These clips are hitting the internets to help promote the movie's DVD release. The home version includes bonus footage, commentary and a full-length comic movie "Street Fighter Round One: FIGHT!"

Exclusive Street Fighter Blu-ray & DVD Bonus Clips [Coming Soon via io9]

Besides the bizarre reason behind the party, it sounds like a good time. The folks will be setting up for some street fighter play, give-aways and "plenty of booze to dull the pain."

Take pictures for us if you go.

Look at that cover! It should come with a disclaimer: contains 5% actual Kristen Kruek. And also a warning: Chris Klein is not actually Nicolas Cage.

The Blu-Ray edition will be out at the end of June, and inexplicably comes on three discs, including an unrated edition of the movie. The one shining light is that, since there's three discs, there's surely room in there for the Chun-Li vs Balrog battle that has been spoken of, but never seen.

Producer Kevin Misher, responsible for films such as The Scorpion King and The Interpreter, as well as the upcoming fighting movie Fighting, has apparently roped in scribe Justin Marks to write the script. Marks penned the disastrous Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Japanese site Famitsu contacted Sony Computer Entertainment about the Shadow of the Colossus adaptation, and Sony replied, "We will refrain from commenting about that." We'll do Sony one better: How about refraining from making it?

[海外ゲームニュース]『ワンダと巨像』がハリウッドで映画化進行中？ [Famitsu]

Still, cinematic blunders aside, Klein loves Street Fighter. While Legend of Chun-Li actress Kristen Kruek has only played the game once, Klein grew up playing the game.

"Although I've played a lot, I'm certainly not the best or most avid gamer out there, and so for me Dhalsim, I appreciated him because his kicks and punches stretch across the screen so you can keep your opponent at bay," Klein says. "Plus, you can keep them away from doing some of those special moves that you have to be close in on to perform. I had a lot of success with him."

Klein calls Street Fighter IV "absolutely the coolest version of Street Fighter." Wish the same could be said about the movie.

The Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li star talks about which character's style he prefers to deliver a beat-down. Hint: It's not Chun-Li. [GameDaily via GoNintendo]

The Legend of Chun-Li pulled in $4.65 million over its first weekend, landing it in the eight spot for the top ten box offices for the weekend in the U.S., according to Hollywood Reporter.

That means Chun-Li beat out Fired Up! and Confessions of a Shopaholic, but it lost to seven other movies.

1. Madea Goes to Jail
2. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. Taken
5. He's Just Not That Into You
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
7. Coraline
8. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
9. Confessions of a Shopaholic
10. Fired Up!

Did you see the movie over the weekend? Is it as bad as everyone is saying it is?

USA Weekend Box-Office Summary [IMDB]

They are, unsurprisingly, not fans.

The film currently has a Metacritic rating of 21 (out of a possible 100), while even more damningly, it has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of ...00%. Meaning that every single review of the film the site has collected has given it the thumbs down.

Here are some of the review highlights.

The Onion AV Club:

The problems with Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li began with the casting of dead-eyed, sleepy-voiced, charisma-impaired automaton Kristin Kreuk.

MSNBC:

I can't remember the last time I watched an actor fail to walk into a room convincingly, but Chris Klein does it. Look for a YouTube montage of his Street Fighter performance to pop up any day now.

Entertainment Weekly:

Don't be fooled by the low grade: This sequel-in-spirit to Jean-Claude Van Damme's 1994 dud doesn't even succeed in being memorably bad.

On a related note, how'd it do at the box office? About as well. Despite opening on 1136 screens, it only made $4.65 million, meaning every theatre that screened the movie only pulled in an average of $4,093.

Oh dear. Ah well, look on the bright side, Capcom. The Lost Planet movie can't be any worse!

[Metacritic]
[Rotten Tomatoes]

Right? Right?!

The original Street Fighter (1994) was so bad, it's good. Heavy on camp and with a solid performance from the late Raul Julia, the hammy flick has been considered a cult classic by some viewers in recent years — with others would prefer to forget the motion picture ever happened.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a reboot of sorts, trying to do to Street Fighter what, for example, Batman Begins did to Batman.

But does it succeed in breathing new life into Hollywood's take on Street Fighter?

Loved
Kristin Kreuk - Kristin Kreuk does not look like Chun-Li — she knows that! But she does try to bring some humanity and realism to the character.

