[Fish Sandwich]

This is another movie I thankfully have a whole prepackaged opinion on, which saves me some time:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is not a great movie, but I've always liked it a fair bit. It's like the awkard halfway point between the generally quite awful Super Hero Taisen films, and the generally quite good Heisei Generations movies. Something that exists right in this period where Toei was clearly trying to get their crap together when it came to doing these big fanservice events, but still hadn't really figured it out.

There's a lot of the usual pointless glorified suits with unfitting voices, on one hand. OOO's habit of whiffing on Rider Kicks hits a new low when he gets Rope Armed out of the air by Riderman and then explodes. Black and Black RX are apparently partners now. Kenichi Suzumura is voicing Fourze for some reason. J is boiled down to being "that big one" again. It's got all the hallmarks of the era of movies that started during Decade.

On the other hand, it's also got, for one of the first truly notable times, returning actors who are actually allowed the screentime to matter. Hiroshi Fujioka is back, in person, and while he only gets two scenes, he owns every second he appears, and the fact that he was there at all legitimately had a huge amount of novelty to it at the time. Then, of course, you have Takkun, who's the reason I'm doing this right now. He gets by far the meatiest part of all the guest actors, especially when he gets to share the spotlight with X for the 13 minute segment of this movie that plays out like some lost episode of Faiz. Which is awesome! Going that length of time with what is largely just human characters talking, with no absurd doomsday devices or overly complex plans getting in the way, does not happen in movies like this, and I savor every minute of it. Takumi is great here, and just on a side note, I appreciate the detail of him going from his initial necklace from the show to the on-brand phi one from later once he becomes a Rider again. I appreciate little touches like that. I also appreciate that Haruto was also in this movie and got to tell Takkun he'd be his hope. I appreciate that a lot, actually. You gotta understand, back in 2014 I thought it was going to be cool just to have my two favorite Rider protagonists in the same movie. I scarcely expected them to even interact, let alone what I got. I'm probably the only one who cares, but that's exactly why I love that moment so much. I swear they actually made it specifically for me.

The story that holds all of this together is unfortunately leaning a lot more towards typical crossover nonsense. I actually like Fifteen quite a lot. A cool looking skeleton guy who can use all the heroes' powers. That's neat. As an actual character, though, he's a little underbaked. Which isn't even the movie's big problem, which is instead that it makes the Showa Riders look like huge jerks. Hongou must've got up on the wrong side of the bed that day. I'd joke that the overly complicated plan he comes up with to stop Badan was just a pretense to wail on the new generation, but it stops being a joke as soon as he drops even the pretense, and just sicks his crew on the Heisei Riders for no reason whatsoever. The ending to this movie is the stupidest and best thing ever. The real one I mean. Not the Showa one that's basically a lamer version of the same thing. No, I'm talking about Kouta's legendary defense of some random flower on some beach. It's such an over the top, absurd way for the conflict to resolve, I can't help but love it. I mean, I've got to agree with Hongou on this one. If your dedication to protecting life is hardcore enough that you'll try tanking a Rider Kick to save foliage, I think it's safe to say your kindness isn't making you weak.

So I don't know. It's the usual noisy mess for the most part, and it doesn't make much sense, but by the time it wraps up, and that new version of Dragon Road starts playing, it feels like it comes together into something that's maybe more than the sum of its parts.

I think the key reason, for me, why I don't at all mind how stupid the actual Showa vs. Heisei conflict is boils down to it not ending that way? Which, you know, of course it ends with everyone getting along, but I don't know, there's just something about all those Riders standing on that beach saying that it's cool to truck with Showa and Heisei alike that makes me wanna forgive everything leading up to it. Like I said, I feel this one is maybe more than the sum of its parts. It's got so, so many of those typical dumb Yonemura movie flaws, but it's another one I maintain a notable soft spot for.