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The first Street Fighter reviews are in… and while they’re mixed to negative at best, they’re still better than the 1994 film.
As it stands, Street Fighter, directed by Kitato Sakurai, has a score of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the new live-action film, Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo) enter the World Warrior Tournament after some convincing from Chun-Li (Callina Liang), whose mission is to defeat the incredibly evil and foolish M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).
“Street Fighter is content to bash itself and everything embarrassing about the ’90s, while happily stuck there in the past, so it could pretend this is the best video game adaptations there are,” The Guardian wrote.
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Our own reviewer gave it 2.5/5 stars and wrote: “A Miss Overload: a hyper-edited, joke-filled, tonally inconsistent film that ends halfway through its own story. But instead of leaving you wanting more, you’re left with a headache.”
The New York Times gave the film a more positive review, saying, “It just feels like the natural zenith of an arcade gamer’s imagination, the result” and then and then “of wrestler fantasies run amok. By the end, you can practically see the ’90s kid smashing and kicking the air on his way out of the theater.”
The 1994 film currently has a 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, although Raúl Julia, playing M. Bison, should increase that number to at least 30%. That said, I guess you’ll have to go see the new movie for yourself (or both, which could be a fun or incredibly middle-of-the-road 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 opens in theaters on October 16. For more information, check out our list of upcoming video game movies and our ranking of the best video game movies.