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08-31-2019, 12:06 AM | #1 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Hello!
I'm Kamen Rider Die. I've been spending the last few weeks writing about my first viewing of Kamen Rider Ghost. (Short version: better than you'd think, not as good as you'd like.) I'm planning on writing about the various Kamen Rider series I haven't seen yet, and I'd be thrilled if you wanted to talk with me (and each other!) about the stuff I'm watching. A little recap about me as a fan: I'm fairly new to the Kamen Rider franchise, starting with Ex-Aid back in March 2018. After that, I went back to W, and watched forward to, most recently, Ghost. (I also did Amazons, which, anyone watch that new Terminator trailer? I was getting serious Jin Takayama vibes off of Sarah Connor. That's a good thing!) The next series I'm going to tackle is Build, but before that, I wanted to rewatch the Ex-Aid movies. Mostly it's for two reasons. One, I don't want to spend a month rewatching all of Ex-Aid when I'm aching to get started on Build. I mean, I just watched Ex-Aid last year, it's still pretty fresh in my head. Not super fresh, so rewatching the movies should be enough to remind me of how the series went. The second reason I want to rewatch the Ex-Aid movies is that I've watched way more Kamen Rider now than I had then, so I'm curious how they'll play for me. Since this is a rewatch, feel free to talk about any Ex-Aid thing you want, I'm not considering anything from that show a spoiler in this thread. Similarly, I'm okay with any mentions from W through Ghost. Please, though, no mentions for stuff from Build, Zi-O, Zero-One, or anything pre-W. Please don't even tease stuff! I'm hoping to go into those shows as fresh as possible, so if you could help me out on that, I'd appreciate it. Thanks, now it's onto the Ex-Aid movies! Let's clear this with perfect co-op and a ton of continues because this is going to be a thread discussing at least three movies and I'm not writing about them all at once! GAME START!
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08-31-2019, 12:16 AM | #2 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER EX-AID MOVIES: DR. PAC-MAN VS EX-AID & GHOST WITH LEGEND RIDERS
This was the first Kamen Rider movie I ever saw. It was during the first Kamen Rider series I ever watched. I had no idea what to expect from a movie version of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. I'd only watched, what, less than a dozen episodes? I knew Emu, and Poppy, and Hiiro, and Taiga, and Kiriya. I knew Bugsters, and Parado, and Graphite. How much crazier could things get? Friends, my eyes were opened. It could get so much crazier. I really enjoyed Dr. Pac-Man the first time I saw it for how insane things got. Characters I'd never seen before would show up in a slow-motion walk, an entire section of the climax was dedicated to endless form changes that went by in an eye-blink, a cacophony of fight songs were played in a variety of musical styles, and NOTHING was explained. The first time I saw it, I was as surprised as Emu that the skinny dude guarding the villains' hideout was actually another Kamen Rider named Wizard. I didn't realize until he henshined that Tomari wasn't some supporting cast member from Ghost's show, since Ghost knew him already. There was so much information and so little context, I just let it all wash over me. I loved the density of what seemed like nonsense to me, the bright colors and frequent explosions and huge reveals about Emu's origin. I had a great time watching it, despite lacking context for virtually everything. Here I am now, not quite 18 months later, and I'm up to my neck in context. I've watched Wizard and Gaim and Drive and Ghost and so much more. I was a little trepidatious, revisiting this movie, but also incredibly excited. On the one hand, I was scared that it maybe wasn't as good as I'd remembered it. Maybe I'd confused freshness for quality? Maybe now that I'd watched so many hours of Kamen Rider (so many), this seminal film wouldn't be as good as I'd remembered it. On the other hand, though, I was really excited to see it because I'd watched so many hours of other Kamen Rider shows. I'd seen a stack of winter films, caught up with scores of Legend Riders. I was hopeful that all this knowledge could make me see a different version of this movie than I'd seen before. Seeing this movie now, I felt like it was wasted on me 18 months ago. Back then, seeing this movie after only seeing ten or so episodes Ex-Aid and nothing else, was like seeing Infinity War if you'd only ever seen Guardians of the Galaxy. Sure, you can follow