I love this world we live in. We are blessed to have the almighty Hollywood gods bless us with yet another awesome Street Fighter movie. Who cares about Ryu and Ken? One just walks around the world with a bag and the other dyes his eyebrows black. Hollywood gave me the characters I wanted in a Street Fighter movie with a Belgium accented American badass and a scrawny bug-eyed mixed Chinese pianist whose knowledge of wire-fu would make even Jet Li scream out, “Lana Lang is number one!”

When adapting from a video game to the big screens, the writers were smart enough to ditch the ludicrous plot of fighters competing in tournaments and focused on an origin story. Out of all the characters, the writers chose to focus on Chun-Li’s history. This isn’t your typical plot of a girl who seeks vengeance against an evil Irishman named Bison who has taken away her father. No, this is more than that.

Chun-Li needed an actress who can portray her with non-thunderous thighs and small hips. The actress also needed to show a lot of blank emotions as if somebody shined a flashlight into her eyes. Luckily for us, we have Kristin Kreuk to fit that bill.

Chun-Li isn’t the only character to grace the movie. The movie has its fair share of villains. Vega is one of my favorite characters because of his bipolar nature. He’s elegant yet deadly. He’s attractive, yet he hides his face with a sleek mask. I understand the writer’s decision to change everything about Vega’s character, leaving only an ugly oversized mask and claws. The movie version is now more deep and rugged sounding and more hideous thanks to Taboo from the guys that brought you “I’m so 3008; You’re so 2000 and late.”

Let’s not forget Gen. In the game, Gen is old, I mean really old. In the movie, he’s played by the young and healthy Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat. Balrog is a dangerous boxer in the game, in the movie he’s a dangerous RPG wielder. Bison in the game runs a crime syndicate, in the movie he’s a businessman. Don’t ask me why, but these are all changes that had to be made because Hollywood said so.

The best thing about the movie is the pairing of detective Nash (Chris Klein) and Detective Maya Sunee (Moon Bloodgood). Moon is superhot and Chris Klein’s Nash is an experience to see. You haven’t seen acting until you’ve seen Chris Klein’s take on one of Capcom’s celebrated character. Forget the Nash you know from the game, this Nash has the ability to look clueless, yet still be able to convey that he is the “man.”

Sadly though, as much as I have enjoyed this movie, JCVD’s Street Fighter still holds a special place in my heart. So if you’re looking for subtle wire-fu, intense emotional scenes, Oscar-worthy acting, deep involving storyline, and bad guys who you don’t want to mess with, then…“Quick, change the channel!” and pop in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Grade: B

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