I Love Maria (1988)

I Love Maria (1988)
Aka: Roboforce
Chinese Title: 鐵甲無敵瑪利亞
Translation: Invincible Iron Maria

Starring: John Shum, Tsui Hark, Sally Yeh, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Lam Ching-Ying, Ben Lam, Paul Chun Pui, Dennis Chan
Director: David Chung
Action Director: Tony Ching Siu-Tung

Hong Kong doesn’t make a lot of science fiction films. Or at least it traditionally hasn’t. And when it does, the results are unique, to say the least. Part of the reason may be that Hong Kong movies have budgets that are probably pretty small even when compared to Japan, so professional-looking FX are often a bit hard to pull off. That would easily give Hollywood the advantage over local fare, at least in that genre. And it may just be a case of local tastes, too. Or a little of both.

I Love Maria came out in 1988, about a year after The Final Test, another Hong Kong film about robots and androids. It’s pretty clear that a lot of care was put into the visuals, although the 5-million-dollar local gross suggests that audiences weren’t buying it—makes me wonder how popular Robocop and The Terminator were in Hong Kong. But bless Tsui Hark, Golden Princess, and Film Workshop for at least trying to do something different. Even if the results will vary from one viewer to another.

The film is set in the near future with Hong Kong being on the verge of becoming a Police State—although Paul Chun Pui plays his power-made police captain as a source of humor instead of oppression. But the police have a big problem that all the assault rifles in the world can’t resolve: The Heroes Gang. The Heroes Gang appears to be some sort of paramilitary political entity who have managed to steal enough money to finance the construction of a giant robot, the Pioneer 1. During a supposed bank heist, the police show up in time to see a fifteen-foot robot emerge from the establishment simply pulling the entire safe by a chain. The Pioneer 1 kills several police officers before disappearing with the money.

The next day, a team of police scientists are discussing weapons to use against the robot. The best idea comes from Curly (John Shum, of The Pedicab Driver and Winners Among Sinners), a nerdy scientist whose weapon actually is superior to whatever his boss (Dennis Chan, of Kickboxer and Code of Honour) has come up with. But since his boss values his own job, he simply rips up Curly’s plans while he’s not working. That evening, Curly heads to a bar to get some alcohol to drown out his resentment of “the system” and meets Whiskey (Tsui Hark, of A Better Tomorrow and Yes, Madam!). Whiskey is the type who goes to the bar to get black-out drunk on a nightly basis and we’ll soon learn that he’s an ex-member of the Heroes Gang.

That’s a problem. Because the Heroes Gang keeps close tabs on their “prodigal son,” just to be sure that he doesn’t go to the cops. But since Curly works the police, they assume that Whiskey has gone traitor. That’s a problem for Whiskey and men are sent to wipe him out. It is only thanks to the intervention of Sifu (Lam Ching-Ying, of The Prodigal Son and Skin Stripperess), the former leader of the Heroes Gang. The current leader, played by Ben Lam of Police Story 2 and The Angry Ranger, is a bit insane. His lover is Maria (Sally Yeh, of Golden Queen Commando and The Killer), who had previously been involved with Whiskey (and her abandoning him for the current leader may be the reason for his current alcoholism). This current leader is obsessed with robots and his latest project is the Pioneer 2, a human-sized android that can be fitted with human skin to fit in. Like that of Maria. And much to the real Maria’s chagrin, the leader is more obsessed with the Pioneer 2 being the perfect “Maria”.

