i must have seen a different film!!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

As a fan of Street Fighter and King of Fighters, I was amazed while watching this movies.I can only hope that they could do the same for the King of Fighters, because no adaptation has ever given this game the credits it deserves.I think the fans will enjoy this series, because they will not feel that the story is disconnect like in other failed adaptations.Everything is in the game's story, so there is really no need to change it at all. This series has perfectly shot combat scenes. The moves are not ridiculous at all when it comes to fire balls and seppukyakus etc.I really recommend this series if you want to enjoyed what could have been the story of Ryuu and Ken Masters in the game.

When I watched the movie, I was very impressed with the moves and how the character played their roles. And the looks, they are more likely to have same feature especially Ken and Akuma base on the video game. The Hadouken and Shoryuken are fantastic and awesome!!! This is really an exciting movie and looking forward to watch the other Street Fighter sequel! When I was in college, I even compete with other players like challenging them while using Akuma as my favorite character. I am actually waiting for Akuma to use the Hadouken through the air. I really don't know the exact term but it is like firing the Hadouken while jumping. And also some kicks of Akuma in the video game are not shown in the movie. But nevertheless, I am really impressed overall with the movie. And it was nice to know how Goki became Akuma and how it all started between Ryu and Ken. Hopefully in the next Street Fighter movie sequel, they will include the story of Ken having a wife and a kid. And I also hope that they make the movie Street Fighter: New Generation and so to find someone who can portray the role of Gill with the power to do a meteor strikes. An Awesome Movie to watch!! :-)

So first let me say that I'm a huge street fighter fan.A lot of people seem to love this, but I was kind of left cold. Also, I didn't know this was a TV series- I saw it as a "movie" (all 180 minutes in one sitting). As you can imagine, I was constantly annoyed that this "movie" felt like a really drawn out TV show...so I'll try not to complain too much about pacing and call-backs, but I still have lots of positives and negatives to share: +The attention to visual details is awesome- especially in the choreography. The moves and poses the characters make could be taken directly from the game. This is the only street fighter movie/show I've ever seen that consistently keeps the choreography consistent with the game for every fight (for better or worse...).+Ken. He is the best part of the show, and for the most part he's fun to watch (when he's given something to do).+Acting (for most). Goki and Goken were very good, and Gotetsu was amazing. The show could have just focused on him.+Imagery. Occasionally, the show has some great shots- but these are few and far between...+True to canon. For the most part, this is what I thought the back story should be based on the video game.So now what I didn't like: -Too limited! My major complaint is that the show feels too limited in scope. Seeing the same sets used for 180 minutes straight was very tiresome. I was dying to see them leave the damn dojo and go do something! Maybe this is because it was a low-budget thing? Even so, the writing didn't quite sparkle on its own either, which leads me to...-Lackluster script. My second biggest complaint is that the script lacks heart. I didn't care about Ryu at all (and he's my favorite character!) and though the actor playing Ken was great, he was barely given lines to work with at all. Even the all-important back story with Goki and Goken was so abrupt and choppy that it felt completely unreal to me. Everything that was supposed to be important and emotional felt rushed and under-developed. The actors tried their best, but almost none of the lines gave them any personality or edge. The characters felt 2-dimensional (so to speak) and lifeless.-Sterile action. I love the attention given the individual moves and imagery from the game, but there comes a point where you need to loosen up a bit and get gritty. The camera work is all so controlled and remote; it felt like the whole damn movie was one medium shot and one wide shot. I always felt aware of the camera, and the characters were always at a "safe distance." There is so much redundancy in the camera moves, the action, and the choreography that the whole thing really lost my interest (visually) after the first hour.-Repetitive story structure. What bugged me the most about the "story" is that nothing happens or is motivated. Every "day" in the characters lives is the same; they're always sparring, or getting lectured, or standing still, and it gets old really fast. On top of that, their training is just plain dull. There's nothing at stake, and no reason for us to want them to succeed. There's ONE scene that takes place in the city, and it's the only time these characters even *remotely* feel like real people.So that's pretty much it. Overall, I think it's a wonderful tribute to the game, but apart from a few good fight scenes and spot-on imagery, everything else in this productions feels sterile, limited, and unmotivated. Maybe it works better watching it 21-minutes at a time, but I find it hard to believe it would be much more intriguing that way.Check out the anime series instead- Street Fighter 2 V. It's so much more satisfying and tells a much more interesting story.