s usually implemented for flashbacks of Ryu and Ken’s past relationship. The 2D (animated by Titmouse Inc.) truly works as a great intro to the consistent chaos and electrifying nature of the world we’re about to be thrown into, and it acts as the initial high you get off of chugging down a full can of Red Bull. Credit where it’s due as well, Street Fighter, at the very least, sees director Kitao Sakurai implement much more of the cartoonish nature of its source in comparison to both recent Mortal Kombat flicks. The bright neon lights covering our characters, the pure reveling in 90s culture, and embracing the delightful silliness of its source material. Of course, it always helps when most of your performers are committed to the insanity with Dastmalchian being the biggest highlight on that front.

It only makes it more unfortunate, however, when you realize that the longer Street Fighter goes on, the more its appeal slowly but surely becomes less charming and more headache-inducing, and these issues mainly lie at the feet of the film’s structure. To say Street Fighter has a coherent story of any kind would be a type of generosity that no living soul thought was possible, but its scattershot narrative would be less of an issue if there existed any technical cohesion within its knowing chaos. The editing between the fully animated flashbacks, poorly implemented tournament, and M. Bison’s evil schemes feel as if they all come from completely different Street Fighter movies, and any interest one would initially have in them grows numb and becomes a cavalcade of nonsensical noise.

Many of the characters also leave much to be desired, whether that boils down to ones that have only minimal screen time, those who have way too much, and the main leads that feel as if they have chunks of development still missing. Fans will likely be delighted at the playfulness that radiates off characters like bushy-haired Guile (Cody Rhodes) and Orville Peck’s Vega, but they’re often picked up and dropped at a moment’s notice, with the film not having any good idea of how to properly implement them. In some cases, it’s to the point of some scenes literally just acting as excuses to have fan favorite characters all in the same room.

The humor is frequently groan-worthy, which makes more of the winking knowledge of the filmmakers being aware of how nonsensical the material they’re working with is all the more perplexing. Many of the jokes boil down to lazy innuendos, but Andrew Schulz receives most of the comedic heft here, and most of his lines swing and miss so hard you’ll be able to hear the awkwardness of a whiffed punchline from miles away. Callina Liang provides an appreciated grounded nature to her Chun-Li compared to most of the cast’s exaggerated performances, but she’s often short-changed by the script treating her as more of an object for sexualization than anything else.

Then there’s the brotherly relationship at the center of it all, which has its cute moments (like Ryu’s favorite song being “What’s Up” from 4 Non Blondes), but the ups and downs of their relationship move as quickly as possible so the film can get to its next plotline in a jiffy. At so many moments where crucial reveals are made to Ken specifically about something he never knew previously, the film never wants to actually sit with any of these revelations, which, again, would be fine if the movie was electrifying enough to watch, but at this point, the energy drink has passed way beyond its expiration date.

Look, sometimes there can be a place for fun and self-aware brainless entertainment, and Street Fighter can capture that end goal in spurts, but the end result is ultimately the equivalent of running while on a sugar rush at full speed into a brick wall. Once Street Fighter’s stylish tricks start to wear thin, it’s about as poorly plotted and borderline irritating as most lower-end Video Game movies: sub-par at best, insufferable at worst. It’s basically like the arcade gaming strategy of your average button-mashing player; the exhilaration of the hectic craze that was once fun grows exhausting when you realize it lasts for about 2 hours.