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11-06-2021, 11:52 PM | #881 |
Filthy SU/FE Trash
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 572
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Cho Den-O: The day Den-O as a franchise died this was at one point the worst superhero movie I ever saw and while it's not that anymore(That (Dis)honor goes to Suicide Squad(The first one the second one is probably the most improved sequel I've seen)) it's still awful
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11-06-2021, 11:52 PM | #882 |
Filthy SU/FE Trash
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 572
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11-07-2021, 11:17 PM | #883 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER THE MOVIE: CHO-DEN-O TRILOGY
--- EPISODE BLUE - "THE DISPATCHED IMAGIN IS NEWTRAL” This is the second time I've started writing this piece. I was a few paragraphs in, and I just wasn't into where things were going. It was mean, and it lacked much elaboration. I don't think it was very insightful, or even fair. It was mostly just four paragraphs of me talking about how much I hated this movie, and how soul-deadening it was to watch it. And, god, it was that! You almost got no write-up for Episode Blue because I found the entire experience to be absolutely devoid of happiness. (Even now, I'm like, No, There Must've Been Something Good. I literally can't think of anything! At all!) I had to take about seven breaks from watching this movie. Every ten minutes I'd get so bored I'd look for distractions. Recounting it was like recounting an incredibly long line you stood in. Joyless. But I don't... I don't find any value in just screaming I Hated This, even if I hated it. So, I don't know. Let's see if we can talk about this movie objectively. Try to get at its failures. Which, there are plenty. Structurally, this thing is wafer thin. If this story had been cut down to the length of a single Den-O TV episode, I'd've still wanted to pad it out with a Yuuto subplot or a Naomi runner. The core idea, that Kotaro and Rinko From Wizard need to learn a lesson in not taking people for granted, is obvious from the jump. Owner might as well have said it out loud in the first act, since it's zero percent subtle, and him withholding it just makes him seem like a prick. (He is emotionally torturing the entire team! I don't think Hana or Momo or Ryotaro needed to learn a lesson!) Same thing for the Rinko From Wizard doppelganger, who doesn't need to act nearly as menacing and psychotic as she does in the first half of this story. The motivations are telegraphed a mile out, and the twists are so minor that I'm not sure they count as twists. They're, like, curves. Plot curves. And besides a contract holder plot that's obvious and sort of mean (so, Grandma just forces the real Rinko From Wizard to play tennis until she collapses for fun or something? And makes Rinko From Wizard think she's going to get replaced by a monster? This is... why is she treating her granddaughter so horribly? I would probably want to hang out with my friends instead, too!), there's the weird reliance on Teddy and Kotaro's relationship, which feels like a huge miscalculation... despite being this movie's only reason for existing. I think I hate New Den-O? I feel like I gave him a shot, but I really disliked him in this movie. The actor is... hoo boy. Zero charisma. And the conception of the character of Kotaro is still, like, Worse Yuuto? It's Yuuto's horrible attitude and refusal to open up, but without the particular bratty twist that Yuuto put on it? Yuuto always came off as sort of pathetic, in his childishness. He was pitiable. With Kotaro, it just comes off as him being a snotty jerk. The plot of the movie is to get both Kotaro and Teddy to the point where they're open about their need for one another, but that means that we get an entire movie of Kotaro turning his back on Teddy. It's another whole movie of Kotaro being withdrawn and mopey, and the actor not finding a single interesting note to it. He just, like, sucks. He's the least interesting character in this story, and it's his goddamn story. Teddy... I mean, he's just a less interesting version of Deneb. Same as above. The whole Kotaro/Teddy dynamic is like (I don't like saying this, but it's the only way to explain it) Inoue trying to create Yuuto/Deneb. It's there in the broad strokes, but everything inside is undercooked, unappetizing. It's a Worse Yuuto, and a Dull Deneb. I feel like I've already gone back on my desire for this post to not just be me complaining about this movie. I can't help it, though. I hated this movie so much. It's bereft of quality. It's an exhausting slog through an obvious story with terrible characters. If it was twenty minutes long, it'd be ten minutes too long. Watching this movie made me wonder if I ever liked Den-O at all. I wish I hadn't watched it, and I wish I hadn't written about it. Also, WHY WAS SIEG IN THIS MOVIE!!!!!
