Video games to movies do not have a great history it’s fair
to say.
In the past, this may have been down to the simplistic
nature of video games. In the 90’s, most games were still based around the idea
of getting from one side of the screen to the other with the background being
the only real difference.
In more modern times, where story has become more important
and is often played out over 7-10 hours it could be said games are now too
complex to be broken down into 90 minute popcorn movies.
Either way, video games have been responsible for some real
stinkers of movies. Tomb Raider, Mortal
Kombat, Super Mario Bros (we’ll get to that one another time) but perhaps
the worst offender is 1994’s, Street Fighter:
The Movie.
This was based off the arcade game Street Fighter 2, one of the most insanely successful video games
of all time. If you had any kind of system capable of playing video games, you
had Street Fighter 2. There was even
a version available on the ZX Spectrum.
If you were living under a rock in 1992, SF2 was a one-on-one fighting game reliant
on its amazing speed, special moves and combo’s. This was no button masher
though, strategy was crucial to success.
There were eight different characters to choose from (or 12
or 16 depending which version you were playing) all with their own unique
skillsets and attributes (well, apart from Ryu and Ken who were identical).
Everyone had their own favourite character to play as and hours were spent
mastering their move sets (mine was Guile, “Sonic Boom”).
Anything that becomes vaguely successful will inevitably
catch Hollywood’s interest and so it was the case here. To cash in on this
fighting game craze, in the summer of 1994 Street
Fighter: The Movie was unleashed on the world.
I don’t really know where to start with this one. Oh wait,
yes I do. Jean-Claude Van Damme. The seal of shit on any movie he appears in.
It’s not entirely his fault but no movie has ever benefitted from having him in
it (and yes, I do include Universal
Soldier in that). In this one, he’s very much his standard self. He plays
the lead role in the film Lieutenant Guile, and he has his usual array of
martial arts kicks and mumbled lines. He’s never been able to gurn like Arnie
does but he gives it a good go.
A lot of the characters have their biographies re-written
for this movie. Ryu and Ken, trained warriors from birth are now a pair of
travelling con-men. Dhalsim, in the game a yoga mystic is now a geneticist
responsible for the creation of Blanka, who himself was a beast from the
jungles of Brazil in the game. Balrog and E. Honda, former world boxing and
sumo champions respectively, are Chun Li’s sidekicks in this movie (shameless
plug: Chun Li is played by Ming-Na Wen who can currently be seen tearing it up
as Mae in Marvel: Agents of Shield).
The best thing in this film though is Raul Julia as M.Bison.
Sadly, this was to be his last role as he died from a stroke soon after filming
was complete. With all the shit going on around him, Julia is brilliant as the
psychotically, unhinged wannabe dictator. While everyone else around him is
going over-the-top with their roles, Julia is very much understated in his
providing an excellent counter-point. And he gets some great lines, for example
consider this exchange:
Chun Li: It was twenty years ago. You hadn't promoted
yourself to general yet. You were just a petty drug lord. Huh! You and your
gang of murderers gathered your small ounce of courage to raid across the
border for food... weapons...
Chun Li: ... hmph. Slave labor. My father was the
village magistrate. A simple man with a simple code: justice. He gathered the
few people that he could to stand against you.
(laughs)
Chun Li: You and your bullies were driven back by
farmers with pitchforks! My father saved his village at the cost of his own
life. You had him shot as you ran away! A hero... at a thousand paces.
Bison: I'm sorry. I don't remember any of it.
Chun Li: You don't remember?
Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was
the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
That’s a brilliant movie villain line, it’s just a shame it
had to come in this one but Julia is pitch perfect in the way he delivers it.
Sadly, that’s about the only bright-spot in this otherwise
shit-fest of a movie. The story is nothing special, M.Bison has a grand plan to
take over the world and Guile goes in to stop him, all climaxing in a big fight
between hero and villain at the end. There are side-stories as well but nothing
too interesting: Ken and Ryu try to pull a scam on crime boss Sagat, Chun-Li
seeks revenge for death of her father.
Of course, being a game based on one-on-one fighting there
are going to be a lot of fights in this movie. There are some good choreographed
ones such as the rivalry that emerges between Ryu and the psychotic Vega. There
is a fight between E.Honda and Zangief that is played for laughs when the two
behemoths are fighting in a model of a city complete with Godzilla sound
effects.
Speaking of Zangief, it has to be said he does provide some
good comic relief throughout the movie, such as when he and the rest of the
villains are watching a monitor showing a truck filled with explosives rolling
towards them and he shouts out, ‘Quick! Change the channel!’
Perhaps it was an uphill task from the start. Even in the
world of video game movies, making a good film out of a game that is
essentially just random people fighting each other is no easy task. In addition
to that, you have to find ways to bring in all the characters to keep the fans
happy.
Not easy, but it doesn’t have to be as terrible as this. The
Street Fighter 2 anime movie for
example, is actually really good and had many of the same constraints as the
live-action version.
Perhaps the strangest facet of the Street Fighter movie saga is that a game was actually spawned from
this. So, it went from video game to movie back to video game. It wasn’t very
good.
Trailer:
