|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
12-03-2021, 01:13 AM | #11 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
And even now, after having seen most of Phase 1 and that W isn't technically what started alot of Phase 2 trends, it still feels like a really unique entry in the franchise, and while it might not have started alot of Phase 2 trends(though it most certainly did start some), it sure as heck perfected a good chunk of them.
Of all the things W might've inaugurated, the whole Rescued Collectibles thing is the most franchise-defining. (Decade had this sort of, but it wasn't like there was a random Kuuga card that was wreaking havoc or anything.) Quote:
Also, thanks for posting those previous A to Z thoughts! Seems like we both had a good time with a well-crafted summer movie. Eternal is a really good movie Rider! I'm not sure where I'd put him in my rankings (my memory's too poor for that), but he's visually and thematically arresting, and either one of those is usually enough to carry a movie.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
12-03-2021, 08:17 PM | #12 |
Kaiju or Hero?
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Even I Don't Know Anymore.
Posts: 1,397
|
Ah the W movie, it's been so long, despite being a couple years since I saw it.
As with everyone else, Eternal is one of the most impressive Rider designs out there, simple yet with a powerful presence that it stands out, even among the more visually interesting villain designs. Also a pretty solid character (at least for this movie, I've heard they don't do him justice in later appearances), and his team felt like a fitting addition, especially how they all have W's Gaia Memories as their powers, giving us a glimpse of how they'd look as monsters. I also really like seeing Joker in action, much like with the Begins Night portion of the crossover movie with Decade. As stated earlier, the Riders' designs for W are just so good, in how they're so simple yet still unique (unless you count W's forms minus Extreme, which are just color swaps, though I like them) that I can't dislike them. The movie itself (going off memory, which may or may not be pun in this case) is certainly reminiscent of a Hollywood Blockbuster in the sense of it being such an action-packed film from start to finish, or at least, that's how I saw it. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and even if it introduced what some consider the lazy Golden Extra Final Form Power-Ups, I still enjoyed it (yes, I also liked Wizard's Gold Dragon) and may consider this as one of my favorite Summer Rider Movies. As for this Thread, I might drop in for the pieces I have seen, but I've yet to watch a good chunk of Rider Movies and V-Cinemas which I'm planning to get around to (now that I finally found some), but I'm also planning to watch more Toku shows. Of course, I'll probably be going off memory for these, it's still fun to catch up with these movies. |
12-03-2021, 11:10 PM | #13 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
This was one of my favorite touches, how the movie treats regaining those early-series collectibles as a Big Deal. Every form gets shown off for at least part of a fight, but there's no huge battle to regain, like, Fang. I like when shows can still keep those starter forms relevant (Ghost devoted an entire late-series story to it!), and it's cool that this movie kept it in mind.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
12-04-2021, 12:07 AM | #14 |
I got nothing
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 148
|
I honestly feel like that W and Wizard were the best at keeping the full arsenal with just their midseason upgrades (FangJoker and All Dragon) getting shafted for various reasons
Granted I feel like OOO had the best integration of the collectible gimmicks into the plot with both sides after them and swapping who has what medals and thus limiting what forms Eiji has access to. |
12-04-2021, 12:41 AM | #15 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Absolutely! OOO had the most fluidity to its power levels, creating organic ups and downs to the hero's capabilities. It was a lot more compelling than the usual Power Creep and Bogus Villain Invulnerability that other series fall prey to.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
12-04-2021, 12:40 PM | #16 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,424
|
I remember liking this movie, but I generally liked everything W-related.
As is my wont, I have casting trivia. This time it?s centered on my favorite member of Eternal?s crew, the Heat Dopant (because I can be shallow and those shorts). She was played by actress Minase Yashiro, who was the lead actress in The Machine Girl, a minor cult classic about a schoolgirl who replaces her severed arm with a gatling gun to get revenge on her attackers. It?s one of those ridiculously silly and gory low budget films that were popular around the late ?00s. Some of my friends and I were briefly obsessed with the movie?s absurd trailer, so it was really surprising to me when Yashiro turned up in a Kamen Rider project (for the first, but not final time). |
12-04-2021, 12:46 PM | #17 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
As is my wont, I have casting trivia. This time it?s centered on my favorite member of Eternal?s crew, the Heat Dopant (because I can be shallow and those shorts). She was played by actress Minase Yashiro, who was the lead actress in The Machine Girl, a minor cult classic about a schoolgirl who replaces her severed arm with a gatling gun to get revenge on her attackers. It?s one of those ridiculously silly and gory low budget films that were popular around the late ?00s. Some of my friends and I were briefly obsessed with the movie?s absurd trailer, so it was really surprising to me when Yashiro turned up in a Kamen Rider project (for the first, but not final time).
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
12-04-2021, 03:15 PM | #18 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
|
Oh, tried to got around this when my laptop is in need of fixing, which means it's unusable currently until it's fixed and made me think I should wait even longer to watch this (only finished W the series, the TV didn't air movies), but I got reminded that there are still my older laptop that I can salvage, outdated but usable enough for this. But good that I'm not left out here.