Anyway, the Pioneer 2 is sent to eliminate Whisky and it’s through coincidence, contrivance, and sheer dumb luck that both he and Curly survive the encounter. Meanwhile, the Pioneer 2 is hit by a deluge of water and falls onto a giant ceiling fan and breaks. The two men go into hiding in the countryside from both the police (who think that Curly is in league with Heroes Gang) and the gang itself, who now has dispatched the Pioneer 1 to eliminate both men. Curly is able to reprogram the Pioneer 2 to be their protector, which proves handy when the Pioneer 1 manages to find them. Meanwhile, the leader and his scientists are working on the Pioneer 3, which for all intents an purposes is just a Megazord…

I Love Maria is one of those films in which the final product ends up being less than the sum of its individual parts. I think much of that has to do with the story, which is played mainly as a slapstick comedy. Whenever the film is in action mode, it’s reasonably fun. But much of the movie is bickering between John Shum and Tsui Hark, which can get tiring after a while. There is also a third protagonist, a newspaper photographer played by a pre-fame Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Hard Boiled and Shang Chi), who more or less bumbles in and out of the story until the last act, when he plays a more important part. And maybe that’s the problem, the film just bumbles around from one set piece to the next without focusing on a specific external conflict (i.e. what is the Heroes Gang leader’s specific plot?), what the stakes are, and how it applies to the heroes. Heck, the climax itself almost doesn’t happen because the heroes are trying to run away.

Speaking of climax, the film’s action sequences were staged by Ching Siu-Tung, who was doing a lot of work for Film Workshop at the time—fantasy, Heroic Bloodshed, and this. Much of the action involves gunplay, although there’s only one scene that feels especially stylized: when Lam Ching-Ying leads his men into a forest to hunt for Tsui Hark and they all use special grappling hooks to swing through the trees (with wire assistance) like Tarzan while firing automatic weapons at our protagonist. That’s some Grade-A Hong Kong action imagery right there.

Ching Siu-Tung’s penchant for wire-fu also comes in handy for the Pioneer 2/Maria-bot, as he uses wires to have her fly around, representing the jet boosters in her feet. That is an adequate reason for wire assistance. I actually wish there was more of that sort of action instead of just gunplay. There are some robot-on-robot fights in the film, although the Pioneer 1’s ability to “gobble up” missiles and other projectiles is suspect: it assumes that anyone who fires a missile at it will inevitably aim for the stomach region. If you want martial arts action, there is some limited fighting between Lam Ching-Ying and Ben Lam at the end, although the latter doesn’t display his great legwork.

The costumes and full-scale mock-ups for the robots look great for a film of this budget. As you might have guessed, the use of the name “Maria” both for the robot and the human who inspired her is an homage of sorts to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and in her initial form, looks a little like the robot from that film. I just wish that all these practical effects and costumes were in service of a more focused and compelling story. I guess science-fiction wasn’t Yuen Kai-Chi’s talent. But the man wrote A Chinese Ghost Story; The Pedicab Driver; and Once Upon a Time in China, who he has more than earned his keep on this Earth.

Godzilla Minus Zero (2026) - A Spoiler-Filled Review

Godzilla Minus Zero (2026)

Starring: Minami Hamabe, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Masami Nagasawa, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Min Tanaka, Sakura Andô, Yuki Yamada, Sae Nagatani, Jun Kunimura, Munetaka Aoki, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Seiji Akitsu, Wes Wing, Miou Tanaka
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Special FX Director: Takashi Yamazaki

I don’t think very many fans expected Godzilla Minus One to be as successful, financially and critically, as it was. It made over 100 million dollars worldwide on a budget of only 15 million dollars and walked away with an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, taking out blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, both of which were about fifteen times more expensive. The Japanese Godzilla, which had long been the butt of a joke when it came to “dated” FX methods, had beat Hollywood at its own game for a fraction of the price. Hell, none of the MonsterVerse movies featuring Godzilla have gotten so much as a nomination.

So, I guess it went without saying that there would be a sequel to this movie, although the very ending suggested that there were still a few things that director Yamazaki wanted to explore. We got “First Look Teaser” about six months ago, which featured an American actor talking in the background and what appeared to be the image of floating city. The first teaser came out two months later and, to be honest, looked like it was going to be “more of the same” as the first film, with imagery that suggested the morality of trying to defeat Godzilla using very large bombs.

