During this week’s CinemaCon, movie fans were treated to a new Street Fighter trailer. And it looks…incredibly silly, in not just a good way, but an interesting one.
Now more than ever, IP adaptations are judged by the amount of instant fidelity to the source material they show. “When will Daredevil get his double-Ds?,” “Batman should have the white eyes,” and other similar talking points can overwhelm general discussion as everyone tries to link that to the creators’ devotion or insecurity to what they’re currently in charge of. This is further heightened in video games, where interactivity creates an extra layer of attachment to a character. So when an adaptation shows off its first production still of an actor playing a main character, everyone’s got thoughts to share. It’s one thing to be aware that Sophie Turner will play Lara Croft, , and another to actually see her in the classic outfit, shades and all.
Capcom makes iconic characters, and that’s especially true for Street Fighter. So when our first look of this movie was a goofy, hip-hop fueled teaser, folks were understandably a bit put off by how some things looked. (Seeing 50 Cent rock Balrog’s hairline is a throwback in the worst way.) While most of the cast came off well in motion, the character posters basically undermined that and reminded you the importance of intentional lighting. The costuming was especially jarring when looking at its cinematic rival Mortal Kombat II, whose cast all look like their characters without leaning too far into uncanny territory.
But with Street Fighter’s new trailer, it’s clear the goofiness isn’t a bug, it’s the entire feature. Instead of striving for realism, director Kitao Sakurai looks to be wrapping the movie around the franchise’s sillier elements, like the games’ vehicle-destroying bonus stages. The particular energy it’s going for gives its fights and locations a splash more personality than anyone was likely expecting, a choice likely informed by there no getting around everyone in these games constantly doing impossible things. Unlike with other CG-heavy movies, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a dealbreaker for Ryu’s Hadouken or Zangief do the Running Bear Grab to look uncanny in live-action.
For every person who picks up what Street Fighter’s putting down, there’ll be another camp put off by it, thinking the filmmakers pulled some kind of joke on Capcom. The developer can’t exactly beat those allegations, given its track record with adaptations. For whatever reason, there doesn’t appear to be any visible oversight on the studio’s end whenever Western creatives try bringing its IP to TV or film. Maybe it’s just secure in the strength of its games or trusts in the relationship between adaptations and game sales, but this approach feels incredibly rare for a major developer.
That can you can feel Nintendo or Sony’s presence looming over their adaptations can create an increasingly unpleasant feeling as they become more popular. Video game adaptations have spent years striving for legitmacy, so it means something that Capcom’s employing a “fuck it, we ball” strategy with the likes of Resident Evil and Street Fighter. If we’re going to keep getting these movies and shows, ones based on the IP should at least try asking the audience to meet it on its own terms. That kind of self-assuredness is something Capcom’s always been good at, and it seems to have served the studio’s games quite well lately—so it’s easy to imagine that working in favor of its flagship fighting franchise on the big screen.
Street Fighter is in theaters on October 16.
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