Quote:
Quote:
Thematically, it?s doing some interesting stuff with the topic/keyword of Memory. Philip is the lead for the emotional part of the narrative, since his identity is wrapped up in his amnesia. His disconnection stems from his belief that his past holds the answers to his sense of self, so a story that forces him to set aside what his memories have to offer in favor of a present surrounded by people who care for him, that?s going to be an excellent dilemma to base a W movie on. Like, this movie is about the value of Memories and memories, and how the lack thereof can?t keep you from being a hero.
Quote:
Even the parts I might?ve found a little too deus ex machiny, I find them charming now? Stuff like Skull providing the crucial Lost Driver to Shotaro, or the town of Fuuto lifting Double up with a gust of wind; it all reads as Magical Realism to me now, not some hacky writing or regrettable plot hole. Skull?s appearance is the theme of Memory, the power we imbue it with, and ways it can help us better protect our present. In a story freighted with the importance of Memories/memories, why shouldn?t the memory of Skull be a weapon for our heroes to call on? And the town of Fuuto ? maybe literally the town of Fuuto ? protecting its hero long enough for its hero to protect the town, man, that?s just an A+ ending. I can?t even slightly get mad at an ending that corny. That?s a refutation of Eternal?s villainous philosophy of Inhumanity As Freedom, the separation from community as a pathway to power. Here, it?s Double?s commitment to the townspeople that provides a route to victory.
Quote:
And Eternal as a villain! The trope of Evil Version Of The Hero, like, always works. Trope for a reason. The way Daidou needles at Philip?s insecurity, and then laughs at Philip?s connection to humanity, it gives the superhero side of this movie a lot to work with. Daidou?s scheme is born out of the same outsider frustration Philip has, the same need to find a connection, but Daidou gleefully solves it with citywide terror and a giant laser. The premise of this one totally delivers, which is a very low bar that not every Kamen Rider film clears!
Eternal just looks awesome, too. The sideways E on his forehead to play off of Double?s W antenna. The cape, the holsters, the knife; all boss as hell. The whole movie looks great, honestly. I love how they suspend the Hardboilder in the air for a couple shots, to make Shotaro and Double?s attacks look insanely epic. All of the weird lieutenant villains feel distinct and have memorable fights with multiple heroes. AND THE FIGHTS ARE ALL SO GOOD. This thing just looks phenomenal. Absolutely everything you love about the action of Kamen Rider W, but bigger and faster and cooler. Otherwise, this movie explains that the defeated NEVER members turn into dust, which was why Kazu disintegrates in what I think a similar way as people in Ryuki's Mirror World. Metal Dopant's weapon also reminds me of Imperer's Gazellestab (Spin Vent), and he too was a mercenary Rider in said series. Shotaro's a flirt and casanova, but I hope he didn't show sympathy for the victimized Reika only because she's a (hot) girl, as there'd be more NEVER members turned into dust later, or if not W accepts that NEVER members would become that. I find it wrong though for the part that Hardboilder gets sandwiched... if W slams the Hardboilder to the right one... why also kick the left one with right leg... Quote:
Plus, like, everyone you love from the series (who?s still alive at this point) gets at least a few minutes of screentime. Saeko! Saeko acts as a clearly-filmed-separately Greek Chorus! But there?s also a half-dozen characters I smiled at remembering (that AKB48 gag!), a cool moment for Shotaro and Terui to acknowledge each other?s commitment to justice in a manly way, and an entire subplot where Akiko is horny and Terui treats her like a little sister. (I have never loved their ?romance?, and that didn?t change today.) Just, like, everyone?s in this. Everyone.
__________________
The most complete non-wiki encyclopedias for Kamen Rider series (currently only found Ryuki and OOO's). |
12-04-2021, 06:31 PM | #19 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
Shotaro absolutely shows sympathy for the victimized Reika because she's a hot girl. He's a half-boiled detective, she's a femme fatale... I mean, it's the genre! There's nothing to be done about it.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
12-04-2021, 07:05 PM | #20 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER OOO & W FEAT. SKULL: MOVIE WAR CORE
Not my favorite movie. I didn’t really love it the first time around, and I don’t love it now. The thing is, my opinion on the two sections/portions of this film – OOO and W – have sort of completely flipped around? I really disliked the W portion on this viewing. Like, a lot. Setting aside the incredibly weird Daddy Issue stuff of having Akiko’s actress play Melissa, a woman who is in love with Skull (HER DAD), it’s a story that traffics in one of my least-favorite Kamen Rider tropes: Heroic Abandonment. Skull’s portrayed as a stoic, suffering hero. He’s betrayed by his closest friend, called a monster by a woman he gave up everything to save, and unable to ever touch his daughter again. It’s a story all about the lengths Kamen Riders have to go to in order to protect the people they love, even if it means they have to cut those people out of their lives. It’s horseshit. Even before he became Kamen Rider Skull, Sokichi wasn’t answering his daughter’s phone calls. (He totally forgot about her birthday!) He lives in a completely different city for reasons that aren’t established in this film, and I don’t recall from the series. He’s making a choice to ignore his responsibilities as a parent, way before he’s forced to