Hadouken! 1994 Street Fighter Director Wants New Film to be Better

Time has illustrated that video game movies are on the lower end of the movie-grading spectrum. As previously discussed by GotGame in “Tearing the Movie Stub” and “The Limits of Video Game Movies,” gamers despair when their favorite games leap from console to the big screen. With the new movie, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, releasing in early 2009, Steven de Souza, the director of the 1994 Street Fighter, hopes this new film does better.

In 1994 when Street Fighter released, I knew this movie was a pile, even at age 12. As much as we want to, the fault cannot be placed on Jean-Claude Van Damme, the late Raul Julia, or even Kylie Minogue as Cammy. The plot was laughable, containing little reference to the series other than the relationship of Charlie to Guile. Many of the main characters in the game were demoted to seventh class status, filling time on screen before Van Damme would flex his arms and impress us with his accent. Of course, transforming Charlie to Blanka was a great plot twist, as good as finding out that volleyball was integral to the plot of the Dead or Alive movie.

Ming-Na, Chun-Li from the original Street Fighter and the excellent Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, passed the hair buns to Kristin Kruek of Smallville, for the new film. The cast actually features some well-known actors who are willing to downgrade their saleability in Hollywood. The site has not been updated since June 2008 and details have been nonexistent. Obviously, this means the movie is hiding their furious kinetic energy of talent for the 2009 release. Even the recent TGS 2008 trailer only has one screenshot of Kruek filled around gameplay videos of Chun-Li throughout the series.

At least back in the mid 1990s, gamers were more willing to part with their cash to see a video game-based movie. Unfortunately, with the current economic issues and a possible Screen Actors Guild strike, this movie may be a direct-to-DVD release. Most gamers do not have issues with actors in certain roles for their favorite characters; it is more the horrible story that Hollywood writers create to dilute a series into a 90-minute punch in the face. De Souza admitted there were problems with his adaptation, and that is more than most directors would do. With such low standards for the new film, it could actually be worth a rent.