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01-02-2021, 07:28 PM | #451 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Die, I'm obviously not going to do that.
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01-02-2021, 08:19 PM | #452 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,422
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Quote:
On a related note, I can never remember which one is Ketaros and which one is Caucasus. |
01-02-2021, 08:32 PM | #453 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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"KAMEN RIDER KABUTO" - GOD SPEED LOVE
So, here's two positive things. First, man, the director did an amazing job with this movie. Tons of inventive shots, great use of lighting, the dramatic scenes look properly cinematic and emotional (maybe could've toned down that gauzy filter), the fight scenes have heft, and there's a constant plussing of the material. Can't really knock the visuals in this movie. Second, there's a point in the beginning where ZECT and Neo-ZECT are facing off in the desert. Kagami pleads with Yamato to spare Oda and the rest of Neo-ZECT, since the real fight is against the Worms. And Yamato agrees. He bows down to Oda, begs him to come back to ZECT, offers to suffer any humiliation. And then Oda just kicks him and says something stupid about freedom (stay positive, stay positive, you'll get a chance to be negative, just finish this last positive paragraph, you can do this) but the conception of Yamato here, I thought, was pretty interesting. I liked that he seemed to be someone who'd jump at the chance to bolster his forces, who didn't let a dispute over ideology stand in the way of defeating a greater enemy. That's a cool idea, even if it's only for part of a scene. That was neat. The rest of the movie was probably the worst Kamen Rider thing I've ever experienced. It's more awful, for a more sustained time, than anything I've ever seen from this franchise. The only delight it brought me was when I was howling in laughter at certain scenes (everyone humming God Bless America as Hiyori died of Narratively Convenient Illness, while wearing her wedding dress, was definitely in So Bad It's Good territory), as well as the aforementioned directing. It's astonishingly bad, a misfire on every single narrative level. The most egregious sin is that there's basically nothing from the Kabuto series in this movie. Some suits, sure (hope no one wanted to see Sasword's suit outside of a brief shot from a big battle scene), but none of the themes or characters or warmth or humor or intelligence. Everything in it is at best a pointless deviation, and at worst a fundamental misinterpretation of what worked from the series. Like, what the hell was this even about? Gone are the themes of humility, of teamwork, of empathy. Instead, there's just this bland nationalism, two men dedicating themselves to saving a weak lady, and every character from the show saying some recognizable catchphrase before dying randomly. Daisuke is a freedom fighter, Hiyori smiles a lot, Kagami doesn't trust Tendou, Tendou is demonstrative and emotional at the drop of a hat, Yaguruma is some stooge, Misaki contributes nothing besides looking great, everything's post-apocalyptic and brutal... why would I want to watch a Kabuto movie that doesn't include anything I love from the TV show? Megumi from Ryuki is in this, and she's as close to her character from that show as the Kabuto actors are in this movie to their show. It's all In Name Only bullshit, up and down the cast. I mean, the core dramatic tension in this movie is with Tendou being Hiyori's brother, and Kagami being Hiyori's boyfriend. (Hiyori doesn't really have any tension. She exists to be happy, get sick, be sad, and die. She doesn't get to make any choices of her own in this movie. The few times she tries, she's basically guilted into protecting Kagami's ego.) God Speed Love took a series about humility, about self-improvement, about stepping aside when someone else is better suited to solve a problem... and it turned it into some weird thing about secret siblings and chemistry-free romance. (Holy shit, there is nothing between Kagami and Hiyori that looks even vaguely romantic in this movie. I'd've honestly had an easier time believing Kagami and Hiyori were the siblings of that trio.) There