[losondro]

I'm still wondering if blood orange will come into play later on in the show since we don't know what Micchy did with it.

[irondragon]

I thought the movie was great, ESPECIALLY the Wizard parts. I couldn't be happier with it as an epilogue to the series and I think I cried (a bit) at least once. Fo' reaaaalz.

I just loved it. The fact that Haruto experienced actual grief and attachment to Koyomi's memory that he still couldn't let go of was such an amazing story choice that I never expected to see. Then having that manifest itself in a real-life Koyomi again and having him still make the choice to love and care about her . . . . urhghgh . . . I thought it was just perfect.

Wizard is one of my favourite tokusatsu series, hands-down. The tone and pace of the show is a lot more gentle than something like Gaim, for instance, but what is there and what comes across couldn't be more powerful, for my money. All the themes of hope and despair and loss and triumph and the way the series specifically executed them really hit home with me.

But one last thing that I'm not sure of, 100% . . . was the Bujin Wizard Lord meant to be a grown-up version of the child Haruto from the Heisei/Decade finale episodes of Wizard? And that this world is sort of a progression of the weird universe we saw in those? That's how I interpreted it with him having the Infinity ring, so someone please tell me if I'm wrong. But if that was right, that was another thing that blew me away in that he's essentially another version of Haruto who was saved as a child by his alternate world counterpart, and now stands up for hope and peace too.

Urhghgh . . . . . . . Wizard was so good!!!

[Kiryu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by losondro

I'm still wondering if blood orange will come into play later on in the show since we don't know what Micchy did with it.

If Ryuki is what they're trying to emulate with this show, I can definitely see Buijin Gaim showing up again as their answer to Ryuga.

[Dr Kain]

We watched this today and it was good, but no where near as good as the OOO/Fourze movie. I loved the Gaim portion because of them using the secondary riders to be the Daimyou's even though Akechi seemed to be missing. That was great. Unfortunately, War God Gaim was a lame villain but the history aspect was great. The Wizard stuff started out good but then went into mediocre territory when Ogre somehow had Medusa's and Gremlin's abilities. At least Kiyomi did far more here than she did in 51 episodes. This movie also had a serious lack of Foundation X. Overall, I give it a 7/10.

[Xtreme RX]

Enjoyed the movie. Wizard's part was touching, Gaim's part was full of great action. Not the best Rider movie but certainly not the worst.

[WhiteRanger]

i really like this film. wizard portion felt like a wizard episode this time it centered what every one was doing after wizard. the fact the Haruto and kosuke fight a phantom that can use other phantom power. at the same time trying to drive Haruto to despair was a nice add to it as well.

Gaim segment was fun and ejoyable and reminded me how much fun the show started of as.

the final segment was really enjoy able as well.

[MidoGreen]

Finally got around to seeing this today so here are my thoughts:

Wizard portion: Nice little coda to the series. Just wish Koyomi had been in the series a bit more so I could make the emotional connection the characters had with her.

Gaim/Movie War portion: How about that, Kiwi Arms can actually be used well when you try Mitchy. Also him saying W's catchphrase as of episode 39 is some really great irony . Also, I liked the returns of Kengo, Terui, and Akiko to be the warlords.

[Switchblade]

Just getting around to this now. I've had it downloaded for ages, but my total lack of interest in AU Gaim has left me dragging my feet. I've decided to post my thoughts as I go through the film.

Wizard part first:

Haruto speaks English pretty well.

Hey, it's Mayu, Yuzuru, and Todoroki! Honestly did not expect to see them in this.

The dude in the fur coat looks really, really familiar.

Man, that was a simple handwave to explain Beast's inevitable return.

Something about Ogre eating the other Phantoms just looks really Monty Python to me.

Orange, banana, grape, and melon donuts. Gee, what a strange and natural coincidence.

Koyomi lives! This would be really shocking if a) every other non-human sidekick who died at the end of a Neo-Heisei show hadn't done it first and 2) anyone gave a rat's ass about Little Miss Too-Busy-Idoling-To-Appear-On-The-Show.

Nitou knocks out Haruto so he doesn't have to witness Beast defeating Koyomi. That's adorable; Nitou thinks he can win a fight.

Still loving the Beast Hyper suit.

Oh, look, Beast accomplished nothing. I am truly shocked to the core of my very soul.

Seriously, Wizard, stop pretending that Koyomi was enough of a character for anyone to feel sympathy for her.

Platforms and heels? Why not just put her on stilts?

Not a fan of that camera spin. Interesting effect, but kind of disorienting.

lol Shunpei.

Beast to the inevitably ineffective rescue!

Ogre's whole "awakening the Dragon" plan really makes no damn sense if you know anything about how Wizard works. Dragon is sealed; he's not going to manifest no matter what you do. Even if he could, Haruto is too awesome to allow it.

And Koyomi's dead again. Likely because they could only get the actress long enough to film two scenes.