along with the story, and sure, there are some core characters you can care about, but so much of what occurs is over your head. Now, rewatching Dr. Pac-Man, it's like I've binged the entire MCU and everything in this movie is for me. Everything. And it's so much better than it was the first time. The Legend Rider stuff is maybe the best implementation I've seen yet. Everyone's there for a reason, everyone contributes, everyone gets a little bit of quality screen time. (I mean, okay, Gaim, sure, but he's integral in getting Mr. Belt back!) This movie, unlike so many Legend Rider appearances, goes to pains to explain why the other old Riders are involved. Tomari's a cop who's called in on the case, and he's got history with Takeru, so it makes sense he'd want to help. Haruto saw something weird and was like, "Lemme go see what's going on over there", and bluffs his way in, which is 100% in character for him, as is no one involved knowing who he is. Gaim is an all-seeing, all-knowing god, so, duh. It's so much more than a guy in a suit just jumping in from out-of-frame. After some of the previous series' movies that seemed to fill plotholes with more Riders, this all felt so cohesive and considered. Every character felt important to the story. And that story actually mattered to the show it was ostensibly tied to! I know that might sound like damning it with faint praise, but that is a big deal. So many of these stories, the movies, feel like they're influenced by a TV show without really being a part of it. This one matters. It's got villain types from the show, it's got information that's important to the characters' development, and it centers the themes on what works best from the show. Emu even uses his doctor skills, not his Rider skills, to save the perpetually-murdered Takeru from dying again. (Makes you wonder if any of Takeru's so-called friends had bothered to learn the bad CPR that Emu learned, maybe Takeru wouldn't have had to die so often.) It's a solid story, so it doesn't need to be saved by Legend Riders, it's just improved by them. Oh my God, is it improved by them. That whole sequence at the end, scored to their individual theme songs, as they hit all of their form changes in a row, *chef's kiss*. An electric, rousing bouquet of fan-service. It's all joy during that sequence, and anything I didn't like about those Riders' shows was swept away in how awesome it was to see them kicking ass again. Even the new suits, Tenkatoitsu for Ghost and Mighty Brothers XX for Ex-Aid, are thrilling and gorgeous. It's all just so much fun, which isn't a feeling I get from a lot of these Rider movies. Far from feeling like this wasn't as good as I remembered, seeing Dr. Pac-Man again actually made me enjoy it so much more. It's not nostalgia, it's respect for an astonishingly well-told story with just the right amounts of action, mystery, drama, and, of course, superheroes kicking someone so hard they explode. Gotta have that. Everyone involved in the making of this movie should be proud.
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 10-13-2023 at 05:09 PM.. |
08-31-2019, 06:05 AM | #3 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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I really envy the bombastic experience you must have had, watching with no pre-established context whatsoever, some cop turning into a race-car and this extra orange-themed samurai declaring himself as a god showing up who doesn't even show his actual face in the film. And that's all on top of all the other nonsense that happens.
Also it's not really a positive, but it's greatly hilarious to me that Grateful and even Mugen are so easily beaten in rapid-succession by the goofy puzzle block monster. I know it's standard procedure for these kinds of shows but that's a bit absurd! |
08-31-2019, 10:53 AM | #4 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
I really envy the bombastic experience you must have had, watching with no pre-established context whatsoever, some cop turning into a race-car and this extra orange-themed samurai declaring himself as a god showing up who doesn't even show his actual face in the film. And that's all on top of all the other nonsense that happens.
Also it's not really a positive, but it's greatly hilarious to me that Grateful and even Mugen are so easily beaten in rapid-succession by the goofy puzzle block monster. I know it's standard procedure for these kinds of shows but that's a bit absurd! And, yeah, that movie thing where Final Form Old Rider can't quite beat a monster that Middle Form New Rider can is, man, that's some power creep and it is rude. Rude. Have some respect for your elders!
