Movie reviews make wonderfully unreliable report cards. A critic can emerge from a screening clutching a notebook full of complaints while the person three seats away is already pricing a second ticket. Taste has no final boss, and Rotten Tomatoes has witnessed plenty of split decisions.

Venom carries a 31% critics score against 80% from audiences. The Super Mario Bros. Movie sits at 58% and 95%, respectively. Evidently, a film can lose the critics' tournament and still throw a parade in the arcade.

Now Street Fighter has stepped into that familiar battleground, with two wildly different verdicts flashing above the ring.

On Friday, Street Fighter stood at 45% on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer and 82% on its audience Popcornmeter, a whopping 37-point gulf. Both measure positive reactions, not average grades. The percentages can change as fresh verdicts arrive.

Critics have flagged the overstuffed ensemble, patchy storytelling, and a tournament that occasionally feels like an optional side quest. The Guardian criticized its muddled narrative, while Rotten Tomatoes' review roundup noted that even appreciative reviewers struggled with the film's unruly tone. Moviegoers, meanwhile, appear considerably happier to embrace the arcade-cabinet lunacy.

Director Kitao Sakurai serves up Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and enough familiar fighting-game faces to keep fan-service detectives busy. Roman Reigns arrives as Akuma, Cody Rhodes rocks Guile's architectural marvel of a haircut, and Jason Momoa goes green as Blanka. This is a world where shouting a move's name counts as a perfectly reasonable combat strategy. The audience reaction suggests that plenty of ticket buyers have come for pure button-mashing spectacle. Critical approval remains elusive, but early fan enthusiasm gives the film a fighting chance.

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And that divide suddenly matters because the movie leaves one enormous boss battle unfinished.

Spoilers ahead: the final bell does not exactly ring. Ryu battles Akuma, Roman Reigns' demonic warrior, and survives the darkness threatening to consume him. M. Bison escapes with the wounded Akuma, keeping his villainous ambitions very much alive. Instead of a neat victory screen, Ryu and Ken join Chun-Li and Dan before being picked up by Guile and Dhalsim. Their destination? Bison's trail.

The mid-credits sequence adds another arcade legend to the character-selection menu. Bison approaches Sagat, the eyepatched fighter with a grudge against Ryu. Somewhere, the sequel button is glowing dangerously bright. Director Kitao Sakurai has confirmed that sequel ideas are being developed and written.

Speaking to MovieWeb, he made clear that the project depends on audience response. In a separate ComicBook interview, he avoided confirming the rumored Round Two title. According to industry reports, box-office forecasts placed its domestic opening around $25 million to $35 million. Studio executives will ultimately be checking ticket receipts.

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Should Street Fighter earn a sequel despite its divisive reviews? Let us know in the comments.