[DreamSword]

The Guyver (1991)

Sean Barker is your normal everyday dude. But unfortunately for him, he one day stumbles upon a mysterious alien object which soon bonds to him. This "Guyver" unit is what ends up pulling Sean into fight against the Chronos Corporation; A group of mutant aliens bent on world domination. Can Sean defeat the invaders and save his girlfriend Mizki while trying to make sense of his life getting turned upside down?

This movie is better than the OVA. I will fight Guyver fans on this.

I get it. American adaptations of Japanese properties get a bad rap. Even worse if they're a live-action adaptation of something animated.

And, admittedly, I didn't go into this with any sort of high hopes either. But the further I went into the movie, the more I found to appreciate about it. Especially as I'm doing a deep dive into the Guyver franchise as a whole.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the film is any sort of underrated masterpiece or anything; It has a host of problems. Certain character and plots hooks being dropped as soon as they're brought up(Sean "learning to control his temper" goes nowhere), and most damningly, the tone is all over the place.

But yet, the good stuff in the end overshadowed the bad in my eyes. Despite taking a number of deviances from the source material, it also has a ton of scenes and elements taken directly from Out of Control and the OVA, especially in the case of making Sean a very likable lead via alot of the same traits that made Sho so likable in the original anime movie.

Heck, in some cases it even surpasses what came before it. First of all, there's no Tetsuro in this movie, and thanks to that Sean is in turn the main focus throughout most of the movie, and has his own sense of agency which pushes alot of the story forward. They also actually take a minute to explain how exactly the Control Metal works, which makes Sean's' revival way more believable than what Sho's' was in the OVA.

I also liked how the Guyver unit in itself is very alien in its design, rather than being a hunk of metal like in the original. And while it's not particularly amazing, there's some rather solid set design and cinematography all through the film. Especially in the opening sequence concerning the scientist who's running off with the Guyver Unit. Just a shame that the score overall seemed rather confused as to what to do half the time due to the constantly shifting tone. I can't see myself ever buying this soundtrack.

And on that note: Yes, the tone of the movie overall is rather badly handled, especially in the latter half of the film. But yet, the scenes that work really do work. I found the toast scene to actually be pretty funny, and alot of the more moody scenes, like the one where Sean goes into his girlfriend's' apartment to find it ransacked, were rather effective in their atmosphere. I really wish there was a version of this movie wherein they successfully copied the overall style and tone of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie, because that would've really worked great here.

So in the end, the movie isn't some supreme amazing classic that everyone should see, but what it does well, I end up rather liking. And as such, I actually like this better than the OVA that came before it. When put up against the first animated movie though, well, that's a bit of a tougher call. Regardless, if you haven't yet due to its bad rep, I recommend giving this movie a chance. If nothing else it can be a fun time. Just don't go in expecting anything Oscar worthy, or even some super faithful adaptation of Guyver itself.