[FreshToku]

Having watched a bunch of Rider summer moves in rapid succession, I've decided they're all fun and neat spectacles with serviceable one-in-done plots. A highlight from each of them:

OOO Wonderful: The first Rider movie I ever saw, but that didn't actually make it any particularly memorable compared to others. Fourze's appearance in this movie is the best done of those kinds of cameos though. The big climax with all the combos together feels like it is trying hard to be Den-O but with nowhere near the amount of investment or excitement.

Fourze Uchu Kita: Why was Meteor Fusion not an actual Fusion between Gentaro and Ryusei? Anyhow, I really liked seeing the entire Kamen Rider Club take part in this ridiculous sci-fi mission, and I genuinely love the sequence of all the various minor characters from the show helping Fourze by counting down from 40.

Wizard in Magic Land: Does it count as an AU film if its about the characters themselves travelling to another world? Anyhow, the magic king character wanted to kill everyone because he's the only one who can't use magic, and yet I think I was suppose to feel bad for him when he is 'betrayed' by Sorcerer. He really should have been the main villain to begin with... The final fight between Wizard and Sorcerer was cool though, and surprisingly restrained in terms of special effects compared to most movie climaxes! You'd think being a Wizard movie, it would want to go all out with the flashiness, but I'm more than fine with this.

Gaim Golden Fruits Cup: The soccer AU stuff is so stupid and I'm conflicted about the fact that it just goes away really abruptly when Malus enters the scene. On one hand, it would have been hard to take anything seriously if they kept it up. On the other hand, I wouldn't have mind if the entire movie was a goofy sports movie featuring the Armoured Riders. As it is, its just tonally weird and the climax with all the riders (well, all of them minus Duke and Sigurd and plus one extra Kurokage [why]) kicking around an energy ball just didn't... score with me, sadly.

Drive Surprise Future: Honestly way cooler a movie than I remembered. I've always felt like Drive's action sequences had more of a focus on exciting melee compared to most, and this movie is full of it, mixed in with a lot of deft-defying shots thanks to a movie budget. Dark Drive is a straightforward but really cool-looking villain (and I guess he had to become the Paradox Roidmude because they only had the one undersuit for Type Special?). I only wished the movie had shifted away even more from the future stuff, and leaned towards more to be about Shinnosuke and Krim. Krim saying the 'take you for a spin catchphrase' and them both saying 'Nice Drive' at the end were really sweet touches.