[marcotadeja]

just finished watching! a couple things... protecting a single flower!? lol what the heck. also... i think the toqgers 5 min appearance was the most i've liked them. not because they didnt talk but the fighting seemed better (or maybe it was just in my head) anyway. i've only seen gaim, kabuto, fourze, and W (and masked rider hah), so i might not have appreciated as much as other people, but i really enjoyed it.


Kamen Rider Taisen on Flickr

[FormerTitanium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcotadeja

just finished watching! a couple things... protecting a single flower!? lol what the heck. also... i think the toqgers 5 min appearance was the most i've liked them. not because they didnt talk but the fighting seemed better (or maybe it was just in my head) anyway. i've only seen gaim, kabuto, fourze, and W (and masked rider hah), so i might not have appreciated as much as other people, but i really enjoyed it.


Kamen Rider Taisen on Flickr

That's such a beautiful shot... *makes it my new wallpaper*

[EnerPrime]

Okay, that was awesome. It had a few low points (Fourze's replacement voice, the Showa Riders being dicks for no reason, the Heiseis not just using their final forms to curbstomp the Showas) but overall I loved it. A few thoughts:

-The Showa Rider transformations were great, especially seeing Hongo go all cyborg while tranfroming into Ichigo.
-Kusaka remains an unrepentant asshole, even in death. And Takumi is understandably messed up from going through the mess of stupidity, miscommunication and jerkassery that was Faiz.
-I love that someone actually managed to pull the 'pretend to be evil and kill everyone, except not really' on Decade. Now Tsukasa knows how everyone else felt in Movie Wars 2010 and Super Hero Taisen.
-Goddamnit Narutaki, will we ever know what your deal is? You were totally evil in your last to appearances, but now you're being helpful.
-Good to see that Shotaro hasn't stopped being a giant dork. But what was that about Futo being Riderless if you leave? What about Terui?
- Actually, where were all the non-Gaim secondary Riders?
-I like that Haruto was there and seen out of suit, but didn't really have a part in the plot. Helps to reinforce the idea that these are the actual show Riders without needing to get all the actors back.
- Poor Kaito. He is just too serious not to get messed up when caught up in Shotaro's antics.
-Really? The Showas were looking down on the Heisei for still feeling connections for the dead? What about V3's family, or Tackle?
-I love that the only thing that surprises Tsukasa is small Narutaki. Another world inside the Earth with an evil empire? "Eh, I've seen wierder." The Showa Riders are out to kill the Heisei Riders? "I've killed all the Riders before, taking out half of them isn't a big deal."

[ZeoRangerV]

That was....alright. Its certainly another Taisen movie that's for sure - all spectacle and very little actual substance. Toei need to stop making crossover films if all they can ever do is have sides fight for flimsy reasons or stupid undercover plans.

The Showa Riders really come off badly in this film, and the added "ending" makes it even worse. Yes they do kinda have a point in what they were saying to the Heisei Riders, but its not like they haven't done similar things themselves and they're supposed to be the ultimate heroes. They just seem like grumpy old men who want the new kids off their lawn.

Fifteen was a bit eh as well. I get what they were going for with him but I just couldn't get invested in his story. The Sentai cameos were largely pointless as well but whatever

Decade and Narutaki were on top form though. I absolutely love those guys. Was really great seeing Shotaro again as well, and the Showa actors definitely still have it. I've not watched 555 so Takumi didn't really do much for me nor did his appearance really make me want to watch the show more.

As a last note, I REALLY wish these crossovers would just address the Black/RX thing properly (I guess it just goes by Decade logic, but something concrete would be nice). Oh, and they REALLY need to fire that guy they keep hiring to do the terrible Fourze impression.

[NeonZ]

Quote:

the Heiseis not just using their final forms to curbstomp the Showas

This is the same movie where Wizard Infinity and X took the same damage from the same attack at one point. They were in base at the final battle just because that's their iconic look.

Quote:

What about V3's family, or Tackle?

In the old ZX special, Kazami pointed out that although he started fighting for revenge, he put it behind him, and all other Riders had done the same. Stronger was also shown to be mostly over Tackle's death by the time of Skyrider (He stops doing his speech and takes a more humble attitude after her death in his own show, but by the time he appears in Skyrider he didn't seem to be burdened by that anymore). Compare to Shotaro, who even after accepting himself, is still largely defined as a person by his inspiration from Narumi.