Then we get got the official trailer just two months before release. This one opened all sorts of avenues for speculation. Something about a weather forecaster prodigy whose abilities looked almost supernatural. And “fighting fire with fire.” And the return of the image of floating buildings and the mention of “Operation Narukami,” which means “God of Thunder.” And then a familiar cackle playing over the imagery. Okay, so I think fans knew what general direction the movie was going in, though not necessarily how the pieces would fit into each other.

The film kicks off in 1949—two years after the events of the first films—in the thick of things: the city of Matsumoto is being ravaged by a large, green dragon-ish monster. Among the only survivors of this attack are Professor Murukami (Min Tanaka, of Keanu Reeves’s The 47 Ronin and Blade of the Immortal) and his assistant, Hagiwara (Kô Maehara, of Shin Godzilla and Kamen Rider Black Sun). They return to Tokyo to report to Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka, returning from the first film), who is now in charge of Japan’s crisis response bureau. We learn that the dragon is the evolution of an organism from space that arrived on Earth via meteorite. The organism absorbs and assimilates whatever life it comes in contact with it, which leads the scientists to dub it “Ghidorah,” being a combination of “hydra” and “chimera”. It may look a little off, but knowing that in Japanese, “hydra” would probably be pronounced as “He-duh-rah” and the ‘ch’ in “chimera” is pronounced like a “k,” which is just an aspirated “g’ sound, one can appreciate the play on words.

Anyway, Ghidorah is now off in the mountains sleeping off the energy spent in the last attack. As Japan is still occupied by the American Armed Forces, the Americans get involved, albeit indirectly (once again, so as not to stir up the Soviets). They give the Japanese some of their best weapons, namely some modern jets and a very large aerosol bomb. At the same, one member of Noda’s team, a lady named Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa, who had played one of the Shobijin in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS and Godzilla Final Wars, and who is known around here for the Kingdom movies) has come up with a Plan B. You see, Aoyama is meteorologist of considerable talent and has a knack for not only predicting thunderstorms and hurricanes, but their severity, too. She thinks she can use the weather to their advantage in fighting Ghidorah.

Now, about those jets. Noda and his team have managed to scrounge up a few willing pilots to take on Ghidorah, although morale is rather low. I mean, fighting Godzilla is probably scary enough as it is. But what about a flying monster with a flexible neck and greater blast radius? That’s almost suicide. This is where Noda decides to bring in an old friend: Koichi Shikishima (a returning Ryûnosuke Kamiki). Although Noda doesn’t want Shikishima to risk his life again, especially now that he and Noriko (Minami Hamabe also reprising her role) are married and have officially adopted little Akiko (Sae Nagatami). But maybe by giving the pilots some of his acquired wisdom on flying close to monsters without getting oneself killed, some of the fear may be allayed. Yeah, that’ll work.

Obviously, Noriko doesn’t even like the idea of Shikishima going as a consultant, let alone flying if yet another pilot gets cold feet and drops out. You see, in the very last scene of Godzilla Minus One, we learned that Noriko had survived contact with the shockwave that followed the atomic explosion caused by Godzilla’s breath. But viewers noticed a little black mark growing on her neck. And what was that? Well, Noriko has contracted what may best be called “Godzilla’s Disease”. People exposed to Godzilla’s tissue initially develop Wolverine-esque healing abilities, but quickly succumb when the bony spines start growing in the darndest places, like a kaiju version of Epidermodysplasia verruciformis. All of the other patients have died from it, but Noriko is a soldier. Nonetheless, she doesn’t think she’s long for this world and thus doesn’t want Akiko to become an orphan…again.

