Yes, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li” Opens Today!

A friend of mine, one who doesn’t read my blog regularly, used to be in Kristin Kreuk’s orbit. She was unhealthily obsessed with the TV show “Smallville,” and Allison Mack’s character, Chloe, in particular. She wasn’t as a big fan of Kreuk’s Lana Lang, but in a bizarre turn of events, she ultimately ended up working on a project with both actresses. It was every creepy uber-fan’s dream come true. At any rate, when she told me a year or so ago that Kristin Kreuk had been cast as Chun-Li in a reboot of the “Street Fighter” film franchise, one that never really took off to begin with, I thought she was just pulling my chain.

I had no idea any studio would actually throw money at a remake of “Street Fighter.” This isn’t the Sonny Chiba “Street Fighter” we’re talking about, either. No, this is a film adaptation of the video game. Movies based on video games are unique in that none of them ever come anywhere close to being good. You’d think that one might be good by accident. I’ve seen more of them than I should have, and they all suck. Some are watchable. But watchability is far from quality.

There’s a puzzling dichotomy between video games and their movie adaptations. Most video games are loaded with cutscenes that play like movie clips; I usually skip that horseshit so I can continue annihilating zombies. As such, video games have ironically become more cinematic than their film adaptations, which always come up short on story and scope. Although movies are now more like video games and video games are now more like movies, there remains some disconnect between the two media. Much of that has to do with the “talent” video game adaptations attract: Paul W.S. Anderson, Uwe Boll and Uwe Boll and Uwe Boll.

Andrzej Bartkowiak directed “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li,” and if you can pronounce his name, you have my undying admiration. I thought for a moment that he had also been the DP on “Pulp Fiction,” but that was Andrzej Sekula. They are in fact — ahem — opposite Poles.

I hope this film does something positive for Kristin Kreuk’s career, like convince her that peddling autographs on the convention circuit is actually less reprehensible than being in a movie based on a Super Nintendo game. A friend of mine would very likely attend one of those signings.

-Brad Lohan

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