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.
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.
Street Fighter IV is a graphical masterpiece, but the inevitable question remains -- which system truly showcases its aesthetic splendor? The following is a graphics comparison of Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Both were examined on the same high definition TV, using HDMI cables, and displaying in 720p. No TV-specific display settings were altered, and to ensure further consistency, both systems were individually connected and tested on the same video input and with the same HDMI cable. The photo above verifies that I have retail copies of both games and own both systems.
Pre-Comparison Assumptions:
Any serious observer of the game industry knows this for a fact -- development for the PS3 is unconventional, challenging, and not to mention expensive. For medium to large scope titles (Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto IV) PS3 games have struggled with issues of aliasing (jagged edges on character models and 3D environments) and performance (choppy or reduced frame rates). The reasons for this are diverse and -- as far as end users are concerned -- alleged, such as the notion that the PS3 does not have sufficient RAM for gaming due to half of it being reserved for the operating system, or that the cell is generally too complicated to program for. Whatever the case, we can see for ourselves that there have been disparities between 360 and PS3 games, with the PS3 version commonly being on the lower end of the quality spectrum.
I thus expected the PS3 version of Street Fighter IV to exhibit the following symptoms: (1) toned down graphics for minimal RAM consumption, and (2) aliasing. Considering that other fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV and Virtua Fighter 5 did not face performance issues on either system, I didn't expect Street Fighter IV to exhibit such a problem.
Results:
To the casual observer, the graphical differences between the two systems are negligible, perhaps even non-existent. That should be enough to say that both versions are equal. But to the more experienced viewer, we can denote the following.
The Xbox 360 version looked crisp, clean, and arguably "high-def". However here was an unexpected outcome: colors on the 360 oddly seemed faded compared to the PS3!
The PS3 version had vibrant, accentuated colors that imbued the graphics with more life and complemented the game's cartoony design. Some levels, however, looked too saturated with color, such as the Drive-In stage and the overtly red Volcano stage. The character models on the PS3 version also seemed to have more pronounced black outlines that made them distinctive from the background. On the 360, the graphics were crisp enough that the character models stood out on their own.
Unfortunately while the colors were surprisingly good on the PS3, that version still exhibited the common aliasing issue. Through close comparisons, one can discern jagged edges on character models and environments, such as on more complicated models like Rose and C. Viper, and in environments such as Seth and Blanka's respective levels. Aliasing was most apparent whenever the characters were still, such as after an Ultra finish or during a K.O.
Despite these variances, none are glaring enough to affect the end user. There wouldn't be complaints about aliasing or faded colors because such symptoms can only be seen when the two versions are closely scrutinized and compared. With this, we can conclude that Capcom has done a superb job with Street Fighter IV's graphics, and that both 360 and PS3 versions are masterpieces in their own right.
Note: Check out a more technical and comprehensive comparison from Eurogamer here.
Today is a wondrous day -- I got my SFIV Collector's Edition (Xbox 360), and it lived up to my expectations in a surprisingly good way. Below are my impressions of each of the CE components categorized in pluses and minuses.
Ties That Bind Anime (360): + High production values; excellent English voice overs + Characters are well represented and evoke some nostalgia. The plot capitalizes on the characters' evolving relationships with each other based on the events in Street Fighter II and shows how they have matured as fighters and colleagues. + Creates a solid and invigorating preamble to the game. - Xbox 360 version comes in a game application with incomplete playback functionality: the user can only pause, fast forward 2x, and skip chapters -- cannot search backwards/rewind - English dubbing is not in sync with characters' mouths - Sparse action; more dialogue and soliloquy - Could have used some fan service for Sakura and Chun Li
Original Soundtrack: + Amazing themes and nostalgic remixes; make this music a part of your daily life! - Incomplete soundtrack: Where is "The Next Door" / "Indestructible" theme song? Where is the Volcano Stage theme song that follows after?
C. Viper Figurine: + Painted with intricate detail - Could have been bigger -- model is only about 10 cm in length and 6 cm tall
Collector's Hint Book + Art by Udon for every move description - Only 12 pages long; the size of the pamphlet is smaller than the instruction booklet - Covers only new characters; presents partial moves list and only one basic combo per character
Brawler Pack DLC + Free alternate costumes for Abel, E. Honda, Zangief, El Fuerte, and Rufus - Marketing for this item was ambiguous and misleading; made consumers think they could select five alternate costumes of their choosing
CLOSING STATEMENTS: While there were controversy and frustration surrounding the Collector's Edition, I thought they were well justified by the additional $20 tag price. The items I enjoyed the most were The Ties That Bind anime and the original soundtrack. Any true Street Fighter fan should not be without those two items at the very least. Thumbs up for a satisfying package!
