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Ironically, the movie a lot of people are divided on happens to be one my favorite movies. Unironically, I still love this movie.
Yeah, it's not perfect, but I genuinely enjoy this one, and the fact that I was initially worried when Ghost showed up and I would have no context about him, the fact that this could be your introduction to Kamen Rider and you wouldn't need to worry about whether or not you know any of these characters, since you're pretty much along for the ride. And this was indeed one of those cases (for the most part). Takeshi Hongo, as Die has stated, is awesome, even 45 years later (I've yet to see Senki), and I only knew him from the first episode of the original show, and it still felt like seeing an old friend. As shown in those lines at the end of the movie about Riders will always be with you, is a powerful line that Rider has stuck with for a long time, and it shows, the whole legacy or Rider, heck a lot of things, always have its fans of specific parts of what makes it for them, from nostalgia to favorites or what have you, we are all connected, which at the time, I was just fresh into Kamen Rider with not a full season under my belt (pun intended), and I still felt the weight of what it was I was entering. And as we've all established by now, the Ichigo suit is a beast! It towers over the Shocker goons, and it even looks as though the suit has grown stronger and older, that it's a part of Hongo that grew with him, even at the supposed end of his rope the movie tried to reach for, then have him revive in the most glorified way possible, by exploding, just like every monster he kicks. It was kind of funny how old Shocker was getting ousted by Nova Shocker, because secret underground evil organizations are so Showa era, that they decided to be something modern and more productive, which in a sense pairs with Ichigo's upgraded suit. Then they fight together to bring down Nova Shocker, and Hongo, who is so used to beating Jigoku Taishi at every interval, almost treats him like an old friend when they part ways, which is only something I've come to understand better now, but I thought it was a really nice scene. Speaking of nice scenes, I didn't mind Takeru or any of the Ghost crew at all, so I don't know how I'll perceive them once I get around to watching Ghost. And Mayu, at first, I thought it was going to be a very simple "girl angry at hero for abandoning her because he likes fighting evil" or something like that, which it is but not exactly, since Hongo is pretty much ready to retire, avoiding having this become another repetitive family drama where they only make up at the end. And then they drop the aforementioned line at the end, and show "well, there's still Ghost, if you want a Rider," and connectedness all around, so in the end, I'd say this is still a movie I like. |
It is a hell of a suit! I remember really liking how massive it was, as part of this story, and it's great to see so many other people also liking how it looked.
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Obviously, these two camps ending up pulling in the same direction is something I find to be incredibly delightful. INOUE! Bringing fans of all types together! We're all one life!!! Quote:
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Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Ghost" on August 23rd, 2019:
KAMEN RIDER GHOST SUMMER MOVIE: 99 EYECONS AND A DARWIN AIN'T ONE https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/summer1.png ALL DADS ARE DEAD When you boil it down to its basics, this is a pretty solid story. Ganma villains show up, steal the Heroic Eyecons, our cast pursues, Takeru teams up with the physical embodiments of a few of the Heroic Eyecons to thwart the main villain's plan to turn everyone in the universe into ghosts, everyone goes back to Earth and Takeru's a hero. For an hour, that's a reasonable story. Throw in some fun actors, a few new suits, and the first appearance of (my first ever Rider) Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, and there shouldn't be much to complain about. Right? So, here's how they screw it up: every single time they need to explain something, or connect one scene to the next, they manage to pick the most convoluted, insane way to do it. 1. Ganma villains show up - Oh, their boss is Alain's brother who we just were told about two weeks earlier. He's been dead for some amount of time? He was supposed to be an early version of Takeru? I guess? He got real mad for some reason? Now he's all about that Ghost Life? "Villain wants to end all life in the universe" doesn't need to be this complicated! 