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Plot

General M. Bison is a dictator in Shadaloo, a small seaside town in an undefined section of Southeast Asia. Bison offers an ultimatum to the Allied nations opposing him after capturing Western citizens: pay a $20 billion ransom within 72 hours or the captives will die. Colonel William F. Guile, leader of the Allied Nations troops, would not tolerate it and guaranteed the captives that they will be rescued. Bison has kidnapped a soldier named Carlos Blanka, also known as Charlie, who is like a brother to Guile, and he has a personal purpose for doing so.

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A gamer who has never seen the movie might ask, "But how, do they make a Street Fighter movie and Ryu and Ken are not in it?" Here, the only possible answer to that question is: "I wish they weren't in it!".

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Meanwhile, in Thailand, Ryu Hoshi and Ken Masters, the former a mild-mannered Japanese and the latter a reckless American, find themselves in the company of Thai mafia lord Victor Sagat, selling him high-powered weapons that are actually toys, as Ken and Ryu are scam artists. When the two are discovered, they are forced to battle in Sagat's underground ring. The first match pits Ryu against Sagat's champion, Vega, a nimble masked fighter who wields a three-bladed weapon. Allied Nations forces come in and arrest everyone, including Sagat, Vega, Ryu, and Ken, in the middle of the fight.

I could have stopped here with the plot, to not "ruin" the rest of the movie, but since this is a movie that you will not, for sure, watch because of its amazing story, I will continue and describe it till the end.

Time is running out, and the hostages are dying, but Charlie is the one who is suffering the most: he has been selected by Bison as a human test pig for the creation of a cruel beast in his service that only knows hatred and death. Dr. Dhalsim, a pacifist idealist who opposes the experiment, changes the entity by allowing it to discriminate between good and evil.

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Meanwhile, a TV team led by young Chinese journalist Chun-Li Ziang and cameramen Balrog, a former boxer, and Edmond Honda, a huge Hawaiian former sumo wrestler whose name has been ruined by the Shadaloo sect, arrives in Shadaloo. Chun-Li also has a personal motivation for being there: Bison is responsible for the killing of his father, a Chinese village judge of the peace who once stood up to the perfidious general's oppression.

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The protagonists arrive at Bison's citadel, where he will fight valiantly to protect his dominion with the support of his comrades Zangief and Dee Jay (who, upon learning of Bison's actual intents, defect to Guile). But, in the end, Guile defeats Bison, the hostages are liberated, and the forces of evil are defeated in the face of the forces of good uniting.

After the credits, Bison's arm emerges and reactivates the computer on the home video version, hinting at a potential sequel (which is quite laughable given the level of the film).

Why?

Street Fighter - Final Challenge is an action film that tries, with mixed results, to exploit the roster of the popular Capcom fighting game, but it's not without flaws, inaccuracies, and forced turns that irritate the game's most ardent fans.

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The fact that it tries to incorporate all of the characters from the games into a single plot arc is probably the only film's strength. Some, like the Spanish Vega or Zangief, are actually quite beautifully realized. Although he turns out to be a complete jerk, the latter is the most like his video game equivalent. Many others, on the other hand, are absolutely awful.

Mr. Bison (who is called General Bison in the film) is clearly not physically gifted enough to portray the villain of the day, despite the characteristic grim face that renders the idea of villainy well. He is played by the late Puerto Rican actor Ral Juliá, who is clearly not physically gifted enough to portray the villain of the day.

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Guile, played by Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme looks to be too un-"American" to play the military man effectively, despite the fact that Guile's role (who appears to be in the background in the video games) is perfectly suited to star in the film.

But, to get the award for worst transposition are the characters of Blanka and Dhalsim. Their origin story is so ridiculous and forced that it's brilliant.

Blanka (which in origin is Charlie) is a soldier who is a fraternal companion of Guile's who is picked by Bison to become a ruthless humanoid beast. Leaving aside how the physical transition that will cause him to become the fan-favorite green creature occurs, which we will never know, it is the mental component that leaves one perplexed.

Blanka is forced to view hours and hours of footage with the obnoxious red tint, in which all he sees is death and sadness. The films are altered, however, when the experiment's lead professor, Dhalsim, redeems himself and decides to at least save his mind, forcing him, this time, to hours of weddings and children giggling. Which could have a higher chance of turning someone into a murderous maniac than showing them combat footage, but whatever.

Blanka thus takes on the role of the beloved monster, but his mind remains that of the decent, gentle soldier. It's a horrible concept, but it's not the worst in the movie. Dhalsim is the genuine winner of the gold medal. He is, in fact, an Indian ascetic with supernatural powers and pupil-less eyes in Street Fighter.

How can a simple scientist, who lacks any of the listed characteristics, become that character? Simple, he's completely bald due to a fire, and some traces of blood resemble the ceremonial paint on his alter ego's face in the game. Simple, no?

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Sorry for the low quality of some pictures, but there are so few of this movie 😅

Maybe you're asking yourself, "okay the revisable plot and the not always very successful characters... but this is still a movie based on a martial arts video game... so at least the fighting sequences and the iconic techniques of the characters will be noteworthy, right?"

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Well, not really...

For example, the Sho-Ryu-Ken and Shoryuken, both renowned Ryu and Ken techniques are performed by the two protagonists, but in an awkward manner. Ken, for example, slams a training ball with his iconic uppercut. In a transactional scene during the fight with Vega, Ryu launches his energy ball, a Street Fighter emblem, which makes him practically invisible.

Conclusion

Street Fighter - Final Challenge is no exception to the rule that a video game adapted for movies is usually always a hindrance. As we saw from the plot, it turns out to be a kind of cosplayer convention attended by a number of more or less well-known actors. The outfit is attractive to some, but not to others... the plot is secondary, uninteresting, and little more than a pretext to exhibit as many characters as possible.

But still, as I said in the title of the post, this movie is so bad that I actually love it. I have seen it a lot of times when I was a child, and although now I can more clearly see and understand all of the flaws it has, I am still so affectioned to it that I cannot dislike it 😅.

What's the most amusing aspect of Street Fighter - Final Challenge? Critics panned the film, and fans criticized it... but it still made over $100 million!

Rating

My critical and personal vote are:

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5/10 (critical vote)

9/10 (personal vote)

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