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08-31-2019, 05:35 PM | #5 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Quote:
When all five Riders finally henshined, I remember it was like being shot out of a cannon. Even coming from a multi-Rider, billion-form-change show like Ex-Aid, this movie felt suitably Next Level. (No pun intended!) It was a really, really great tease of the wider Kamen Rider franchise. There was no way after this movie that Ex-Aid was going to be a one-and-done Kamen Rider experience for me. I was going to watch more shows.
And, yeah, that movie thing where Final Form Old Rider can't quite beat a monster that Middle Form New Rider can is, man, that's some power creep and it is rude. Rude. Have some respect for your elders! (with the exception of Ghost, of course -- I think you've written a little bit on that already ) |
09-01-2019, 01:23 AM | #6 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
Even though this is a bit of a diversion and you did touch on this, I must admit I'm curious: After watching those shows, how did you like them; and did they live up to your expectations here?
(with the exception of Ghost, of course -- I think you've written a little bit on that already ) EX-AID: My first rider show, so I'm always going to be a little sentimental and deferential towards it. The only thing I can think of right now that really bugged me was the making Masamune Dan the big bad. Cronus is a cool villain, and the performance is strong, it just felt a little left-field, plotwise. GHOST: I'm not sure I remember watching it. I hear it's not bad, though! I'm gonna add it to my watch list. DRIVE: Loved it to pieces. Blew through it. I didn't really have any knowledge of it ahead of time, so nothing colored my reaction. Loved the suit designs, Kiriko is one of my favorite female sidekicks, Heart is maybe my favorite villain ("villain"), Chase and Gou are my favorite couple, and that goddamn theme song is a winner. GAIM: I knew that people liked it a lot, but I wasn't sure why. It's really great, though! Didn't love the suit designs, but the overall story is really special. Baron is, like, next level secondary Rider. For a franchise that doesn't seem to know how to best serve women's stories, BOY did they drop the ball with the women of Gaim. Marika's story is basically "I just want a strong man, any strong man, to succeed", while Mai becomes a literal prize for two men to fight over. It's a black mark on an otherwise really great season. WIZARD: The show was overly repetitive, I never really enjoyed Haruto, I think the lack of a dayjob for the Rider really handicapped the ability to generate stories, and most of the supporting cast just plain sucked. However! Beast was what got me through the middle-third, the three villain spotlight two-parters are all five-stars, and I really, really liked the big bad's scheme once it was revealed. Also, the bonus materials have my absolute favorite, all-time #1 Kamen Rider thing: I could've posted a hundred screencaps from those three Net-Movies. They are solid gold. They are the pinnacle of Kamen Rider entertainment.
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 10-13-2023 at 05:10 PM.. |
09-01-2019, 05:01 AM | #7 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,554
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Quote:
These Riders specifically? Um, quick takes, working backwards:
EX-AID: My first rider show, so I'm always going to be a little sentimental and deferential towards it. The only thing I can think of right now that really bugged me was the making Masamune Dan the big bad. Cronus is a cool villain, and the performance is strong, it just felt a little left-field, plotwise. |
09-01-2019, 09:18 AM | #8 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Fair, but I still didn't love the way Masamune was introduced as "My evil child screwed me over and now I'm in jail", then a dozen episodes later he's back as "This was my secret plan all along!" It didn't feel like an organic story development so much as shock for shock's sake. I mean, if that's what they're going for, congratulations? And also maybe don't do that?
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09-01-2019, 04:34 PM | #9 |
Master Procrastinator
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 367
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Isn't it more like 5 movies, since Another Ending is three different movies (but a single plot.) In spite of it's name, Another Ending was actually the final conclusion of the show. Curious to hear what you thought it it. Thought it was way better to True Ending.
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09-01-2019, 04:51 PM | #10 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Quote:
I guess I'm going to have to rewatch all those Ending movies, mostly because I honestly don't remember how I felt watching them, so, uh, yeah. Could probably do with another viewing.
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