was not a single thing from the TV show that I felt was present in this movie. And, you know, I could forgive that, maybe. It's an AU movie, I'm used to those. Structurally, it's not a million miles away from the Faiz movie. A small band of rebels in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, everyone looks like they shop at Refugee H&M, whatever. It can work. It's not automatically disqualifying. So of course this movie isn't just Not Kabuto, it's also set entirely within a Stupid Dystopia. The premise of it is ridiculous, in ways that are constantly, inescapably distracting. The asteroid that hits in 1999 vaporizes the world's oceans, creating a brutal hellscape that ZECT rules with an iron fist. (if your government starts handing out half-capes to its soldiers and bureaucrats, congratulations, you now live in a parable about fascism!) Meanwhile, Neo-ZECT wars against ZECT, fighting for freedom. Except, mostly it just looks like ZECT is keeping a world alive? There is a goddamn operating French restaurant, so it doesn't seem like they're so terrible? And, yes, I am aware that you can simultaneously have a fascist regime and French restaurants, but no one in La Salle seems especially oppressed or downtrodden. In fact, beyond a baffling third-act twist (we'll get to it), we never really see ZECT do anything evil? Neo-ZECT keeps spouting off about freedom and oppression, but ZECT has somehow kept a world with no oceans running for seven years. Neo-ZECT comes off as terrorists and anarchists, with plenty of grievances and no proposed alternatives. I don't... I don't understand what the struggle is between these two factions. I never see ZECT being evil, and I'm not sure what Neo-ZECT is offering as an alternative. It's just a bunch of fighting, and it's about nothing. That's all cast off (if you will) with a third-act twist: Kagami Outrageous and Goro are bringing a new asteroid to Earth to wipe out what's left of humanity. WHY. WHY IN THE-- WHY. WHY. There is literally nothing in the script that explains why they'd spend seven years rebuilding humanity to the point that it could use Clock Up to retrieve an asteroid that'd wipe out everyone and leave the planet to the Worms. ZECT was created to defeat the Worms, and they've spent seven years doing precisely that. If this was their endgame, why not just let the Worms kill everyone seven years ago? What was anything for? It's a movie that disappoints; constantly, repeatedly, thoroughly. No one does anything that makes any sense. (When Tendou tells Oda he might betray him, Oda's like I Love It You're The Best Tendou.) The golden Rider ends up being just some guy. Hiyori's plot is hollow, miserablism disguised as profundity. It doesn't feel like anyone in the film (outside of siblings) likes each other, cares about each other. There's only one intentional joke that I saw, where Kagami stutters his way through a proposal. Otherwise, it's just a bleak film where anyone you were excited to spend time with dies horribly. And they're mostly meaningless deaths, unheroic in the moment (Oda, Daisuke) or missing enough context to feel integral (Yamato). Whatever fun or warmth there is in the Kabuto series, this movie not only lacks it, it replaces it with maudlin melodrama and pointless deaths. I hated this movie so much. A QUESTION Please remind me of happier times. What's your favorite Kamen Rider movie? (Please, no spoilers if it's from Den-O through Decade or Zi-O up.)
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01-02-2021, 09:28 PM | #454 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
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Surprise Future is really good! As is the Build/Ex-Aid Heisei Generations movie. And if you wanna include V-Cinemas, I liked the Chase one! (Maybe more caus I like Chase than the plot, but still, that's not what you asked!)
But oof, sorry to see you had a sucky time with this one. At least the show can only appoint you by being better than this now, right?
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01-02-2021, 10:25 PM | #455 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Location: Chicago, IL
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Quote:
I feel like this one hurt more because I'm enjoying the show so much right now. Probably wouldn't've stung if I didn't know what I was missing!
