I went to watch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li on Friday night. It’s not a movie that you should pay to see but I had free passes that I received way back in July, 2008 which were to expire today (yes I haven’t gone to the movie theatre in that long!). So I had a two birds with one stone opportunity.

The studio was attempting to make a serious, action version of Street Fighter instead of the laughing stock that was the original Street Fighter (featuring the muscle from brussels and Kylie Minogue). Instead of incorporating every chracter in the game, this movie only had Bison, Balrog, Vega, Charlie, Chun-Li and a side mention to Ryu.

Chun-Li is played by Kristen Kreuk, formerly of Smallville fame. Aside from the fact that she has a ponytail (well she did have buns in the lesbian scene), I think she looks like a Chun-Li. I can’t think of a better Western Asian female to play her. But unfortunately for the movie, she was one of the reasons that The Legend of Chun-Li eventually became unintentionally funny. I just can’t get past her acting skills.

Aside from that, this movie had the usual plot problems associated with video game/fighting movies – there are a series of nonsensical plot sequences that only serve as a vehicle for the fight scenes. If you approach this movie as a joke, I think it’s a solid 3 out of 5 stars. Bonus points, if you also have some kids dressed up as Ryu and Dan show up to the movie. Between those cosplay guys and the Gen character, I felt like I was watching Star Wars.

But what I really wanted to know was whether Kristen Kreuk Chun-Li sticks out her ass when she does her fireball. If you don’t know what I mean, here’s some examples (there’s a good shot at 15s):

To save you your $10 in having to watch this movie to find out the answer like I did. She didn’t! I was très disappointed.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: games, moviereview, smallville