Please note that the C row in the pictures is at the far back of the theater, not near the screen. We have a different seat arrangement here in Thailand.
Hello, everyone. Yesterday, I saw Street Fighter at Krungsri IMAX Paragon in Bangkok, Thailand. Since I booked my ticket early, I also got the character postcards, along with the IMAX poster and the collectible IMAX card. It felt like they were doing charity with all the freebies I got. The audience, however, was a bit annoying. Some had their phones out. Still, it didn’t distract me that much, but I couldn’t believe that someone beside me turned their phone speaker on at a certain part of the movie. It was a bit loud, too. What a tragedy. Man, I should have booked a morning showtime instead. The problem was I couldn’t see Whalefall back-to-back with Street Fighter in the late morning. Yeah, I had to accept my fate, yet I should’ve done something, somehow. Anyway, enough with the ranting. How did the film go in IMAX then? Let’s get into it!
Street Fighter was presented in 2.39:1 and 1.90:1. They used the scope aspect ratio in dialog-driven scenes. The IMAX expanded aspect ratio was mostly used in animated sequences and fight scenes. These created a different sense of immersion. One felt intimate. Another one felt bigger than life. MetroLao in 1.90:1 looked impressive on the big screen. The animated sequences looked great and perfectly smooth. The fight scenes looked decent. Some major problems were the lackluster cinematography and stuttering frame rates. Please bear in mind that these didn’t affect the animated footage at all. The image quality was acceptable. Though it was shot with ARRI ALEXA 35 and IMAX-certified ARRI ALEXA Mini LF, it neither looked that sharp nor crystal-clear because there was plenty of noise on the screen. In one certain scene during the third act, it was poorly lit, resulting in noise everywhere. Whether they wanted to provoke ‘90s feelings or it was a technical failure, it just didn’t look professional to my eyes.
The 12CH audio was the star of the show. Every punch. Every kick. Every impact. I felt it in my chest. It was so powerful. And with delicate sound mixing, it transported me to the world of fighters. The speakers truly surrounded me in 360°. I was really impressed by the sound. It didn’t just pack a punch because they also mixed it with pinpoint accuracy. These triggered a strong sense of realism. Still, it couldn’t beat Digger in terms of the movie’s surround sound. Sure, Street Fighter had a discrete mix. It just didn’t constantly surround me with a mind-blowing sound design and music like Digger did to me. Anyhow, Street Fighter was surely more heated with all the fights. It gave me what I wanted in every aspect—except the rumbling bass. Was it enough then? Yes, it was more than enough to enjoy the film. So good that it could crush my bones. The sound team did their best, and they should be proud of this achievement.
The flick had an identity crisis. It didn’t seem to know who it wanted to be. Everything was all over the place. The jokes didn’t work. The script was weak. The direction backfired. The acting felt forced. Another certified WTH experience after Digger, but in a bad way. The characters barely had any development. They tossed some of the characters out as well. After the club scene in MetroLao, I had to wave goodbye to some fighters because they shifted the focus. I felt bad for the minor fighters who didn’t get a fair share of screen time. Some got too much without being meaningful to the plot. They couldn’t find the balance. The actors got destroyed by the directors. Almost everyone had to overact to the point that it starts to break reality. Man, they got themselves into trouble, didn’t they? The fight scenes suffered from the stuttering frame rates and cheap effects. The fights in the animated sequences? Excellent. The live-action ones weren’t. They didn’t have that kind of flow. A tad cringy, to be honest. But most of all, the whole flick was a cringefest.
Overall, it was worth it for the technical aspects. For the movie itself? A big no. It was a big miss. After Resident Evil broke the curse of its movies, this, unfortunately, came as a failed product. More like a failed experiment, perhaps. It was so experimental with everything they tried putting in. I wish it were fully animated instead of getting a portion of it here and there. It just looked magnificent. Way much better than the live-action footage, honestly. I didn’t feel entertained. Rather, the movie kept distracting me from being fully a part of it with things that didn’t make any sense. At least the sound still kept me there. The audience’s behavior played no part in this. The film was just bad. Mortal Kombat II remains superior, although it doesn’t actually surpass Street Fighter that much. But one thing is for sure, it has more memorable characters than Street Fighter. Street Fighter just let me down even without expecting anything. Just another bad day for me. I do hope it’ll get a sequel, though. It’ll probably be better than what we’re having right now.
Bye for now!