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01-02-2021, 10:27 PM | #456 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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I don't think Die said anything that was incorrect. I also don't agree with Die, somehow, so this should be fun. God Speed Love is a movie with some pretty severe narrative issues, to be sure. Like most summer movies, it's something I've come back to a few times, which wasn't true of the series itself until this thread started, so in a way, it might be what I most remember about Kabuto. Some of that is the sense of emotional detachment the story leaves you with, admittedly. It's not a movie I particularly loved or anything, even on a rewatch or two. Watching it right in the middle of the show this way, however, I came out of it with a strange newfound appreciation for what it's doing? Of all the alternate universe Heisei Rider summer movies, this is probably the one that most actively revels in the fact it takes place in an alternate universe. The characters are, by and large, wild offshoots of their television counterparts, but I can see the consideration being given to why and how they differ? Tendou is the easy example, so I'll focus on him. He's a lot more openly emotional, downright breaking down after Hiyori passes away, but, that's exactly it – he's in a scenario where he one of the people he cares about most is beyond his power to save, and that's something TV Tendou has never had to deal with. There's a great moment, when Kagami is despairing after he learns about Hiyori's illness, where Tendou gives him a classic Yonemura slap to the face and yells at him. Just, maximum volume, zero subtlety screams to ask him if letting himself get caught up in his own misery will help Hiyori. It's macho melodrama taken at face value, but it's precisely because I know how Yonemura usually writes this guy on the small screen that I know for sure the whole point of that outburst is how unable Tendou is to process his own feelings of helplessness in this cruel joke of a world he's stuck in. He's still always on the move, always trying to make some plan, but he barely even knows why anymore, and it all comes out in that moment. How much he has force himself just to be Tendou. The whole ZECT/Neo-ZECT conflict is totally meaningless to him in the end; he's actively playing both sides, and is ultimately doesn't care about anything other than gaining the power to fix this mess. After all, who would know better that this isn't what Kamen Rider Kabuto is supposed to be like than the man himself? There's a visual that reoccurs a few times throughout the film, in the backgrounds. It's Tokyo Tower, an iconic part of the show's imagery, reduced to a colorless, horribly bent mess, and I think that about sums it up. It feels wrong, and uncomfortable. Everything about this movie feels wrong and uncomfortable, and it's all 100% intentional. These lonely, miserable characters with pointless lives and even more pointless deaths, in a world that offers no hope of salvation. But then Tendou gets the power he's after, and like the sun shining its light upon the world, he brings the warmth back. The very first scene of the movie of a young Tendou failing to reach his hand out to Hiyori as they're both trapped under the rubble created by the impact of the meteor that carried the Worms. The very last scene before the credits start rolling is Tendou and Hiyori getting to make that connection, and ending up in a much happier place because of it. Is anything about any of that enough to justify the actual experience of watching the movie? Does it serve a purpose to wait an hour to see Tokyo Tower looking nice again when you could just not watch the movie and never even see it in disrepair to begin with? I can't claim to know, but for Die it definitely wasn't, and for me... I think I knew for sure I liked this movie now when the very last thing that happens (except in the theatrical cut) is Kagami interrupting Tendou's usual melodramatic pointing to the heavens by playfully throwing him into the water at the beach, as if to remind Tendou that they're all here to have fun. Like, I don't really think the movie is saying anything very profound, and I'm not sure why it wants to say the things it does the way it does, but I'm confident it's at least speaking, and that was good enough for me. Hidenori Ishida directing on this level of quality could probably convince me anything has deep inner meaning, though. It really can't be understated how great the direction is all throughout this movie. So many images in it seem like they could easily be iconic. Perfectly considered lighting all over the place, a ton of variety in locales taking us from epic sunset deserts all the way to the vast emptiness of outer space itself, with the latter being a first for Kamen Rider. So, if nothing else, at least God Speed Love existing with its pretentious title and all its self-serious misery paved the way for Fourze to spend his summer making friends with satellites instead. But that movie didn't have Ishida, and this one did, which works wonders for disguising the rough edges narratively. It's a shame to think the only Rider movie he directed after this was the Amazons movie, but I also kind of understand the huge gap there. This is such a massive leap up from his work on Missing Ace, he probably felt like there was no way he could top it. Every little moment in here feels big, and every big moment feels like a true spectacle. I wish I could I just sit here listing them all, but it'd legitimately just become a scene-by-scene summary of nearly the entire film. The way Caucasus is handled especially, I can't imagine coming out as well under any other director who was working for Toei at the time. He's a nothing character, but hand that to a director who knows how to create atmosphere, and suddenly you've got an intimidating villain who will make you feel nervous around roses. Plus, things get lit on fire, which is always the most important thing! I had a great time with this movie. It's no Paradise Lost (nothing is), and I can totally sympathize with Die's problems, but man, I think it has some redeeming qualities, for sure. I mean, how can a movie where you get to see a Kamen Rider die from atmospheric reentry while using his last breaths to proudly declare his loyalty to a militarized organization of nebulous authority be a total wash, right?
