As difficult as it is to adapt video games to film already, it must be doubly so for fighting game adaptations. Unlike the traditional storytelling of more narratively complex games like The Last of Us or God of War, fighting games often use the story as a backdrop for an ensemble of characters who players will then use to beat each other to a virtual pulp. The plot of Mortal Kombat, for instance, is a convoluted mess of alternate dimensions and ancient gods that serves as little more than to contextualize why the final boss has earned the brutal finishing move coming his way.
And yet, despite this, fighting games have been some of the most frequently adapted to the big screen – from Mortal Kombat to Tekken. Even the most influential fighting game of all time, Street Fighter 2, has led to several cinematic interpretations of the IP, including 1994’s Street Fighter and 2009’s The Legend of Chun-Li (two films that, at the time, were panned as some of the worst movies ever). Two prior failures certainly aren’t enough to stop Paramount Pictures from trying again, though, especially in a year already filled with multiple successful video game movies.
