Chun-Li becomes gritty
I don’t think this will work. Honestly, Kristen Kreuk is probably a fine actress (dunno, never watched more than a couple of episodes of Smallville), but a believable martial artist, she is most definitively not. I’m sure her casting has been chewed on and spat out in the blogosphere many a times already. I won’t make the same points or rehash the same arguments. Mostly people think that Ms. Kreuk’s casting as Chun Li is an epic fail of a decision. I pretty much agree on that point.
No, my issue today is really more about Hollywood’s current fascination with grittiness. Is it my imagination or is every movie now just more gritty? It seems that Hollywood’s cinematographers are enamored with gray, black and brown. Every hero (and heroine) has to be covered with sweat, dirt and blood, and if they look like they just came back from working 14 hours at a steel mill, so much the better. Everyone’s wearing black or earth tones. All the cities look like an industrialized mass of steel pipes; dirty sewer grates with smoke coming out of them; streets with puddles, rats and street people huddled around garbage can fires.
We no longer get the gay colors of Batman and Robin but the grittiness (there’s that word again) and somber tones of Batman: The Dark Night. Even a franchise as camp-filled as GI Joe is being made gritty - everyone hasn’t shaved in days and is decked out in dark leather. I understand of course. Grittiness sells and recent cartoonish depictions of franchises (e.g., Speed Racer) just didn’t do well in the box office.
However, I’m overdosing on grittiness.
Which brings me back to Street Fighter, and Kristen Kreuk’s Chun-Li. I look at the screen shots of this film and the character I see on the film just doesn’t look like Chun-Li. Sure, Kristen is gritty, but her character can be just about any generic character in an action film. A character as iconic as Chu- Li (the first playable female character in an arcade game) should be immediately recognizable, even if you have to add some campy details like the oxtails and ribbons she wears in her hair.
She's dirty, but she's not Chun-Li.
This isn’t saying that I want camp. No one wants to see a repeat of the first Street Fighter movie. However, is it too much to ask for a middle of the road approach? The Japanese have no problem with camp. Take a look at the two trailers below. The first one is the US official trailer, the second is the official trailer for Japan.
Notice the difference? The US version is moody, somber. Just what you’d expect from a gritty action movie. In fact, it’s sort of hard to even tell that it’s a martial arts movie. It could be an action film that just happens to have some martial arts in it. You don’t have that problem with the Japanese version of the trailer. The scroll-like captions they put between the action sequence leaves little doubt that the Japanese considers this a martial arts film. The film even looks brighter in the Japanese version.
It’ll be interesting to see how the film does in Japan. In the US, I don’t think the film will do well, but it won’t be for the lack of being gritty enough.
Related posts:
- No Street Fighter for critics Ha! I knew it. According to Variety, film critics...
- Munn’s Chun Li sells panties I’ve been a fan of Olivia Munn for quite...
- Critics bash Street Fighter movie Initial reviews of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun...
- Is Hollywood desperate? I’m a huge science fiction and fantasy fan (like...
- Fantastic Four reboot IESB has learned that 20th Century Fox will do...
You see, Batman and Robin was an utter failure, so that might have a bit to do with why directors avoid “too colorful” movies.