Street Fighter (M) – 119 minutes

Another movie drawn from a very popular video game series, Street Fighter blends live action, humour and animation.

Thailand in 1987 saw the first World Warrior Tournament that pitted the best street fighters against each other and Ryu emerged victorious.

But the question has to be asked, at what cost, for orphan Ryu ignored the advice of his faithful mentor Gouken and let his dark side take over.

Gouken subsequently implored his other charge, fellow combatant Ken Masters, who came from a privileged background, to look after Ryu.

When Gouken was subsequently murdered, Ryu and Ken were left heartbroken, their career in tatters.

Now, six years on, an evil dictator, M. Bison, wants to tap into the superhuman energy that Ryu was able to generate.

To that end, he devises a second World Warrior Tournament, which will involve the world’s eight greatest street fighters.

Both Ken and Ryu take some convincing to get involved.

Ryu has renounced violence and gone off grid, while Ken has become a drunken joke, no longer respected.

In fact, the tournament is but a ruse for M. Bison to get his hands on Ryu.

Meantime, Chun-Li is an undercover Interpol agent trying to bring down M. Bison.

Street Fighter is one big, silly movie that will probably resonate with those who play and love the video games.

I can’t say I was too familiar with many of the actors, save primarily for Jason Momoa and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who play two fighters.

In short, the talent has been drawn from a range of those in film, TV, live comedy, wrestling and martial arts.

Nor were the writers or the director known names to me.

The screenplay calls for over the top characterisations and that is what you get.

The film lives by the adage that nothing exceeds like excess.

At times, there is a distinct cheesiness to what you are seeing.

It is also a special effects movie, with CGI used extensively.

Street Fighter was primarily shot on Disney sound stages in Sydney, so that is positive for the local business.

Further, the ending points to a sequel or perhaps a series of Street Fighter films.

With action aplenty, this is hardly top shelf material, but diehards of the games’ franchise will likely warm to it.

The best thing I have to say about it is that the seamless interplay between live action and animation works well.

Rated M, Street Fighter scores a 6 out of 10.