If you were alive back in 1987 and wanted to play the latest video games, they weren’t on consoles. You had to go to an arcade and pump endless amounts of quarters into games to get good at them. One such game was Street Fighter. While the game was unique, it didn’t become a hit. That’s until the sequel was released 4 years later, and the rest is history. It was so popular that several sequels, manga, anime, and even a live action film followed. Now, almost 40 years later, a second film has hit theatres, and unfortunately it’s a hot mess that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.

Street Fighter follows the story of Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken (Noah Centineo). The pair were raised as siblings, who competed with each other to be the best fighter in the world. When Ryu disappears after the death of their mentor, Ken is left to make a name for himself. The pair reunite though when secret agent Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them to take part in the second World Warrior Tournament, a competition Ryu won just before his disappearance. Ken is determined to use the tournament as a means to prove to the world that he is the real deal, while Ryu wants nothing more than to hold off the darkness he senses is coming for the winner.

Street Fighter doesn’t know what type of movie it wants to be. It tries to be funny, but almost all of the jokes fall flat. It tries to be a fighting tournament movie, but it forgets to show a lot of the matches. Street Fighter wants to be a character focused movie, but then allows most of the characters to be unlikable. It even wants to be an anime at times by telling part of the story as an animated feature, but switching between styles only makes the story feel disjointed. All of this unfortunately adds up to a hot mess you just can’t wait to end.

While the script is atrocious, and the acting just plain horrible, the film isn’t entirely bad. It does have moments that bring about nostalgic feelings, and some of the action is entertaining. The animation even looks good. Seeing familiar characters on the big screen doing their trademark moves is fun as well. The biggest problem is that the film can’t decide if it wants to be taken seriously. The Masters of the Universe movie that came out earlier this year had the exact same problem. Neither film was willing (or daring) enough to fully give into the cheesiness that was on the screen. If they had, audiences would have been more willing to accept what they were seeing. Producers of these movies try to play it both ways, by having both seriousness and cheesiness at the same time, but it clearly doesn’t work.

Street Fighter will have it’s audience, but it will only be hardcore gamers who love the franchise. Beyond that, no one will care.   Even casual Street Fighter fans will tune this one out. Like the first Street Fighter movie from 1994 it may eventually reach cult status years down the line, but hopefully it’s not soon enough for the planned sequel to see the light of day.