This year has been bookended by two video game-inspired movies based on beloved fighting games that have been around for decades.

We started with Mortal Kombat II in May, a pretty lacklustre experience with a couple of fun set pieces that, at the very least, made it watchable.

Now, as we near the end of the year, Street Fighter takes its turn trying to appeal to the masses with a new big-screen outing.

But which heavyweight wins the big-budget bout?

Well … It’s a draw.

Street Fighter follows Ken (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji), two young fighters adopted by the same mentor, Gouken. In 1987, Ryu is invited to the World Warrior Tournament, which pits the best fighters on Earth against each other.

Ryu wins the tournament, but shortly after his victory, Gouken is murdered by a dark entity that wishes to absorb Ryu’s abilities. Following the death of their father figure, Ryu goes into hiding while Ken drinks himself into obscurity.

Several years later, both Ken and Ryu are recruited by the mysterious Chun Li (Callina Liang) to take part in the second iteration of the World Warrior Tournament, which has been backed by the power-hungry dictator M. Bison (David Dastmalchian).

Street Fighter was never going to have a super grounded plot with expert writing and explorable themes. It was always going to be a silly story with a crazy cast of characters, loud soundtracks and vibrant visuals.

To the movie’s credit, it does do all of those things. The issue is that it doesn’t translate into a coherent narrative; instead, it feels like a parody of the very thing it’s adapting.

Minor spoilers for the film, but several scenes throughout serve as backstory or flashbacks. When these scenes take place, they are presented in anime-style animation.

This matters because these scenes perfectly capture the over-the-top nature of the games.

The flips and tricks, the ridiculous costumes and the crazy fights are all impressive, and the animation feels like it respects the grandiose nature of the source material. However, in live-action, it all looks tacky and like very expensive Halloween costumes.

Like Mortal Kombat before it, aside from the fights themselves, it comes across as a strange parody.

Nothing is properly fleshed out, character motivations are very surface-level, and aside from one or two cast members really trying, everything feels like a joke.

With something as exaggerated as Street Fighter, if the film doesn’t respect itself, how is anyone supposed to watch it?

That said, there is something strangely charming about the film. Not in an ‘I’m going to watch this on repeat’ kind of way, but more like a ‘I could put this on while I’m cleaning’ kind of way.

This is largely due to the film’s aesthetic. It is bright, it is loud, and the fights are fun. Coincidentally, you don’t have to think about any of these too much when watching a movie.

It’s very much in the vein of turning your brain off and letting the flashy things flash in front of you, and in that sense, the movie works.

The issue is, if you’re paying $25-plus to see a movie at the cinema, I’m not too sure many people will want to turn their brains off.

When it comes to using any critical thinking, Street Fighter falls apart at the seams. It doesn’t think its own plot is strong enough to fully flesh out. Many of the characters are shallow, and nothing groundbreaking reinvents the franchise.

But as a train wreck of nonsense, it is quite enjoyable to sit back and watch the tomfoolery.

It comes down to this: if you want a live-action reimagining of the games you’ve played for decades, you’ll be disappointed. If you want a silly two-hour romp that doesn’t care much about being anything, you’ll have fun.

Street Fighter is now showing in cinemas across the country.