Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist (2014)

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This is a fan-made film available for viewing on YouTube. It was originally released as a series of 12 episodes, but with a total running time of just over 100 minutes, I think it makes more sense to consider it as a film.

Its production values and casting are certainly impressive. The characters pretty much look exactly as I imagined them. All of the fighting moves are directly inspired by the video games, down to the stances and blocks. Everything looks and feels much more authentic than any of the previous professional efforts to bring Street Fighter to cinemas.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s quite ready for prime time. I found the spoken English unintelligible at times and the pacing to be too slow. You could cut it down by a third or so and not lose much. Outside of the fighting and training scenes, it can actually get rather tiresome to watch. It doesn’t even have much of a climax, making it feel more like a very long trailer than a true standalone film.

I do hope that this team gets funding to make a true World Warrior film. Then they would have more characters to play with and more fights. The team certainly has talent and an admirable amount of love for the franchise, not to mention a greater variety of filming locations. Now, that would be a true Street Fighter film to look forward to.

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