Street Fighter's surprise scene-stealer is a WWE wrestler, and first reactions are praising his comedy
At least five of the first critics and bloggers out of the screenings picked out the same cast member. Two of them did it because he made them laugh.
The social media embargo on Street Fighter lifted on 13 October, after the film's Los Angeles premiere and press screenings, and the first reactions from critics and bloggers who saw it mostly cover what you would expect: fights, nostalgia, Easter eggs. The name that keeps cropping up is not in the trade headlines, which went with Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji. It belongs to Cody Rhodes, the WWE star who plays Guile, the US Air Force major with the most famous flat-top in gaming.
Of the roughly 25 reactions in the roundup, at least five single Rhodes out. Five is a floor, not a final count: seven of those posts are cut short.
What the first reactions say about Guile
- Matt Rodgers: "Noah Centineo and Cody Rhodes got the memo, and as such they completely steal the film."
- Joseph Deckelmeier: "Cody Rhodes steals every scene he's in."
- Kat Hughes: "a scene-stealing Cody Rhodes".
- @hackermanjoe: "Cody Rhodes, your comedic future is bright."
- Brandon Davis: "Cody is really funny."
Rodgers puts Rhodes alongside Centineo rather than above him, which is fair enough, since Ken is meant to be the show-off. The interesting bit is the last two. A professional wrestler cast in an adaptation of a fighting game, and the compliment is his comic timing.
It is less of a stretch than it sounds. Rhodes has spent two decades talking to arenas of 20,000 people with a microphone, and wrestling promos are, at heart, stand-up with a championship belt as a prop.
From the ring to the flat-top
Rhodes is not a wrestler dabbling between bookings. He is a former undisputed WWE champion, and while promoting the film he revealed on the Flagrant podcast that he has just re-signed with WWE and plans to end his career there. Hollywood gets him for the odd film; SmackDown keeps the day job. He is not even the only wrestler in the cast: Roman Reigns plays Akuma.
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The rest of the line-up is a proper ensemble, directed by Kitao Sakurai for Paramount:
- Andrew Koji as Ryu and Noah Centineo as Ken
- Callina Liang as Chun-Li
- Jason Momoa as Blanka
- David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, whom Hughes describes as is "channeling Raul Julia"
That last comparison is a big one. Julia played Bison opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme's Guile in the 1994 Street Fighter, his last big-screen role, and the film survives three decades on mostly as a comedy, intended or not. Van Damme was asked to be a stern soldier. Rhodes, by the sound of it, has been allowed to be funny on purpose.
A wrestler was hired to throw sonic booms. The first critics came out quoting his punchlines.
Not everyone left the screenings delighted. Some found the humour hit-or-miss and the ending abrupt. Andrew J. Salazar went the other way, writing that Street Fighter "often feels like a better successor to Mortal Kombat (1995) than either recent MK movies". Over on r/boxoffice, the top-voted take was blunter about who it is for:
"This movie is critic proof. This is the Minecraft movie for middle aged men."
— commenter on r/boxoffice
Critic-proof or not, the film's target audience now knows where to be on Friday night, and it is not the telly.
What comes next
These are first reactions from a premiere crowd and press screenings, not full reviews, and embargo-day posts tend to run warm. The full verdicts will show whether Guile's punchlines survive critics who were not at the premiere party.
Street Fighter opens in UK, Irish and US cinemas on 16 October. If the comedy lands, Rhodes may find Hollywood wants more than the odd film. WWE, to be fair, already has his signature.
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