The New Street Fighter Movie Misses the Knockout Blow: Review

The 2026 Street Fighter movie features David Dastmalchian as the antagonist M. Bison, delivering a performance Polygon describes as a masterclass in B-movie camp. While the film includes several stunning animated sequences produced by Titmouse, Polygon characterizes the movie as one of the year's sloppiest, cringiest, and most incoherent films, suggesting director Kitao Sakurai lacks a clear vision for the project.

The story begins with an anime-style flashback set at a fighting tournament in Thailand, where the protagonist Ryu, played by Andrew Koji, loses control of his rage. Following a jump forward several years to the early 1990s, Ryu is in hiding while Ken, played by Noah Centineo, has become a washed-up celebrity. The plot advances when Bison announces a second fighting tournament.

Consequence notes that the film is positioned to be the best Street Fighter movie ever made, given that the 1994 and 2009 adaptations are considered two of the worst video game adaptations.

Brief written by urgent.news from Consequence, Polygon — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.