Street Fighter , a reboot of the live-action movie franchise based on the classic Capcom video game series, is getting splattered with negative reviews from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics.

Directed by Kitao Sakurai, Street Fighter plays in preview screenings on Thursday and opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The new Street Fighter movie is set in 1993, where estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into the world of combat when they are recruited by mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) to participate in the brutal clash of fists, fate and fury known as the “World Warrior Tournament.”

Unbeknownst to Ryu and Ken, though, is that they’ve been played as part of conspiracy to pit them against each other and confront their demons of the past at the same time.

Rated PG-13, Street Fighter includes a massive ensemble cast, including Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoai as Akuma, Cody Rhodes as Guile, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka.

The review embargo for Street Fighter lifted at 12 p.m. ET/ 9 a.m. PT on Thursday, and currently the film has earned a 38% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 32 reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes critics have been nothing but, well, rotten, to the live-action Street Fighter movies in the past. The 1994 version of Street Fighter , starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, Raul Juia as M. Bison and Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li, was served a “rotten” 20% critics’ score on RT based on 90 reviews.

Worse yet, 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li , starring Kristin Kreuk in the title role and Neal McDonough as M. Bison, earned a lowly 3% “rotten” critics’ score based on 59 reviews.

Note: RT’s critics’ score for the 2026 reboot of Street Fighter will be updated as more reviews are posted on the site.

What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Street Fighter’?

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter is among the top critics on RT who give Street Fighter a “rotten” score. Scheck writes in his RT review summary, “ Street Fighter tries to thread the needle between fan service and welcoming the uninitiated. The result is that neither camp is likely to be fully satisfied.”

Matt Singer of Screen Crush is somewhat complimentary of Street Fighter , but ultimately he gives the film a “rotten” score. Singer writes on RT , “Like a trip to a ’90s mall arcade, Street Fighter’s pretty fun — for about 30 minutes.”

Variety critic Siddhant Adlakha has similar sentiments about Street Fighter . Adlakha writes in his “rotten” RT review summary, “After a strong start, Kitao Sakurai’s Capcom adaptation nosedives into nonsense.”

Kevin Maher of The Times (UK) also dishonors Street Fighter with a “rotten” score on RT , writing, “The direction from Kitao Sakurai is frenetic and meaningless, and the fight scenes (the film’s raison d’être, surely?) are bafflingly dull.”

Radheyan Simonpillai of the Guardian is a fan of the film, either, writing in his “rotten” RT review summary, “ Street Fighter is satisfied punching down on itself, and everything that’s cringe about the 90s, while happily being stuck there, in the past, so it could pretend that this is as good as it gets for video game adaptations.”

William Bibbiani of The Wrap is among RT’s top critics who give Street Fighter a “fresh” score, writing, “[Kitao Sakurai’s] raw enthusiasm for making this goofy-ass action movie is infectious. I’m not sure Street Fighter meets any conventional standard of quality, but it’s undeniably its own thing.”

Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence also awards Street Fighter a “fresh” score, but with some reservations. Miller writes in her RT review summary, “At its best, Street Fighter operates like a deranged live-action cartoon, which is exactly what I wanted from it. However, this makes critiquing its fundamental filmmaking flaws feel like missing the point on an epic scale.”

Street Fighter plays in Thursday preview screenings before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.