We've seen a surge in video game movies that are somehow watchable with Super Mario Bros, the Sonic movies, Jumanji.. while I wouldn't call the Minecraft movie good, it made a whole bunch of money. I've long believed video games should have as much right to raid our pockets as poorly conceived book projects or TV show continuations. But Street Fighter The Movie didn't need to happen the first time.
Somehow, we're going again, with WWE powerhouse Roman Reigns the latest to join the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. There is a concerning lack of actual, ya know, actors mentioned in the cast so far. 50 Cent will play Balrog. Country singer Orville Peck will play Vega because he likes wearing masks?
I get that we shouldn't expect Oscar-worthy actors to be clamoring for this on their resume, problem being the last Street Fighter movie had one. Wait, I forgot about Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li, and I'm fairly sure I reviewed that one for somebody. Oh my God, the late Michael Clarke Duncan was in that one!
OK, the last two Street Fighter movies have had Oscar worthy actors. I was originally referring to Raul Julia, who took the role because his kids loved Street Fighter. He understood the assignment and gave us the classic meme, "For me, it was Tuesday."
Those movies had some great actors and still managed to be steaming piles. That doesn't inspire a whole lot of hope in me for this project. I mean, I'm going to see it, as I've seen every other one of these video game movies I mentioned. But now that we've seen several good video game movies, won't the audience start expecting more?