WARNING: SPOILERS
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li follows the story of Chun-Li as she finds — and fights — her way to justice. SFTLCL, casting Smallville Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li, is the second movie to be inspired from the Street Fighter video game franchise, the first being Street Fighter starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as William F. Guile.
Chun-Li grows up as a talented pianist with a mother who’s suffering from cancer. After one of her performances, Chun-Li receives a scroll written in Chinese, and on her way home, she helps a beaten-up strange man with a web tattoo. Soon after, her mother loses the fight against cancer, and she has the scroll translated. Her journey begins as she follows the instructions in the scroll, and she later on meets Gen and learns of her missing father and Bison, the one who kidnapped her father when she was just a child. Her quest for justice and the truth helps her find her father, but it also makes her an unwilling witness to her father’s death. Filled with fighting thugs and eventually, the ultimate villain of all, Bison, this movie follows the same route most films of this genre travel, and in the end, good triumphs over evil.
There isn’t a lot of twists to keep you interested, and worse, the film makes you wish you were watching Van Damme’s Street Fighter again not because it makes you feel nostalgic, but because SFTLCL actually makes SF seem like such a good movie. Yep, Kristin Kreuk was better off being Superman’s leading lady, because not only is her newest movie choppy in its storytelling, but it also suffers from unforgivable clichés and a boring (BORING) flow. The acting is so-so, meaning that if you look at the actors’ acting skills individually, they’re all right, but together? They’re just not convincing enough. The fighting scenes are decent but nothing grand, and where the hell are all the cool poses that are cliché, yes, but fun to watch nonetheless?! The only redeeming factor is Kreuk’s hair buns during the club scene because that’s the only thing that will make you think that you’re watching an adaptation of Street Fighter (and mind you, it’s the only part where Chun-Li looks like Chun-Li).
If you’re looking for a movie that’s worth your money, this isn’t it. It’s as exciting as watching paper — nothing happens! And it being on its third week in the cinemas only means that there isn’t a movie yet to replace it; it’s not because it’s good that the title hasn’t been scrapped out yet from the electronic boards.
I don’t have any praises for this movie. Not a one. I even fell asleep at the beginning, and this is coming from someone who actually thinks the Resident Evil movies are good adaptations when the rest of the world disagrees.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is not legendary…it’s a mistake.
