February 10, 2009

Are you tired of boring reality shows and crappy modern cartoons? Then “Quick change the channel.” Or rather change the input on your TV and turn on you Blu-Ray player for some action packed martial arts fighting and put in Street Fighter: Extreme Edition on Blu-Ray disc. As everyone knows that GCM is a video game review site so any movie based upon a video game is a welcoming sight, especially with the release of Street Fighter IV only a week away. I am a huge fan of the Street Fighter series as well as the movie, so this review is a real treat for me.

Back before the days of Uwe Boll and his atrocities to all gamers with his horrible video game movie adaptations, there were several very good video game movie titles. Mortal Kombat, Double Dragon, Super Mario Bros. and Tomb Raider are all nicely made movie titles. Sure most of these titles were made right up until the point of Boll’s entrance into the genre. That being said I will continue with my review of Street Fighter: Extreme Edition.

Street Fighter released to the theatres back in 1994 and it remains as probably my favorite live action movie adaptation. Street Fighter tells several stories at once but blends them all together quite nicely. The overall plot however is the Allied Nations’ fight to take down the evil, mad, psychopathic General M. Bison.

As Director Steven de Souza, says in the audio commentary this film was a huge undertaking due to the sheer number of characters that he had to work into the film. The film features 15 of the 16 Street Fighter II characters minus Fei Long and to me that is just awesome. There hasn’t been a live action adaptation that has even come close to that many characters from one game, and that includes Mortal Kombat which films only reach 12 by combining two games into its first film.

Street Fighter takes place in the fictional country of Shadaloo located in south East Asia. The Allied Nations have just taken over a port city and we learn via Chun-Li that 63 relief workers have been captured by M. Bison's forces. To make matters worse 3 Allied Nations soldiers including Guile's friend Carlos Blanka.

Ryu and Ken also happen to be in the country, however portraying conmen that get on Sagat's bad side after trying them toy guns. The two are then forced to fight in Sagat's underground arena, but are unluckily arrested as Guile crashes the party in a huge vehicle equipped with missiles. Guile, who does not know exactly where Bison’s secret base is, emplaces Ken and Ryu into Sagat’s band of thugs. Things then kick off as the boys try to aid Guile while trying not to blow their cover.

Along the way Chun-Li and her news crew E. Honda the sumo, and Balrog the boxer, enter to put a dent in Bison and Sagat’s weapons of destruction. Each of these three has a personal vendetta against the crimson garbed lunatic. Guile is just there to be very American-like and stop a tyrant from taking over the world, oh and Bison has Charlie.

The one thing that sets Street Fighter apart from most videogame film adaptations is that each live action character slowly transitions into their pixilated counterparts. It’s even better when it is done believably, well with the exception of Blanka that is. Certain character would get their martial arts garbs naturally, or pickup a pair of boxing gloves. Raul Julia is the only actor to stay in costume the entire time, as it couldn’t happen any other way. Everything about Street Fighter was crafted to make sense, one way or another.

Filmmaking: 8
Steven de Souza did a good if not amazing job directing this film. Given that this film was made when wires were used to make characters fly across the stages, and the visual effect were not like they are today but the film is testament to the fact that there ARE good videogame movies out there. Steven de Souza also did a good job incorporating little homage’s to the game Street Fighter II, such as the wall mural from E. Honda’s stage and the bell from M. Bison’s stage. You can even find other references to the game and its maker Capcom in the film as well if you look close enough. One of my favorite inclusions into the film was Guile and M. Bison’s victory phrases from the game. I also really liked the victory poses by all of the Street Fighter characters, seen at the end of the movie that mimics the poses for winning Street Fighter II under certain conditions.

Visuals: 8
Street Fighter: Extreme Edition on Blu-Ray is presented in 1080p and maintains the original 2.35:1 widescreen format as the 1998 DVD release and uses a VC-1 codec. For the most part, Street Fighter: Extreme Edition looks amazing on Blu-Ray. There are only a few instances where the film shows its age. Any time where there is smoke of fog or a dark scene, the grain starts to show. These instances are not to be confused with the purposely-grained TV reporter segments seen through out the film.

Street Fighter: Extreme Edition does particularly shine during outdoor scenes as well in any scene taking place inside of Bison’s fortress. The actor’s facial features are shown quite well especially on close up shots. As always Bison’s TV wall is just awesome to watch especially when you find out via commentary that there is over 30 hours of footage playing on all of the monitors in Bison’s base, throughout the film. I also liked all of the warped war propaganda that can be seen throughout M. Bison’s base.

Sound: 8
Street Fighter: Extreme Edition delivers ever punch, kick and weapons fire in 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as Espanol and French DTS 5.1 Surround Sound. While the movie sounds good I found that there was almost no sound coming out of my rear speakers during the entire film. Personally I love getting the full use of my Surround Sound whenever I can, but considering this film’s age I take what I can get. It would have been nice to have something coming out of the rear speakers though.

Value: 8
Street Fighter: Extreme Edition features many Universal Blu-Ray staples such as My Scenes, User Guide and BD-Live. This film however due to its age does not have U-Control. It does however have several nice features available though. The extras include Hi-Def game and anime trailers to the soon to be released Street Fighter IV as well as the standard additional features that were on the Collector’s Edition that release nearly 10 years ago.

Buyers of Street Fighter: Extreme Edition will have access to “The Making of Street Fighter”, Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Storyboard and Videogame Sequences sans well as Archives. There are even excerpts from Universal’s own Cyberwalk website that was available when this film first released. However my favorite extra was the Feature Commentary by Steven de Souza. I enjoyed learning things that I never noticed before or interesting facts about characters, sets and even the production itself. Street Fighter: Extreme Edition retails for around $20 dollars at most retailers and is well worth the money.

Overall: 8.4
Like I mentioned Street Fighter was one of the few good film adaptations of a video game, and really the only one that I really like… well besides Tomb Raider but that’s for an entirely different reason. The film gave us some of the most remembered quotes of its time. The most well known being Bison’s conversation with Chun-Li about it only being a Tuesday for him. Street Fighter was also the last film that Raul Julia ever did before he died and I like many others believe that it was one of his finest roles. He gave the role his very best and for that I am thankful.

Street Fighter: Extreme Edition definitely transferred over to Blu-Ray quite well, despite a few scenes that show the film’s age. For me this film is purely nostalgic and I would pick this title up in a heartbeat given the chance. I am a huge fan and I recommend Street Fighter: Extreme Edition on Blu-Ray to any fan of the game or the movie.