Gritty - The Street Fighter series has always had a wonderfully gritty, grimy feel to it. It's not called Street Fighter on accident! The movie attempts to capture that vibe of the streets (in this case, Bangkok), and succeeds in doing so to an extent. Ditto for characters: Smart move not to put Bison in a red cape, but a business suit.

Fight Scenes - A movie about Street Fighter needs fighting. The fight scenes are workman-like in their choreography and do the job. The film's director Andrzej Bartkowiak helmed the Jet Li flick Romeo Must Die, so he knows how to shoot a fight. He also directed the Doom movie, so he knows how to... Yeah.

Hated
The Story - Makes. No. Sense. Since the source material is a fighting game, the film's writer and director have ample room to explore and spin a yarn. They do, but the end result is half-baked.

Bison's origin story - Do we even need an origin story for Bison? How about better characterization? Instead of having him perform some bizarre ritual to become evil, why not have Akuma appear as some Faust-like character? Makes sense in the Street Fighter mythos and saves us a goofy Bison backstory.

Chun-Li's backstory - This is her film, she's the show, but her character never really undergoes any real transformation. As a little girl she learns martial arts from her father. Later she learns some more martial arts from Gen. There's fighting in-between. It all feels flat. In the film, she's not an Interpol cop like she is in the game. She's a pianist who knows martial arts. What's wrong with having her be a cop? Her father was a cop, and she becomes a cop to avenge her father's death. If it's not broke...

The Reason Bison Kidnaps Chun-Li's Father - This is almost a silly as the bizarre ritual Bison performs, but not quite.

There are places where Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li succeeds, but those places are too far and too few in between. There is potential, however, in big screen versions of Street Fighter, and we do look forward to them. This, though, is a false start. Or rather, a false start 2: electric boogaloo.

The end result does show how far Hollywood has come since 1994. We don't get a straight up video-game-turned-into-a-movie movie. What we do get just isn't a very good film.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is released in U.S. theaters today.

Confused by our reviews? Read our F.A.Q.

"Honestly, I really think it's a marketing thing," says Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li actress Kristen Kreuk. "There's a built-in audience. But realistically, if you are trying to sell a film, you have a huge audience already."

Case-in-point: Max Payne. While it was generally panned by critics, the movie took the box office's No. 1 spot during its opening weekend and ended up turning a profit of around $50 million.

"It's the same as with sports," explains David Jaffe, creator of God of War. "If you're a sports fan and the home team is losing, you'll see the game in the hope your team will turn it around."

One day, Hollywood will. Epic exec Mark Rein is optimistic, stating that big time movie producers like Jerry Bruckheimer, Peter Jackson and Thomas Tull are taking them seriously and treating them with importance.

"If you treat your material with importance then filmgoers will take it seriously. Did you ever think a theme-park ride would make a great movie? Jerry Bruckheimer did," Rein said, "and he made three awesome movies based on it (the Pirates of the Caribbean series). Now he's working with Prince of Persia. Peter Jackson created three movies based on a taking a classic fantasy novel seriously and won a Best Picture Oscar. Now he's working with Halo. Thomas Tull reinvented Batman and Superman and now has one of the biggest movies ever with The Dark Knight, and now he's working with Gears of War and World of Warcraft. So yes, I see good to reasons to be very optimistic about the film versions of these and other games."

Adapting games has proven hard, but Hollywood will figure out how to do it. As Jaffe pointed out, "Comic books are much easier to adapt into movies because they are traditional story telling. Games are harder to adapt because at their very core, they're games."

Hollywood's passion for the video game [Japan Times] [Pic]

"I've only played Street Fighter once," she told The Japan Times. "Growing up, I did watch my friends play it." Instead, she based her interpretation of the character on what was in the script. You know, what actors usually do.

That doesn't mean that she was obvious to Chun-Li — she wasn't. Going in, she knew that she wouldn't be able get her thighs as massively muscular as Chun-Li's. "I thought if we were doing something realistic, then it wouldn't be an issue," she said." But for fans, it is an issue, because that's how they see their character."

Kreuk is actually one of the brighter spots in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, so while it may be cringe worthy to hear she doesn't actually play Street Fighter, gamers should put more importance on Hollywood just making a good picture.

'Street Fighter' star indifferent to video games [Japan Times] [Pic: Jean Snow]

The cinematic event of, well, this week deserves a proper liveblog.

