Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie

2001
5.8| 1h40m| NR| en
Details

Increasingly disturbed by the dark energies building within him, Ryu is confronted by Shun, a boy claiming to be the brother he never knew. But before Ryu can consider whether Shun's timely appearance might be more than coincidental, Shun is kidnapped by Shadowlaw. To recover Shun, Ryu must undertake the ultimate journey of self-discovery and learn to control the power threatening to consume him.

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Reviews

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
xamtaro To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Street Fighter game franchise, Group TAC released "Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation" five years after the highly fan acclaimed "Street Fighter II: The Animated movie". Many reviews have criticized this movie based on what the reviewer thought SHOULD be in the movie. Some wanted a direct adaptation of the Street fighter Alpha game storyline, other reviewers dissed the show just because some characters were not featured. This will be a true review of the movie itself, not of what i expected to be in the movie.True to its title, Street Fighter Alpha borrows the characters, setting and the "look" of the SF Alpha series while crafting a new story separate from the games.The focus is squarely on Ryu, a martial artists haunted by the death of his master and the presence of a dark power lurking within him. As the story begins, Ryu meets up with Ken to pay respects to their deceased master, but Ryu is having trouble controlling this dark power called the "Dark Hadou" and keeps having strange visions. They encounter a boy called Shun who claims to be Ryu's long lost brother. At first skeptical, Ryu soon embraces Shun as family and trains together with the boy, who also displays formidable fighting skills. Word of a new Street fighter Tournament reaches Ryu and Ken and they intend to sign up. But little do they know that the tournament is a front for an evil scheme concocted by Dr Sadler, a top scientist for the Shadowlaw organization.Kudos to Group TAC for trying to make a more coherent narrative with a proper emotional center. While the previous Street Fighter II The Animated movie was a stylish gritty martial arts movie, SF Alpha plays out more like a character Drama about Ryu. While we do get some insight into Ryu's inner emotional turmoil, it really is nothing original. Ryu struggling with control over the dark hadou seems ripped straight from Star Wars' Luke Skywalker and his struggle with the Dark side of the force. Also, thanks to the strict focus on Ryu, the other iconic characters are at best reduced to mere stock characters with little to no development, or just cameo appearances that add nothing to the plot. Little side stories about Sakura's obsessive tailing of Ryu and Chun Li's Shadowlaw investigation are more an easter egg treat for long time fans than newcomers.The biggest fault of Street fighter alpha: The Animation, is the animation itself which is merely on par with a typical anime TV series of that time. If one were to expect the gritty brutality and fluid choreography of Street fighter II: The Animated movie, one would be sorely disappointed. Street Fighter Alpha's fight scenes play out like something worse than Dragonball. Fighters flying and hovering through the air constantly was probably a way to cut costs by not animating the characters running, but for some reason all the fights seem to be done in slow motion. If it was intentional, it is a poor directing choice as it quite honestly makes every single bout a total bore. If not intentional, then it was a result of cutting corners again in the animation.Artwork is also a hit and miss. While the art does a great job of replicating the designs used in the game, the characters go off-model quite often. The best example is Chun Li's eyes which keeps changing size and even shape in different scenes. The art constantly shifts from a dark and highly detailed style to a bright flat cartoony look, sometimes in stark contrast to the scene being presented, giving the entire production a very inconsistent feel.It is a huge pity Street fighter Alpha: The Animation turned out the way it did. There were a couple of great ideas and a lot of room for a deeper story. Too bad all that potential got totally wasted on typical anime story clichés including an uber-powered robot and landscape-destroying fireballs. Like Akuma said, "a true warrior enters the arena with ALL his powers at the ready". Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation not only fails to bring all that its got to bear, but it figuratively pulls its punches and ends up with a mediocre final product. More effort seemed to be spent trying to cut corners in everything rather than going all out to deliver an experience as awesome as its predecessor or the games that inspired it.
deepion by now, you've probably heard that Street Fighter Alpha movie is not as good as Street Fighter II: The Movie. However, Street Fighetr Alpha is still amazingly good. Take the example of Matrix Reloaded. On it's own, it would have been a major success and everyone would have loved it. However, before that came The Matrix. The Matrix was so unbelievably good, so perfect in every way that Reloaded didn't really stand a chance. And it is the same here. Street Fighter II movie was so good, exactly what fans of the game wanted to see that anything after that would pale into comparison, which is exactly what happened to Street Fighter Alpha. The truth of the matter is, Street Fighter Aplha is an amazingly good movie. Sure, it has it's faults, but so did Street Fighter II. Still, Street Fighter Alpha is very entertaining and sticks well with the whole street fighter universe, and it is perfect for those who have played the ASlpha games, introducing new characters in the movie. The whole movie is more dark and mysterious and incredibly fascinating. You will not be disappointed, although Akuma could have done so much more in the movie, it was a waste of a good character.
THEMANapsp This was set before SF ll The anamie movie, and it does a really good job i mean a lot of people say there was not a lot of action, well that dont bother me one bit. I love this movie and its 2nd best, may be they are saving all the action for Street Fighter Alpha 2 due later this yeah?. Anyways i am a big SF Fan have been for the past 11 years now, and this is one of the best if not de best.
mindlessnick Ok, I bought this movie with the intention of sitting down and enjoying my $35++ worth DVD entertainment. I was not completely disappointed, but this story is missing huge parts and is at times very random. Like, the director had a selection of screen shots and gave a scene generator some LSD. I am going to list 5 great points and 5 awful points. GREAT 1) The animation was really cool. I haven't seen any of the other street fighter flicks, but I have seen much animation and this is better than acceptable. 2) I liked how they attempted to develop the characters somewhat. 3) Ryu and Ken were both likeable. 4) I liked the whole aura Ryu had about him. For example, when he was walking around the mountains or whatever in the beginning and the leaves by his feet seemed to move around him. 5) I liked the whole inner-battle aspect of what Ryu was going through. Although it was over-emotionalized.AWFUL 1) What's up with them dissing Ken like he couldn't fight? I was soooo disappointed when he fought and gave his all and didn't even dismantle that dude. That was really lame. 2) What's up with all the cameras focusing on chun li's breasts, butt, and pubic area? Like, she would be talking and the screen would be fixed on one of the above forementioned areas. Geez. I mean, if you're going to be sexual in anime don't be all subliminal and perverse about it. 3) What's up with the retarded laughing villian scientist? Dragonball Z's enemies are at least entertaining. This guy was just a laughing emotionless twit. I couldn't stand it. I had to fast forward through his laughing.4) Where was half the characters?? 5) Why was there so much bad plot involvement and no fighting?? I wanted some cheering bone snapping action with wicked emotions and fists flying, not some lame wannabe philosophical karate saga.