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Kamen Rider the First

Could this this movie be re-titled as "Toshiki Inoue and Heisei rider tropes with an original Kamen Rider skin: the movie"?

This movie was okay. The plot was filled with lots of Inoue tropes and the story itself wasn't that interesting. Character communication issues? Check. A nice guy character who connects with an equal scarred girl but turns evil at the end for no reason? Check. Boring villains? Check. Shitloads of angst? Check. Throw in some shit about dreams and protecting people's similes and hey! We have a Heiseification of Rider 1!

No Inoue, that's not how it works. Modernizing a story does not mean using new cliches to update the story. This movie felt like the lovechild of Faiz and Blade except not as masterfully done. Granted, I like those series, and I appreciate them for thier time, but this movie feels like the epitome of what the term "Early Heisei" Rider meant in a lot of its mediocre and bad ways. The reason why the tropes that make up those earlier series work is that the writers put passion into making it unique to their style and the show they're crafting. This is extremely ironic considering how one of my examples above was a reference to Faiz, an Inoue show, who also wrote this movie. Honestly, if you wanted to go watch Faiz, go watch Faiz. This movie wastes less of your time, but its a lot of same the bullshit without any of the unique charm that Faiz had.

I thought the hospitalized kids were pointless. I like their designs as the cobra dudes but they felt forced in there. They're like Yuji Kiba and Yuka, both scarred people that found each other. Except imagine that if they never interacted with the Faiz Riders until the very end but only in monster form.

Now that I'm done with the negatives, let's talk positives

I like the fact it touched on how Hongo once he became a Hopper, that he initially hurt everyone around him and lost his purpose. Ichimonji had a reason to fight, but I like his change a lot more then Hongo's. One of this movie's strengths was the character relationships, from the love triangle between the two riders and Asuno and the two sick kids.

The rider and monster suits are some the best Rider suits ever put on screen. The combination of leather with technological and bug detailing is just so beautiful. The monsters look like they are wearing held together metal armor. Cobra and Snake look like cyborg Oujas excepted pumped up to 11. If you liked some of the detailing of the Trial Undead from Blade, this will appeal to you. Spider,and the Shocker grunts were great as well. The only one I think falls flat was bat.

Fight scenes were great as well. Not only was the fist fighting interesting and great but the motorcycles felt like they had a purpose. The movie had the riders use the motorcycles to their advantage, unlike Riders of the era which this movie came out which felt limited by them. Also, I will never get tired of seeing the First's Rider kicks.

Visually, this movie looks beautiful. Not just the suits, but also the way they film. The film is filled with tons of blues and grays during the darker sections. If you loved Blade's darker visuals, this movie defintley will have you fall in love with its cinematography.