Beware. This post is wall-to-wall spoilers. So if you plan on seeing Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, and you do not want your viewing experience spoiled do not read any further.

Still reading? Good.

We'll be updating as we view the film so you'll need to refresh the page — that is, until the flick is over.

Do keep in mind that reading this does not compare with actually watching this film, so do support Hollywood's most recent effort at turning your favorite video game character into a feature film by seeing this at the theater. Feel free to print out this liveblog and follow along with the action on the big screen!

12:00 - Hey, it's the Capcom logo!

12:01 - Opening shot: Golden Gate bridge. There's piano music. Piano music means this is a classy movie. In a voice over Chun Li star Kristen Kreuk is talking about how she wanted to be a concert pianist, but things don't always work out the way you expect them. She moved to Hong Kong and everything changed. GREAT, BLAME HONG KONG.

And the opening credits.

12:03 - Rich father, she doesn't know what his job was. (Because his job was being rich?) She and her father practice martial arts in the garden. "Growing up was like a dream. But nothing lasts forever." Uh oh, daddy's gonna die.

12:05 - And here comes Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog! Her father throws canned vegetables at Balrog, who catches the canned vegetables and laughs. They fight. Balrog chokes and laughs a lot. Yeah.

Guys with bats appear. They fight. Chun-Li's father LIGHTS HIS HAND ON FIRE by touching a candle and then LIGHTS ANOTHER GUY ON FIRE. Bison (Neal McDonough) shows up in a business suit.

12:08 - Bye bye Daddy! Off he goes in a limo. Nothing like being kidnapped in style. Chun Li takes out a spinning bird necklace her father gave her.

12:10 - Big Chun Li. All grown up, and she's a concert pianist. She sees some random homeless dude getting beat up. On his hand, there's a spider web tattoo!

12:12 - Says Bison, "As distinguished members of the Shadaloo Corporation, you are all very important, and I don't need to waste your time." So Vega kills them all.

12:16 - Chun-Li's father is not dead, but in a fancy-schmancy prison — complete with a Mac desktop! Bison is keeping Chun-Li's father in prison for his, wait for it, connections! That's right, Chun-Li's father's connections. Bison has locked him on in a cell so he can email people?! And in return for his connections, Chun-Li's father gets pictures and digi clips of his daughter. He sits in his chic cell all day looking at pictures of his daughter.

12:19 - Says Chun-Li: "Was this mysterious scroll a message? Who was it from? I had to find out." Oh, the intrigue.

Okay, we're about twenty minutes in, it's a Chun-Li movie, and I have yet to see any Chun-Li thigh. Maybe I missed it? How can one miss Chun-Li thigh?

Oh, Chun-Li's mom dies. There's a weepy scene. BUT NO THIGHS.

12:21 - Hey, it's that guy from American Pie! He's an Interpool cop. But I thought Chun-Li was an Interpool cop? No, moron, she's a concert pianist!

12:23 - Some old lady tells Chun-Li to find Gen and something about a spiderweb symbol. To find Gen, Chun-Li has to "leaver her life behind," so she says goodbye to all her servants and leaves her mansion in the rain at night. WE SEE WET RAINY THIGHS.

I think.

There we go, she arrives in Bangkok, about 24 minutes into the movie, and we finally see Chun-Li's thighs. What wonders await us 24 minutes from now? A blue outfit? Just a shot in the dark!

"I had to lose myself to the street. I had to become one with the people of Bangkok." Um, why?

"This was new to me. Every night was a struggle. Every meal was a gift." Cue montage of Chun-Li looking hungry and walking around and looking hungry and sleeping in the gutter. Give this lady a sammich.

12:28 - ANGRY BABY FACE.

12:31 - Gen appears, explains the bit about Chun-Li's father being kidnapped for his connections. He knows who took her father! "I'll tell you when you are ready. But when you put away your anger."

Gen created the Order of The Web. "Your father was a very important man, and his connections could open any door in any country around the world." Even when he's in a fancy prison!

12:33 - ANGRY BABY FACE.

12:35 - Chun-Li does research on Bison at an internet cafe. "Research" is looking at two articles online. Sounds like Chun-Li is ready to write PhD thesis.

12:40 - Something about Bison being an unscrupulous land developer.

12:41 - More Gen and Chun-Li training. He blindfolds her and throws metal balls at her, while muttering some new age mumbo jumbo about harnessing energy. Her face almost hits a buzz saw.

12:43 - Chun-Li in blue moomoo with bun hairdo.

12;45 - Lesbian dance scene between Chun-Li and some evil lady in heels. M'kay.

Don't remember that in any of the games.

12:48 - Fight breaks out and carries over into a strip club, which is playing some hip-hop song about Street Fighter. What a kwinky-dink! The guys with guns are no match for Chun-Li's Spinning Bird kick. Chun-Li wears blue underwear.

*makes note*

They keep referring to Chun-Li as "the schoolgirl" in this movie. Why, why, why.

12:55 - Gather round! It's time for Bison's back story. His Irish missionary parents died when he was a baby, and he became ill, "but where he was no one cared about the sick," Gen tells us. Thanks Gen! Bison grew up on the mean streets of Bangkok stealing stuff — like entire baskets of fish. Baskets of fish? The nerve.

"He yearned for more, so he went to the dark cave." Can't blame him. I mean, baskets of fish? Meh. So Bison shows up in this drippy dark cave with his new, knocked up wife.

Hello shotgun marriage!

Gen says something about Bison wanting to lose his conscience. Bison has his very pregnant wife lay down on some rocks and then starts taking off his wife's clothes and...

...rips his unborn child out of his wife's stomach! Bison's eyes then change color. And that's how he became an unscrupulous land developer? Just think of what Donald Trump had to do...

12:57 - KA-BOOM! No more Gen. *Sad Panda*

1:00 - Chun-Li and Vega fight. Chun-Li knocks off his mask and says, "No wonder you wear a mask." Oh buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurn.

1:03 - Chun-Li gets captured snooping around a shipyard. Bison tells her: "You're not a schoolgirl anymore." Hey Bison! She's not a schoolgirl in the games, that's Sakura.

They throw her in the brig with her dad. There's isn't a Mac in the brig — however will he connect with his very important connections?

1:05 - Bison: "You see, your father has been the milk of my business. But even milk has an expiration date." YES, YES, YES!

Bison kills Chun-Li's father. Jerk.

Chun-Li escapes, and runs through a street markets. Fruit carts galore! Balrog pulls up in a Benz, draws a weapon, and Chun-Li grabs a kid to keep him out of harms way. Balrog fires off a shot, Chun-Li turns and takes it in the back, takes it for the team.

Some little kid throws a rock that hits Balrog in the face. Now everyone is throwing rocks. Ha, this is great. No, really. The rock throwing scene is great. Love it.

HEY IT'S GEN! HE'S NOT DEAD!

He better do some bad ass Rambo type stuff and pull Chun-Li's bullet out with his fingers. Instead he waves his hand over her wounds.

1:14 - Chun-Li shows up at that American Pie guy's safe house and asks him for back up. She gonna try to take down Bison when his shipment arrives at the shipyard.

Explosions, shooting and more shooting. There's kicking when Chun-Li shows up at the shipyard. Ha, Chun-Li finds some girl on the ship and asks her if she's okay. But the girl doesn't seem to speak English and asks where her father is, so Chun-Li tells her to stay where she is. That's probably a good idea.

1:18 - Gen and Balrog fight and Gen MELTS BALROG'S FACE. Awesome.

1:19 - That girl on the boat? That's Bison's daughter, the one he ripped out of his wife's stomach. Not so awesome. She's also put up in a fancy prison cell. Man, if you're gonna get captured, get captured by Bison. His cells have designer furniture.

Hold on, we're actually confused. Why is Bison's daughter on a boat? Like, when he ripped her out of his wife's stomach, what did he do with her? Let's forget about that now, Gen and Bison are fighting. It's a pretty good fight! We hope he uses that milk analogy again, because that was terrific.

"Gen, you are starting to sour." (He didn't say that, but should've.)

Bison throw Gen into a table and then leaves. Leaves? Why does he leave? You cannot BLOW UP GEN, why would you leave him after throwing him into a table? Go over that and finish the job. DAMMIT BISON.

1:23 - Chun-Li shows up and starts smacking Bison with a bamboo pole.

1:25 - ANGRY BABY FACE.

1:27 - And... Chun-Li defeats Bison by twisting his head around. The American Pie guy shows up and says nice work.

1:30 - Another voice over, a newspaper clipping for a Street Fighter tournament, Gen mentioning a "Ryu something," and this looks like a wrap, folks!

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li opens at theaters across the U.S. this weekend. Be sure to see it so we get the inevitable Street FIghter: The Legend of Ryu something!

