Combatants
So, 2026 saw the release of both Mortal Kombat II and Street Fighter. Yes, there was a Mortal Kombat movie back in 2021, but this latest sequel would finally get our characters squaring off in the titular tournament after the first movie built up to it. Meanwhile, after a live-action adaptation attempt in 1994, Street Fighter would finally revisit the movie world with a better sense of translating the material after years of video game movies crashed and burned in their journey from cartridge to screen. The Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter video games would once compete over quarters at the arcades, so how has their film counterparts fared against each other in an age where characters and environments can look exactly like the game? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Characters
Mortal Kombat II
After the first movie chose to invent and follow a character who was never in the video games, the sequel wisely stuck to the main stable of fighters we all know and love (with a cheeky short appearance by said invented character). While Mortal Kombat II showcased the tournament for the first time, it actually focused on the Outworld tournament from the video game Mortal Kombat II and not Shang Tsung’s tournament from the first game. So, here we have Kitana as our story protagonist and Johnny Cage as an audience surrogate. The duo is introduced in this movie and their arcs are the strongest. However, while characters like Liu Kang, Jax, Sonya and Scorpion are pushed to the side, they all get chances to shine. Even Kano gets to come back and fight in the big finale. Shao Khan is also appropriately built up as the main villain and his presence is felt throughout this movie.
Street Fighter
Meanwhile, Street Fighter knew the movie rested on the shoulders of fan favorites Ken and Ryu. This is their movie and the story of their brotherhood and discovery of power is the driving force behind the movie. Their story is counterbalanced by Chun-Li’s own quest for vengeance and she becomes a pretty solid B-plot. Other characters like Guile and Dhalsim get a little time to shine, but it can feel a little too shortchanged. M. Bison’s characterization had the difficult task of following Raul Julia’s brilliant megalomaniac satire, but unfortunately, it didn’t feel like they could nail down a fully realized portrayal.
Winner: Mortal Kombat II
Honestly, this was a tough decision. I thought the story between Ryu and Ken was the strongest and most engaging out of both movies, but their focus sacrificed the balance of focus on other characters and you really have to juggle them well in movies like these. Mortal Kombat II was better at juggling and was able to give some of the supporting characters mini-arcs. Plus, some characters just straight up disappear in Street Fighter.
Fights
Mortal Kombat II
Another aspect that the sequel improved upon was the fight scenes. In the first film, other than the Scorpion vs Sub-Zero fight, all the choppy, intercutting between the characters was disorienting. Here, in the sequel, since we’re in the tournament, we’re present with both fighters in each match and we get to focus solely on the fighting during these scenes. The choreography also improved and there’s a stand out bout between our Shaolin brothers — Liu Kang and Kung Lao — which stole the show with some fun creativity with their powers.
Street Fighter
While this movie felt like it didn’t indulge in the matches quite as much, they were still a ton of fun. Everybody brought their A-game when it came to the fight scenes. In Mortal Kombat, I could tell who was an actor doing their best with the choreography, but in Street Fighter, the actors were just selling it more. I can tell Karl Urban wasn’t as experienced in martial arts, but if you told me Noah Centineo had a martial arts background, I would believe it. Despite the shortness of the fights and the choreography not being particularly creative, they were blunt and brutal and I felt the impact of it in every scene. Some of the needle drops weren’t even songs that I could predict to ever be fight scene wallpaper, but I found myself enjoying them as punctuations on the scenes.
Winner: Street Fighter
To be clear, I enjoyed the fight scenes from both movies. But Street Fighter had some extra sauce to it that gave it more of an impact for me.
Movies
Mortal Kombat II
I was not a fan of 2021’s Mortal Kombat. So, I was pretty wary about the sequel as it was developing. I was incredibly surprised that I came away liking it a lot. And to its credit, a ton of the development was thanks to that first movie. We got to the nitty-gritty of it all. The tournament. The fights. And I had a lot of fun through and through. It was a good idea to bring in a character like Johnny Cage and make him someone we root for while he takes us through this journey. We also actually get to see the lore of Shao Kahn’s reign over Edenia, which I always thought would make a great element in a modern adaptation of the property.
Street Fighter
Honestly, growing up, I was always a Mortal Kombat guy. I played the games more. I loved the 1995 movie. I even really enjoy Mortal Kombat 1. I have only really played Street Fighter II here and there and know very little about the property as a whole. Despite all this, I feel like I enjoyed Street Fighter more as a movie. This is likely a controversial take. As much as I liked Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter just felt like a throwback to 80s and 90s schlock that you can just have a blast with. It also felt like it had more of a vision than Mortal Kombat II. Whether or not it was successful is up to the individual viewer, but MKII felt more reminiscent of a usual blockbuster in the wake of Marvel’s influence on the industry, whereas SF had a plucky attitude to it. And the cast’s energy is just infectious. You can just tell everyone was having the time of their lives making a crazy cartoon of a movie and it definitely translated through to me.
Winner: Street Fighter
So, which movie won more with you? And why?
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed