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Kamen Rider Taisen


I was the biggest advocator for this movie before it came out. I mean, it's got a ton of Riders and characters from the franchise in it. How could it not be amazing?

The best thing I can say about this movie is the visuals, Designs and the action. OH MY GOD. Rider action has never looked this insane and good. Watching Fifteen Decade Arms plow through motherfuckers and seeing Rider kicks and swords clash just feels satisfying. Everybody reflected their fighting style very well.Fifteen had a pretty cool design, with his much more open visor revealing more of the arm's helmet faces was really cool along with that beautiful mix of white accents and black. Decade Arms looked really sharp too. Ichigo Arms, I'm not such a fan of, but I'll take it over the boring alternate forms like strawberry and pine.The CGI is a lot better then most Rider movies. Visually, this movie is stunning, especially in the Faiz flashback with Kaixa's suit lines being a beautiful bright yellow. The subtle details of the more recent Heisei Riders show up on camera this time around. The Showa Rider suits actually hold up really well onscreen and didn't look like crap like I expected them to.

Secondly, I have to applaud a lot of this movie's characters. Takumi, Hongo, Muramase, Tsukasa, Shotaro, Narutaki, Kusaka, Kouta, Jin and Haruto all in one movie? That shit rivals Forever Red in terms of Star Power. I don't like the fact that they nurfed Tsukasa's personality, I know that Matrixbeast likes it because he's not a dick, but that's what made him a unique character. This movie just made him a generic snarky good guy. In this entire movie, he only has two witty one liners, that does not fit my Tsukasa quota. But I like the fact that he went out and recruited the Heisei Riders. But I do like Takumi, Jin and Haruto's exchanges with each other. That sequence towards the beginning where Takumi meets Jin and gets to learn from him was a pretty great. I wish Haruto said more, considering he's in a similar position to Takumi, but considering his actor was at the end of his contract, it's understandable. All the Gaim cast are in character. Narutaki did his trolling thing, Kusaka did his dickish thing, Shotaro did his detective sthick, it was fine. I liked the kid characters too. Shu didn't annoy me, in fact I felt kinda sympathetic for him towards the beginning of the movie. (Also, is it just me or was the fact that he died and came back with powers made me think he was an Orphnoch for like half the movie?) Fifteen's character was fine, but the father son relationship sort of strengthened the conflict a little more to add to the theme of the movie.

Now for the bad. When the movie started out, the plot was very simple, get this McGuffin kid for an obvious plan. But then Hongo has to come in and be a dick and have the Showa Riders try to kill the Heisei Riders because they "opened a portal to the world of the dead" or some bullshit and then have ZX infiltrate Badan and pull a Decade where the Riders die but not really they were in Helheim and summoned by Kouta but oh wait the actual conflict was real and Gaim tried to save a flower whop de fucking do. I think there's something about a interesting messed up family relationship in there but honestly the "Showa vs Heisei" part of the movie fucked up the plot. Why the hell do these Riders fight each other in every one of these god damn movies? Why can't we have a normal crossover and beat the shit out of the old badguys? And Gaim protecting a flower, really? didn't Tsukasa say in the Wizard crossover that they fought for human rights or something like that the hell? I get the idea, but maybe if Narutaki showed up a bit earlier and was about to get kicked and Rider 1 admired Gaim saving someone who was considered scum. I liked Shu's subplot, Shotaro's shenanigans along with Takumi's mini arc. But dear jesus is this plot convoluted. And ghost Kusaka really didn't do anything... he mocked Takumi and then disappeared. It would have been cool if the World machine or whatever caused the world to flip and now he was alive and became Kaixa and fought Wizard and X.

But the biggest atrocity of all... Blade's helmet looked like shit. No seriously, it's got some random yellow shit allow over the mask, TOEI suit department, please clean up Blade next time you use him.



Final Verdict......

I like this movie. While it's got a lot of major and minor plotholes, the action's never been better, most of the characters are great, the central father-son conflict is interesting and the movie pays tribute to each show in thier own respective way.

Anyone who calls this "shallow toku fapping" or the like just because it's got a bunch of Rider suits with no actors behind (despite the fact this is the movie with the most Riders reprising their roles) them obviously does not understand the respect this movie puts towards the Rider legacy, both new and old.