Unfortunately for all involved, yet another pilot drops out of the project, thus forcing Shikishima to participate in the attack on Ghidorah. Aoyama’s plan—dubbed “Operation Narukami”—is pretty clever by 1949 technology standards: fire a giant copper-lined harpoon into Ghidorah and let the lightning (which she is so good at predicting) do the rest. Initially, the plan looks like it works. But then Ghidorah, the Borg of the Godzilla universe, not only adapts to the lighting, but involves into a form that we fans are much more familiar with today. And whatever it didn’t destroy of Matsumoto the first time is absolutely screwed in ways we fans have never seen. At the same time, a Japanese naval vessel is almost capsized by Godzilla, who has since regenerated his body completely. This leads Professor Murakami to suggest that they fight fire with fire by having the two monsters fight and then bombarding the (presumably) wounded victor with all they got. But how to get Godzilla to where Ghidorah is? Well, Murakami has a plan, but he’s going to need someone who was up close with Godzilla to make it work…

Much like Godzilla Minus One, this film places a large focus on the human characters. Once again, much of the film is about scarred (some literally), traumatized people doing their best in an impossible situation to preserve Japan for the next generation. Shikashima is doing okay until he learns that Godzilla is still alive and slips back into his PTST/survivor’s guilt, at least initially. Aoyama is plagued by memories of the destruction that a recent typhoon wreaked on Japan, in which disaster she played the role of the Cassandra. Professor Noda is holding it together, but even he has to deal with the knowledge that the weapons he had developed for the war effort cost many young men their lives.

And then there’s Professor Murakami. Murakami shows up at the crisis control headquarters almost completely spaced out, simply muttering, “I survived again.” We assume he’s referring to Godzilla’s attack on Ginza, but that’s only part of the truth. He was also in Hiroshima on August 6^th, 1945. It was while wandering through the ruins of the city in a zombie-like trance that he discovered that his family—his wife, daughter, and grandson—were almost completely carbonized in the explosion. The experience has left him occasionally suffering from audio hallucinations and stupors, but as the film reaches its conclusion, his PTSD has graduated into delusions of revenge.

The greatest strength of this movie is that the human characters matter throughout and most of them do not get relegated to standing around watching the final monster duel. Everyone has something to do, especially when things do not go as initially planned. I can forgive Aoyama having to spend much of the climax just standing atop the only remaining building in Ginza to watch the spectacle, since she had done her part to get the monsters there in the first place. But we care about characters, even the nameless pilots who are honestly afraid to engage in combat with a kaiju, something we never seen in even the best Japanese monster flicks.

And by the end, there are some real high stakes for everyone, both because of the monsters and because of outside forces. The movie does bring in the theme about the misuse of scientific innovation, not too unlike Serizawa’s fear that his Oxygen Destroyer might be used as a weapon. In Gojira, the fear was abstract. In Godzilla Minus Zero, the fear is concrete. One group is willing to exploit their current political power to get their hands on a powerful weapon, even if it means depriving individuals of their civil rights. And on the macro scale of the Cold War, there is some level of justification of why they would want such a weapon (we need to have it before a more dangerous power gets it), but on a micro scale, they look like horrible people. I could have gone without some of the extra melodrama in the last scene, but oh well. After all, so many of these movies end with people standing around looking relieved that Godzilla won (or was defeated, depending on the movie), so a bit more focus on the characters is welcome.

The movie does have some real flaws, however. The first two involve a pair of subplots that don’t get developed enough. We learn early on that during the events of the climax of Godzilla Minus One, that the American Air Force was ready to drop a nuke on Godzilla if Operation Wadatsumi (Wadatsumi? Narukami? Makoto? I’m getting Genshin Impact flashbacks here) had failed. And they seem particularly interested in doing so again with Ghidorah. Only that the possibility is brought up once…and then never mentioned in the film again. There is also the subplot about Murakami’s descent into madness, which gets resolved in an almost offhand manner almost as soon as it’s brought up. It does result in one of the most horrific scenes in the film, but I think a little more could have been done with it.

Part of the problem is that there is simply too many characters and too much going on for these subplots to really be able to flesh out all aspects of the story. On one hand, all of the characters get their chance to shine, some even have multiple chances to do so. The main story beats are generally well handled, too. But eventually something will get the short shrift, and that ends up happening with those two subplots…and Godzilla himself.

Long story short: Godzilla may very well have less screentime than he did in Godzilla vs. Megalon; Terror of Mechagodzilla; or Godzilla ’14.

