I can’t recommend The Bourne Ultimatum enough. It is an intelligent, exciting, political action/spy/espionage/thriller that takes the formerly ho-hum multi-genre into a fresh and electric direction. But this isn’t a movie review, unfortunately.

As I was watching the movie, the organization and structure of the story resonated with me in a very unexpected way. Let me sum it up: Jason travels from city to city, encountering government “assets”, another word for assassin, along the way. Let me state that in general terms: Hero travels to location, fights enemy, travels to next location, fights enemy, travels to next location, fights enemy, big finale, end credits.

Now let me sum up the plot of every fighting game since the original Street Fighter:  Hero travels to location, fights enemy, travels to next location, fights enemy, travels to next location, fights enemy, big finale, end credits.

See the resemblance?

I’m not saying Ultimatum is as mindless as the Dead Or Alive movie, but it does have that similar progression, more so than I noticed in the previous two Bourne movies. And as bad as the Street Fighter movie was, it does give a little hope to any filmmakers who want to convert their favorite fighting franchise to the silver screen. The key is to success is: great direction, smart writing, and a big budget, or at least the suggestion of a big budget. Don’t dumb it down, don’t make it cheesy. Don’t dress your actors in goofy costumes and makeup. And don’t ever, ever cast Jean-Claude Van Damme as the lead. Don’t think that every fight must be fisticuffs from start to finish, as with Bourne running through the rooftops of Morocco tailing Desh; or the car chase through the Port Authority ending in a spectacular shower of car parts. Even Bourne’s chase through Waterloo Station in London, where never a punch was thrown, was more thrilling than any fight in the Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat movies.

Looking at this argument from the opposite viewpoint, it validates DOA’s grandiose and multi-level fighting stages, in that it demonstrates environment in the fighting game genre is as much of a factor as the technique. Whether it’s throwing a combatant through a stained-glass window, riding their back down a flight of stairs, or using apple carts as cover down a village road, it’s evident Itagaki-san has his finger on the evolution of the fighting genre much more than we give him credit.

I doubt a Fatal Fury movie would be made with the same support as Ultimatum, but it does make a solid case for how a video game adaptation can be done right.