Disclaimer: The following contains spoilers. Do not read unless you have already watched the movie or are not planning to watch it.

The Legend of Chun-Li received a large amount of negative reviews, and for a good reason. Nonetheless, from a personal perspective, it does have a few things going for it. Below is my review divided in pros and cons.

What worked:

+ Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li: Kristen Kreuk showed a Chun-Li that was both strong yet fragile, courageous yet vulnerable. She wore the adorable babyface during her weak moments, and delivered the deep voice and confident smile during her strong ones. While I was initially skeptical of her casting, the movie this rendition of Chun-Li as being half Caucasian and half Asian, which I thought was fair enough.

+ Neal McDonough as Bison: Another surprising treat was how this new Bison worked out. He had no red military outfit, but Neal McDonough portrayed a ruthless businessman who would stop at nothing to fulfill his goals. In a world where dictators are few and far between, the next closest threat is an immorally ambitious entrepreneur.

+ Attempt at a serious tone: Street Fighter fans have matured and so it's no surprise why the studio attempted a more serious, gritty tone. The movie is violent: Bison hangs his assistant and punches her to death; Bison snaps Chun-Li's father's neck before her while she is bound in captivity; and Chun-Li snaps Bison's neck with her legs, twisting his head 180-degrees in front of his daughter.

What failed:

- Misrepresented characters: Regardless of how serious the studio wanted this film to be, it does not excuse them from deviating so far from the source material and excluding each character's distinguishing traits. Most of the characters bear no resemblance to their videogame counterparts, and viewers wouldn't be able to tell who they were without the characters being called out by name. Also, despite a considerable build-up, Vega (Claw) got killed off in what seemed less than two minutes!

- Gaping setups and plot holes: How is it that Chun-Li can conveniently use the Internet to find Bison whereas Interpol takes the entire movie to do it? If Bison can simply capture the family members of important businessmen for ransom, why does he need Chun-Li's father for his contacts? And why does Chun-Li narrate the obvious throughout the movie (e.g., "My father is an important person," and out comes his father from a fancy car, holding a briefcase.)

- Terrible acting: Just about every character has a scene where they must feel embarrassed for their performance, though none as constant as Charlie Nash, played by Chris Klein. Every word he uttered seemed forced, as if he was reading off a cue card, and his facial expressions looked as though they were generated by animatronics. He ruined every scene he was in, which caused hilarity to ensue in the audience during my theatrical viewing.

- Low budget feel: The movie probably did not have a lot of money to work with, but it tragically shows in the repetitious settings and lackluster special effects. The whole movie looked like it took place in a single neighborhood. Some explosions even appeared superimposed against the picture instead of using actual pyrotechnics.

- Inevitable camp: The studio was avoiding camp at all costs but Chris Klein's awful performance injected all the camp this movie pledged to avert. Then you have random lines from other characters, like Bison's milk analogy -- "Even milk has an expiration date," when referring to how he no longer needed Chun-Li's father right before killing him.

All in all, The Legend of Chun-Li is a failure as a movie, but there are still some noteworthy aspects such as Kristin Kreuk and Neal McDonough's performances. Only people weathered by B-movies in the 90s should be able to tolerate this film.

- GB

There's a new IGN interview of the cast of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Check it out.

A noteworthy moment: Chris Klein (Nash), hoping to diminish any preconceived notions from the first Street Fighter movie, says, "One thing I want to remind everybody... is that you forget that old movie and don't worry about it."

Then on the next scene, Neal McDonough (Bison), obliterates Chris's attempt like a true dictator by saying, "I certainly hope it doesn't erase the memory of the older film because the older film was terrific..." Michael Clark Duncan (Balrog) nods in agreement while Taboo (Vega), being the wiser of the bunch, looks at the camera in disbelief.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li hits movie theaters this Friday, 2/27. There are talks of a Sakura anime after the end credits, but that may not hold true for North American movie theaters.

- GB