[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

FINAL is my favourite of the three Heisei Generation movies, but I'll admit large part of it is because I specifically love Build, Ex-Aid and OOO soooo much (Fourze's entrance was pretty great and nostalgic too, though). The one shot of Muteki and Sparkling next to each other with an explosion behind them, I remember saying aloud to myself 'heck yeah kamen rider' or something to that effect. Although it's also funny because I'm pretty sure that was over once Ex-Aid turned invincible and Build could have just sat back from then on.

Speaking of, I'm wondering what you think of the suits and designs so far? Cross-Z remains a big favourite of mine even now, but maybe you found a surprise favourite in Night Rogue or like, GorillaCleaner?

I mean, I don't want to it seem like I think Final is a failure or anything. I found it to be a step down from Dr. Pac-Man, but there's still plenty to enjoy. The Legend Rider stuff is easily the highlight of the film. The OOO stuff, like, I can forgive a lot because of that. The Muteki/Sparkling Double Rider Kick is awesome. I guess I'm just a little more critical of it because the story felt weaker than the Build stuff I'd been watching. But, y'know, it's a movie, not a TV show, it's trying to do different stuff. Like I said, it's great at being a Legend Rider delivery system. That's something I cannot dispute!

One of my favorite suit aesthetics is W, so Build is definitely in my sweet spot. The main Build designs, I just love that shit. Weird combos, the mixing and matching, I enjoy that a lot more than full-suit form changes. I haven't mentioned it (I keep forgetting!) but I LOVE that the Build/Cross-Z henshin comes in on injection kit runners. It's so blatantly "go buy this toy" that, god, it kills me. Hilarious. This franchise is great.

So, yeah, Build is good, Cross-Z hasn't quite done it for me yet, and I really like the militaristic tones to the transteam suits like Rogue and Stalk. I think my favorites are probably the base Build suit, Hawkgatling, and Blood Stalk.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

When I first watched the original Heisei Generations, I saw a few comments saying that the next one wasn’t as preferable, so I went to watch it afterwards and thought “they were right”. The fights are less inspired, the legend riders seem shoehorned in (though that might be because I’d only seen Gaim and Ghost in any serious capacity beforehand, but still) and the villain’s one memorable trait is the word “funky”. The most I see people talking about it other than the returning legends was Build’s Ex-Aid form just being Ex-Aid’s suit with the Build Driver (“Hey Build, Decade called. He wants his gimmick back”). Thankfully, I got a lot more out of the next Heisei Generations, so I hope you do too.

Plus, I mean, Dr. Pac-Man had Hiroshi Tanahashi in it, and Final didn't have a single New Japan Pro-Wrestling superstar. Not one! New grade, F-!

You're right about shoehorned in Legend Riders. That was something I loved about Dr. Pac-Man, how the movie took a few scenes to set up why Drive was there, and had him and Wizard do more than just show up to fight. They were working the case, and then they intersected with Ghost and Ex-Aid. This one, it's just Fourze flying in from off-screen, OOO walking by, Gaim looking into the sky and showing up... it's a bit like there's this enthusiasm from the producers, and they're so excited to get those Legend Riders on the screen, that they can't slow it down a beat or two. But, devil's advocate, I absolutely pumped my fist when I heard RoCkEt ON and Fourze comes blasting through a hole in the wall. It feels so rude to be, like, Do It Better.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

I'm a big fan of the Final because of it's Banjou focus - honestly, not understanding nuance feels like his deal in the early part of the show, so accepting being a hero *just* because it's good, especially considering developments in the show itself, hits home. Plus, it has Gaim for realsies. And Ankh!

And yeah, Bikaiser is kind of a let down, but at least his design is sick.

So, here's kind-of the problem I have with focussing the movie's emotional thread on Banjou's need to understand what heroism means, and how the Riders demonstrated that to him. When you have a Main Rider on a show, there's nuance and specificity to their portrayal. Emu isn't Takeru isn't Eiji isn't etc. They all push themselves differently, relate to victims differently, prioritize in a fight differently. When you have two Riders, the story starts with their differences, but resolves with their similarities. They may have different attitudes, but they both want to help people, that's the usual Movie War ending. Once you get into three-or-more Rider stories, they all flatten out into one attribute: Kamen Riders fight for justice, no matter what. Gaim fights for the same reasons as OOO, who fights for the same reasons as Ex-Aid, as as as. The constant But Why Heroism that should be creating something for Banjou to react to, to compare himself to, amongst the different Riders just felt to me like he was responding to the idea of a Rider in general, not these men specifically. It's the opposite of the effective work the show did, where Sento's view is something so clearly defined that Banjou can interrogate it, and shape his worldview accordingly.

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Originally Posted by Kurona

Bikaiser was a bit more memorable to me because of the whole same-guy-in-parallel-worlds thing, and that they were so different. Also that one of them was absolutely nuts. It's very simple but it's fun enough and serves its purpose.

Dr. Pac-Man, though... I actually dislike that he has such a connection to Ex-Aid's overall story, because that makes it feel like something I'm watching because I have to rather than something I want to, and it doesn't even have that many emotional moments come from it? He's still a super dull villain, just with the added caveat that Oh, I Did Something In Your Backstory. I had the same problem with W x Decade but at least Begins Night was really, really good...

I guess I didn't find him that dull? He's not, like, Genm, or anything, but I thought the story they'd concocted for him was interesting. And, man, after a few of these movies that just feel like trifles, colorful explosions of disconnected storytelling, I'm not going to feel mad about a movie plot point coming back (several times!) in other places.