Street Fighter (2026) Review: Sakurai's Messy

The setup is lean enough. Ryu (Koji) and Ken Masters (Centineo) were brothers in everything but blood until a personal tragedy split them apart. Enter Chun-Li (Callina Liang), who recruits both men for the next World Warrior Tournament - a global gauntlet of fighters with grudges, debts, and secrets. Behind the bracket, though, lurks a deadly conspiracy orchestrated by the shadowy M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), one that yanks Ryu and Ken toward a collision with each other and with the demons neither has managed to outrun. And if they don't settle their score in time, it's game over - for them and everyone else.

That premise is sturdy scaffolding, and the screenplay uses it to justify a parade of fan-favorite brawlers. Cody Rhodes's Guile chews scenery with military-grade conviction. Andrew Schulz turns Dan Hibiki into a lovable disaster. Eric Andre's Don Sauvage exists mostly to be weird, and mission accomplished. Then there's Anoa'i's Akuma, a presence so heavy the theater gets quieter every time he walks on screen.

What works best here is the chemistry between Koji and Centineo. Koji plays Ryu as a man carved out of stillness - every punch feels like it costs him something. Centineo's Ken is all swagger and ache, a golden boy who never learned how to lose. When the film forces them to fight, it hurts in the right way, because we believe these two actually loved each other once. Sakurai shoots their confrontation with wide angles and long takes, letting the choreography breathe instead of drowning it in cuts. It is easily the best sequence in the movie.

Liang is the film's secret weapon, though. Chun-Li could easily have been a plot-delivery device; instead she's prickly, funny, and carrying her own weight of grief. She and Koji have a sparring-scene-turned-conversation that is the closest the movie gets to quiet, and it's a welcome breather.

The problems are structural. Once Bison's conspiracy takes center stage, the film's momentum sags under exposition. Dastmalchian is clearly having a ball, but the script gives him monologues where it should give him menace. There's a stretch in the second act where the movie forgets it's supposed to be fun and starts behaving like a geopolitical thriller that accidentally wandered into the wrong dojo. The tonal whiplash is real. A 120-minute runtime also means some fighters get shortchanged - Rhodes in particular feels like he's just warming up when the credits roll.

Still, when Sakurai remembers he's making a live-action arcade cabinet, the movie sings. There's a neon-soaked tournament montage that had my screening audibly cheering. Fantasy elements blend with the martial arts in ways that occasionally look cheap but never feel lazy. This is a Hollywood production through and through, and it owns that identity rather than pretending to be something more prestigious.

Pros

• Andrew Koji and Noah Centineo bring real emotional weight to Ryu and Ken.
• Joe Anoa'i's Akuma is a genuinely imposing physical presence.
• Inventive, well-staged fight choreography.
• Callina Liang's Chun-Li is more than a recruitment device.
• A tone that embraces the franchise's inherent silliness.

Cons

• Bison's conspiracy bogs down the middle of the film.
• Uneven tone veers from slapstick to self-serious thriller.
• Several cast members are underused given the ensemble's promise.
• Dialogue occasionally spells out themes the performances already sell.

Street Fighter won't convince skeptics that video game adaptations have finally cracked the code, but it's the most fun the genre has had in years. Sakurai leans into the absurdity without winking so hard he breaks the screen, and his leads do the heavy lifting. It's too long, too crowded, and occasionally too pleased with its own plot - and I'd still rather rewatch it than most of its po-faced competitors. A flawed but genuinely enjoyable brawl that earns its place in the arena.