The first reviews for Street Fighter have arrived... and while they are mixed to negative at best, they're still better than the 1994 film.
As it stands, Street Fighter, directed by Kitato Sakurai, has a 41% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The new live-action movie sees Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) enter the World Warrior Tournament after some convincing from Chun-Li (Callina Liang), whose mission is to take down the impossibly evil and silly-hat-wearing M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).
"Street Fighter is satisfied punching down on itself, and everything that’s cringe about the 90s, while happily being stuck there, in the past, so it could pretend that this is as good as it gets for video game adaptations," The Guardian wrote.
Our own review gave it 2.5/5 stars, writing: "An overstuffed miss: a hyper-edited, dick-joke-filled, tonally inconsistent movie that ends halfway through its own story. But rather than leaving you wanting more, you're left with a headache."
The New York Times hit the film with a more positive review, saying, "It simply feels like the natural zenith of an arcade player’s imagination, the “and then, and then” output of fighter fantasies running wild. By the end, you can practically see the ’90s kid smashing and kicking at the air on his way out of the theater."
The 1994 movie currently sits at a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, though Raul Julia starring as M. Bison should bump that up to at least 30%. That said, I guess you'll just have to go see the new film for yourself (or both, which could be a fun, or incredibly mid, double feature).
The 2026 cast includes Cody Rhodes as Guile, Roman Reigns as Akuma, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Balrog, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Orville Peck as Vega, Andrew Schulz as Dan, and Mel Jarnson as Cammy.
Street Fighter releases in theaters on October 16. For more, check out our list of upcoming video game movies and our ranking of the best video game movies.
