Street Fighter movie is 'made by fans for fans' - but can it KO the critics?

Video game fans have been treated to a two-hit combo of big screen adaptations recently.

First came Resident Evil, director Zach Cregger's movie version of the long-running horror game series.

The next contender is Street Fighter, the arcade classic fighting game that's been separating fans from their loose change since 1987.

Both have been turned into disappointing live-action films before.

But Cregger's attempt at Resident Evil, which impressed both critics and fans, seemed to break the curse.

BBC Newsbeat spoke to Street Fighter cast members Noah Centineo, Callina Liang and Andrew Koji to find out why they think the action movie can do the same.

The film, directed by Kitao Sakurai, follows Ken Masters, played by Centineo, and Ryu, played by Koji.

The two characters - long-standing icons of the games - are martial artists who trained under the same teacher before their relationship went sour.

Chun-Li, played by Liang, recruits the pair to compete with other elite fighters in the World Warrior tournament, organised by crime boss M. Bison.

The large ensemble cast includes about 15 characters from different instalments of the video game series, and is packed with references and Easter eggs.

"It's absurd, it's wild, it doesn't take itself too seriously," Centineo tells Newsbeat.

"And everyone who made it loves the world of Street Fighter. Grew up playing the game, loves the game."

He says it was "extremely important" for the film to stay faithful to the series, describing it as "a movie made by fans for fans", who can expect "meticulous" attention to detail.

Centineo says the film's stunt team closely studied each character's video game movements to ensure their signature moves were accurately depicted on film.

His co-star Liang says her intense training regime was designed to help her replicate character Chun-Li's famous moves and distinctive, muscular look.

"I was eating 12 eggs a day, like, 4,000 calories, training a lot," she says.

"My motto the whole time was just 'give it your best and some more'".

Liang says she wanted to put work in "for the fans" but does stress she was careful not to take things too far.

Her fellow actor Koji thinks it's a winning formula.

"I think we've got the right approach, got the right cast, right energy," he says.

"I think we could feel it when we first read the script."

Critics, though, haven't been convinced.

The Guardian called it a "garish and incoherent mess", but praised Liang as "formidable" and complimented her "genuinely impressive" fight scenes.

Gaming website IGN described the film as getting off to a "stylish start", but said it "increasingly feels disconnected from any sense of reality, even its own" along the way.

There was almost universal criticism of the "confusing" and "chaotic" plot, but some reviewers did praise the fight choreography and visuals of the film.

It's a contrast to Resident Evil, released last month, which was almost universally praised by critics and hit $300m at the global box office four weeks after release.

But will fans show up for Street Fighter?

Tayyib Mahmood, who uploads film and video game reviews to his tsreeltalk accounts, says he enjoyed Street Fighter.

"I think that it was true to what the games are," he says.

"It's taking these characters and putting them into these costumes which are unrealistic, it embraces how ridiculous these games are.

"You've got the different fighting styles, you've got these larger-than-life characters and I think the movie commits to all of that and I think there is a lot of personality to this film."

Mahmood says he has criticisms of the film, such as a weak story, but thinks the attention to the "visual identity" of Street Fighter is impressive.

He also points out that fandoms of specific video games don't always agree on what would make a good adaptation.

"I don't think that every movie needs to be loved universally," he says.

"I think that sometimes a film knows exactly who it's for and I think it does need to commit to audiences and accept that other people might hate it."

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