Ten members of 48 member idol group AKB48 showed up at a Tokyo press event today dressed up in Chun-Li garb and wearing shiny black tights.

For those keeping score: The ten AKB48 singers in attendance were Minami Takahashi, Amina Satoh, Minami Minegishi, Yukari Satoh, Natsuki Sato, Tomomi Kasai, Ayaka Umeda, Megumi Ohori, Sayaka Akimoto and Natsumi Matsubara.

The girls posed for pictures and did an original dance created just for this Street Fighter movie press event. "We practiced an hour before the press event," Umeda told reporters.

AKB48 went on to talk about their experience with the Street Fighter movie, while members of the Japanese press went on to think how much better watching this press conference was than the actual film.

AKB48、春麗コスプレで「ストリートファイター」を応援 [natalie]

Klein plays Charlie Nash, who in the movie is a police officer on the trail of Bison, as opposed to the Air Force lieutanant he is portrayed as in the series. Nash is Klein's first action hero role, requiring him to learn how to handle handguns and participate in his first official exploding-building dive, a milestone for any aspiring action star.

There was so much noise and so much going on. It comes off really good on screen, it was absolute mayhem. I remember right before we did the jump stunt, I looked at [the producer] and said, 'It all starts right now. This is going to be three nights of mayhem.' And he goes, 'Don't get hurt.' I'm blasted out of that building. You see my face and everything. I'm blasted out."

He's blasted out! Doesn't that sound exciting?

Unlike his co-star Kristen Kreuk, Klein actually played the Street Fighter games as a kid, which means we can actually blame him if the movie does horrible things to our memories of the video game.

"I started my Street Fighter 2 on Super Nintendo," Klein said. "That was the first Street Fighter that I played outside of the arcade. I wasn't good at it, not nearly as good as my peers, but I liked it. I remember it being the first one-on-one action fighting game that I really liked."

No way? We remember it that way as well. What a coincidence!

We'll find out if Klein honors Charlie's memory when the film hits theaters this weekend. If not, we'll send Guile after him.

Chris Klein on Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li [CanMag]

After the Chun-Li film ends, a Street Fighter anime starring schoolgirl Sakura will be screened. Animation house Studio 4C, who's responsible for the Street Fighter IV animated sequences, created the anime.

No word if the anime will be shown in Western theaters as well.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li [Official Site via Street Fighter Blog via Animekon]

Of course Chun-Li runs into them in a dark alley, but she apparently has the moves to make it in a dark alley, whereas you or I would have wound up at best robbed, at worst viciously sodomized. Still, I'm not particularly impressed by the fighting in this clip. The wire work is nice enough, I suppose, but Chun-Li is still nearly taken out by some seriously generic opponents. Did he throw a crate of empty bottles at her? Weak. And while Chun-Li's final move in the clip is certainly impressive, she completely screwed up the dismount.

Oh well, I guess a legend has to start somewhere, right?

Ok, i'm watching the Chun-li Movie [Betomachado.com]

During a Tokyo press conference for the upcoming Hollywood flick, comedian Suzuki Q Taro showed up dressed as Chun Li, saying, "I'm the real Chun Li."

Kreuk unleashed an actor's attack, sending Q-chan through the cardboard boxes. (Actually, the funny man was yanked via wire!)

Oh, the hilarity. Almost as funny as the Chun Li movie itself!

映画「ストリートファイター ザ・レジェンド・オブ・チュンリー」 [Game Watch]

There are blue eyes, this collection of faces and hot Vega claw action. Not thighs!

The latest poster (for Japan) does its best to fill the void. FINALLY.

That's Riisa Naka. Today she was announced as the Japanese language voiceover dub Chun-Li. She's a quarter Swedish and voiced the lead character in anime The Girl Who Leapt Through Time — and an episode of Ultraman Mebius.

So if you go see this movie in Japan and want to watch it in Japanese, well, you'll be hearing her voice.

『ストリートファイター　ザ・レジェンド・オブ・チュンリー』で日米の美女がタッグ [Famitsu]

[ComingSoon]

The film's plot is an origin story and seems to follow the in-game origin story for Chun-Li. At least Hollywood seems to be getting that right even if it's skimping on the thighs. Our complaint: Needs more meaty.

ギャガ・コミュニケーションズ、2009年2月より全国ロードショー [Game Watch]