Street Fighter first reactions: phenomenal fights, but the tone didn't land for me

I've seen Street Fighter. My short version: the fight scenes are phenomenal, but the movie's goofier tone didn't land for me. It's still not terrible, and I can see a lot of people having a blast with it.

On the business side, the movie was projected to open to around $70 million worldwide, with a domestic opening in the $25 million to $35 million range. Chris Carr joined me to talk it through.

Street Fighter's $80 million budget looks like much more on screen

As far as the box office goes, I think this movie will do well. The film cost $80 million, and good on them for that, because it's got a big cast and it looks like a really big budget movie. Most places that make movies like this are spending $150 million on something that looks like this.

If they can make a profit on this, then that's good business on them for sure.

Chris Carr is excited for Street Fighter's exaggerated look

Chris hasn't seen the movie yet, but he's been really excited about the aesthetic. "I like that they lean hard into those kind of overexaggerated character looks," he said, explaining that this is one of his favorite things about the game.

Chris thinks we sometimes run into the question of whether to make adaptations like this hyper realistic and grounded. For something like Street Fighter, he finds it fun to lean into "the kind of absurdity of it," and he's hoping that's what he gets from the movie, since that's what the previews make it look like.

Why I couldn't wait for Street Fighter

I remember being a kid and playing Street Fighter at the pizza place. We would go there and just play it all day long. So when I saw the trailers, I was through the roof and couldn't wait for this.

I wanted Street Fighter to strike the Mortal Kombat 2 tone

There are times this movie gets me and I'm locked in. At other times, the tone feels like a mixture. I thought the tone of Mortal Kombat 2 was perfect for that movie. There's some humor in it, and they try to get serious even if you don't take them seriously. Who cares? They're trying to put together an emotional story with Johnny Cage and the rest, and I think that kind of tone works for these particular movies.

Street Fighter is a little goofier and a little lighter, and they kind of had to be, because you have green monsters flipping around the place and a guy with a ridiculous hairdo. This is going to be a me thing, because I've already seen people who saw this movie and don't agree with me, and that's totally fine.

Some of it is really goofy and teetering on Masters of the Universe territory, where I want to say, let's relax for a little bit. Are these characters real or not? Or just lean into it 100% if you're going to go full goofy. Sometimes the movie suddenly wants you to take it seriously, and I'd just seen a scene that made it hard to lock into something serious.

Andrew Schulz surprised me, while Ken's story didn't click

I didn't really laugh much. Cody Rhodes made me laugh a couple of times, and he was pretty good. Surprisingly enough, I thought Andrew Schulz had one of the better performances in it. He was a little bit more subtle.

I didn't lock into Noah Centineo, and I don't know if that was his fault. I think it might have been the director, because I didn't really get on board with Ken's story, but again, that might be a me thing. I thought the actor who played Ryu was pretty good, and Chun-Li was really good. I liked her a lot.

I love David Dastmalchian, who plays Bison, but I don't think he really has enough to do.

The fight scenes are phenomenal, but I was hoping for a tournament movie

The fight scenes are phenomenal. I just wish the movie had more to do with the tournament. I was hoping for a tournament movie.

I will say I would like to see a sequel.

Eric André, and why Street Fighter could still do well

I'm not an Eric André guy, I think. Chris pointed out that he doesn't think André's sense of humor meshes with mine. I don't know him as a person. His character is supposed to be obnoxious, and I think he was meant to be obnoxious and funny, but it didn't work for me.

People might be on a very different page, because you can have a blast with this movie. I wanted to have more fun with it and didn't. But like the way that Kalinowski responded to Masters of the Universe, I can see a lot of people responding to this, so I could see this movie doing well. It just didn't land with what I like.

I saw someone's comment yesterday that I loved. He wrote, "Look, a lot of times we're on the same page," but said we weren't on this one, because he really enjoyed it. As he put it, you're not supposed to agree with everybody all the time.

Chris Carr thinks not everything is made for everyone

Chris agreed: "everything's not made for everyone is the thing." He noted that as a very specific and diehard He-Man fan, I was never going to mesh with that version. For him, as somebody who watched the Christmas special and knows She-Ra, that movie was perfect.

I get it, but I need characters to be grounded to the reality they're in. That's the thing about Masters for me. Any time it gave you a chance to be serious, it felt like the movie interrupted it with a bit. You can be in a wacky world. I always use the example of doing Ragnarok and not Love and Thunder, because Ragnarok is goofy but it settles into some emotional moments and gives you some character. To me, that's the gold standard if you're trying to hit that tone.

I would have loved to see a version of what Mortal Kombat 2 did for this movie. But Street Fighter is lighter and more cartoony by nature, even when you play the game, so I understand the argument that this tone works. Maybe I was just hoping for a tournament movie.

Would you rather see Street Fighter go fully goofy or aim for a more grounded tone?