The main issue here is that many Heisei Riders really don't have attachments to the dead either, the movie just doesn't focus on them, like Kuuga and Kabuto. Then, again, I guess they could retcon some random traumas for them like they did for Faiz and Decade. Maybe Kabuto would angst about Dark Kabuto's death or something if he actually had screentime aside from the battle in the beginning.

Quote:

The Showa Riders really come off badly in this film, and the added "ending" makes it even worse. Yes they do kinda have a point in what they were saying to the Heisei Riders, but its not like they haven't done similar things themselves and they're supposed to be the ultimate heroes. They just seem like grumpy old men who want the new kids off their lawn.

To be fair, that's because you've seen the Heisei ending. It's not subbed yet, but in the Showa ending, Narutaki says that Rider 1 wasn't counter attacking through the battle and just wanted to draw out Gaim's full strength, with Gaim realizing that Hongo was just teaching him the meaning of real strength (the same one that Hongo realizes by watching Gaim in the Heisei ending).

[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeonZ

To be fair, that's because you've seen the Heisei ending. It's not subbed yet, but in the Showa ending, Narutaki says that Rider 1 wasn't counter attacking through the battle and just wanted to draw out Gaim's full strength, with Gaim realizing that Hongo was just teaching him the meaning of real strength (the same one that Hongo realizes by watching Gaim in the Heisei ending).

That doesn't change that the whole premise of the two sides fighting in the first place is built upon a ridiculous reason. Within the film's actual plot it makes a little more sense (but not a lot more) but the whole Showa/Heisei ending thing feels completely tacked on and doesn't need to be there.

[losondro]

Watching the movie makes me realize that Bandai needs to release another Den-O Ressha but this time as a head.

[VictoriousImagin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

Oh, and they REALLY need to fire that guy they keep hiring to do the terrible Fourze impression.

It's Ryuutaros.

[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VictoriousImagin

It's Ryuutaros.

Then he needs to stick to that

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I'm not going into this with high hopes, but I want to see it because of all the returning actors, especially X and ZX.

Me from four days ago, you are in for a real treat.

Also, don't make that stroganoff for dinner on the 13th, it'll be terrible.

So yeah, I went into this with pretty low expectations and, honestly, the first few minutes didn't really do much for me. At that point it just looked like it was going to be a Gaim-centric movie with some small cameos and a lot of retreading of the ZX special. And seeing how badly Micchy and Takatora were getting shoehorned in didn't help.

And then Decade showed up and suddenly everything turned around. I'm going to say it right now and bold it for emphasis: this is how you do an All-Rider crossover movie. It wasn't perfect - the main plot is kind of a mess, the main villain is made of questions and plot holes, and the full fighting force of both the Kyoryugers and ToQgers are blatantly tacked on for no reason beyond cross promotion. Also, tiny Narutaki; what the fuck was up with that? But I don't really care about the small weird bits or random Sentai-ness. This movie did something that should be a mandatory part of every Rider team-up movie from here on out and it did it brilliantly.

Toei is never going to get all of the former Rider actors back. Some of them are retired, some of them are busy, and some of them just plain don't want to return (and, sadly, two cannot return even if they wanted to). As awesome as it would be, we'll never get a Forever Red style All-Riders transformation. But Toei can get some of the actors back and they showed here that they really can make great use of them. Sure, Hongo, Ryou, and Haruto were pretty much just cameos, but Tsukasa, Shotaro, and especially Takumi and Keisuke got several great scenes together. Hell, I'd watch an entire feature-length version of Takumi and Keisuke working together; I loved that part of this film.

And that's what I'd like to see Rider do again: get some of the older actors - Showa or Heisei - and have them interacting, either in subplots or as part of the main story. It was so much fun to see Keisuke try to cheer up Takumi while Tsukasa tries to get Shotaro to help him fight. Even Haruto's short cameo near the end was great - honestly, I kind of liked that he only showed up after getting knocked out of his transformation - it really sold the idea that these were all the real guys and not just ghost suits.

Oh, speaking of ghosts: man, Ghost Kusaka was a dick.

But yeah, I could probably keep gushing over all of this for awhile. I freaking loved this movie. Yes, the plot had problems and that odd little fight at the end was... odd (you can definitely tell that the two endings likely split when Narutaki straight up asks the audience who will win). But the story was far more coherent than most of the earlier team-up films and I don't really care about that last fight, which was obviously just tacked on so the viewers could see one side definitively win (in a very silly way). And really, all I care about after seeing this was all the great interactions between the different Riders and I thought that was handled fantastically. I am so glad I decided to watch this.

Also, lol at cartoon Shin running alongside the bikes during the credits.