[Kiwami]

I remembered we have a dedicated thread for this so I dump my thoughts here:

I finished watching the movie today, I absolutely loved it. I'm enamored with this film.

And the journey was an interesting one: I had a less than optimal day yesterday. Like not bad, but it wasn't good either. I had to watch this movie though! It's finally here! Eventually it was so late in the night that I had to stop, because I was getting up early today as well.

While I was going around the whole morning doing stuff I couldn't stop thinking about the parts of the movie I had already seen, I was just about finished with the Wasp Augment part. And I was thinking stuff like "It's good, but...", "It's fun, but...", "...something's missing." "It's like 3 mini-episodes of Kamen Rider so far". "Is this truly Shin-material?"

So I was a bit nervous about continuing, but when I did - oh boy. It all came together. When Rider 2 enters the fray and Ruriko "meets" the Chameleon-Mantis, that's when it all fell into place for me. All the previous scenes, all the build-up went into overdrive and finished it all up into one tight package of excellence.

What cemented this movie as good in my opinion is that beyond it being amazing Rider action, it gave me something to think about. Some of the lines spoken truly hit home, I might even dare say it changed me a little. Not many movies can do that. And it looked so pretty! So many amazing shots of just scenery!

The only thing I would truly have to criticize is that the CG-effects are janky at times. Thankfully scene composition and style makes up for it, but it cannot be denied that the effects could've been better. The suit work, the camera and the hand-made effects are excellent, but once the computer takes over it becomes a bit wonky.

All in all tough, absolutely amazing. When the end credits rolled over and the classic theme started playing I was tearing up. Good stuff.