davish_wulf-1
I heard about this TV series by chance, when browsing for reviews on SF5 for consoles.After getting my hands on the movie version of the series, i started watching the movie in a "relaxed" way, not expecting too much from anything.I was impressed from the first fighting scene to the end. The movie depicts the Street Fighter spirit and atmosphere brilliantly and from the casting, the wardrobe, the amazing fights, well used effects, wonderful landscape and HD image, it was a feast to my eyes and kept me entertained for 2 hours in a row, begging for more.Never heard of Christian Howard, but he was the perfect choice for Ken. I would say the looks are somewhere on the SF Alpha version of Ken, with long hair and ponytail. The guy has the looks, the physique (humanly possible of course), the moves and the charisma of Ken. I felt like i was seeing one of my favorite characters being played in a live movie.Mike Moh as Ryu, on the other hand, was harder to grow on me, perhaps because there is a notorious discrepancy on physique between the 2 of them, other than that, he was a faithful Ryu, obsessed with getting better and better on fighting, while maintaining the DO spirit all the way. If he would "bulk up" a bit more, would be perfect (perhaps on the sequel). His face and fighting style fits the role perfectly.Story begins with our 2 famous fighters battling near a lake, followed by a flashback on the story and all begins from there. I'm sure the budget was a bit low for the movie, but it doesn't show one bit.Although the movie develops in a small environment, it is so well scripted, that you feel you're in a SF game. The flashbacks gives us a rich character development in the movie, in a very well staged back an forward story. Comedy and drama were put in all the right places and i loved the old-man on the lake, always teasing Ken, but don't want to be a spoiler.I don't know how good are the martial artists in the movie, what kind of experience they have in martial arts (i have to research on it), but every move, every fighting scene is a visual feast. You can feel the impact when they land a kick, with an excellent camera-work and edition, this is how fight scenes should be shot, independently if it is a realistic fight or not, after all, this is a game-based movie.Acting wise you can't expect Shakespeare here, like you can't expect that type of acting in a horror movie... it's a game movie and if you keep an open mind, like when you play a game or see a Manga movie, you will enjoy this movie even more than for the acting skills. In fact the acting skills fit the movie perfectly for what it is and no "DeNiro" performance would surpass anyone here in this type of role.Akira Koieyama, as Gôken - another surprise, this guy has the Samurai feeling of a "Toshiro Mifune", with the Japanese accent strongly rooted in his brute English, what a charismatic figure and actor, one of the best here. Another excel role was the one from Togo Igawa (Gôtetsu), who i already had seen on Last Samurai, he also was great, giving that "Akira Kurosawa" feeling to every scene he was on.Joey Ansah's "Akuma" was a pleasant surprise, they managed to give the character the background and looks of the games, an impressive fighter that was in the center of our story, perhaps my favorite part of the script.All in all, if you are a SF fan, specially of characters like Ryu, Ken and Akuma, go and see this somewhere, it is simply put, the best Street Fighter movie ever made.I can't wait to see the sequel, meanwhile, i will just boot up my console and play SF while watching the movie again.I sure hope that if Hollywood makes a SF movie, looks upon this guys and casts every single actor in here to the role they deserve, cause they sure well deserve it.
ibonk
I give 10★ for its consistency with the game, unlike most (if not all) ridiculous street fighter movies out there As the subtitle implies, the story focus on ken and ryu and the secret around their school style ansatsuken (assasin's fist), so, no u wont see street fighter tournament or it's many characters participant.The story itself been done real good and consistent with background story of the game series. They even carefully took care of small details trivia such the gloves and headband, again, consistent with the game time line.As a fan, u could easily recognize their style 'trademark moves' when they fight, not only the 'hado' set of hadoken-shoryuken-tatsumaki but also in their 'ordinary' punch and kick or even in some stance (not in all fight).Now i cant wait to see how they will do the 2nd season. And hopefully somebody will do the same approach with other great game series (e.g. soul edge/soul calibur, i think it has great potential and not been explored much).