2. Steal the Heroic Eyecons - Of which they already have another 85 or so? That they got somehow, somewhere, at sometime? Without anyone knowing about it? Oh, and they're letting all of the Eyecons have fun in a village until they suddenly decide to just murder them all? 3. Our cast pursues - To an Eyecon shaped planet? That's around where the moon is? That has an entire Ganma army up there? That the Sage/Eadith knew about all this time and didn't do anything about? 4. Takeru teams up with the physical embodiments of a few of the Heroic Eyecons to thwart the main villain's plan to turn everyone in the universe into ghosts - Oh he also teams up with MAKOTO AND KANON'S DAD, who has been living in a cave with the spirit of Charles Darwin for ten years! Of all the insane choices the writers of this film made, this is the most frustrating. This should be a huge deal! Why did this guy abandon his family without any explanation ten years ago? What in the hell has he been doing for the last ten years that would keep him from his family? The answers to those questions, when angrily posed by Makoto, amount to Shut Up and I Thought I Told You To Shut Up. There's a vague "I went to fight the Ganma and wanted you to be safe" thing he tries to sell as he dies (ALL DADS ARE DEAD), but come on. It's completely unclear why he left, since the only flashback is him standing around while Eadith tells Argos to go get Eyecons. He doesn't do anything! And then when that dumb scheme goes predictably sideways (hard to believe forcing someone to go get you trinkets so they can get their body back doesn't win you their trust and loyalty) he's just, hiding? Forever? And when his son comes back, he's just Whatever? Why was no thought put into something with so much importance to Makoto?! Why even bother bringing his dad in if you have no idea what to do with him?! 5. Everyone goes back to Earth and Takeru's a hero - And I almost wasn't mad at the end! The fight between Ghost and Dark Ghost was neat, the fact that Takeru beat him by getting all of the Eyecons to remember food being great was unique, things were looking good. But no. Takeru gets killed, again, for a minute, Akari mourns, but then Darwin's like, "Nah, we cool," and they bring him back as a Ghost, AGAIN, presumably with only a couple weeks left on his clock because they're all assholes. Thanks, Darwin! Just a frustrating experience. I did not like this movie very much, you guys! https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/summer2.png ~TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER~ who was this angry lunatic and why were they posting using my account Oh, man, fun to come back to this one! Fun to see how I used to put these together. Like, look at how short this thing was! It’s, like, a little over a page long, which is… I usually blow past that on an HBV, let alone an hour-long film. Did I have plans the night I watched this or something? Weird to see how much I harped on the plotting, because, honestly? Didn’t really stand out to me here. Argos absolutely comes out of nowhere, and Daigo’s stuff is insultingly stupid (if retconned into something a little more believable with the Specter V-Cin), but this was a fairly good summer movie, I thought. The thing I liked the best is Argos’s character, a topic that I was both dismissive of, and sadly off-base on. He’s great in this movie as a negative version of Takeru. He’s someone who became a ghost and longed for connection, just like Takeru. But where Takeru worked to become human again and join his friends, Argos opts to turn everyone into ghosts, dragging them down to his level. It’s a story about how Connecting With People can take a darker turn, where toxic personalities seep out into the world, poisoning people who come too close. Argos wants what Takeru wants - unity, companionship, connection - but he’d rather force everyone to be like him than work hard to join them. He’s great because he’s not just a villain who wants to end all life in the universe, 2019 Kamen Rider Die! He’s isolated and lonely, just like Takeru, but he’s selfish and callous. Takeru will always put his friends’ happiness ahead of his own; he’ll destroy his chance for life if it means saving theirs. Having a villain who expressly doesn’t value the things Takeru misses… man, that’s a rock-solid movie villain. And, also, great cast in this one. Super weird to see Kaido back, as a swordsman of all things (bonkers idea), but he’s always welcome. All of the Road Trip Luminaries are a blast, hamming it up with their single characteristics. Even the lieutenants are kind of neat, despite barely being in this. They do get to show up in costumes, though, which is where this movie excels. I’ve always liked the Ghost