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01-02-2021, 10:39 PM | #457 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,422
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Quote:
And, you know, I could forgive that, maybe. It’s an AU movie, I’m used to those. Structurally, it’s not a million miles away from the Faiz movie. A small band of rebels in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, everyone looks like they shop at Refugee H&M, whatever. It can work. It’s not automatically disqualifying.
But yeah, the film definitely feels like somebody looked at the post-apocalyptic Faiz movie and the Kurosawa homage Hibiki movie and decided to combine the two for a post-apocalypse with French restaurants and hair product that has some loose Yojimbo elements. I didn't dislike it as much as you did, but it's not a favorite by any stretch of the imagination. The only part that really stands out in my memory is the fight between Kabuto and Ketaros (I think) on the space station exterior. That part was cool - also, Clock Up means you aren't affected by a vacuum, I guess? The Hiyori stuff was 1000% shlocky melodrama. And yeah, anything where Hiyori is smiling feels wrong. As for my favorite movie, it's probably the Showa vs. Heisei one. The tacked on fight at the end and reuse of Shoji Yonemura Plot #1 (of 1) aside, I really liked all the interactions between the different generations of Riders. The X and Faiz stuff alone makes this one of my favorites. |
01-02-2021, 10:41 PM | #458 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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I'm glad you enjoyed it, so much so that I'm going to avoid mentioning how much I hated the Amazons movie despite the fantastic direction. (What is with this dude and terrible plots? Give him something worthy of his time!) If this had been a post-apocalyptic story featuring our normal cast, I'd've been on board with it. If this had been an, I don't know, an Ordinary Universe story featuring these weirder versions of the cast, I'd've been on board with it. (Less so than the one with the normal cast, but there'd probably be something I could've keyed into.) But this movie puts brand-new versions of our characters into a brand-new world, and... I mean, it's rough to try and tell a story that reflects on the show if you're trying that. It's like, if you've got a Jack and Coke, and you switch the Jack to Seagram's 7, it's a change from the usual mix. If you've got a Jack and Coke and you change the Coke to 7-Up, same deal. In both cases, it's a twist on the normal recipe. If you change both ingredients to Seagram's 7 and 7-Up, you've made a 7 and 7, and that's a completely different drink. You haven't altered the recipe, you've made a different thing entirely. (hi also i don't drink so i hope that analogy holds up)
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01-02-2021, 10:44 PM | #459 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Maybe the one action part of the direction I wasn't thrilled with? When they're both out there, floating in space, I'm like Oh This Is Going To Be Awesome... and then they both Clock Up and start running around a cardboard platform. Not my favorite fight in the movie!
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01-02-2021, 11:00 PM | #460 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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Well, just to prove how much that's never going to happen, allow me to express further sympathy in the form of praising Wizard, which had a summer movie I consider pretty much a gold standard middle ground between both the usual movie formulas, getting to explore weird stuff in a wildly different setting while also keeping it all super keyed in to the TV show by having a very strong, explicit focus on the Haruto and Koyomi we know and... well, I mean, I love them, anyway.
The point is, I definitely get why God Speed Love is a hard sell for you; given the choice, I'd probably rather have something that's a lot less roundabout in its thematic and narrative connections to the series too. There's no denying a more straightforward film could've been at least as impactful while also being considerably more approachable.
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