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03-27-2018, 09:44 PM | #1 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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It's here~
That is to say, it's been out on video for a while now, but EXCITE! Subs just got done with it, and I'd imagine I'm not the only one who was waiting on them. To cut to the chase, it was well worth the wait. I'm going to go ahead and keep my thoughts here relatively spoiler-free, but needless to say, if you're reading this and haven't seen the movie, you're doing it wrong. And if you haven't even seen the TV series yet, just... what are you even doing with your life? All joking aside, I look forward to seeing everyone else's opinions of the movie. -- So if you couldn't tell from my tone just now, I like Ex-Aid a fair bit, and when we all figured out the usual summer movie was going to be used as an epilogue to the show... well, for one, some of us couldn't even wrap our heads around that and were under the impression it was still some kind of alternate take on the story, but that's neither here nor there. The important thing is, the wait for people who couldn't just walk down to a theater in Japan was KILLER, and that kind of anticipation can easily set you up for disappointment. Which is why I found myself quite surprised that True Ending managed to live up to what I was prepared to find out were unreasonably high expectations. Further proving he's secretly some kind of super genius, Yuuya Takahashi once again shows a mastery of structure, giving us a script that manages to, one, not prevent the show from having a satisfying conclusion in its own right, two, still serve as a satisfying addendum to the series, and three, work as a standalone narrative. Well, it almost works as a standalone narrative. This is probably a point only I give a crap about anyway, but whenever I'm watching a Rider summer movie, I always like to think about how it would play to someone who ISN'T familiar with the series. Something which, between hapless parents getting dragged to the theater by their children, and some of those kids who only really care about the Sentai part of the double feature, is likely a common scenario. In the case of Ex-Aid, they'd probably be quite confused about what a Bugster is, and who is and isn't one, but the meat of the actual story works quite well on its own for something that you can tell just from the title is part of a serialized story. It has every excuse to be impenetrable to everyone but fans, so I consider this just another example of Ex-Aid going above and beyond. But of course, you're on a forum dedicated to discussing shows like Ex-Aid, so you probably care more about the "satisfying addendum" angle. On that front, True Ending does a great job. All the characters from the show are here and amazingly none of them feel particularly underutilized. The movie's only an hour long, so don't expect deep, engrossing character arcs for every single Rider, but they all get their moments to shine. Considering the short runtime, I think they packed more than enough in for everyone. Ex-Aid himself is very much at the center, however, and Emu really shines here. All the kindness, determination, and occasional bit of philosophy you could ever want out of a hero. "Philosophy?", you might be asking. Well, maybe that's a bit of a dramatic way to put it, but one other thing True Ending gets very, very right when it comes to being an epilogue to the show is continuing its themes. The plot makes further use of the contrast between the work doctors do and how cheap life is in a video game, and while I was often left rather confused by the show's constant mentions of changing fate, here I felt it all click into place more than I ever have. That theme song was no accident. All in all, I'm more than happy with the movie I got, and even the generally obnoxious CG-fest climax was actually fairly well done this time, so... yeah, not much for me to complain about. I enjoyed seeing all these guys again, I enjoyed the new characters, I enjoyed the plot, I enjoyed seeing a cameo from a version of Build that isn't super stressed out by all the crap he's been dealing with since Ex-Aid ended, I just... really enjoyed this one. I'm tempted to say it's my favorite Rider summer movie (high praise, I know), but I've never been very good at picking favorites. There is one, well, not exactly a complaint, really. More of an observation I have, but, ah, Emu barely got beat up in this one. I know should be happy about that, but at this point it's like a tradition, you know? I mean, look at him: Those are barely scratches! Where's the scene where Kamen Rider Fuuma runs him through with a giant shuriken or something?!
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 03-27-2018 at 09:48 PM.. |
03-27-2018, 11:25 PM | #2 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,589
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True Ending was pretty great, the Build cameo reminded me of an MCU movie what with it being after the credits. We got a really nice bookend of a scene similar to Emu's introduction but in a more positive light. Fuma was cool, Mighty Creator VRX was great and the comedy was very much on point. Not to mention it was nice to see Taiga and Kiriya team up and get a good win in before the Final Boss showed up. Also that Hyper Muteki transformation, I replayed that 50 times when I first saw it, it was really good, alongside the fight too. But...