suits, and this movie shows why. Nearly every new suit in this one is a different colorway for an existing design, and they all look amazing. Seeing Necrom in three new colors, and they all pop! Come on! What exquisite versatility these designs have! (The only suit in this entire movie I disliked was Deep Specter, which I don’t think I’ve ever liked. Too bulky!) Anyway, I’ve already written more than I’d intended, but I had to set 2019 Kamen Rider Die straight on a couple things. Argos is a clever villain, the suits are all top-notch, Kaido as a swordsman (brilliant one-off idea), the new Luminaries are a hoot, EX-AID DEBUTS for almost no reason other than joy I guess, and it all goes at a great clip. Fun movie! That abrupt Darwin Resurrects Takeru ending is still super bullshit, though. |
One thing I remember distinctly from your original review was you nitpicking how evil versions of Ghost and Specter that predate the regular ones, even though Dark Ghost is never referred to as such (his Eyecon announcement is “Dark Rider”) while Zero Specter… if that’s not immediately obvious, then the novel clarifies that the regular Specter Eyecon is a fragment of Daigo Fukami’s soul, which is in the Zero Specter Eyecon (other things it clarifies include Chou Movie Wars Genesis takes place in a parallel timeline that exists due to a time warp and that after coming back to life, Takeru ends up dying for good of natural causes 15 years later)
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Takeru isn't a Ganma but is a ghost, completely different. So yeah. |
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Regardless, I to be honest was never even sure what the difference was, considering functionally, Ganma work and act the exact same way that Takeru does in terms of abilities and physiology. The only real thing I can remember being the whole time limit until they fade thing, but even then the way they eventually fully die and the way Takeru does is only minor in the grand scheme of things. |
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(I don't know if the show spent any time on Securing Takeru's Carcass? Here, it's key to both the villain's plot and Takeru's survival. What?!) |
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I mean, I like Onari, but he's in this movie to mostly be the put-upon droid that everyone ignores. |
Really excited to see you tackle Heisei Generations.
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(The Banjou stuff from Final was something that didn't click with me, and I'm curious if I'll have a better take on it now. Everyone else loved that plotline, so we'll see!) |
I really intensely dislike that specific brand of exaggerated facial expression, wildly flailing comic relief that shows up in these shows from time to time. I find Onari to be the most intolerably persistent example thereof (Skyrider had a character that was even more aggressively over the top, but he was only in one scene for less than ten episodes, not one of the main characters).
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Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Ghost" on August 29th, 2019:
KAMEN RIDER GHOST MISCELLANY PART 3 - RIDER SPIRITS https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/spirits1.png It's hard to talk critically about this series of shorts because it is 100% fan service. Like, there's sort-of a story, but the whole point is to debut Rider Spirit Eyecons. Any themes are purely accidental, I'm sure. If a good story is a balanced meal, consisting of a variety of ingredients that all support a healthy experience, these shorts are a pile of candy. Even more so than the average sugar-shock episode of a Kamen Rider show, there is no nutritional value to these shorts. They're designed to spike your system. Much like eating too much candy can be bad for you, watching seven of these shorts in a row got a little exhausting and maybe gave me a headache. I love all of the shows these forms were calling back to, but the pattern of "old monster reappears, Ghost or Specter get beat up, Rider says totally out-of-character phrase that calls back to a Legend Rider, collectible item appears, Rider Spirit henshin and catchphrase, monster explodes" was maybe done four or five too many times. But, dang, how mad can I really be? I liked seeing the old monster suits again, I liked the Rider Spirit suits, I liked hearing those goddamn catchphrases again... It's fan service, and as a fan I felt served. Why complain? https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/spirits2.png ~EVENTUALLY, IN 2022~ Yeah, didn’t exactly change my mind on this one. By the time you get to your fifth Ghost Or Specter Suddenly Has Strong Feelings