[DreamSword]

Satria Heroes: Revenge of (the) Darkness

Did you know that this movie was actually available to English speakers via Netflix up until very recently?

And on one hand, while it is cool that something BIMA related was brought overseas, man, I can only imagine how confused anyone who consumed this as their first bit of BIMA content must've been.

Because this movie very much assumes that the viewer has at the bare minimum seen all of BIMA-X, as it casually flashes back to a bunch of big, spoiler-ific moments from the show. And not only that, but what is probably the biggest emotional crux of the movie won't hit nearly as hard without prior context.

The biggest sin of the movie though, I feel, is that it is very much meant to be a bridge between BIMA-X and a third BIMA show that never came to be, and at this point sadly likely never will. The after credits scene all but confirms it too, what with the appearance of an all new Satria like how new Riders used to premiere for awhile during the Neo-Heisei Era of Kamen Rider.

The pacing and flow of the film is weird too. It's essentially three episodes of BIMA-X glued together into a feature length film. To the point that all three acts of the movie have different title cards(with "Revenge of Darkness" being the final one). And let's just say that the transition between story beats and moods of the three acts isn't exactly the smoothest; with the very somber and melancholy atmosphere of the second act being the biggest standout.

But, despite all of that, I did enjoy this film for what it was.

Despite me not having a big gap between this and BIMA-X like how I did between, well, BIMA-X and BIMA, it was nice to see a reunion of the cast. The visual effects were even better than what was in BIMA-X, and the final act did feel appropriately epic for a final battle, especially given who's involved. And speaking of that, the big star of this movie is very much Iron Mask, or as he's know here, Osiris. Or, if you want to go by his name back when he was human, Wira.

I was really into that middle act, which is all about Iron Mask reminiscing about the events that lead to him becoming a Satria filled with hatred. Long story short, it's the tale of a boy getting in way over his head, and never getting the chance to learn how to process his emotions and move on from his pain; Only ever running from it via pointing the finger at others. What happened was a freak accident, but Wira was never able to let that pain go. He somewhat mirrors Reza in that regard, but Reza eventually allowed his family to help him, while Wira never did. And it eventually lead to Iron Mask being the very evil he felt he was fighting.

Seeing everyone else in the movie is great too, of course(even if Reza's' appearance is never properly explained), but man, Iron Mask really did just steal the show here.

In the end, it's not a perfect movie. Heck, it's not even a perfect three episodes of BIMA-X, let alone a finale. But as an extra piece of content from a tokusatsu that I've grown to love over time?

Yeah, I'm more than satisfied with it.