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General Kamen Rider Thoughts
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03-24-2023, 05:39 AM
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EpsilonX
Veteran Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: CA
Posts: 2,490
Just got back from Japan and I saw Shin Kamen Rider while I was there. Here are my thoughts.
Disclaimer: There will be some spoilers, but nothing very specific. I'm moreso going to talk about stylistic decisions and such, which some people might not want to know beforehand. Each paragraph will be spoiler tagged separately, with only one of them giving a very brief overview of the story. Still, better safe than sorry.
So first things first, this is a lot more similar to Shin Ultraman than Shin Gojira. Like Ultraman, the story is divided into mini arcs that each focus on a different villain. However, I think it worked a bit better in Shin Kamen Rider, as there is the "fighting against Shocker" plot thread tying everything together. Ultraman, in comparison, felt a bit disjointed. Or, at least, it did to me.
Also like Shin Ultraman, the film pays a lot of homage to the original series, embracing some of the goofier elements. Like how Shin Ultraman kept the Ultraman "zoom in" style transformations, Shin Kamen Rider has a lot of shots of him flipping through the air.
The film also keeps the series' trademark edginess, with bloody fights, grainy footage sprinkled throughout, lots of wide angle shots and fast cuts, and some trademark Evangelion-style Anno-isms shining through. It felt very 2000s to me, and while I've never seen The First or The Next, I can't imagine how they're made any edgier.
Story-wise, I'm still pretty basic in my Japanese, so I didn't understand much of what was going on. From what I could tell, the story was fairly standard Kamen Rider - Hongo escapes Shocker after being turned into a cyborg, and uses his new powers to fight the organization. In this version, however, Hongo is much less at peace with who he has become. If you've seen Evangelion, the way this is portrayed will feel pretty familiar to you. As a fan of that series, I really appreciated this element.
The suit designs were all fantastic. Sadly, the fight scenes were my biggest issue with the film. On the plus side, there were a lot of fights with a nice variety between them. Each fight showed off different techniques and styles. Unforuntately, they were also full of CGI, awkward camera angles, and super quick cuts, which all made it very hard to follow and get invested in. A few of the fights seemed to go overboard with flashiness and CGI, feeling more like I was watching Dragon Ball Z than Kamen Rider. This is just my personal opinion, though - I've seen other reviews that seemed to like the fights.
So yeah, overall I thought it was fine, but I can't help but be disappointed. Of the four Shin films, this one was my least favorite. I think a lot of it is due to the language barrier - since I couldn't understand the story, I missed out on a TON of the movie, and the part that I
could
understand (the fights) wasn't to my taste. That's not to say it's all bad, though, as it was certainly still enjoyable. It's just not up to the standard set by the incredible Shin Gojira, and it seems like Rurouni Kenshin's influence on live action adaptations is starting to wane. So it was good, it just wasn't as top-tier as I had hoped for. I can't wait to see it again with subtitles, to hopefully enjoy it more.
If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.
Side note: I saw it at the Toho Cinemas in Kabukichou with the Godzilla head on top of it.
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Last edited by EpsilonX; 03-24-2023 at
06:47 AM
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