Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

It’s DOA: Dead or Alive all over again, but it is better than Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Street Fighter. But, that’s not saying much.

The poor acting completely holds this videogame movie down. It certainly has a lot of action in it, but acting is so bad that it becomes laughable. There was a constant smirk on my face with every attempt at acting from the cast.

Neal McDonough tries his best, but comes across as being campy. Michael Clarke Duncan is just playing Kingpin and Frankie Figs from his earlier gigs. Moon Bloodgood is hot, but not much else.

Kristin Kreuk plays the lead character (Chun-Li). And, she’s supposed to carry the movie, but Kreuk’s acting is so bad that it is an embarrassment to watch her. Then you have to sit through her voice in an unbearable voiceover. She doesn’t even try to make the voiceover interesting. She is a beautiful girl, but damn she can’t act. I really wanted to like her.

Chris Klein is just horrendous in the leading man role. I laughed every single time Klein opened his mouth. He doesn’t have an off switch and continues to chew through the movie and the script. He sucks worst than Josh Hartnett. You have to see his “performance”, because it is that funny.

The plot isn’t bad; it is just full of holes. The un-rated version is certainly bloodier. And, I’ll give them credit for putting it on the DVD. There are some violent scenes in this cut. One scene has Bison beating the living crap out of a woman as blood spatters on his face. He then touches and talks to the dead body of the woman he just killed. It is a creepy scene.

This Street Fight is filmed better than the 90’s Street Fighter movie, and some of the FX shots are okay. But, the acting is so bad that I can’t give this movie a positive grade. I blame the director for this, because it’s just being lazy.

Grade: D+

Side Note: Yes, Robin Shou from the Mortal Kombat films is in this movie. He still plays Liu Kang type character. I do like seeing a more mature Shou though.