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09-29-2019, 11:10 AM | #171 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Yay!
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09-29-2019, 10:07 PM | #172 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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KAMEN RIDER BUILD MOVIE: BE THE ONE
There's a core of this movie that works so well. A narrative thread so clear, so pure, that it manages to overcome some of the dumbest story decisions this show has made during its weakest stretch. But, man, do you have to sit through some junk to get to it. The thing that works, to get to the positive part first this time, is the second half of the film. After avoiding the maybe 300 people still alive in Touto, Build has seen Grease and Rogue captured, the country (including Misora and Sawa) turned against him, and Cross-Z possessed by the villains. He's out of options, out of friends, out of hope. Takumi is telling him that the villain is right, that Build was only created by monsters to cause harm. He's at his lowest. He can't fight back, and he doesn't have anything to fight for. But. Banjou still needs his help. Banjou, his best friend, needs to be saved from the bad guys. That's enough. That is all the reason Sento needs to find it within himself to risk everything and face the villains. There's hope that, with Banjou on his side, maybe they can still turn this thing around. It's great. It centers the story on this friendship and sells it, telling you it's bigger than all the threats aligned against them. It's beautifully done. It is, unfortunately, possibly the only thing the movie does well. Imagine my joy, seeing the face of Buildad as this film opens. So great to see him back for this story! He gives a laughably prophetic set of advice to Takumi that stops short of saying, "And make sure to form change into Build Genius when you fight Evolt in a field in ten years with Cross-Z, Grease, and Rogue." The idea of Better Days Buildad as a thing in the movie, I actually liked it. If I blocked out the last five episodes of his story, Sento's dad works great in this movie, as a beacon of selfless belief in humanity and its potential. It's just, if you think about the overall plot of the series for more than one second, it rings totally hollow and makes, like negative sense. It removes sense from the surrounding story elements. Speaking of nonsensical story elements that fall apart the second you think of the TV show this movie is based on, JESUS, why in the world you'd take one-off villains from the movie (good!), tie them to Evol(t)'s story (tough, but maybe!), and then make them the secret masterminds of everything in the series, even the stuff we watched other people do, I have no earthly idea. It is far, far too late in the story to introduce a higher layer of puppet masters, and it's bonkers to try to do it in a 60-minute summer movie. It takes a story that was already too convoluted and complex, and makes it like a non-comedic version of the end of Clue. How many people were peering over Evol(t)'s shoulder the last ten years, fifty? A hundred? But, goddamn, the last twenty minutes nearly make it all work. The friendship of Sento and Banjou is so well-established and vibrant that, once they shake off some stupid, stupid ideas, the climax of the film works great. Their friendship is solidified in one Rider that can't be beat, in a suit that I don't love but it's a movie suit and it works thematically if not aesthetically so I'm not that mad. I just hate how much of the first half doesn't work if you think about it even briefly. Worth watching for the cast and some of the gags (and that instrumental xylophone or whatever version of the theme song), hard to get past the villains and how much you need to forget Buildad and just think of Sento's flashback dad. Complicated feelings about this one! oh also Zi-O shows up in the end but I'm not watching that series for a long while so I'm going to pretend it wasn't in this 'cause I don't want to talk about that series yet okay thanks thanks and thanks thanks
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09-30-2019, 12:43 AM | #173 |
take me to space
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The last five episodes and the 'lore' parts of this movie:
It reminds me of how how all of 100 Eyecons' connections to the series only make both the show and the movie itself worse altogether. Be The One is maybe a little easier to see as it's own separate thing, but not by much. But if you do manage to do that, which it sounds like you mostly did, I think it's a decent fun time. |
09-30-2019, 02:04 AM | #174 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Quote:
It reminds me of how how all of 100 Eyecons' connections to the series only make both the show and the movie itself worse altogether. Be The One is maybe a little easier to see as it's own separate thing, but not by much. But if you do manage to do that, which it sounds like you mostly did, I think it's a decent fun time.
