Remember playing the Street Fighter video games as a kid? You would be Ryu and you’re buddy would be either Ken, Dhalism or Blanca and you’d shoot some sweet “faadookens” at him.Remember Chun-Li?Didn’t think so.So, the question is, why in the world did they make a movie about her? I’m not sure why they would either, but let’s take a look at it anyway.”Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” is directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (“Doom,” “Exit Wounds”).It tells the story of street fighter character Chun-Li’s (Kristin Kreuk) rise to heroine status in her quest to avenge the death of her father at the hands of the ruthless international business tycoon Bison (Neal McDonough).Also starring in this film is Chris Klein as Interpol Agent Charlie Nash and Michael Clark Duncan as Bison’s right hand man, Balrog.One of “Street Fighters” major flaws is the fact that it takes itself way too seriously. Screenwriter Justin Marks strays extremely far from the Street Fighters cartoonish video game origins. Marks attempts at recreating a Batman or Bond film seem misplaced – he grinds out a darker, grittier edge to the film, minus the necessary melodrama.Where those movies succeed in making believers out of the audience, “Street Fighter” drastically fails.Chris Klein’s laughable portrayal of a “badass been there, done that renegade” cop was one of the lamest attempts at acting since Keanu Reeves in 2008’s remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”For some reason, Bartkowiak seemed perfectly content with Klein merely saying his lines with the same “I’m too cool” smirk on his face, rather than delivering a line with any hint of real expression or true motivation. That, or Bartkowiak realized too late that Klein was a bad actor.When I wasn’t sitting there and disappointedly shaking my head at Klein’s performance, the trite dialogue or the unimaginative fight scenes and plot (which were a total knockoff of the Bruce Wayne/Batman origin story) left me speechlessly baffled.Lucky for you, I got my voice back: just as no one wants to play Chun-Li in the Street Fighter video games, why would one go see her movie?