abandon his daughter for her own safety. (Which, two things. The No-Touching Spider in his body will only kill Akiko if he touches her. He could still, like, see her. Or call her. Like everything else in their screwed-up family, it 100% feels like Sokichi is looking for any excuse to bail on his parental commitment. The other thing… like, killing Matsu doesn’t kill the spiders? It dissolves the webbing immediately, but it doesn’t defuse the time bombs infecting everyone in the city? What… what did Sokichi even accomplish by killing Matsu, then? Everyone who didn’t already blow up is forced into a life of misery? This is what we’re calling a victory now?) This should be a story about sacrifice and duty, but everything in it reads like a story about deadbeat dads with poor work/life balance. Which, honestly, fine. I don’t need my Kamen Riders to be completely logical and emotionally healthy. I like Faiz, you know? But there’s basically no judgment on Sokichi’s actions in this movie. Akiko is furious about the ways her life has been negatively impacted due to Kamen Riders failing her as friends, family, and lovers, but the moral at the end is just Her Suffering Is A Small Price To Pay For Justice. It’s an entire story where Akiko’s theatrical-but-honest emotional turmoil is brushed aside in the face A Man’s Silent Suffering. Whatever. The even more galling failure of the W portion is that the OOO portion is specifically refuting that worldview. The W portion is about how Kamen Riders are solely focused on helping people, even if they have to give up on happiness as a result. But the OOO portion is about how hollow and unfulfilling it is to solely dedicate yourself to anything! The OOO portion – which I originally thought was laughably bizarre and generally irrelevant – pretty much ended up being the only part of this story I liked. It's Inoue, which was nice. Inoue Forever and all of that. (There's a bit where Eiji says that Nobu is still Nobu, which feels like a secret message between me and Inoue.) It does the Eternal thing of crafting a villain that reflects/inverts our hero’s shortcomings, but turned up to Evil. Nobunaga, a man whose name autocompletes with ‘s Ambition, is someone who is consumed by his need to attain, to control. He’s everything Eiji isn’t. Nobunaga sees the world around him as both a birthright and a banquet, all of it waiting for him to claim it. But in seeing the world that way, he misses the point of it all. Nobunaga can’t understand how Eiji can find joy in a life without taking. What Eiji points out to him is that the world exists outside of the ambitions of men. The sky is blue. Art is created. It doesn’t need people to control it, because it doesn’t bow to that control. It’s a pretty basic Stop To Smell The Roses moral, and it could probably only work when applied to the story of Oda Nobunaga. (It’s a bit like only being able to land a simplistic message like Don’t Bite People in a story with Dracula.) But I think it worked here due to its own bonkers commitment to the story of a cloned warlord who used his heretofore unrevealed healing powers to undo the damage he caused a woman he was stalking, as well as the proximity to a much less appealing story in Skull’s celebrated abandonment of his daughter. But at least Kamen Rider Birth shows up! I like Birth okay, but its introduction here is like nearly every other Fan Service thing in this story: missing the point entirely. It’s just the Birth suit, not either of the Birth characters. Date isn’t in this movie at all, and Goto’s turn as Birth is both noncanonical (pretty sure the series doesn’t let him be Birth for a good long while) and robbed of its significance. There’s a really great arc in the series about Goto becoming Birth, but here it just happens off-camera. Same thing with Tajador; awesome suit, fun to see it kick ass, but it’s almost unforgivable that it’s introduced with Ankh just showing up with the medals. And, man, I said how great it was that A To Z managed to find time for its entire TV series cast, so here’s a movie that Ankh’s human form is in for about forty-five seconds, and the full cast of W is almost entirely sidelined for a prequel story. It’s a bummer. It’s a movie celebrating two TV shows, and it’s compromised versions of both. Plus, not super crazy about the concluding section. The villain at the end, Kamen Rider Core, doesn’t make much sense, or have a defensible viewpoint. It’s just a monster that hates Kamen Riders, and thinks they make everything worse, all so Akiko can feel bad about holding the men in her life responsible for abandoning her. He’s a giant flaming Ghost Kamen Rider, and defeating him isn’t clever or anything. It’s just new power-ups and Early-Bird suit debuts. I had honestly completely forgotten about him, and now I know why. Yeah, man, did not dig this one! The OOO stuff is good enough, but it sucks to not really have any Eiji/Ankh scenes. (I mean, they literally never share a frame, so I’m just going to assume that Ankh’s couple scenes were filmed separately from the rest of the cast.) The W stuff features my least-favorite W plot – Akiko and Terui’s totally unconvincing romance – and one of my all-time least-favorite Kamen Rider tropes. It’s okay to say that Sokichi was a good Kamen Rider but a shitty dad! That would’ve made the movie so much better! Instead, we get a middle section that exposes the lie the first part is telling, and then a third part that ignores the exposure. Not one I liked rewatching!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 02-24-2022 at 08:12 PM.. |
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Kakuranger: 30 Years After |
ToyRise RyuKenDo |
Alternative Cut of "Day Of The Dumpster" Released |
Shodo SUPER Kyoryuger Teaser |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:50 AM.
|