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There were a lot of good ideas in these movies, but I think the big problem they both suffered from is the writer (renowned hack Toshiki Inoue) focusing way more on things that didn't really have anything to do with Kamen Riders. The First was designed to be a love story and, honestly, it worked okay as one - at least for Hongo and Asuka. The two kids subplot, though, that was nothing but a waste of screentime. It added nothing to the story, there was no explanation why we were even seeing them until the end of the movie, and when we did figure out the point it was a total anti-climax since those characters weren't all that likable. I get what Inoue was going for, but it was still a bad idea and it didn't work. I also wish Ichimonji hadn't been written as a standard Inoue secondary Rider (aka Gai Yuki mk. ... I don't know, 7 or 8 by this point).

I'm actually one of the rare people who likes The Next more than the first. Not that it was all that good, either, but it felt a little tighter as a film - specifically, we didn't waste about a quarter of the film's running time to a subplot about minor characters that never fucking went anywhere and barely had anything to do with the main characters. The Chiharu crap - and boy howdy, was it crap - at least tied directly into the story of V3. The completely different, not even slightly similar to the original story of V3 (who is, surprise of surprises, another Inoue-standard douchey secondary Rider). The whole damn thing was a mess, but at least it felt like one mess and not a mess with a second, unrelated mess thrown on top of it.

In all fairness, I think that when the movies play the Rider stuff straight - the fights, the bike scenes, etc. - they are really good. The suit designs are amazing (and I still want to see at least design sketches for Riderman, X, Amazon, Stronger, and Tackle), the action direction is really solid, and in those rare, fleeting moments when the films decide to be about Kamen Rider they do it really, really well. Toei just shot itself in the foot by giving the writing duties to a guy who has his head so far up his own ass that he no longer realizes that he's run out of good ideas and is just aping other people and repeating himself over and over and over again.

Oh, and you may want to rethink the Figuarts version of the Next Nigo - it's identical to the First version outside of a more scratched up helmet. Man, is anyone else bummed that we never got to see the Shin coloration versions of these suits?