About Hopes Or Cities climax, you’re pretty exhausted. The pacing on this series is just nowhere, with a repetitive structure and absolutely no explanation to anything. Xibalba is just there, Frey/Freya are just there, nothing in the vague backstory helps explain who was behind the creation of the Alexander Eyecon in the Kamen Rider 1 movie -slash- how any of this intersects with the movie beyond Rider Collectibles… it’s just Suits, and that’s about it. Well, there’s one other thing: returning villain voices! It’s weird to see that I didn’t bother to bring this up, because it’s arguably a bigger selling point than the suits. (Heisei Grateful or whatever is gorgeous, the rest are a real mixed bag.) I probably didn’t even realize they were the original villain voices, is the thing. I have a really tough time picking out voices in other languages, so I’m not sure I would’ve gotten that it’s The Original Baron or whomever. I was a little curious this time, so I checked the Wiki, and, yep! All the original villain voices. It’s a nice idea, bringing all those villains back for a few lines of dialogue. Heisei films would reuse villain suits constantly, but they’d all just be mute fodder. Here, they’re actual characters. They’ve got their actual motivations! It is awesome to see Baron get brought back as a pawn, only for him to immediately assert his need for autonomy and just walk off. (To, uh, do exactly what Frey/Freya wanted him to do in the first place, but still!) The resolution to all of those villains’ motivations coming into conflict with our heroes was… less awesome (when Specter has to give an incredibly convoluted speech to get to Don’t Make This City Cry, I was rolling my eyes so hard I could see the Gaia Library keyword of “tenuous”), but at least it feels like the sort of thing these villains would get up to, rather than helping Shocker or whatever. So, yeah, I liked the little story in each episode, but I didn’t love seven repetitions of it. |
My favorite part of these was how the twins eventually showed up on the show itself with no explanation and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing.
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Ghost is the... blue one? With the two horns? |
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In any case, I recognized the girl, I think as a tie in with these, but promptly forgot about it until it was just now brought up. I really can't recall anything they did in this series. |
It was revealed in the last few episodes that the twins were the physical manifestation of The Eye, and were allegedly guiding the whole show along despite very little evidence of such.
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I feel like the Legend Rider Parka's are some of the best looking Legend Forms in the franchise tbh.
Thankfully it's easy since the Ghost and Specter suits have a simple base. So adding onto that with a simple coat helps a lot. Compared to say the Legend Rider Arms from Gaim's run. |
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I was going to say "or Ex-Aid", since that show's Legend suits are garish and over-the-top, but a) Ex-Aid's design philosophies are "garish" and "over-the-top", and b) I love those Legend suits. |
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Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Ghost" on August 25th, 2019:
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/474.png And then there's the Special Final Episode. What should be a combination of two things I care about, an epilogue with characters I'm invested in and an appearance by characters from my first ever Rider show, this episode just dragged for me. The epilogue for the Ghost characters didn't get much space to breathe, and the Ex-Aid stuff felt too "FINALLY something fun will happen next week!" And I love Ex-Aid! But they overshadowed the character work, and that's not really how I wanted to leave Ghost as a series. https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ghost/475.png And I'm actually a little surprised how much the Ex-Aid stuff bugged me. I really, genuinely liked Takeru by the end of the series. I was fascinated by what the show ended up doing with Alain, with Specter, with Javert. I wanted to see more of those reformed anti-heroes and villains. I wanted a better sense of what came next for this world, because, yeah, I liked it by the end. ~SINCE I CAN’T TIME TRAVEL BACK TO PREVENT THE TRAGEDY OF THAT REVIEW~ Oh, this was a really nice epilogue. Boo, 2019 Kamen Rider Die! Boo! I like the use of an extended epilogue to talk about how Making Connections can lead to sadness, as the investments we make in other people can cause heartbreak if those people