Yep. Too awesome to allow it.

Cool use of recycled footage. $10 says this is how they get the Infinity Ring back. Also, lol still trying to make Koyomi seem relevant.

Ah, mooks. The only thing Beast is allowed to kill. He's like the Heisei version of Tackle.

Okay, so they got her for three scenes.

And cliffhanger for the team-up portion.

Gaim bit now:

I guess we know which Fourze actor is still available.

Welcome back, Nago. You're still crap.

I'm starting to get depressingly jaded about seeing the older Heisei suits again.

Did not miss this version of DJ... oh fuck, they're "dancing" again.

I feel embarrassed for everybody involved in this scene.

I'm not sure what's worse: AU Gaim in general, or AU Gaim based on the early days of the show when it was all dancing and random fights.

Aw, look at cute little pre-evil Micchy.

Oh, shit, it's Date. Best part of the film confirmed.

Why is Date holding a guitar? Who cares! It's Date!

Date is apparently now Nobunaga. How/why the hell is this movie coming full circle back to Birth's first appearance in Movie War Core?

Oh come on, random suit actor pretending to be Eiji, you can do way the hell better than that against Red Gaim.

Jeez, you ride off on your bike but make Micchy run after you. Classy, Kouta. No wonder he tries to kill you.

I totally believe that was real rain and not just a CGI filter. Totally.

Oh, Ieyasu! That guy whose name I remember from that Japan class I took in college even thought I don't remember what he actually did that made him famous! Apparently he was a total douche!

With a stupid hat!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this scene would make way more sense if Ieyasu was played by Shunpei's actor.

Okay, so she has a gun, these dudes have spears, but they're also wearing track jackets but everyone else is in period clothing. Consistency, people!

Terui!

Akiko.

Ugh. This is so much less awesome than a canon team-up would've been.

Dude, you do not want to hitch your horse to early-show Ryugen's wagon. You'd almost be better off with Beast.

Ugh, Inoue-era Makamou. At least the Joker Undead hasn't shown up yet. I get that old suits are cheap, but it always pisses me off when they reuse that one.

Ah, the first appearance of the highly popular and frequently used Kiwi Arms.

Yep. Early-show Ryugen.

Words I would never use to describe Beast: "War God."

So why is Bujin Gaim the scary one when it's the frog monster thing doing most of the work?

Oh, man, that dude's hair.

How much longer is this thing? 27 minutes. Man...

Oh wait, Haruto is here. Interest renewed.

Oh goody. Telling Kouta why he should fight. Totally didn't get enough of that on the show.

Loving Haruto in the background, hanging around waiting for the newbie to stop whining.

Okay, so that's how we get Infinity back. Good to see they aren't just ignoring the last two episodes of Wizard.

Actually, the more I look at it, the more I'm starting to think this isn't an AU like the damn soccer movie. Nobody on the show ever talked about the crazy trip to Samurai Land, but nothing here seems to be blatantly contradicting the show.

Pineapple Arms is still kinda dumb.

Wow, actual miniature work. Cool.

Wait, where the hell is... oh, never mind. Yay Haruto!

Gotta love Random Zangetsu.

It's Micchy and Nitou! Somehow our heroes' odds just decreased!

Infinity form. Still an awesome suit.

Did Bujin Gaim just merge with a tree. Is this Final Fantasy V now?

Okay, this with Blonde Mai probably won't match up with the show. But I'm guessing whoever wrote this had no idea what the hell she's supposed to be.

"Orz?"

The Lockseed voice is not working for these Arm phrases. Especially the Orz one.

Oh man, that reminds me, I never watched the Wizard movie.

Okay, that bit with Nitou forgetting which one was Haruto was cute.

Zangetsu is too cool for space time.

Seriously, why is this guy dressed like a beach bum with samurai robes? Explain, movie.

Lend us your power and inspiration fake duplicates of the older Riders that we have no emotional connection to!

Okay, the Watermelon Arms soccer ball thing was eerily prescient of the Gaim summer movie.

"Finally raining?" Was lack of rainfall in this world a thing? Did I miss a line somewhere?

Cute joke about the Helheim fruit that is kind of creepy knowing what the show would end up doing with them.

Ryouma and Yoko. Holy crap, we just had two female Riders in the same movie. Technically.

And it's over. It was okay. Nowhere near as good as Mega Max or even Ultimatum, but still pretty decent. More Haruto is always a good thing, even if the Wizard portion hinged way too much on the idea that the viewer gave a rat's ass about Koyomi. Again.

The Gaim portion was pretty meh. Not bad, per say, but it didn't make a ton of sense and totally wasted all the cameo appearances. I'm really confused about how the hell this samurai world thing works, too. I'm also getting really tired of seeing all the old Rider and monster suits running around. It might be different if any of the real actors had returned, but they didn't and I'm totally over the ghost suit thing.