Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.5

Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie Review

Mill Creek has released the 1994 dud 'Street Fighter' to Blu-ray. This presentation includes newly encoded MPEG-4 video, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless audio, and plenty of new and returning extras. The film was previously released to Blu-ray in 2009 by Universal. That disc did not feature good video, and neither does this one. Fans will want to double dip for the new extras and exclusive SteelBook packaging, but there's not much, if any, incentive to upgrade if the A/V presentation is of paramount, or only, concern.

Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To be blunt, Street Fighter looks pathetic on Blu-ray. Universal's 1080p transfer, that one encoded in VC-1, looked rather poor, but this is a downgrade even from that middling presentation. This one holds to the same basic qualities and characteristics and worsens the surrounding elements to make an epically bad Blu-ray befitting an equally epically bad movie. Stair-stepping and jagged edges are commonplace. Edge enhancement is present and accounted for. Worse, the picture shows severe signs of de-noising and re-sharpening. Grain is left looking clumpy, snowy, spiky, everything but natural. Compression issues suddenly render various surfaces blocky, returning to smooth, and blocky again, sometimes within the blink of an eye. Details are very poor; one would be hard-pressed to recognize this as true 1080p Blu-ray rather than an upscaled DVD. The image shows the occasional speckle and spot but whatever clean-up work was not performed is the least of the image's concern. Colors lack boldness and vividness. The Allied Nations blue lacks depth. Skin tones are pasty and unconvincing, and black levels are in a sad state. So is this entire Blu-ray, for that matter.

Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mill Creek's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is not far removed from Universal's effort from long ago. This one is loud, decently detailed, but not in perfect, harmonious balance. The track never wants for volume, front end width, and surround integration. It does a good job of masking any of its inherent shortcomings with aggression. Listeners will enjoy the fruitful abundance of sound, and since clarity and definition are not lacking to any serious degree, the net effect is quite fun. Music, action, and ambience are all bold and powerful. Dialogue is clear and center focused for the duration. The track is only some fine-tuning away from reaching top tier. As it is, it's quite a bit of fun and easily the best part of this presentation.

Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

First, a few words on the SteelBook. It's glossy-smooth and will show some handling fingerprints in its darker areas. The front panel feature a collage of Street Fighter characters, with Guile bottom center and Bison top center. Chun-Li, Cammy, Balrog, Honda, Ken, and Ryu also appear. The rear panel depicts a transformed take on Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps with Bison replacing the infamous French leader. The spine features the film's title center over a black background. Guile's portrait appears up top, the Bison logo at the bottom, and Mill Creek and Blu-ray logos below that. The inner panel features Guile, Cammy, and T. Hawk on the left and Bison on the right. Also included inside is a replica of the $100 bill featured in the film with Bison's portrait on it. It comes in an envelope that is big enough to hold several more. It's a cool touch that collectors will enjoy. The SteelBook also includes a transparent plastic slipcover with the title on the front and basic back matter on the rear.

This new Blu-ray from Mill Creek actually contains a large number of new extras, comprised of cast and crew interviews. It also includes a number of legacy extras from the 2009 Blu-ray. See below for a list of what's included; the new extras largely speak for themselves. They're actually very interesting, too; for what amounts to a lousy movie it's quite a bit of fun listening to the stories behind the film, the characters and actors, and all of the bits and pieces that went into bringing it to the screen. There is also a cool JCVD retrospective.

• NEW! Operation Shadaloo: Making Street Fighter (Extended Version) (1080p, 19:58): A new interview with Writer/Director Steven E. de Souza.
• NEW! I Will Crush You: Ken vs. Chapa (1080p, 11:18): A new interview with Actor Damian Chapa.
• NEW! Game Over: Scoring Street Fighter (1080p, 10:08): A new interview with Composer Graeme Revell.
• NEW! It Was Tuesday: Producing Street Fighter (1080p, 5:19): A new interview with Ed Pressman.
• NEW! The Strongest Woman in the World: Ming-Na vs Chun-Li (1080p, 8:00): A new interview with Ming-Na Wen.
• NEW! Ultimate Badass: JCVD at Universal (1080p, 11:49): A new interview with Author David J. Moore.
• NEW! Attack Me If You Dare: Game vs. Film (1080p, 10:32): A new interview with Street Fighter game historian Oliver Harper.
• The Making of Street Fighter
• Outtakes
• Deleted Scenes
• Crisis in Shadaloo
• Archives
• Feature Commentary
• Trailers

Street Fighter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mill Creek has done well with the supplementary part of this release -- the new extras are genuinely good and the SteelBook case looks nice (and the Bison money is quite the fun surprise). However, most fans will probably wish the studio spent that money on a better video transfer. For hardcore fans of the film only.