New Street Fighter Movie, Van Damme Thankfully Missing

Oh boy, do we all know how well movies based on video games do, but how about remakes of movies based on video games? Back in ’94 good ole Steven de Souza favored our eyes and ears with what could be considered silver screen’s first game-turned-film ultra flop. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and featuring Raul Julia’s final performance, Street Fighter was an awful hodge podged excuse to ride the gravy train that ruled the arcades and early home consoles.

Earlier today, Capcom announced that, once again, the tournament fighters will return to the cinema to help celebrate Street Fighter’s 20th anniversary. Set for release in 2009, the movie takes a different path (preferably FAR from Guile and Cammy) and follows Chun-Li’s story. Tentatively titled “The Legend of Chun Li”, Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk will don the blue mini-skirt alongside American Pie’s Chris ‘drunk-drivin’ Klein. Surprisingly, Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan is on board to play boxer Balrog in the film. Finshing off the known cast is Neal McDonough (Minority Report) as M. Bison and Black Eyed Peas member Taboo as Wolverine wannabe Vega.

I really don’t know what to say about this. The first movie was abysmal. It single handedly created the low benchmark for films based on popular games. I’m certain a decent movie could be made using these characters in a more realistic light, but the audience generally expects fireballs to explode from the hands of the fighters and large russian men in spandex to pile drive their opponents which is, let’s face it, just silly. I guess I can hold judgement for now and hope Michael Clarke knows better than to get mixed up in a box-office bomb.