aren’t around anymore. It’s a bit of a spiritual successor (no pun intended) to the Hibiki finale, where it’s subtextually about this particular show not being around anymore, but there still being value in the time spent with it. It’s a nice, low-key lesson for an additional episode. Watching everyone go off and have adventures -slash- abandon Onari is bittersweet, and it’s easy to be less than enthusiastic at the prospect of never seeing Takeru again. Having Ayumu – who is 100% Takeru’s son from the future – get all mopey and fatalistic over not having his favorite superhero around anymore… I mean, that’s sweet. It’s a bit tiresome to get to the catharsis (Ayumu’s delivery is as flat as you’d expect for an actor his age, and his dialogue is all vague and morose), but Takeru’s steadfast optimism and joie de vivre keep the episode humming along well enough. Even the Ex-Aid stuff played a little better to me this time, not least because I am so excited to rewatch Ex-Aid movies. In this episode, the mechanics of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid aren’t really there (Genm can just vanish like a spirit? Shakariki Sports, of all things, can change the future?), but the tone is correct enough. Ex-Aid instantly protects a child, he wants to change people’s fates, the Gashacon Breaker appears… I don’t know, it’s fine. I liked how Takeru tried to take the Ex-Aid Changing Fate thing and wed it to Ghost’s Making Connections thing, so we get a little lesson about taking your connections into a future that you can shape. A concise story that teaches kids that friendships have value if you don’t get to see that friend again, and that the future can be a place where you make new friends… that’s a fitting little coda for Ghost. |
I got way way behind on this thread for a bit, so allow me to do some catching up real quick.
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Regardless of the details of the production though, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie when I first watched it. There are lots of little bits of the execution that aren't that great, but I still found it enjoyable overall, and I applaud it for having the soul it does. Quote:
Anyways, yeah, not a great ending, but a pretty good summer movie, I'd say. Dark Ghost is ~maybe~ my favorite movie villain Rider? I'm not committed to that opinion, but I think about it every now and then and realize that I actually really like this guy. The thing is, just the previous year, the movie villain Rider was Dark Drive, who I thought was like the coolest dude ever... until I saw Surprise Future, and the twist of that character's identity ended up diminishing a lot of my affection for that (amazing!) suit in the long run. Argos, though? Way more my speed, with his reasonably fleshed out motivations and goals. He's exactly the kind of character I imagine as a literal Dark counterpart to a hero, because he has aspects that both compare and contrast with Takeru, and I find all that super cool. He's at the very least my favorite part of the movie he was in. And his suit is sweet too! ...Which is why I don't at all like that he ditches it for that much lamer Kamen Rider Extremer getup! But at the same time, it's like, if my only gripe with Argos is his choice of outfit for the final battle, I think that goes to show how much of a satisfying antagonist I found him. Quote:
In a world of so much Kamen Rider spin-off material where legacy characters are reduced to Just A Suit, these things strive to be more than that, and it made them yet another one of the pleasant surprises of Ghost for me. Quote:
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I mean, he could also be saying "toucon" with a bit of a lisp, letting Takeru know which suit was his favorite... |
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I'm late with this, but Takeru isn't the only hero to hold up a nice meal as a benefit of humanity. (I also don't have much to say about Ghost - I didn't have espciall strong opinions of the Ghost movie or Ghost/Ex-Aid crossover at the time, but I think I enjoyed them fine enogh. Like a lot of Rider specials, they're decent watches even if they don't stick with you.) |
Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider Ex-Aid movies" on August 30th, 2019:
