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So after rewatching with the director's commentary (yeah, technically I watched the movie twice in two days, but the second time I mostly had it in the background while doing other stuff) and having some more time to collect my thoughts, I think I'm just deciding to do a list of all the things I thought the movie did really well, expected or otherwise. Like, everyone knows about the bizarreness and the so-bad-it's-good memery but I want to highlight some stuff I thought was genuinely admirable

-In watching the director's commentary, it seemed that he had a pretty realistic and relatively grounded and familiar understanding of the source material, which is inherently more than the live action Mario movie did. Even if it didn't pan out like expected, it's cool to see that passion went into it and he had a sense of respect for the games instead of writing them off as childish and trying to 'improve' it

-Likewise appreciate the director sharing petty grievances with the film, it humanizes things quite a bit. In fairness I also want those swizzle sticks and Bison dollars and would've been bummed if I was the only one who didn't get any.

-100% will always respect practical effects and physical set design. There were a few areas where CGI was used but for the most part it's all tangible

-Also!! Practical fighting!! Yes it's easy to make jokes about Van Damme's accent when playing someone so cartoonishly American but in a movie like this that relies so heavily on fight scenes he's exactly the sort of person you'd want to cast.

-(Perhaps an odd aside but upon reflection and trying to see other peoples' opinions on the film I think @ninewheels makes a very solid point in that having an immigrant Guile subtly works in the narrative's favor while also downplaying the plot's 'white savior' element to a degree)

-Again, discarding the canon divergences, Honda and Balrog had some terrific moments as a comedic duo, and for as little screentime was they had they managed to make their characters compelling. It's made completely understandable that given all three having their lives ruined by Bison in some form that they and Chun-Li would gravitate towards and work together. Unironically would watch a whole side series just about the three of them they bounce off of each other in a strangely natural way

-Likewise, Dhalsim!! Was not expecting to find him so compelling. I know it's a steep deviation from canon but at the very least they gave him his own little character arc, and the desire to use his skills for the betterment of humanity does sound a lot like canon Dhalsim behavior so I'm fine with it.

-Like I mentioned before, I was quite shocked at how well done Vega's presence was in the film, being rather spot on visually and personality-wise. As I found out while looking up more info, apparently his actor was still learning English at the time, so it's understandable why he only had a few short lines. However, just about everything else makes up for it. The costume design was near-perfect, and even without dialogue his body language did a terrific job of having him come across as condescendingly smug and dismissive. I see a lot of (absolutely deserved) praise for Mr. Julia but Jay Tavare did a fantastic job and absolutely deserves more credit

-On that note in general a recurring sentiment I kept having was that the silent/gesture comedy in this was really, really sharp. Some of the funniest parts in this movie were ones with no dialogue whatsoever

-This movie was funny on purpose!! I've seen some people describe the memetic moments in this and make it sound as though the whole thing is a straightforward action flick, but there were a whole lot of actually intentionally comedic elements and most of them landed perfectly well!

-Zangief is another underratedly terrific performance. Even if he's much duller than he is canonically it's played with so much gusto and enthusiasm that it's so enjoyable to watch him in action.

-Raul Julia. No explanation needed.

-Ming-Na Wen. Slight explanation needed bc WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME SHE WAS SO GOOD IN THIS. Woman did her own stunts and gave the movie a dose of colder realism that worked excellently with the somewhat unsteady tone

-Bazooka Cammy. Also as iffy as I was initially at having a pop star acting in this Kylie turned in a pretty solid performance.

-Gun Ken. I don't have much elaboration for this one it was just funny. Super magical spirit karate from living in backwoods Japan for like a decade with some old guy and you just decide to use a gun. We brought back Neck Snap Cammy from the II OVA for 6 so we can totally bring back Gun Ken for SF6 too right?? Please?? Don't even have to do anything too fancy just take regular Ken and give him Gun.

#wheeeee #street fighter #street fighter the movie #op back on her bullshit

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you did it! you finally performed the most holy act of street fighter fandom, watching the really weird and pretty bad live action movie. It's bad in the best ways possible honestly and I'm glad you agree Julia was the best part. Also thank you for giving Ming-Na Wen her dues, people tend to overlook her performance because she too gave this trainwreck more effort then it deserved

Like yes, it's easy to say that the movie is bad, but it's bad in such a myriad of such puzzling ways that calling it 'bad' almost feels like a disservice, weird as that sounds. I think that's why it's so easy to advocate watching it despite knowing how questionable it is, there's so much going on that's hard to describe that it's best to witness it firsthand and experience the chaos

I'm probably gonna make a longer post later once I have a little more time to analyze and organize my thoughts, but I think I can say with relative certainty that the cast in general was one of the highlights. Like, yes, very few of them resemble their canon counterparts, but I felt very few of them gave a half-assed performance. A couple of characters like T Hawk, Cammy and Blanka didn't get to do much, but for the most part I feel like everyone either gave a decent effort or had a few good moments that stood out and I can respect.