I feel as though True Ending presents a certain problem for Ex-Aid the series, and it's one I've been revisiting due to re-watching Ex-Aid and more specifically the final arc several times over for various reasons. That problem is Masamune, who really, really overstays his welcome as the main villain for far too long. Why? Because they can't use Gamedeus, since he's gonna be the big bad for True Ending. Except they made Gamedeus look cooler in the series than they did in True Ending. In the series, Gamedeus could just bring out any Bugster power he wanted and that really diversified what they could do with him, Gamedeus Machina just has a sword and a shield, and a giant form, that's about it. The clear problem was, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. To have Gamedeus in both the series and movie, but they really wanted him for the movie which is why he only gets one proper episode. I don't count Cronus Gamedeus because despite the merging, it's really still Masamune in control with his interests in mind. Masamune isn't exactly the strongest guy, even if he's using Cronus' power which as Taiga has proven by now, he isn't even using the fullest potential of that power. Which is why when Gamedeus was summoned and Masamune was yelling in anger, it should have shifted focus away from him. Instead despite Masamune not wanting Gamedeus summoned, we get a scene where he starts cackling like a madman while saying "That I was right to rewrite his programming". Even those that's clearly just a way to keep him on top despite the fact that he really shouldn't be. Masamune is fairly weak and the most he has are ultimatums, you can't bargain with a God like Gamedeus. So they kept dragging out Masamune instead of just letting Gamedeus take the stage because they had to save him for the movie because that's what they advertised heavily. |
03-28-2018, 01:28 AM | #3 |
Kawaii 5-0
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Cardiff, United Kingdom
Posts: 12,851
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Man, I really really didn't like this movie
The main plot with Fuuma was okay, but nothing really standout and just felt like some of the patient of the week stuff from early Ex-Aid on a bigger scale. Maxima was a really, really dull villain and rolling out Gamedeus again made me like him even less (though it felt like he was planned for this movie and it was the series that actually recycled him). Worst of all was the severe underuse of Mighty Creator VRX, which has a really interesting style and power set but appeared in the movie for all of three minutes. The fact True Ending was released before the series was actually over is telling about how much of a "true" ending it is. It takes place at the end, that much is certain - but it also as a result lacks any finer points to make it a continuation. Like Fish says it makes it work as a conclusion, not a conclusion and a standalone thing all at once - but honestly I didn't see it as that much of a strength. It made it seem like just another forgettable summer movie. Also, while I don't consider this a knock against it I do always get a chuckle out of how Emu is apparently qualified to do EVERYTHING at that hospital
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03-28-2018, 11:33 PM | #4 |
Tokusatsu Hero
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 6,589
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Just finished the movie. I liked it over all. Yeah, the VR World was corny with people not being themselves. Except for the Bugsters. *shrugs* But I liked it. And as Zeo said, yeah the final boss felt like a reuse reversal. But at least it played out that the Riders knew who/what form was being used. LOL!! Also, loved how in the ending credits that Poppy brings Lazer a diagnosis and he goes "Hmm, all he needs is a Salty Vaccine." The fact that they had it down to such a science is cool.
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03-29-2018, 03:09 AM | #5 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 2,934
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I enjoyed it. Definitely agree with ZeoRanger that Maxima was a weak villain, though. We got no real motivations out of him, nor do I remember much of that from his brief appearance in the show. It felt like he was just there because the movie needed a villain.
But yeah, outside of that, I had fun with it. Definitely wasn't much of a substantial contribution to the core "plot" of Ex-Aid but it was a decent enoughstandalone story. I liked Ex-Aid and the cast so seeing them again was a good time. Kinda wish they'd given Poppy more to do, and Parado definitely felt like an afterthought (understandable given the production timeframe) but still. Particularly enjoyed Kiriya and Hiiro. I'm looking forward to Excite getting around to Another Ending, since that should be more substantial to the series' Plot. |
03-31-2018, 07:06 AM | #6 |
Dai Shogun
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 7,530
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I also waited for the Excite subs and watched the movie for the first time today, I really enjoyed it. It felt like watching two more episodes of the show cut together for an epilogue of sorts and that's the strongest point of it all IMO, Ex-Aid the show was great so having the movie feel like a continuation of that provides the same fun experience.
The only thing I could criticize the movie for is that after what they went through in the show, facing the final boss after what seems like a weekly-episode story with Madoka feels a bit underwhelming. Same with Johnny Maxima, he's just there; he's a blank space that could’ve been filled by everyone and everything. But they used up Cronus in the show already so I don’t even know what they could’ve done to introduce an interesting villain that feels like a one-up to what already happened. But that's about all I "disliked", and I write that in quotation marks because those are all things I noticed after finishing the movie, it wasn’t irritating enough to dampen my fun when I watched it so it wasn't that bad. MVP of the movie was definitely the Hyper Muteki fight at the end. Even though it was the CG-galore fight that every movie needs to have it was done well. They used real props sprinkled in to make it better looking and Ex-Aid himself was mostly real too so that helped. All in all the movie just made me happy because I remembered why I liked Ex-Aid so much. I hope the Trilogy movies will invoke the same feeling for me. |
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