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Street Fighter Alpha - The Movie

Street Fighter Alpha - The Movie

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A promising Street Fighter anime, however...
Review: I was disappointed with SFA as a whole for a few reasons. But first, a couple good qualities:

1. It was drawn with SF Alpha style artwork directly from the arcade game and that was cool... although I really liked the more gritty drawing style of the previous SF anime movie released back in '95.

2. SFA makes an attempt to make a fresh face on the anime by reintroducing the characters to one another. SFA doesn't follow any continuity with any of the other Street Fighter animes.

Here I'll explain why I was disappointed without giving out any major spoilers:

1. I had high hopes that the anime would meet or exceed the marks made by the first SF2 anime and for the first 10 minutes I believed that it would. Shortly after the introduction of Chun Li and Ryu, the story just sort of spiraled downwards. It was just not very interesting. Basically, Ryu is finding himself being influenced by the dark side of his martial art. He meets a little kid who's supposed to be his long-lost brother who eventually gives Ryu a revelation about his background. Meanwhile, an evil "power-hungry" scientist/villain is trying to steal power from the street fighters. Well, the kid was annoying and the whole dark side of Shotokan karate plotline enters into Ryu and the story pretty lamely. The writer(s) really failed to keep the conversations and character monologues to mean anything. There was no real chemistry between the characters either. The voice acting seemed good, but that means little when the lines you deliver are flat.

2. There was very little fighting between the SFA characters and those that were there were not detailed at all. Only about 3/4 of the SFA characters make an appearance and those are mostly cameos. Akuma's role was miniscule and the fight scene I was most anticipating didn't even occur (that brief teaser during the credits was exactly that... a teaser). So there's no Akuma fighting Ryu, or Akuma fighting anyone for that matter.

3. Very little character development during the 90 minutes and a REALLY LOUSY AND CHEESY villain made-up by the writers.

I recommend people interested in this title to rent it first. As a fan of SF, I'm only sorry to not be able to give a higher rating to this anime.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nothing new really
Review: I wanted to like this, I really did. I've been a huge Street Fighter fan since SF2 came out about a decade ago. This movie just didn't seem to have either the intensity of fights or even the beautiful animation of the first one. Some parts seemed to computer generated and not hand drawn. It added some facts to the Street Fighter series, but it deviated enough from the plot that you can't actually take it as truth, especially Ryu's family. Just not as good as the original animated movie (though at least this one had a Japanese track), and even though it tried for a story, I think Fatal Fury still has the best for a video game anime. A good rent for all Street Fighter fans, but unless you're a fanatic like me, you probably should try it before you buy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very balanced piece of anime
Review: This is with out a doubt the best of the Street Fighter based anime. My reason for making this statement are as follows. The Street Fighter 2 movie had great animation and fight sequences but the story was quite weak and for those who were not heavy videogame players they were likely to get lost in all of the useless characters from the videogames who popped up for no siginificant reason. As for the series, well I think the series tried to stray too far from the core storyline of the videogames, and this goes for the movie too but both avoided the best story line of the videogame: the connection of Akuma to Sotoken fighting.

This story is basically the story of one mans struggle with his dark side. Ryu is the focal point and he is constantly reminded of what could happen to him because both he and his brother in arms Ken know of Akuma who had fallen into the temptation of the dark Hado. This is Ryu's story so Ken lover's of the world, that being myself included, get over it.

There is a secondary story of Shadowloo and the organization trying to exploit Ryu, much in the same way as the other films, but this anime makes the story the focus and not a cheap excuse to set up fight scenes.

Is the video perfect, not by a long shot. I'm a long time Street Fighter game player I'm talking all the way back to 1990 and I found a lot of things I didn't like. For those of you looking for the big Akuma fight, forget it, and as for their use of Ken I was severly disappointed with the inconsistensy's. Ken, while confronting Ryu comes across as his equal, but while fighting anyone else it's a different story. Also, the animation though fluid I didn't like as much as Street Fighter 2 the movie.

Even though I did have these personal pet peeves I'm enough of an adult to realize that this is just good old fashioned anime. If you what to watch a bunch of cheap fights go play the videogame or watch some Dragonball Z. If your'e looking for a balanced peice of anime, which tries to balance story telling with action then this is good buy. I must also mention I got the dub and this had to be the best voice acting I've ever heard in a dub.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Should have been called "Ryu Dark Hado"
Review: Street Fighter Alpha could have been a great movie but it has many things missing to make it great. The whole movie seems to be about Ryu which seems pretty good since he's the most popular and most played character throughout the Street Fighter Series. Ryu is beginning to become more evil which each fight he enters which is being caused by The Dark Hado (gets so mad that he goes insane) During the movie, a mysterious boy claims to be his brother and that where his Dark Hado begins to increase. There are a handful of Street Fighter Characters in the movie but that doesn't mean that they are all good. I was surprised that M. Bison wasn't there not even Sagat which his name was mention during the movie. The fights are pretty good and very bloody but there aren't that much fighting going around. Akuma did make an appearance but did not fight anyone unless you count the ending credits. But in all the animation is great and very smooth, the story is a bit dull but isn't that bad. It's just a bit sad that there aren't a lot of famous characters which could have made this movie better and more interesting. The DVD has 2 languages Japanese and English Dubbed w/ English subtitles. I'm surprised that the English version of SF was better than the Japanese version . All in all, this movie should be rented first and you decide if it's good enough to buy. Hope you agree with my comments.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: Unfortunately, despite high hopes for this movie, I cannot recommend it based on a number of things. While the DVD itself is of excellent quality with a good transfer and some nice extras, the movie it contains was a horrible disappointment.

