Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie Review

A so-so movie sounds great on Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 9, 2009

The school girl's grown up.

The burning question in any pitch meeting for a Street Fighter-themed (related? correlated? in-name-only?) film must be this: how to translate a game that's known primarily as a punches-and-kicks one-on-one fighter into a feature length movie? It's almost like trying to create a live-action Pong or Pacman. The game, at its most basic, is so one-dimensional that it offers little that would translate to the screen. Street Fighter is no Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or any other game-turned-movie that actually features a plot that could conceivably make for a decent movie. Though the video game-turned-film genre isn't at all known for churning out quality pictures, Street Fighter encounters even more resistance, the filmmakers faced with the unenviable task of building a story where there really isn't one that can be spread out on celluloid. There's now been a couple of attempts to do so, each of them unique and neither all that good. Both films, though with unique styles and hugely divergent approaches to the material, took the characters - - in the 1994 film practically straight from the video game screen and in this outing recognizable, almost literally, through name only -- and inserted them into stories with little semblance to the game on which they are based. The previous outing an enigma that's too bad to be taken seriously but seems to want just that and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li an honest, but ultimately futile, attempt to create a universe and a new identity for the franchise, it seems that Street Fighter is down in the hole 0-2 and, sadly, just doesn't seem destined for silver screen stardom.

I don't think we're in Smallville anymore.

Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk, "Smallville") grew up a daddy's girl, learning piano at his behest but also mastering Wushu while at his side. One day, her father is kidnapped by a man known as Bison (Neal McDonough, Traitor) and his associate, Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan, Daredevil). Later in life, Chun-Li seeks her future in the form of a scroll she mysteriously receives. The scroll leads her to Bangkok where she finds a world marred by crime but no just punishments. Seeking answers both to her own life and the crime that pollutes the city, she finds herself training with a man named Gen (Robin Shou), a martial arts master and member of a secret society known as the Order of the Web, a group dedicated to helping those that cannot help themselves. With Gen's help, Chun-Li masters her fighting skills and sets out to take on Bison once and for all. Meanwhile, Bison's criminal organization, Shadaloo, has gobbled up prime real estate in Bangkok at a dirt-cheap price in hopes of building over the slums and upping its value considerably. Two police officers -- Charlie Nash (Chris Klein, Rollerball) and Maya Sunee (Moon Bloodgood, Terminator Salvation) -- are hot on Bison's trail.

If one were forced to choose a word to sum up Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, it would have to be "so?" It's sort of a fly-by-night picture that barely registered as a blip on the radar screen. With agonizingly low box office returns, poor critical reception, and little word-of-mouth, only its Street Fighter title and "Smallville's" own Kristin Kreuk in the lead role seemed viable, though obviously not bankable, selling points. No matter, because there's not much going on here to really make this a worthwhile investment of 90-some minutes. The Legend of Chun-Li is by no means a great movie, nor is it the precursor to the apocalypse. A painfully average Martial Arts, Coming-of-Age, Good Versus Evil picture with a loose video game connection, The Legend of Chun-Li delivers a rather dull, repetitive, and sometimes downright confusing story littered with uninteresting action sequences, moderately interesting backstories, and outside of Chun-Li, poorly developed characters. Though it offers up decent production values -- the sets, locations, costumes, and most of the special effects, for instance -- that are never the source of embarrassment, steady and unobtrusive directing, and a generic but effective score, The Legend of Chun-Li is nevertheless brought down considerably by its dull story line and mediocre-to-poor acting. Sometimes hard to follow and at other times not worth the effort, the tale that is told in this picture just doesn't make the cut, and the acting doesn't help matters either. Kreuk and McDonough aren't bad as opposing hero and villain, but Michael Clarke Duncan (What Happened? From The Green Mile to this?), Chris Kline, and Moon Bloodgood deliver forgettable-at-best and laughable-at-worst performances, the latter two suffering primarily from being tossed into a movie where their characters serve no real purpose.

