Street Fighter (2026): Why You Should See It Even If It Looks Absolutely Ridiculous
Critics gave it a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. We're seeing it anyway. Roman Reigns is Akuma, Jason Momoa is Blanka, and it was our childhood. Here's everything you need to know.
Someone asked me recently why I'd want to see the new Street Fighter movie. "It looks foolish," they said. And honestly? They're not entirely wrong. Critics gave it a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. The plot is reportedly all over the place. The cast includes Jason Momoa as Blanka, Roman Reigns as a god of destruction, and 50 Cent as Balrog.
My answer was simple: it was my childhood.
I grew up loving Street Fighter. The characters, the moves, the rivalries — all of it. And there's something genuinely exciting about seeing the things you loved as a kid finally exist in the real world, in full budget live action, even if the execution is messy. Even if it's absolutely ridiculous. Even if it fails on every level critics care about. It's still going to be fun. And sometimes fun is exactly enough.
That's why Street Fighter is a must watch for me this weekend. Here's everything you need to know before you go.
What Is This Movie?
Street Fighter (2026) is directed by Kitao Sakurai (the guy behind Netflix's Bad Trip, so yes, chaotic energy was always part of the plan) and produced by Legendary Entertainment in partnership with Capcom, distributed by Paramount Pictures. It's the first live action Street Fighter movie since 2009's The Legend of Chun Li, and the biggest swing at the series since the 1994 cult classic starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá. Unlike those, this version actually tries to take the source material seriously. Mostly.
The screenplay was written by Sakurai and T.J. Fixman, based on a story by Dalan Musson and Gary Dauberman. The film is rated PG-13 and runs 120 minutes. It filmed in Australia from August to November 2025 under the extremely appropriate working title Punch.
The Plot
The story is set in 1987 and picks up six years later in 1993 (during the events of Street Fighter II, the game most of us actually remember). Ryu's mentor, Gouken, is killed by the demigod Akuma, sending Ryu down a path of darkness and inner conflict. Meanwhile, Chun Li, working undercover for Interpol, tracks down both Ryu and his old training partner Ken Masters to recruit them for the World Warrior Tournament — a fighting competition secretly orchestrated by the ruthless dictator M. Bison, who plans to use the fighters' energy for his own power.
Ryu is battling his "Evil Ryu" persona throughout, think the dark side of his power calling to him. Ken is figuring out where he belongs. And Chun Li is the one holding it all together while everyone around her is falling apart or throwing fireballs.
If it sounds like a lot that's because it is. Critics noted the plot is "convoluted," which is a polite way of saying they crammed a lot of game mythology into 120 minutes. But this is Street Fighter. The games were never light on lore.
The Cast (This Is Where It Gets Wild)
Here's the thing about this movie that nobody expected: the casting is either brilliant or completely insane, and the line between those two things blurs fast.
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Ryu | Andrew Koji (Warrior, Snake Eyes) |
| Ken Masters | Noah Centineo |
| Chun Li | Callina Liang |
| M. Bison | David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad, Oppenheimer) |
| Akuma | Roman Reigns (yes, THE Roman Reigns) |
| Blanka | Jason Momoa |
| Guile | Cody Rhodes (yes, THAT Cody Rhodes) |
| Balrog | Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson |
| Dhalsim | Vidyut Jammwal |
| Dan Hibiki | Andrew Schulz |
| Vega | Orville Peck |
| Zangief | Olivier Richters |
| E. Honda | Hirooki Goto |
| Cammy | Mel Jarnson |
Let's acknowledge what's happening here. Roman Reigns is playing a god of destruction. Jason Momoa is the big green electric monster. Cody Rhodes is the all American soldier with a flat top. Andrew Schulz is playing Dan Hibiki the comic relief character who's bad at fighting but thinks he's amazing. This is either the greatest or most unhinged casting in video game movie history, and I mean that as a compliment.
The early consensus is that David Dastmalchian steals the movie as M. Bison playing him as a genuinely menacing and slightly theatrical villain, which is exactly what M. Bison should be.
The Animated Sequences (Actually Kind of Brilliant)
Here's a detail that deserves its own section: the film includes hand drawn 2D animated sequences created by Titmouse (the animation studio behind Big Mouth, the Metalocalypse movie and a lot of beloved adult animation).
Director Kitao Sakurai — who grew up in Japan used these segments to depict backstories, flashbacks, and the origin of Ryu and Ken's fractured relationship. The stylistic inspirations? Akira and Ghost in the Shell. So while the live action scenes are doing their thing, the animated scenes go full 90s anime.
This is, genuinely, the coolest creative decision in a video game movie in a long time. Street Fighter was inspired by martial arts anime. Having the movie pay tribute to that in the visuals is a smart way to connect the film back to its roots.
Akuma is introduced through these sequences too, giving Roman Reigns' performance room to breathe without having to compete with the chaos of the live action tournament scenes.
What Critics Are Saying
Let's be honest about where the movie lands: 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, 46/100 on Metacritic as of this writing. The criticisms that come up most often:
- The plot is convoluted. Too many characters, too many storylines, no clean resolution (the ending is apparently left open for a sequel, which Sakurai says is already being written if the box office supports it).
- The tone is inconsistent. It can't fully decide if it's a serious martial arts film or a campy brawler sometimes within the same scene.
- No clear finale. Some critics felt it ends without the payoff the buildup deserved.
But here's the other side of those reviews: plenty of critics still found it flashy, fun and campy. The animated sequences got specific praise. Dastmalchian got specific praise. And the action scenes are the part most reviews liked.
A 41% on RT means roughly 4 out of 10 professional critics recommend it. But critics are not your childhood. Critics didn't grow up putting quarters into arcade cabinets and arguing about whether Ken was better than Ryu. You did.
Watch the Trailer
Why You Should See It Anyway
Here's the thing about video game adaptations: they almost never get made for critics. They get made for the people who spent years with these characters who learned the button combos, who picked their fighter, who had the arguments about tiers and strategy and who would win in a real fight.
Street Fighter is not trying to be Oppenheimer. It's trying to be the thing it's based on: loud, colorful, full of iconic characters, and built around the simple premise that fighters from all over the world are going to beat the absolute hell out of each other in creative ways.
And on that level? It's probably going to deliver.
Jason Momoa is a green monster who uses electricity. Roman Reigns is an anime villain in a live action movie. Cody Rhodes a man who spent years building his whole identity around being "the American Nightmare" is playing Guile, the most aggressively American character in video game history. Andrew Schulz is Dan Hibiki.
If all of that doesn't make you want to see this, nothing I write will change that. But if any of that made you smile, you already know you're going.
It hits theaters October 16. Go for the nostalgia. Stay for the chaos.
Street Fighter (2026) is rated PG-13 and runs 120 minutes. Directed by Kitao Sakurai. In theaters now.
