Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a film and the second live-action film based on the Street Fighter series of video games. It follows the quest of Street Fighter character Chun-Li, who is portrayed by Smallville star Kristin Kreuk. The story follows Chun-Li's personal history and her journey for justice. The film begins with Chun Li narrating her experience growing up aspiring to be a concert pianist. But in her early childhood she is faced with having to from San Francisco to Hong Kong with her family. In addition to learning the piano, she learns Wushu from her father, Xiang, who is a well connected businessman.

Not really being a fan of Smallville, seeing Kristin Kreuk play "Chun-Li" was a pleasant surprise. She played the role well and at least kept me entertained. As far as the movie itself , one may feel a little slighted considering the begginning catches you but the overall plot was average. The narration could have been kept to a minimum but, it was borderline overbearing and awkward. Unfortunately, I am not sure of the intention that the director had for this movie but the use of weak and poorly played characters like Charlie Nash and Detective Maya Sunee did somewhat of a disservice to the movie. Two peas missing from their own pod. Now considering we have not seen Chris Klein in a few movies lately I guess he figured he would make-up for that by overplaying his part as though "he thought playing an immature detective meant acting like a 12 year old one moment and 17 otherwise."

Now if there should be the thought of making a sequel one might want to consider new direction so that some of the characters can be rehashed and never return again, a connection was lost as to what the true potential of this movie really could be. As mentioned earlier if there should be a thought of a sequel it should focus more on action, oriental intrigue, and mystery versus a pitiful law enforcement. After watching I realized the fight scenes, yet somewhat boring, were kind of fun to watch and special effects were enjoyable still minimal. The story had good intentions better than expected, just not enough juice to really push it forward. Micheal Clark Duncan and Neal McDonough, on a higher note, both were great. The deadly threat they both portrayed helped to keep the story together by giving the good guys more evil to fight off than they seemed to be able to handle. And Robin Shou was a great trainer and partner for Kristin Kreuk.

This is one of your typical video game series turned to movie, and unfortunately these types of movies do not do well. Even with a somewhat star-studded cast it still does not rise to the occasion. Maybe just maybe if their had been some more pub given to the movie it could possibly get a B- rating, but it didn't. I will say that it did a better job than Elektra and Daredevil (both of these were horrible). It kind of reminded me of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with the female being the lead character. But all in all, it was pretty ok movie nothing to jump through hoops over though.

Grade: C