I had huge expectations with this one as I am a huge Street Fighter fan. However, I am fairly disappointed.The plusses are few; the story is OK, and pretty much all characters are there, although most of them are in a special appearance. There is some good music and some good action scenes. And of course, Chun Li looks pretty and her nude scene (uncut version) will be a treat for every heterosexual male.However the negatives are plenty. The movie is too boring and could be easily trimmed by 20-25 minutes. Ryu and Ken miss each other like hell but when they do meet up, it seems like they don't really care. Guile is very annoying, he plays the "bully" whereas M.Bison irritates to the hilt. The characters are largely annoying whether that is their voices or "character" in the movie.The live movie starring Van Damme was much better than this.

9/20/2005WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS FILM, THEN PLEASE DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING REVIEW!Still with me? Good.Let me just say "Street Fighter 2" has always been one of the greatest video games I have ever played. Ever. To me, it is even better than the Mortal Kombat franchise. But whenever the Street Fighters get TV shows or films, there always has to be something wrong with it."Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie" has a pretty good story idea going for it and good action. Lots of it. I mean, the film even opens with a fight between Ryu and Sagat! It's quite nice, too, with shots of a crack of lightning in the night sky and the wind blowing on the grassy ground in between footage of kicks and punches between the fighters. Ryu soon gets the upper hand, literally, by doing the famous "Dragon Punch" that knocks Sagat down. Sagat gets mad. Blue electricity comes out of nowhere and to Ryu's hands. Sagat charges at Ryu, roaring in anger. Ryu makes a "Hadouken" fireball with the electricity and tosses it at Sagat. Needless to say, the fight's over.Later, after an assassination with a brainwashed Cammy (who, while she is a very cool character, has a brief cameo), Chun Li of Interpol reveals the evil Shadowlaw organization is brainwashing fighters into doing their bidding. Chun Li works with Guile of the U.S. Special Forces on finding Bison, though he's not too happy with it at first. The head of Shadowlaw, M. Bison, wants to find Ryu because of his impressive fighting level (over 3,000!) and because he beat his main henchman, Sagat. The problem: Ryu travels all over the place to test his skills and can't be found.Bison isn't happy with Guile and Chun Li messing with his plans, so he later sends one of his other henchmen, Vega, to kill her at her home. Chun Li wins, but is badly hurt from the fight. Meanwhile, Ryu's old friend and former fellow student, Ken Masters, is waiting for his rematch with Ryu to test his skills. Ken is wealthy, has a lovely fiancée - and becomes Bison's target to replace Ryu. Elsewhere, after witnessing a fight with Dhalsim, Ryu befriends sumo Edmond Honda and stays with him for a while. Guile eventually finds Ryu and tells him of Ken's abduction. Bison arrives with his other henchman, Balrog (don't worry, he's the last one), and a brainwashed Ken. Balrog fights Honda and Balrog loses. Guile takes on Bison, but loses. Ryu fights his brainwashed friend, snaps him out of Bison's control and, after Ryu takes on Bison alone at first, a wounded Ken returns to help Ryu in the last fight.However, despite cool fights and a wonderful, often beautiful musical score, the movie has a lot of weak points. The non-stop action is fun, but since the PG-13 version clocks in at 94 minutes, it's a short movie, which means short fights. Lots of them. And also lots of cameos of the characters from the game. But we don't even find out how they learned their fantastic fighting moves and powers! And most characters get little back story, if any.For example, Sagat is a cool, tough evil fighter, but he gets one lousy fight. There are cameos from some of the coolest characters in the game, but they get brief fights and no explanation of how they learned their powers or where they come from. And while the brief fights can be cool, but most are just annoying, like the Zangief and Blanka fight. The characters are mentioned by name and share a brief fight, which ends when Blanka electrocutes Zangief in an unintentionally comical manner, but that's all we see of the characters and know of them. Other cool things that should have been further explored in the plot, though, are merely mentioned and briefly shown - such as the death of Chun Li's father from Bison's hand and Bison taunting Guile with how he killed his partner. But they don't get into the common hatred Guile and Chun Li have to Bison. Heck, Guile doesn't care much for Chun Li till she nearly dies fighting Vega.Speaking of deaths, we don't know if any characters die in the film! Vega seemingly dies after the fight with Chun Li. Bison sends Sagat to kill him, if he isn't dead already, and Cammy, who has been in custody with no memory after the assassination. Zangief could be killed after being shocked by Blanka. But since most characters get cameos and underdeveloped roles, we don't know what's going on here. And don't even get me started on the corny ending.This film is no Street Fighter 2. Heck, it's not even "Street Fighter". Some may have hated it, but I prefer the live action version over this film. Why? Because underdeveloped character development, brief lame fights and a weak story doesn't excuse the fact this is film, while good and entertaining, is certainly no Street Fighter 2.

this is my first comment on a movie that i didn't finish--- I had to shut this one off.I was over a friend's house who insisted that i watch this Manga classic. I fear the most and got it. Maybe I've gotten too old or something. I have little to compare this movie with. Akira was much better and so was Ghost in the Shell--- this thing stunk to high heaven. The animation was nice but there is too many characters--- it constantly introduces news faces every three minutes. I get a little upset when characters fight in these type of movies--- they always have moves that you can't 'do' in the video games--- and then I start thinking about how ridiculous I am.And I didn't think that Ken was from Seattle, I always imagined somewhere in California, like more of a surfer dude--- i guess there is surfing off of Washington too.

I am a big fan of the Street Fighter II video games. If anyone wanted an alternate source for the title other than the game and the live action movie then this is your great alternative! All of the classic characters are in it! M. Bison, Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Zangief, T. Hawk, Chun-Li, Sagat, Vega, Guile, E. Honda, Fei Long, Dhalsim, Cammy, DeeJay, Vega, and Balrog! In My opinion all of the characters look exactly like they do in the video game. The male characters look super and the female fighters look absolutely gorgeous! The animation is so crisp and clean! I have read that are two versions but I have seen the American version. This film may not be suitable for youngsters because of the minor language such as "hell" and "damn" and blood coming from the characters' wounds. Another is a very surprising scene where Chun-Li is taking a shower and then she puts on a night gown type shirt and some underwear and when she fights Vega you see this and even though that this may be uncalled for in an animated feature but I thought it was cute and animated very realistically. More on that in a second. Another thing was the music. Really music though out the entire film! M. Bison and his men were really introduced properly. It was like this was a real movie. One thing to explain is when Chun-Li was in her apartment minding her own business after she got out of the shower and Vega just came barging in. I really liked the fight between Chun-Li and Vega! That scene was really animated well. Another is near the end when M. Bison, Ryu, and Ken are fighting. I believe that the fight scenes in this feature are some of the greatest fight scenes I've seen and I'm commenting on an animated movie! The fighting in the animated feature is simply amazing and I really liked how realistic everything was! If you like the Street Fighter II video games and the Street Fighter live action movie with Jean Claude-Van Damme and the late great Raul Julia (which by the way I think Julia's role as M. Bison was arguably his greatest ever!) then I strongly recommend that you watch this movie now!