[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE THE MOVIE: REALxTIME

It?s a great movie, all the way through. There?s some stuff I could maybe quibble over (Izu?s story gets lost in the middle; can?t believe the Naki and Ikazuchi suits aren?t at least around for the finale), but I spent half the film pumping my fist in triumph, and most of the last few minutes misty-eyed over the resolution to a story about how partnerships can?t work without communication. One of the best Zero-One things I?ve ever seen, and maybe one of the best Kamen Rider things.

A lot of Japanese people would certainly agree with you here, considering RealTime was voted one of the best KR media in an official poll.

However, my opinion couldn't be more different. I strongly disliked it. In fact, I easily rank this as the worst KR "summer" movie I've ever watched, a dishonor formerly held by Agito's.

You already summarized the most apparent reason from the start, the way the admittedly eyecatching action takes the foreground at the expense of maintaining a strong narrative. I want more than action from an action movie though, I want the action to be a framing device in service of something I can emotionally invest in and this isn't it. Like, after a show full of deep debates about the meaning of humanity and how HumaGears have a place in that, suddenly it's just nanobots and this dude called S who's way less vital to the overarching plot than the finale's post-credits made him out to be. He's not even as interesting as Kabuki.

Aruto's only appearance as Zero Two is at the start and he doesn't even win. If I disliked RealEyezing Hopper before, then it's even worse now that it's not exclusive to the finale, cause that makes it an excuse for Aruto to loan his literal Final Form to Izu anytime she happens to be around, instead of actually using it himself.

Speaking of Izu, yeah, I'm also annoyed about Zea pretty much overwriting New Izu's identity with her predecessor's and essentially fulfilling Aruto's unhealthy dream of creating a replacement for the dead by literally replacing her with the same person. It takes that controversial last scene from the show and mostly ignores any wrongdoing on Aruto's part, other than showing him being overprotective due to his past trauma. What even is Izu anymore?

Fortunately, despite what DS and En-chan would have you believe, this isn't the last content for Zero One, so please look forward to 01hers!

There's also the other shorter "summer" movie belonging to Saber that was double-billed with this in place of the usual Sentai movie, Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin, which was much more my thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Wait. Was this also the movie where Gai tortures a naked dude? That was one of the most absurdly random things I've ever seen on Kamen Rider.

Yeah, I'm so glad I happened to be home alone when I watched this.