KAMEN RIDER EX-AID MOVIES: DR. PAC-MAN VS EX-AID & GHOST WITH LEGEND RIDERS https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/drpacman1.png 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. https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/drpacman2.png ~THIS REVIEW CONNECTED TO THE FUTURE WITH ITS OWN HANDS~ Part of me's like, No Notes. I had yet another great time watching this movie, like I probably always will. It's the sweet spot of my affection for Kamen Rider: my favorite show, with all of my favorite characters, telling a thrilling story. I've vacillated a bit, over the last couple months, on what my favorite Kamen Rider show is. Drive's so good, and Fourze's such a delight, and Ghost is really special, and and and. I honestly like every Kamen Rider show, I think. I'm not... this is going to sound nuts, but I'm not super-critical about them. I just like Kamen Rider, guys. Full-stop. But I love Ex-Aid. It's been forever since I sat down and watch the whole series. A few years, in real-world terms, but decades by the amount of Kamen Rider I've watched since Ex-Aid. But, man, the second Emu and Poppy roll up to a Bugster outbreak, it's all those old feelings, back up on the surface. I sit a little closer to the screen, eager for more story. When Hiiro shows up to tell a demolished Emu that he's a terrible doctor, it's like that shot of the Grinch, his heart growing three times its size: I am overjoyed. This show is in my blood, much like Emu's power/downfall. This movie, it's not perfect. Thematically, it's hard to say it's doing a whole lot more than letting Emu and Takeru spout catchphrases. The idea of Takeru sacrificing himself for Akari, the idea of Emu letting one lost patient destroy his self-confidence... they're real basic stories for those two characters. They aren't really saying a lot about either one of them, and there's no real pushback in the story for their heroism. They just have to Not Give Up, and eventually the day is saved. The heavy-lifting in this movie is all in the plotting, the ways Ghost and Game get added together for clever victories. (Pac-Man is weak against ghosts. I love it so much!) You get to the end, though, and it doesn't seem to be saying much. But, god, this one time? I really don't care. The chance to spend 90 minutes with my favorite Kamen Rider cast? In a top-shelf battle against the forces of evil? Accompanied by a string of Heisei Riders? It's not perfect, but it's the best. |
I really love this movie for a variety of reasons.
It's this and Generations Final to a lesser extent that really gave me something I wanted out of like, mass crossover movies like this. Because this is far beyond the scope of any Movie Wars. And that's... remembering forms exist. All the Ex-Aid Riders go through their available forms, Specter and Necrom bust out all of there's. Takeru uses his major upgrades and even brings in a few normal Parka's into the mix. The Legend Riders utilize every major form they have to them, and we even get some cool Tire Koukan stuff from Drive too with the auxiliary tires. I also appreciate how much they were able to utilize Gaim in this given he's just a suit and recycled voice footage. Like, he's believable enough and I commend that. Also Dr. Pac-Man is a god tier villain purely on aesthetics alone and I don't think we've come close to or will ever top him at all. |
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Oh right, now that I think of it we're back onto a crossover segment so... this movie ranks in at #5 on my list. So start of the top five! Though to be fair, any movies 5 and below on like the winter crossover rankings are still genuinely loved in my eyes, I just love some a bit more than others. So since we're getting towards the end... 2nd: Megamax 5th: Generations 6th: Full Throttle 7th: 2010 8th: Sengoku 9th: Ultimatum 10th: Core 11th: Genesis |
HeiGen final is a cool movie to me. And it was my 2nd exposure to Ghost after his appearance in Drive's final bits.
Im pretty sure it was this movie, but I felt emotional when they had these tiny scenes of Shinnosuke remembering he can't exactly transform. That's powerful to me, man! I watched this movie and I saw Takeru and went "Hey, this guy's not so bad. I wonder why people don't like his show?". It did, evidently, take a while to check his show out tho hahaha. |
I actually remember this one. I absolutely love Ex-Aid and Haruto is one of my favorite Phase 2 Riders, so this was the first time in a while that I watched a Movie War out of excitement instead of a sense of obligation. It’s not one of my all-time favorites, but I did enjoy it.
Probably the part that has stuck with me the longest has to do with one of the villains. As a Sakamoto film, we obviously get an attractive badass woman as one of the bad guys, someone who he can film doing flips and kicks in slow motion. For this movie he went with an actress named Chihiro Yamamoto, who’s actually a very talented tai chi competitor. After this movie, she would also go on to star as Laiha, one of the main characters in Ultraman Geed. |
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