I think, amongst other things, the producers wanted this to be a story where Sento faces rejection by the average citizens he's sworn to protect, and has to deal with his role in the recent civil war. That, you know, that could be a good movie! It's just not the movie they ended up making. So much of the engine of this story is that Build and the other Riders are despised by the citizens of Japan for their role in the civil war. Kamen Rider Blood (had to look it up!) specifically and repeatedly tells Sento that the people of Japan really do hate the Riders and think they're traitors, that Blood isn't making them behave this way. Except he is! He clearly is! I don't think Sawa and Misora actually want to destroy Sento, so I'm going to go ahead and say Blood is full of it. He's controlling the populace to turn them against the Riders, I know it, you know it, dogs know it. There's never, to my recollection, been a point in the Build series where Touto, Hokuto, or Seito citizens were shown to be even ambivalent about Riders. They're never feared, they're always adored. We're left to take the villain at his word, despite zero evidence supporting his claim. And Sento, like, entertains it? Maybe agrees with it? Let's it break him down emotionally? It's insane. And then, at the end of the movie, Blood is right?! The country does hate Riders everywhere for some reason that is never explicated? They give us this tiny story about the kid Sento saves, but zero look in to the majority that hates him. Why? Why not tell that story just a little bit? I don't want to judge the movie they didn't make. That's a sucker's game, and it's easy to spitball good ideas for a story you'll never have to tell. It's just, if they wanted to tell a story about people being against Riders, a) I'd probably like that movie better, and b) there's so many stronger, more continuity-based ways to tell it. Like, what does the average Seito citizen think of enemy combatants like Build or Grease, now that the war is over? Or how does a Touto citizen view a legit traitor like Rogue? I mean, just the previous week a pink alien was punting Riders through buildings, blowing them to hell. I assume folks lived or worked in those buildings, and might have less-than-good feelings about their self-appointed protectors? There are so many smaller, personal stories you could tell about Riders and their wartime activities. I don't get why the movie chose "mind-controlling secret puppet masters who brainwash the country into being rage zombies" as its way in to that concept. EDITED BECAUSE I THINK I'M LOSING IT: That probably didn't belong as a response to your comment! Sorry! I was just thinking about that aspect of the story for a minute, and it needed to get out of my brain, and it's late and I can't sleep. Sorry! It's weird, because, yeah, you're right, if I ignore all of the shit they layered on top of the ode to the friendship of Banjou and Sento, it's not that bad! There's some real funny gags in the first 15 minutes, and the final fight is well done. It's just, man, do the producers get in their own way in this one.
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09-30-2019, 07:55 AM | #175 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
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I adore Sento and Banjou more than is probably healthy, so honestly? The SentoXBanjou stuff in here was easily enough to pull it through for me and actually make it one of my favourite Rider movies ever, because that's how much I love these guys.
But uh, yeah, hard agree on a lot of that. These villains are, like, the most tropey, stereotypical group of one-off villains you could get. The Puppetmaster Leader, The Other Guy One That Laughs And/Or Is A Knucklehead, The Girl One. Just... deeply uninspired, I get nothing from these guys, and Blood isn't even a good fuckin suit. I can kind of get past the 'we were behind everything' plot point because to me, it seemed more like they were the ones executing stuff while Evolt was still the planner -- eg Evolt wants Faust Experiment #31 covered up, don't worry dude; I'm here in a position of power, I can do that for you. Just fills in that part of the chain to me when it didn't get much development on the show (though, not like it needed to). Also it kind of helps that after being absent for most of the movie, Evolt essentially says at the end "haha you wanted to do my thing? Fuck you lmao". But... man. These are just bad, forgettable villains. I was going over a list of what major suits Figuarts hadn't made yet, and I completely forgot that Blood even existed to list him. Just, so rubbish. Also agree with the Cross-ZBuild suit. It shouldn't work. It really, really shouldn't. But through the thematic and emotional connections, it's the best thing ever and I adore it! The fact that it doesn't look like it should work yet is in fact the most powerful thing in Japan is so obvious a metaphor that I don't even feel the need to spell it out. Perfect. I will say though, I kinda disagree on the whole "Blood says he's not controlling them when he obviously is" bit. I read into it as him more or less awakening negative feelings towards the Riders but sending them into hyperdrive. As you noted, the citizens would have plenty of reasons to harbour some sort of malice towards them -- former enemy combatants, property damage, treachery, just the idea of seeing some super-powered person going around and punching people with for the most part no government or public entity to reign them in. Hell, this almost reads like a follow-up to Build's plan 5 or so episodes ago to declare himself a traitor to Touto's government in order to go after Evolt without declaring war! All of which to say: I feel like Blood's being a politician here. There's teeeechnically a bit of truth behind his words, which you find out at the end; but he's stretching it beyond all credibility and using it to create a meaning and reading that just is not there. He's taken "the citizens don't feel great about you guys and have uncertainties and anxieties about this whole thing" and turned it into "the citizens HATE you and want you OUT and we'd ALL BE BETTER OFF IF YOU'D JUST DIE". So that wasn't bad to me. Also you didn't talk about the scene where Sento completely fucks himself over because he wanted to take pictures of the cute dogs, so 0/10 for this review I'm afraid |
09-30-2019, 09:20 AM | #176 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,097
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The movie's only vaugely canon to me. The Blood tribe people somehow secretly being responsible for everything that Evolt had done, I ignore. The Sento/Ryuga stuff though, that 100% counts
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09-30-2019, 09:40 AM | #177 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Quote:
But uh, yeah, hard agree on a lot of that. These villains are, like, the most tropey, stereotypical group of one-off villains you could get. The Puppetmaster Leader, The Other Guy One That Laughs And/Or Is A Knucklehead, The Girl One. Just... deeply uninspired, I get nothing from these guys, and Blood isn't even a good fuckin suit.