But to be honest, that tends to be an issue whenever Godzilla plays the hero. If he doesn’t have another monster to fight, then there’s not a lot that Godzilla can do onscreen without losing audience sympathy. Some films get around this by giving him multiple opponents to fight, like in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster where he fights Ebirah, the Giant Condor, the Red Bamboo jets, and the entire Red Bamboo base. But by the 1970s, he was just appearing on cue to fight, like in Godzilla vs Gigan and its follow-up. And since this only has one monster to fight, Godzilla ends up getting treated the way he did in the 1970s.

Speaking of 1970s, there are a number of callbacks to other films and even some unmade scripts. When we first meet Hagiwara and Prof. Murakami in the midst of Ghidorah’s rampage, they are wearing yellow windbreakers like the scientists in Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. When Ghidorah evolves into his more well-known form, we see him destroying a Shinto Arch in the foreground, much like that film, too. The scene of the space organism absorbing the local wildlife reminds me of the script for the unmade 1994 Jan De Bont Godzilla, which is how the Gryphon monster was born. The visual aesthetics of Prof. Murakami’s lab feel like they came out of the original 1954 Gojira. Also, the device used to attract Godzilla reminds me of the one used in The Return of Godzilla (or Godzilla 1985, if you will), but with Yamazaki’s own personal stamp on the device. Moreover, the angle at which the camera is set up when Godzilla shows up in front of New York feels like it was inspired by a similar scene in Destroy All Monsters! And some of the imagery at the end of the climax will remind fans of Godzilla 2000.

The special effects are, for the most part, expertly done. The only effect that threatened to take me out of the movie was one of Shikishima driving his motorcycle down the street. But the monster effects and city destruction scenes were great. And this movie cost between 13 and 19 million to make, about a tenth or less of the budget of, say, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Ghidorah is probably at his scariest since his original appearance. And the filmmakers didn’t even need to hide the CGI behind rain, snow, or smoke. We get nice loving daylight shots of Ghidorah, and it looks great. Also, the official name for Ghidorah’s electric bolts has always been “gravity beams.” Well, in this movie, he truly does have a gravity beam attack, in way that might have been hinted in things like “Zone Fighter” and Godzilla Final Wars, but never explored on this level.

The movie did get some hubbub about getting an R-rating. The film is by no means a “Hard R,” but the scenes showing the victims and survivors of Godzilla’s rampage and the Hiroshima bombings will most likely disturb younger viewers. This also goes for the now-infamous dream sequence, which paints an especially grim picture of those who thought Godzilla was their hero. The monster fight is also especially graphic, with both monsters utilizing battle techniques I don’t think I’ve seen in these movies. It’s a little disappointing that, if you edit out the human scenes, there isn’t a whole lot of actual fighting, but they make every hit count.

To me, a kaiju movie has to have a good score. That is just as important as the quality of miniatures and monster wrestling. That is actually one of the reasons I have such a hard time getting into the Showa Gamera films, X From Outer Space; and Yongary, Monster from the Deep. Or some of the low-budget kaiju films that genre fans made from 2007 throughout the 2010s. Low-budget scores on a Cassio keyboard just don’t cut it for kaiju eiga. Naoki Sato is back on board and his theme for Ghidorah, “Eclipse,” is especially atmospheric in context. Sato does reuse Godzilla’s main theme (by the legendary Akira Ifukube) whenever he appears onscreen. Certain tracks from the first movie, especially “Determination,” play at key moments of the climax.

So, did I like Godzilla Minus Zero? Yes, I did. A lot. It had a generally strong human story with characters you liked and who felt developed for the most part. It has great special FX and a solid score with some strong individual tracks. Ghidorah has never been this imposing and scary, even in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Its showdown with the jets is genuinely suspenseful and even a bit freaky at times. I don’t know if it will enter my list of all-time favorites, but it is proof that you can make Godzilla vs. [Another Movie] without all the seriousness and depth that his best solo efforts boast. Bring on Godzilla Plus One!

