I always rate movies based on their niche, so I would not compare a fan made martial arts film inspired from a game to a Hollywood big production. Also, I've seen this as a two hours twenty minutes film, not a bunch of episodes. That being given, I enjoyed watching Assassin's Fist (even if I think the name is completely misguided) and I appreciated, as I see many others have, the strong Street Fighter feel. If you look carefully at the battle between Ken and Ryu you see a lot of the trademark game moves, which were carefully choreographed in a believable fighting scene, which I think is both commendable and very difficult.
Now, the film is an origin story, it doesn't contain much fighting and it only concerns the two characters who had disappointingly identical fighting styles in the game: Ken and Ryu. You get the typical dojo Master/pupil story (Street Fighter Kids would have been a better title). I really haven't played any version of SF newer than 2, so I don't know how the mythos evolved in the game, but if you think about it, this is not really a film inspired by the game, but by the small text boxes explaining who each character was :)
In conclusion: the acting and directing were not perfect, but if you look at the cast, you realize that they did a decent job for their experience. The story is a little frustrating, given that every "master" in it is concealing and even destroying information rather than sharing it with his pupils, in order to "protect" them, fact which of course leaves them completely powerless against certain "dark" techniques. It also ends in a sort of cliffhanger, which sucked. But the spirit of the film was really close to what I would think of a Street Fighter game. I enjoyed watching it and at the end I wanted to see the continuation.
Then again, I thought the VanDamme movie was OK, too. The only strong problem I see with this model of Street Fighter movies is that if you make so much effort to describe the origin of just two characters, we will get to see a tournament film somewhere in 2050. Personally I can't wait to see a Blanka bit, though.
Now, the film is an origin story, it doesn't contain much fighting and it only concerns the two characters who had disappointingly identical fighting styles in the game: Ken and Ryu. You get the typical dojo Master/pupil story (Street Fighter Kids would have been a better title). I really haven't played any version of SF newer than 2, so I don't know how the mythos evolved in the game, but if you think about it, this is not really a film inspired by the game, but by the small text boxes explaining who each character was :)
In conclusion: the acting and directing were not perfect, but if you look at the cast, you realize that they did a decent job for their experience. The story is a little frustrating, given that every "master" in it is concealing and even destroying information rather than sharing it with his pupils, in order to "protect" them, fact which of course leaves them completely powerless against certain "dark" techniques. It also ends in a sort of cliffhanger, which sucked. But the spirit of the film was really close to what I would think of a Street Fighter game. I enjoyed watching it and at the end I wanted to see the continuation.
Then again, I thought the VanDamme movie was OK, too. The only strong problem I see with this model of Street Fighter movies is that if you make so much effort to describe the origin of just two characters, we will get to see a tournament film somewhere in 2050. Personally I can't wait to see a Blanka bit, though.