[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE THE MOVIE: EVERYONE! LET’S FEEL THE UNIVERSE!

But I will be goddamned if I don’t think of this movie’s ending – the formation of the Fusion Switch – more often than I think of the TV show’s ending. It’s so perfect. It’s Gentarou (and the planet) being saved by everything he ever did, every person he ever helped. Every tiny act of kindness, every friend Gentarou ever made, they come together to empower him. He doesn’t have to make some impassioned speech or anything. He needs help, and no one even needs an explanation: they just help him. It’s those shots of the Kamen Rider Club pressing Switches into the hands of old friends, recent rivals, teachers, students… like, the show’s main villain even pitches in to help out Gentarou. It’s a beautiful ending.

While this is less obvious than Gamou pitching in (though he's an affably evil type of villain, but he hasn't become friends yet with Gentaro as for now), something that happened there is, Makise of all people was among one of the people who pressed the 40 Switches. And there's also more moments that aren't only about others agreeing, like Utsugi warming up to Yuki or Haru and Ran acknowledging their inclusion to KRC. Though with the movie not being that long, maybe more could be added in personal thoughts about those individuals, as what Yuki told them to, as it'd be not a rejection to helping Gentaro but showing how he helped them like Gentaro standing up for Nitta against JK.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which, it’s got ‘em! Skydain and Groundain are paper-thin villains, robots who hate humanity for no specific reason. Inga Blink (from the hit anime/manga Gantz, apparently) is a bad-ass secret agent who a) probably could’ve just told the Kamen Rider Club what was happening instead of trying to murder them a bunch of times and then weirdly telling them that she can’t murder people; b) exists to give Ryuusei something to do, since he’s basically irrelevant to the whole Gentarou And The Power Of Friendship thing; c) like, Ryuusei doesn’t even really contribute anything to Meteor Fusion States! He just stands there!; and d) pales in comparison to Tomoko, so this potential love triangle just irritates me. Black Knight's an unstoppable weapon until he just gets randomly exploded two-thirds of the way through. Wizard’s debut is pretty stylish, but it both stops the story dead, and feels to some degree out-of-character. The amount of action is maybe too much?

Sounds like Faiz where the villains feel they're superior species to humans and that they want to rule over humanity (which they successfully did in Paradise Lost), miscommunication stuff in Inga not telling about what's going on that led them to fight, militarized main cast (Paradise Lost only), and also bringing up love triangle (based on Ryusei and Inga attending the same martial arts dojo). Well I guess, Fourze was also about 4 (behind 555) and have drill as finishing move. I feel that about Inga claiming she'd destroy her enemies and being unable to shoot humans, it feels like Ren from Ryuki who isn't a cold-blooded murderer he thinks he is as Tezuka said.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Other than that, though, it’s a pretty stellar (sorry) summer movie for Fourze. It includes the entire team, for starters. Everyone contributes to the action, which isn’t a given! Miu and JK, who are usually relegated to reaction shots, actually get some pretty heavy combat sequences. (Tomoko and Yuuki get a fairly sweet one, as well.) Fittingly for a story about how Fourze’s power comes from all of Gentarou’s friends, every single member of the KRC gets to pitch in.

Guess this was the reason why Miu and JK were the ones who the story/writer gave a Power Dizer to, outside of Kengo. Shun was the King, Miu was the Queen, and JK is pronounced "Jake", so they're making a play of the face cards of Jack, King, and Queen among the Power Dizers. I guess it's continued from Megamax (another movie involving Fourze) of everyone having heavy combat sequences, but I felt it's only in those movies Fourze has good fighting scenes. Always felt that Kengo never performed that bad physically despite being established as sickly thus he can't be Fourze.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

– Except for the bit where I’m like Ryuusei Just Stood There; like, whole climax is about how Ryuusei found his true self via friendship! And how sometimes the hardest thing you can do is share the burden with the people who care about you! Which is exactly what Ryuusei does by taking some of Gentarou’s beating from Kyodain! It’s pretty blatant! So, yeah, in retrospect, I think Meteor does contribute to Meteor Fusion States through his nearly last stand with Gentarou.

Also, it's what Ryusei convinces Inga too, to share her burdens with the others. I'd also disagree with what you said before on how Meteor took some beating from Kyodain as his contribution, which was similar to his atonement after murdering Fourze that he took beating from the Dustards. And obviously, Ryusei contributes for the most important thing in Fusion States.... to provide the Meteor Switch itself as a Fusion! .

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

– That said, I kind of don’t love how Meteor Fusion States just ganks Meteor’s powers and Switch? I don’t remember Ryuusei volunteering his fighting prowess and/or ability to Henshin, you know? My headcanon is that, while everyone at AGHS was powering up the Fusion Switch by thinking “Gentarou…”, every single one of them was also thinking “...is just so much better than that Ryuusei dink.” Therefore, the Fusion Switch is all about making Gentarou more powerful and prominent than Ryuusei. Maybe Ryuusei should’ve made a friend or two outside the KRC at AGHS! (I’d definitely assume that Yukina was pouring all of her animosity for Ryuusei into her Switch.)

– Hey, let’s talk about Meteor Fusion States as a suit! I kind of never do that? I honestly love it, for sure more than Cosmic States. I think the purple is deep and dark enough to feel both regal and stellar; I think the gold of the shoulderpads works way better with the purple and white of Fourze than it did with the blue of Meteor; and the white helmet and boots pop off of the rest of the color scheme. It’s a snazzy suit!

It seems to be just Fourze, as Cosmic States was already about combination of all Switches, thus Meteor Fusion States is still about combination of all powers, which include Meteor's Jeet Kune Do as well as the mini-planets, which also compensates for how Meteor Fusion States can't use the hand Switches. I still wonder if Meteor Fusion States can use Switch combinations too for the legs part. I rather felt that Meteor Fusion States' finisher should have him stay planting the Drill on the ground to use the spinning to deliver the follow-up kick (and it'd also subtly resemble Meteor Storm Punisher, but a big/live-person one).

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Good development moment for Kengo though, showing he's now attuned enough to his friends that he can identify the imposter before Tomoko can detect the Cosmic Energy imbalance.

Though I felt that Yuki was the one Kengo views (or at least treats, no hostility) as a friend from the start of the series when Kengo was still dismissive of Gentaro's approaches.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, hell, so does every Switch! There’s a fight where it looks like Fourze cycles through all 40 Switches, which is nuts. I expect some form changes in a movie, but to use literally every suit and power-up? Between both of the show’s Riders? In one extended fight scene? Crazy. Completely over-the-top!

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Even the Hand Switch finally gets a chance to be useful! Since I already mentioned how Fourze has probably my favorite gimmick, this fight scene is therefore probably one of my favorites for managing to show off all the Switches in such clever ways! It's even thematically relevant with Gentarou verifying with Kengo that Switches, his 40+ little friends, are machines and that means XVII can become his friend as well. There's also the friendship between Inga Blink and Black Knight. The theme of "machines are friends!" is strongly emphasized in various ways through the movie for sure!

Though yeah the switch usage is good and clever, still a missed chance to have this be given to Cosmic States (for me, as its power is extending said 'favorite gimmick' to even far more possibilities) for more Switch combinations, as the usage of all the Switch in Fourze's base form and previous upgrades are a repeat for what he did in Megamax (albeit there's new one like Camera and Hand). Though there's a good showing of Cosmic States pushing the giant XVII with his finisher to teleport him to the moon.