“He keeps going on about your thighs. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

Wolfy’s review: When it comes to video game movie reviews, there’s always some kind of compulsion to provide Gamer Cred™. Like I have to explain how I’ve been in and out of the Street Fighter games over the course of a few decades, or that I consider Street Fighter: The Animated Movie to be the peak of this franchise’s filmography.

But I don’t know that’s quite so important to really contextualize my level of enjoyment when I went to see the newest Street Fighter film in my local theater. Sure, it probably helped with my entertainment, but even as I think back to that, the thing that elevates this movie for me is how completely comfortable it is with its source material and the whole campiness that’s inherent in it.

The film primarily follows the journey of Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji) a few years after Ryu won the first World Warrior tournament in 1987 – but only after nearly succumbing to the corrupting power of the Dark Hado and drawing in the evil Akuma (Roman Reigns, yes that one from the WWE).

Our journey begins with Ken as he’s deep into a depression spawned from not being invited to the tournament, choosing instead to drown his sorrows in wild partying, lavish living (primarily fueled by silly exhibition matches and multiple brand deals), and alcohol. But when he’s approached to join a revival of the World Warrior tournament by M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), he sees an opportunity to prove he’s a worthy fighter and crawl from beneath Ryu’s shadow.

Along the way, he’s drawn in to a wider threat posed by M. Bison and his desire to unlock psycho power and become the strongest person in the world, which he uses to try and draw Ryu out of hiding. The whole plot definitely enters some breakneck territory, and then the tournament proper pulls in all sorts of storytelling fun, from pride, to honor, to revenge, to fighting your darkest urges. Only it’s far, far less dramatic on screen than that reads on paper; the dark urge is literally Ryu and Akuma fighting, the pride is Ken trying desperately to kick Ryu’s ass, the revenge is kind of touched on briefly with Chun-Li (Callina Liang).

Even if that reads as faint praise, the whole thing works within the completely bonkers action and setting of the film itself. None of this really makes sense, but then Street Fighter knows you’re not here for deep dish storytelling, but even so, the narrative that moves the movie along is highly entertaining. And I say this both as a huge fan of the game but also speak for those who went with me who have barely any knowledge about the games and still had a blast.

And then, of course, there are the fights. The movie wasn’t wall-to-wall fighting at every open moment, but the fights that were included had fantastic choreography, near flawless nods to the moves from the game, and outstanding impact all throughout. The decision of using ‘90s as a point made perfect sense to establish the World Warriors’ base powers without muddying the martial arts action, and it was almost all with a surprising amount of practical effects and wire work. And even when the CGI went in hard as it did for Jason Momoa’s Blanka, it still looked appropriate.

I seriously cannot say enough great things about Street Fighter’s cast overall. There were only a couple of rare misses (Cammy seemed a bit all over the place and Vega was kind of boring and barely used), but by and large it didn’t feel like Street Fighter cast the roster of characters so much as found the right people to play them. Ken and Ryu’s struggle, Dan Hibiki as the hype man/manager to Ken, the incredible work by Cody Rhodes as Guile, the truly unhinged way that Dastmalchian played Bison, and the absolutely perfect cast of Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim were standout performances.

Street Fighter 2026 certainly had a pretty low bar to clear when it came to live-action renditions of this venerable fighting game series, but it also was very much comfortable with its silly skin. It didn’t just get the memo, it nailed the assignment of bringing these characters to real life, had a great time doing it, and invited me to just lean back and enjoy the ride along the way. This was pure movie fun.