Video games are a billion dollar industry and every so often someone decides to try to make a movie out of one of them. They usually aren’t very good and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li doesn’t do anything to break the cycle.
The movie attempts to tell the origins of Chun Li (Kristin Kreuk), a little girl who adores her father. He is a successful businessman; Chun Li isn’t too sure of what he does. He gets kidnapped by M. Bison (Neal McDonough) and Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan) for their own purposes with Chun Li witnessing the brutal event. Years later, after a piano performance, she receives a scroll which tells her to go to Thailand. She drops everything and makes her way to Bangkok.
The scroll somehow has ignited the desire in Chun Li to find her father and learn why he was taken years ago. But first she must train with Gen (Robin Shou), who will teach her the one move that can take down Bison. Added to the nonsense is Interpol agent Charlie Nash (Chris Klein) who is trying to find the Shadaloo syndicate which has eluded him for some time, but is headed by Bison. Moon Bloodgood is Detective Maya Sunee, who is teaming up with Nash to find the syndicate. Bloodgood is good, but Klein is stiff and wooden. Even McDonough and Duncan, who are usually very good, don’t convey the villainy they should and seem to just chew the scenery during their screen time, especially Klein.
Along the way Chun Li gets into a few fights using her moves seen in the games. There’s even a brief fight with my favorite Street Fighter character Vega (Taboo), before the final fight with Bison and possibly setting things up for more Street Fighter movies.
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