Fortunately, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li does have one good thing going for it: it's far and away better than Jean-Claude Van Damme's take on the franchise, this one looking like Oscar gold in comparison. Unlike Street Fighter, which took most every character from the game, dressed them similarly, and groomed the actors to look like the characters, The Legend of Chun-Li features only four (rather than the dozen or so in Street Fighter) of the primary characters from the games -- Chun-Li, Bison, Balrog, and Vega -- and presents them looking vastly different than they appeared in the 1994 film or in the video games. The Legend of Chun-Li aims for a more respectable, true-to-life look and feel. While Street Fighter consistently played out like a bad cartoon come to life, The Legend of Chun-Li attempts to build a more realistic (though with an element of magic/fantasy thrown in to a few scenes) environment and more believable, not quite larger-than-life characters with specific rather than sweeping, grandiose motivations and emotions. The differences in styles is shocking, particularly when viewing the films back-to-back. Sadly, neither attempt really worked, though The Legend of Chun-Li is easily the superior film in every regard, only the quality of the acting on the whole perhaps the only arena in which the two seem to be evenly matched.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li punches up a fairly good 1080p, 2.35:1-framed transfer. Aside from some aliasing in a few shots and spotty blacks that far too often appear overly bright, this is a fine looking image from 20th Century Fox. The image sports a rather consistent grain structure that spikes on occasion but never overwhelms the picture. This adds a nice film-like appearance to the transfer. Colors appear warm and with a red push to them, but they otherwise appear vibrant and pleasing to the eye. Flesh tones tend towards a red/orange shade as a result. Detail appears consistently fantastic both far and wide, the Bangkok cityscape shots particularly impressive in their depth of field, clarity, texture, and realism, both foreground objects and buildings as far as they eye can see appearing sharp and well-defined. Close-up shots also impress. Whether a scroll that plays an important part in Chun-Li's development with its fine lines and texture or human faces, for instance Bison's goatee, the transfer reveals a consistently high level of eye-catching imagery. Not the perfect transfer but a very good one, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li makes for another quality transfer from 20th Century Fox.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This Blu-ray release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li delivers a flat-out awesome DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's most notable attribute is the hard-hitting, deep, true bass that accompanies a good portion of the track, the kind of bass that digs deep, rattles the low end with precision, and reverberates through the gut to startling effect. The deep bass is offset by some fantastic atmospherics, for instance one of the film's establishing shots in Hong Kong that features Chun Li and her father outside accompanied by chirping birds that seem to be all around the listener, the sensation effectively placing audiences in the serene locale. Still, it's the sounds of violence -- punches, kicks, gunfire, explosions -- that truly define the soundtrack. They might be a bit exaggerated and not quite lifelike for the sake of upping the ante, but for this style of movie, the delivery suits the material wonderfully. Most every action sequence delivers a startling presentation that effortlessly combines volume and clarity. Not beginning and ending with the environmental ambience, the rear channels also partake in the entirety of the soundtrack, supporting the action to fine effect and always seeming to draw the listener into the picture. Sound moves around the soundstage accurately, and discrete effects also pop up here and there with a natural air to them, never sounding forced into the track or otherwise phony. Completed by crystal-clear dialogue reproduction, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li sounds great on Blu-ray.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li features plenty of extras in this three-disc Blu-ray set that offers both the theatrical cut of the film as well as the unrated version which adds 47 seconds to the total runtime. Disc one offers all the standard supplements, beginning with a Commentary track (available on the unrated version of the film only) with Producers Patrick Aiello and Ashok Amritraj and Actors Neal McDonough and Chris Klein. This quartet discuss the origins of the project (and setting it up as an origins story), the work of the actors and their preparations for their roles, the ties to the video games, the attempt to make the characters "realistic" rather than "animated," and much more. For a track with four participants, this one isn't all that engaging, but it works well enough for the movie that's the subject of the discussion. 'Street Fighter': In-Movie Enlightenment is a running text-based trivia track that covers a wide array of Street Fighter tidbits, from both the video games and the movie. Also included are 14 deleted scenes (480p, 15:32) and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: Sneak Peak (720p, 1:13).

Disc one continues with Becoming a Street Fighter (1080i, 17:49), a piece that examines how the film came out of the video game. Topics include the decision to bring only certain characters to the film, framing it as an origins story, casting, shooting in Bangkok, ironing out the plot, and much more. Chun-Li: Bringing the Legend to Life (1080i, 6:32) features cast and crew fleshing out the story and discussing why Chun-Li's story was ripe for a motion picture and the casting of Kristin Kreuk in the role. Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making a Scene (480p, 9:26) looks at the fight choreography utilized to bring the film's action scenes to life. Recreating the Game: Arcade-to-Film Comparisons delivers a series of eight still images that compare the movie with the game. The Fight in Black and White: Storyboard Gallery grants viewers access to a collection of storyboards that cover over a dozen scenes from the film. Also included is Behind the Fight: Production Gallery, a collection of stills from the set broken down into 15 separate categories, as well as 1080p trailers for Miss March and The Marine 2.

Disc two features a digital copy of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Sampled on a second generation iPod Touch, the picture quality exhibits the usual plusses -- fair color reproduction and detail -- and the expected minus: blocking. The audio is adequate, delivering clear dialogue and sound effects that spread out well enough over the two channels. Disc three is a DVD that contains the animated film Street Fighter Round One: Fight! origins movie. Presented in 480p standard definition, viewers may choose to watch the film in two styles: animation and comic, the latter adding "text balloons" to the image that supplements the dialogue. The disc also contains a few bonus features: Dragonblade Promo Trailer, Voltron: Defender of the Universe -- Revelations Prologue, and Cover Gallery.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li plays out like a typical modern-day Martial Arts-themed Action film with only character names and its title tying it to the Street Fighter universe. Not the worst movie ever made but certainly one of the most forgettable, The Legend of Chun Li is the epitome of the "here today, gone tomorrow" motion picture. Though far superior to the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme picture and delivering a film that's more grounded in reality than its cartoonish predecessor, The Legend of Chun-Li nevertheless only passes for watchable yet completely uninteresting and devoid-of-originality filmmaking. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray, no surprise, impresses in every regard. Featuring a high quality video transfer, a reference-grade soundtrack, and plenty of extras spread across three discs, The Legend of Chun-Li enjoys a high quality technical presentation. Too bad the movie isn't as good as the rest of the package.