First of all, the art quality. This is of course a matter of opinion, but I found the characters to be very undetailed, the animation fair to poor, and the colors extremely bland and washed out.

Second, and ultimately more important to me, the content. The story was rather laughable, and the dialogue largely inane (and did anyone else notice that many lines were repeated over and over, sometimes by the same characters, sometimes by different ones?). They had an interesting storyline going (albeit ripped off directly from Star Wars) with the whole temptation of the dark hadou thing, but they never really delved into it. Then there's the real draw for most people, I think -- the action.

And it was horrible. There was very little of it, it was never particularly exciting, and again, it was poorly drawn. The bulk of the movie is spent attempting to advance the mediocre plot, developing two-dimensional characters, and repeating lines of dialogue. The fighting, on those rare occasions when it comes around, never reaches the intensity of other offerings (the first SF movie, for example) and is ultimately not very entertaining.

I found very little to like in this movie. To make the obvious comparison, "Street Figher II: The Animated Movie" is in my opinion a far better pick all the way around with higher quality art, far better action (the Chun-Li vs. Vega fight comes quickly to mind), and some nice tunes on the soundtrack to boot.

A final note, this is not a sequel to the Street Fighter II V series, despite what the box says. The storylines are completely unrelated, and the characters all start with clean slates here.

Bottom line, spend your money elsewhere. I wish I had.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tough Choice
Review: I'm really torn on this one. I wanted to like this one SO much but I'm not sure if I did. Comparisons to the first Street Fighter movie are inevitably going to be drawn so I might as well contrast the two myself.

The first movie had better music with bands like Alice in Chains and KMFDM. The fighting sequences were also superior. Face it, if you're watching a Street Fighter movie you're looking for the fights and Street Fighter the movie delivered. Chun Li vs Vega was a classic. Each fighter was given a chance to showcase his or her skills. An argument could be made that the first movie's script was in fact just a vehicle to move from fight to fight but that's OK because that's what the fans want. Street Fighter Alpha features about a dozen name fighters that quite frankly are never shown fighting. Even AKUMA never really fights. It's all about Ryu and to a lesser extent Ken and Chun Le.

Another problem was the ending but let's not get into that.

I give it four stars for Street Fighter fans. It has it's flaws but it's still fun and there are a lot of positives. Non Street Fighter fans should consider this film at best a three star production.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: not like the others
Review: hey if youre buying this movie hoping its like the sfv series or sf2 animaeted moivie you will be dissapointed. its a good movie, but it was more like akira than an action one. dont buy, rent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: !!!THE BEST ANIME YET!!!
Review: This is by sure one of the best animes I've ever seen. This DVD has it all, the gorgeous animations, the fast-action fighting, the intense story, EVERYTHING! This movie really brings out the hidden facts and features from the Street Fighter Universe, from the origins of Akuma to the mysterious evil transformation Ryu does in most of the games we've seen and played. All in all I think that this anime rocked and you won't be dissapointed with it at all.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Can I return this?
Review: I just finished watching this movie. I couldn't stand it. There was no alpha storyline. Ryu didn't fight any other streetfighters from the game besides Ken. Birdie is like a good guy. The other streetfighter fights are terrible. This is not for a fan. Unless you're an all out Ryu mark. I left the room. Look I really had problems with this. I'm going to try and take it back tomorrow, but if they won't take I'll be selling it for 3 dollars. E-mail me.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: surprisingly PHILOSOPHICAL for a Street Fighter movie
Review: 3 stars = somewhere in between "BIRDIE doo doo" and "DANtastic!"

The weak points of this anime have been repeatedly exposed by the previous reviews, so I won't get into that. But I'm compelled to write a review because people seem to be missing the one thing I thought was interesting about this SF anime: why does one fight?

When I got this, I expected a weak plot thinly diguising a series of non-stop fight scenes (essentially, another SF II animated movie). Oh how I was wrong. The fact that it wasn't what I expected was disappointing but also refreshing. In fact, it was downright intriguing.

SO HERE'S THE DEAL:

SF fan or not, you'll DEFINATELY be frustrated with the plot, character development, resolution, and/or fight scenes. It's either too weak, too underdeveloped, too slow, or too subdued.

BUT!!!

If you don't mind thinking a little when you watch a film (i.e. if you're not simply looking for a mindless viewing experience), Street Fighter Alpha will bring up themes and questions you never thought to ask.

Why does Ryu fight?

Chun Li ponders this question. So does Sakura. As does Ryu himself.

"One possessed of an evil spirit
will fight out of pride until his dying day,
and most likely to kill...
...just like Akuma who took up the Dark Hadou
and whose hands are now dark with the blood of his own master..."

A street fighter's life is all about fighting. But for what purpose? It is the old age question of identity, of the meaning of life (hey, street fighters are humans too!). Ryu must find an answer to this question, not only for HIS sake (or rather, the sake of his soul), but also for the sake of those who look up to him (Ken, Chun Li, and especially Sakura).

It was an audacious move on the part of the filmmakers' to instill such a reflective tone into a SF anime. I can say that as an aspiring screenwriter the intent was honorable, but the execution was lacking.

As for the DVD itself, the video quality is excellent while the audio is only stereo for the Japanese language track (as opposed to the 5.1 DD for the English language track). The "MAKING OF" is pretty weak (it's basically a music-only montage of the filmmakers talking, drawing, writing, etc), but understandably so since it'd be impractical to have a real documentary. Finally, the "INTERVIEWS" are a bit disheartening, mainly because seeing the voice actors talk about their dubbing experiences breaks the illusion of the world of Street Fighter. Moreover, they're a bit bland. So I advise those of you who haven't already seen them to refrain from doing so.

That's about it. As everyone else has already suggested, RENT FIRST.


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