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11-07-2021, 11:31 PM | #884 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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Man I misremembered the hell out of this film and Teddy/Kotaro's relationship.
Edit: this was also one of the very first kamen rider things I watched.
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Last edited by Deepsea; 11-07-2021 at 11:34 PM.. |
11-07-2021, 11:37 PM | #885 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Their relationship is a charmless, aggravating version of Yuuto and Deneb's relationship. I am honestly getting mad just remembering it.
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11-08-2021, 12:00 AM | #886 |
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I mostly remember it for teddy now thinking about it. He fills a character type I like, the reserved/quiet butler. I actually could not remember much about Kotoro other then he's smug but unlucky. So uh yeaaaasah.
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11-08-2021, 12:09 AM | #887 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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(deep, bitter, sigh) --even that's just all cobbled together from other, better characters? Kotaro's unlucky streak is something he inherited for Ryotaro, which means we got a funnier version of it back in the main series. (There's a gag/"gag" in this movie, where Kotaro keeps getting hit in the back of the head with soccer balls, and it's just a lesser version of a longer, better gag from the TV show. And this one ends with Kotaro getting pooped on by a bird, which is... man, is that the best Kobayashi's got at this point in the franchise?) Teddy's the quiet, reserved, deferential butler (and I like Teddy okay!), and it's all in service to a grumpy, prideful boy. But it's not funny or fresh, like that dynamic was with Yuuto and Deneb. I just... I just find Kotaro (and Teddy, to a lesser extent) to be a sad reminder of earlier, better characters, which is richly ironic after the last movie's Airi/Yuuto storyline.
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11-08-2021, 12:30 AM | #888 |
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And even--
(deep, bitter, sigh) --even that's just all cobbled together from other, better characters? Kotaro's unlucky streak is something he inherited for Ryotaro, which means we got a funnier version of it back in the main series. (There's a gag/"gag" in this movie, where Kotaro keeps getting hit in the back of the head with soccer balls, and it's just a lesser version of a longer, better gag from the TV show. And this one ends with Kotaro getting pooped on by a bird, which is... man, is that the best Kobayashi's got at this point in the franchise?) Teddy's the quiet, reserved, deferential butler (and I like Teddy okay!), and it's all in service to a grumpy, prideful boy. But it's not funny or fresh, like that dynamic was with Yuuto and Deneb. I just... I just find Kotaro (and Teddy, to a lesser extent) to be a sad reminder of earlier, better characters, which is richly ironic after the last movie's Airi/Yuuto storyline. I think, I think the most apt comparison I can make to Kotoro is Gou from Drive (and a character from saber). They're both show offs who are actually using that confidence to cover up for their feelings of inadquecy (and hate/guilt in Gou's case). I feel like early Gou pulls off that confidence better because he feels more human/kind, while still kind of being a shit. I dont know, what do y'all think?
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11-08-2021, 12:39 AM | #889 |
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This makes me think, characters like tsukasa, tendou, and sento are all prideful but flawed, but dont irk you like this. So I'm guessing the grumpiness and lack of respect towards others are the bigger reasons for not liking him.
I think, I think the most apt comparison I can make to Kotoro is Gou from Drive (and a character from saber). They're both show offs who are actually using that confidence to cover up for their feelings of inadquecy (and hate/guilt in Gou's case). I feel like early Gou pulls off that confidence better because he feels more human/kind, while still kind of being a shit. I dont know, what do y'all think? Kotaro's actor is incredibly light on charisma. Nothing about his performance gets you on his side. There's a way to play the part that differentiates it from Yuuto, but this guy just plays it as off-puttingly as possible. There's none of Yuuto's barely-concealed sadness, or Original Ryotaro's boundless empathy. There's just this Legacy Rider, some kid who expects the world to revolve around him because Do You Know Who My Family Is, and we keep getting these stories where he learns to be less of a self-involved twerp. Which is the other thing, that we are on our third story with New Den-O and it's another story where Kotaro learns to be less self-involved. And that's on top of how inessential this story is to begin with, how little it bothers to connect dots or utilize its cast (SIEG) or feel like it belongs alongside one of the most revered Kamen Rider series of all time. Everything in this movie feels exhausted, and Kotaro is both a victim and a symptom of it.
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11-08-2021, 08:38 AM | #890 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
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That's like asking why Neil Patrick Harris is in every Harold & Kumar movie.
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