Street Fighter (2026)

Street Fighter (2026)

Starring: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Andrew Shulz, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Mamoa, Mel Jarnson, Orville Peck
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Action Director: Anthony Rinna

Street Fighter was announced in 2023, almost three whole decades since Hollywood’s original attempt to adapt the insanely-popular video game had disappointed audiences everywhere—I do concede that the film has developed a certain cult following over the years and that it was reasonably successful at the box office, at least by lead actor Jean-Claude Van Damme’s standards. The original idea was to have horror filmmakers The Philippou Brothers direct. About a year later, it was announced they had left the project due to scheduling concerns. By September of 2024, Kitao Sakurai, whose career highlights included episodes of Twisted Metal, was announced as director.

In any case, people in my community were hopeful that this would be a reasonably serious martial arts film, much like in the vein of the live-action Mortal Kombat films, albeit hopefully without the original character serving as the Audience Proxy. Then the casting announcements started coming in early 2025. Former teen actor Noah Centineo as Ken. Andrew Koji as Ryu. Okay, hit and miss. Jason Mamoa as Blanca. Relative unknown Callina Liang as Chun Li. Oh, okay.

Then the casting started going off the rails. In June 2025, we learned the South African country singer Orville Peck was cast as Vega…on the basis that he was known for wearing a mask at his concerts. WTF? That was followed by rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson being cast as Balrog. Then comedian Andrew Shulz was cast as Dan Habiki…and all of us started wondering if this was going to be parody. Then two professional wrestlers—Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes—were cast as Akuma and Guile, respectively. By this point, this was looking like it might become Legendary’s “Taste the Golden Spray.”

Around April or May of this year, the first trailer was released. And it was clear what the filmmakers were going for: high camp. All of the color, the costumes, and crazy hair styles of the video games were there. The special moves were there. But the trailer gave us a glimpse of Ken Masters singing “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes (which turns out to be an integral part of the story). And it appeared that this movie, like many blockbusters, was going to suffer from “Joss Whedon Syndrome” in that every character interaction would be a build-up to a punchline or a sight gag. Nonetheless, the visual elements were enough to intrigue me.

So, how was the final film?

It was…a thing.

To be serious, it was “pretty good.” It accomplishes what it sets out to do, but the question is whether it should have been doing that in the first place.

The film opens with an anime sequence of the 1987 World Warrior Championship, in which newcomer Ryu is pitted against reigning champion Sagat. Although Sagat initially has Ryu against ropes, Ryu turns the tables by tapping into the power of the Hadou, much to his master’s chagrin. You see, in this Universe, the Hadou works like The Force in Star Wars: if you have it, you’d better learn to control it, otherwise you’ll become a demon like Master Bokken’s first student, Akuma. And Ryu has enough envy in his heart and negative stuff in his past to make him a liability if he taps too much into it.

We then switch to live action, moving forward to 1993 (the soundtrack is all 90s R&B and hip hop, though some of the songs used came out after ’93). Ryu has since disappeared after his Master was mysteriously murdered. And his martial brother, Ken Masters, has become something of an MTV celebrity and is quickly losing his MA cred. Meanwhile, in the Southeast Asian country of Shadaloo (the capital city is called Metrolau), dictator M. Bison is performing experiments on “psycho power” by draining the life energy from the strongest men alive. Unfortunately, it’s not helping him very much. He decides that he needs the likes of Ryu to really make his experiment work, so he sets up another World Warrior tournament in hopes of coaxing Ryu out of hiding.

In his employee is Chun Li, who is actually an Interpol agent working undercover to find out what crimes against humanity the dictator is up to. She is sent out to recruit the world’s strongest fighters to participate in the tournament. Those would include Russian strongman Zangief (Olivier Richters, of Black Widow), American Air Force pilot Guile, Japanese sumo wrestler Honda; American boxer Balrog; Spanish(?) claw fighter Vega; Joe (UFC fighter Alex Volkanovski); Indian yoga master Dhalsim (Bollywood action actor Vidyut Jammwal); and Ken Masters. Although most people in that industry would object to Ken being included, it is actually a shrewd move on Chun Li’s part.