I really appreciate Chun-Li being a major character since at the time she had one of the more major ties to Bison, and while I was a little annoyed at the beginning how it seemed she was just gonna be a reporter with a vendetta while Honda and Balrog did the heavy lifting, MASSIVE respect for that literally being part of the narrative, with her playing the part of an overconfident damsel specifically to get Bison's guard down, only to try and beat the shit out of him. Actually I think she's like one of three characters that actually got to physically fight him hand-to-hand? Tbh wish there was a bit more direct interaction between them bc Julia's dramatic hamminess vs Ming-Na Wen's colder, more serious and bitter performance was a really compelling contrast that gave this mostly campy movie a bit more depth and some grounding, bc despite Bison being a power-mad dictator the silliness makes him a little unthreatening before the final sections, so it did really well for his character and the movie's tone to emphasize that this man has directly murdered people and left long-lasting mental scars on their families. Legitimately solid stuff

#ask #street fighter #street fighter the movie

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omg were you watching the terrible incredible live action street fighter movie? i just caught the end of your liveblog but holy shit i remember watching that movie before knowing any of the sf lore and looking back on it i think that was the ideal way to go into it tbh

I thank the library for not making me have to spend actual money to see it bc some things are priceless in the worst way

Like, I thought people were exaggerating, but it is just one of the most baffling things I've ever seen. It paints a really interesting view of how people generally perceived video games during the time, I think that particular portrayal is very specific to the era of being stuck between 'this is a niche thing for nerds' and 'this has untapped mass market appeal' without a clear bridge. There's some stuff I thought was legitimately good and even some actual connections to the game's canon, and I'm glad I watched it, even if my opinion of 'this is a campy shitshow' is did not change at any point.

And it is true. The memes aren't exaggerating. Raul Julia put far too much effort into this movie and they really did not deserve him

#ask #SF Liveblog

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Yknow if you divorce it entirely from canon it's a perfectly decent action flick, I think a lot of its major flaws just come from it being a really confused adaptation

#SF Liveblog

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Despite the overall messiness of this movie at least based on the cast interviews it seemed like the actors mostly had a good time and for some it feels like they had some idea of how silly this was. I think the worst thing a movie can be is bad on both sides of the screen. Even if a film itself isn't 'good' I at least want the actors to have had some fun and gotten some enjoyment out of it instead of it being a really strenuous and unpleasant experience that they hated doing and having that dislike show through the performance.

#SF Liveblog

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Ohhh god this movie was the director's debut? I feel kinda bad for him

#SF Liveblog

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That was...a weirdly abrupt ending.

Well, at least since the copy I rented is the 'extreme edition' it has a bunch of special features, and I've always been a sucker for 'making-of' content so hopefully there's gonna be some insight into the minds behind this trainwreck

#SF Liveblog

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"Keep your own God. In fact, this might be a good time to pray to him."

Whoever wrote this kept sprinkling in really good lines just infrequently enough that whenever they do pop up again it's like whiplash

#SF Liveblog

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Aaaand Bison has lightning magic now ok

#I guess psycho power wasn't well defined by this point either #SF Liveblog

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Is Sawada a canon character that I'm just forgetting bc swear to god I don't remember him in the game but the movie's devoting a surprising amount of screentime to him so I have to assume he's canonically relevant somehow??

#SF Liveblog

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Instead of a designated girl fight in this movie we have Honda and Zangief sweaty wrestling over a diorama overlaid with kaiju sounds. I support this decision wholeheartedly. I think every movie should do this actually

#SF Liveblog

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'Ken canonically uses more Japanese than the actual canonical Japanese guy' is another weird little tidbit of this movie that doesn't seem real

#SF Liveblog

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Damn and she gets a bazooka too? Far be it from me to give this mess too much praise but comparing this to SF2 era Cammy I easily prefer this give the girl pants and heavy weaponry

Overall they're playing fast and loose with canon designs and especially the outfits, but following their own logic of all the characters I'm glad they applied that to Cammy because her classic design was always stupid and nonsensical, she at the very least deserves pants

#SF Liveblog

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Overall they're playing fast and loose with canon designs and especially the outfits, but following their own logic of all the characters I'm glad they applied that to Cammy because her classic design was always stupid and nonsensical, she at the very least deserves pants

#SF Liveblog

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Speaking of 'characters I had no idea who they were until way too far into the movie' I didn't know T Hawk was a relevant character until they literally said his name. Though like with Dhalsim I'll concede respect that they at least got a native actor (I know T Hawk is from the series' own fictional indigenous group so having a someone from an actual group is the closest you can realistically get here)

#SF Liveblog

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I think the minefield controls are designed after a fightpad?? Dunno if I'm seeing it wrong since the jump cuts in this movie are absurd but if it is that's one of the most bizarre ways to implement an element of the game into this

#SF Liveblog

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'Dhalsim keeps Blanka from becoming evil by showing him dolphin videos' is something actually canon to this continuity and it's so ridiculous and corny it loops around to actually being weirdly sweet

#SF Liveblog