Quote:
I can kind of get past the 'we were behind everything' plot point because to me, it seemed more like they were the ones executing stuff while Evolt was still the planner -- eg Evolt wants Faust Experiment #31 covered up, don't worry dude; I'm here in a position of power, I can do that for you. Just fills in that part of the chain to me when it didn't get much development on the show (though, not like it needed to). Also it kind of helps that after being absent for most of the movie, Evolt essentially says at the end "haha you wanted to do my thing? Fuck you lmao". But... man. These are just bad, forgettable villains. I was going over a list of what major suits Figuarts hadn't made yet, and I completely forgot that Blood even existed to list him. Just, so rubbish.
Quote:
Also agree with the Cross-ZBuild suit. It shouldn't work. It really, really shouldn't. But through the thematic and emotional connections, it's the best thing ever and I adore it! The fact that it doesn't look like it should work yet is in fact the most powerful thing in Japan is so obvious a metaphor that I don't even feel the need to spell it out. Perfect.
Quote:
I will say though, I kinda disagree on the whole "Blood says he's not controlling them when he obviously is" bit. I read into it as him more or less awakening negative feelings towards the Riders but sending them into hyperdrive. As you noted, the citizens would have plenty of reasons to harbour some sort of malice towards them -- former enemy combatants, property damage, treachery, just the idea of seeing some super-powered person going around and punching people with for the most part no government or public entity to reign them in. Hell, this almost reads like a follow-up to Build's plan 5 or so episodes ago to declare himself a traitor to Touto's government in order to go after Evolt without declaring war!
All of which to say: I feel like Blood's being a politician here. There's teeeechnically a bit of truth behind his words, which you find out at the end; but he's stretching it beyond all credibility and using it to create a meaning and reading that just is not there. He's taken "the citizens don't feel great about you guys and have uncertainties and anxieties about this whole thing" and turned it into "the citizens HATE you and want you OUT and we'd ALL BE BETTER OFF IF YOU'D JUST DIE". So that wasn't bad to me. Quote:
Also, you could've referenced the rage-filled cheerleaders shouting "Destroy!" in an upbeat, rallying way, and you didn't, so maybe we all need to look inside of ourselves and ask some hard questions.
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09-30-2019, 09:58 AM | #178 |
Showa Girl
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09-30-2019, 11:05 AM | #179 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Quote:
I mean, okay, but it's mostly going to be a thousand off-topic screencaps of three Wizard Net Movies.
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10-03-2019, 12:54 AM | #180 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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KAMEN RIDER BUILD EPISODES 46 - 47
Hey, everybody. In case you didn't see, new poster Another Die has started a thread on their run at Masked Rider Kuuga. They were super sweet to reach out to me, and I'm flattered that folks liked my obsessive need to over-analyze Japanese superhero shows enough to want to talk about their own experiences. That is legit something that I'd've never even hoped for, and it feels great that folks are excited to talk about their own Kamen Rider journeys. You all have made me feel unbelievably welcome, so I'd love it if you could check out AD's thread and show that same support to them. I'll need you to do it on my behalf, because, see, Kuuga is the next show I'm planning on watching. When I saw (a few months back) that Zi-O had a ton of Phase 1 Heisei stuff in it (or at least that's how it looked from frontpage headlines), I knew I'd need to watch all of Phase 1 before I'd do Zi-O. So, currently, my plan is finish Build, then Kuuga through Decade, then Zi-O, then Zero-One, then current, hopefully. What that means is, while I'd love to be a supportive fan, Another Die is literally talking about episodes I'm going to watch in, like, two weeks. It would maybe actually kill me to read it. So! My loss is your gain! You can head over there, read what's probably a way more thoughtful and concise version of the points I'd make (it can only be more concise and thoughtful), and get it all weeks in advance! I would if I were you. In the meantime, I've got some fun, upbeat episodes of Build to watch and WAIT WHAT Dense couple of episodes! Lots to talk about! I'm not crying, you're crying! It's almost weird to be talking about these episodes in isolation, since this has the pace of a four-part finale. The first part opens with Evol(t) declaring his villainy publicly, hilariously, as he gets way too close to the camera to call out the Riders. It's a nice statement of intent, that the show is (more or less) done with the feints of subterfuge, ready to throw its Riders together until someone wins. It's especially nice that its got some A+ dickery by Evol(t), laying on the blase, semi-distracted terror that's