You see, we learn through flashbacks (all flashbacks in the movie are done via anime) that the World Warrior Tournament has the unfortunate effect of calling the attention of Akuma, who is always waiting for a fitting opponent for him to fight. Back in ’87, Ryu’s victor brought Akuma to his school, where the same murdered Master Boken. This created a rift between him and Ken, which the latter hasn’t gotten over yet. But when Chun Li finally finds Ryu and informs him that Ken will be participating, that alarms Ryu. Because if Ken somehow (given his current physical state) manages to win, that will bring Akuma a-calling. And since Ken never learned how to throw a Hadouken, winning the tournament would be the same thing as Ken signing his own death warrant.

So, by the time the tournament is underway, we have several character motivations set up. Chun Li is biding her time until she can get close enough to Bison to try to stop him. Ryu wants to protect Ken. Ken wants to win for the honor of his deceased master, plus his own ego. And Bison is willing to separate Ryu from the tournament if it means he can drain him of his Hadou energy.

Plot-wise, Street Fighter feels a lot like the Street Fighter Alpha anime from 2000, but with M. Bison in the role of Dr. Sadler. Both of those films combine a man’s attempt to harness the energy of the world’s fighters for his own means, while the heroes are fighting for Ryu’s soul. The opening anime sequence is definitely a nod to the 1994 anime movie and there are a few callbacks to the ’94 live action film, too (mainly a few in-jokes regarding M. Bison). The main protagonists who get sidelined are Guile and Dhalsim, although the ending suggests that they’ll have a bigger role if a sequel gets made. Spoiler: the film leaves one major plot thread completely unresolved and ends on a cliffhanger.

The strange thing about the movie is its tone. The entire film is just as campy as the trailer suggested it was and the film is often more of a comedy than a martial arts fantasy. For much of the movie, Ken is the butt of jokes (there is a running gag between him and the tournament’s announcer, played by comedian Eric André (who has collaborated with the director in the past) and only really becomes a serious character in the last act. Jason Mamoa’s portrayal of Blanca establishes him as this fearsome beast whom everybody is afraid of, but then acts like a big Teddy bear to people whom he decides he likes. The biggest in-joke is the resolution of the tournament, which is laughably absurd to anyone familiar with the games.

Speaking of the tournament, I was disappointed with the way the tournament was portrayed. The focus is on Ken throughout this portion of the narrative, which ultimately results in three fights taking place offscreen. That means we don’t get to see Guile fight Vega or Dhalsim take on Zangief. Boo, people! Boo! I understand on one level that the story wanted emphasize Bison’s plans and Ryu’s fight against himself more than the tournament, but we fans still want to see our favorites fighting (and not just at a random bar fight).

Speaking of fighting, I was a little disappointed with the fights. They were staged by Anthony Rinna, whose credits as a fight choreographer include The Blue Beetle (one of the DCU films made after audiences largely stopped caring about the DCU) and A Minecraft Movie. He also worked as an assistant fight director on Thor: Love and Thunder and Mortal Kombat ’22. The fights are often more focused on showing us the characters performing their special moves, and even basic attacks as they appear in the games, then inserting them into actual choreography. This is especially apparent in the Ryu vs. Blanca fight.

The highlight is a sequence at the beginning of the third act where Ryu and Ken fight their way out of prison through dozens of guards—often shot in a way that makes it look like side-scroller beat’em up—which is intercut with Chun Li taking on both Vega and Julie (world champion martial artist Rayna Valladingham). This sequence finds the best balance between actual fight choreography and techniques we see in the games. A later fight between Ken and Ryu is also pretty good.

I do hope this movie does well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel. If only because I hate the idea of movies ending in a way that makes a sequel necessary for the narrative to be concluded, only to not be filmed because not enough people watched the original in the first place. That said, I only found it to be “good,” but not great. I think Mortal Kombat 2 definitely won the contest of best fighting game adaptation of 2026.