Common Sense Media Review
By James Rocchi
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Video game adaptation is violent, jarringly inept.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
What's the Story?
Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk) was a beloved little girl, whose father wanted her to be a concert pianist and loved teaching her the ways of the martial arts; when her father was taken from her in her youth by the crime lord Bison (Neal McDonough), she was heartbroken. Years later, after her mother's death, Chun-Li leaves her piano behind after a mysterious scroll tells her she must leave for Bangkok to find a mystic mentor in the martial arts, uncover the truth of what happened to her father, and face Bison.
Is It Any Good?
Street Fighter feels almost like a parody of itself. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak has made previous, disposable mainstream martial-arts action films like Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave -- which were hardly good, but weren't as painfully bad as STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI. The movie is saddled with cheap-looking cinematography, talky voice-over, and some hilariously bad performances (including Chris Klein in ludicrously overdone stubble-and-grimace mode as a driven Interpol cop).
The plot is a mishmash of a thousand other action films -- Chun-Li finds a mystic teacher, trains to access her talents at a new level and forsake anger so she might stop the man who took her father, even as the cops (Klein and Moon Bloodgod) are closing in on Bison as well; meanwhile, Bison (who for some reason has an Irish accent that's taken from the old Lucky Charms commercials) is enacting a plan to drive the poor from Bangkok's slums to buy the land and profit from it. But everything in Street Fighter is obvious -- from the unsurprising big twist to the clumsy set-up for a sequel -- and the actors are as wooden as the script is poorly-crafted. The marital arts cinema can offer vibrant action and thrilling technique, but here the look, feel, and excitement of a whole genre is just exploited ineptly for a 97-minute long commercial.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the curious phenomenon of the video game-to-film adaptation, a recent trend that's given us films as infamously bad as Super Mario Brothers and Resident Evil; are these interesting riffs on beloved characters and settings, or are they mercenary exercises in money-making and greed?
Families can also talk about the portrait of a female actress as the lead in this film -- is this a bold blow for equality through showing a female lead kick, punch, and kill, or a step back from it?
Finally, families can talk about the MPAA rating system and the thought process that underlies it: How is it a film with dozens of deaths, some in hand-to-hand combat and some in pitched gun battles, can have a PG-13 rating?
Movie Details
- In theaters : February 27, 2009
- On DVD or streaming : June 30, 2009
- Cast : Chris Klein , Kristin Kreuk , Michael Clarke Duncan
- Director : Andrzej Bartkowiak
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Asian Movie Actor(s) , Black Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Run time : 97 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : sequences of violence and martial arts action, and some sensuality.
- Last updated : March 14, 2020
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