[EpsilonX]

Watched Shin Kamen Rider again, this time with subtitles (first time was in a Japanese theater).

The story was a lot more enjoyable for obvious reasons, and while I'm still not really a fan of the anthology-esque approach that this took, I thought it pulled it off much better than Shin Ultraman (which I did not really enjoy).

My biggest issue is still the overuse of bad CGI in fight scenes. The Bat, Wasp, Ichimonji, and motorcycle tunnel fights were all really hard to enjoy because it felt like I was watching nothing. The Spider, Chameleon, and Butterfly fights, however, were awesome, and I really wish they took the more practical approach for everything.

Overall, I have mixed feelings. There's almost as many things that I didn't enjoy as there are things that I enjoyed, so I'd give it a 6/10, maybe 6.5

My ranking of the Shin films goes:

1. Shin Godzilla
2. Shin Evangelion
3. Shin Kamen Rider
4. Shin Ultraman

I'm a bit bummed because Godzilla and Evangelion set the bar really high, so I was stoked to see what they did with Ultraman and Kamen Rider. Unfortunately I found myself disappointed in both. I just didn't enjoy the anthology approach, thought that they felt gimmicky, and didn't enjoy some of the decisions that the production team made.