his hallmark. Glad to see he can keep his brand going, even in what might be the last day of Earth. It's after that scene that these first two parts stumble at all for me. The idea of winning by destroying Evol(t) and Pandora's Box in a combination of Earths... I, what? First, I'll give them that Building A New World is a very thematically appropriate win condition, but I also feel like this is the sort of thing that maybe could've been brought up as goal somewhere in advance of the last 80 minutes of Kamen Rider Build. Seems a bit late in the day! Second, so, they're willingly destroying another Earth and their Earth? To make a new Earth? And that's winning to them? It's destroying Evol(t), but, uh, seems pyrrhic at best. Finally I can't tell if the fact that Banjou doesn't understand the parallel Earths theory despite travelling to a parallel Earth less than a year ago is the writer not wanting to derail the explanation with movie stuff, or a testament to Banjou's idiocy. I want it to be the latter so bad, but no one called him on it, so I'm not sure. Either way, the whole "our new plan is to blow up two Earths to defeat the planet-destroying villain", man, I really hope this show's got a bigger twist up its sleeve. Two Earths is a whole lot of collateral damage, including I guess the whole cast? Because, you guys, how great is this cast? I knew when I was watching it that the barbeque scene was just a One Last Night thing, a calm before the storm, but it was so much of what's special about this show. These weirdos, the genius and the fighter and the idol and the soldier and the spy and the traitor, they made something really special. I don't know if any ensemble will be as good as the Fourze ensemble, but this cast clicks so well. The humor always has a warmth to it, the camaraderie feels so easy and genuine. They're six people who fell together in the heat of war, forged into a family that would die for each other. And, yeah, we'll get to that. After their Last Supper, it's the battle, and I thought what could've been a series of sub-boss battles, warm-ups before Evol(t), was handled with a lot of consideration. There's a thematic thread of sacrifice that runs through the race to the top of the tower, with the emphasis on Rogue (a little) and Grease (A LOT). It's best to land it on them, since they're the ones who've most grown from starkly nationalist characters into Love & Peace Kamen Riders. Rogue has to work with Utsumi to defeat the Hell Bros and hold off Evol(t), putting aside his mistrust and betrayal for the greater good. (Utsumi's sacrifice, I gotta tell you, I'm not sure it works for me. That dude's motivation, it's like, just when I feel like I've got a handle on it, and I get him, there's some new reveal or twist and it's all out the window. Too many betrayals, maybe!) Sento and Banjou have to sacrifice Rogue and Grease, in a way, leaving them behind to confront Evol(t) quicker. It's a kind of interesting failure of Sento's character, letting friends fight alone, letting them fight recklessly, a sort of ruthless efficiency that smacks of Takumi. It's tough to hold on to your principles in the face of annihilation, which is a good place to have his character on the edge of the finale. But, look. These are Grease and Misora's episodes. Grease's sacrifice of his need to protect his friends, in favor of protecting the world, it's the culmination of his entire story. There's really nowhere else to go after he defeats the lingering guilt of his friends' deaths by, uh, exploding that guilt with a series of finishing moves. So, thematically, it's appropriate for that evolution of character to resolve itself in his sacrifice, creating the bottle the group needs to end the war. It's just, my eyes. They might never recover. I enjoyed these two episodes, but that last couple of minutes wrecked me. Broke me down to parts, never to be rebuilt. A shell of a man types these words, the keyboard slick with tears. I am hollow. I have become sorrow. It's Grease's story, but it is 100% Misora's scene and the full-cast aftermath. Much like when the show needed to Rider Punch emotions into me back in the 20s, they drop out the music and lessen the dialogue, letting Misora's face and words take you through everything: her humor, to cover the pain; her admission, to plead for the universe's pity; her anguish, that some things are final. Small figures again, and intense close-ups, nothing feels right. Misora's so small and angled heavily, the camera kept away from something we shouldn't have to witness. Silent, as she walks into a group of damaged friends. We're tight in on her mouth, the words silent, a moment that the viewer wouldn't be able to bear, and the show knows it. Screams of rage and sadness, but with no sound, nothing would be enough. Tightly-held fabric and plastic, anything that can feel real, in a situation that has no reality to it. The world is ending, but Grease's death makes the world already feel like it's gone. And then Hipster Dad saunters into frame, his shit-eating grin, ready to fight when everyone's already destroyed. Fantastic. The perfect ending to a stellar episode, and a great set of episodes to start the finale.
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