Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Daishocker
Here it is. Possibly the biggest Rider movie to date, and easily one of the most anticipated.
The hype for this thing has been incredible, with one of the most aggressive ad campaigns I've seen in a while. Ads up the wazoo. Kamen Rider taking over 7-11 and the Tokyo Metropolitan Subway. Net movies which I still gotta watch. Mock Shocker political rallies. More TV specials and bits than ever before (why must most of them be on early in the morning or on the version of TV-Asahi we don't get up here?) And much, much more.
And now, it's finally out. Does it live up to expectations? I'll get to that in a sec!
Obviously, this movie had a lot riding on it, if you'll forgive the terrible pun. It's the movie of the show celebrating 10 years of Kamen Rider back on TV, it's the first movie to unite all the Riders, new and old, in one film. For many of them, this is their first time back in on-screen Kamen Rider in years. It also has to be about the titular Kamen Rider Decade, since it is his movie.
And make no mistake, it is his movie. It's a Kamen Rider Decade movie featuring all the Riders, rather than a movie about all the Riders that happens to have Decade in it. He's the star attraction, even given how significant his co-stars are to selling the film to viewers. It's his story, but they all play a part in it.
There is a helluva lot of plot going on here, though unfortunately given the current near-finished of the show, we have yet to know how it will all figure in. With an epic showdown and a story that pushes the heroes to their very limit, it has the feel of being "Decade's greatest adventure". It certainly does things with the characters, and the whole premise of the show, which are pretty gutsy.
But before I get into that, let's get back to the question: Does it live up to expectations? That'll depend on what your expectations are, and how you feel about the Decade TV series. The movie's certainly got enough hype and excitement around it that I think it'll be impossible to satisfy everyone. Nothing new there though.
As for the content, if you dislike some of Decade's more unpopular ideas (recasts, AUs, Final Form Rides, Riders kicking the crap out of each other for a vague, higher cause) then you might find it hard to get into this movie. Like I said, it's a Kamen Rider Decade film. It wears that name on its sleeve.
But how about me? Upon leaving the theater, I felt pretty happy with it. I will need to see it a few more times before I make a final opinion, but I would say that, based on one viewing, I'd put it up there as one of my favorite Rider movies in recent memory. It's an honest stab at trying to combine the light-hearted Shôwa action-fests with the more plot-heavy, series-affecting tone of the Heisei movies. It ended up being a little more plot-heavy and serious than I expected, but there's still tons 'o fun and some things turned out to be sillier than I thought they'd be.
For the most part, it succeeds as a Rider movie. I think I'd say it's great, but just shy of being truly incredible. It aims for the bull's eye and misses, but still hits close enough to be score high.
This leads into the dreaded nit-picks! I'll get them out of the way now. A big one is the running time, which I feel could have been longer. The entire Shinkenger/Decade double-feature runs 89 minutes according to Toho Cinemas. Given that the Shinkenger movie was at least about as long as an average episode, that leaves something like just over an hour for Decade.
As a result, the movie is pretty well-paced, though because it's packing so much in, there's a lot of big moments that don't feel as though they have enough build-up. Rather it's just a succession of events, but they feel a little two quick.
I almost feel like, since these moments had been so heavily promoted and hinted at, the movie runs on the audience's expectations of them. It knows that we know those moments are coming, so it waits, it plays its hand, and that's that. I think that works okay now, but upon reviewing the movie a couple years from now? We'll have to see.
It'll be interesting to see how the Director's Cut turns out. This is one movie which I think could actually use just a few extra shots to flesh things out more, and build up the big moments. On the whole it succeeds at feeling epic when it needs to be, but I feel like a longer run time would improve it even more.
The other big area where the movie falls just short of achieving true masterpiece status is in how it handles the nostalgia.
Because don't get me wrong, the movie does try its damnedest. You've got all the Riders back as the title suggests, and a lot of nice surprises in how they're handled. Loads of old foes. Fan-friendly moments abound. The movie recognizes the reverence the audience holds for the series' history, and it makes good use of it. There's some nice little cameos, voice or otherwise. I can appreciate all that and for the "All Riders" aspect alone, this movie's highly commendable. I mean, who would have thought they'd do this a few years ago?
And not to sound greedy, but I think the film could have gone one step further. There's some things it doesn't do with the music and voice acting which would have made a great movie into a truly spectacular one. Ultimately, what we end up with isn't that bad, but still, for a movie this big, they could have gone just a little bit further and made it something truly spectacular.
Okay, enough with the complaining. Onto the good stuff!
I'll start with the cast. For the most part, everybody really brings their A game to this movie. I'm truly impressed.
Tsukasa rules. It's as simple as that. You might hate him for what he does in this movie, but I love what he goes through. It's got guts. It's an emotional trial that's as deep as anything he's been through so far, if not deeper. Tsukasa gets put through the mill, but comes out better than ever.
It's a great journey. Inoue's more than up to the task, offering up the kind of stuff he was doing back in Kuuga's World. He's really giving it his all, especially as the movie draws to its climax.
Yuusuke's good as well. He's out of it for a big chunk towards the end, but he still fulfills the role of loyal friend to Tsukasa. He's come a long way since those first episodes on the TV series. I'd say that he has ended up being kinda like his fellow Yuusuke, though more emotionally vulnerable. He too goes through some heavy stuff this time.
Natsumi gets more to do here than she has in a while on the show. It's a lot of running around, and I think the TV series will have to address some of her backstory that isn't covered here. She's mostly just in there for the support, but like Yuusuke, she makes the big twists feel important.
Daiki is... Daiki. I'm not really a fan of the character on the show, and his performance in the movie is largely more of the same (the character's performance, I have no problems with the actor.) He does actually get kinda cool towards the end though, when he starts to realize the full weight of things.
Eijirô... well, you'll have to see the movie on that one.
Kivaara's the same as ever, and Narutaki's pretty much what you'd expect him to be. His role is surprisingly small, but then maybe the TV show will get more into what makes him tick.
That's the regulars, how about the new people?
The new character named Sayo's okay. She's got a few secrets, including who she is (though you may already know) and who she is. I'm a little unclear on some of the story with her, but overall it's an interesting aspect to the mythos.
As for the all-new Nobuhiko, well... it's hard to compare him to the infamously-scarce original version. But he's pretty good. Ooura does a good job making the character his own, even when he's also pulling double duty as you-know-who.
Doctor Shinigami and Ambassador Hell are sort of played half-jokingly, half-seriously, but I liked them. Are they the originals? No, but few people can reach the heights of Amamoto and Ushio. As it is, they capture the spirit if not the full menace, though in his unveiling scene Shinigami actually manages to come off as quite chilling. Things get goofier later on, but to Ishibashi and Oogi's credit, they make it work. The movie acknowledges the subtle humor in Daishocker while never undermining its threat.
Jaak Shôgun is cool, voiced by Katô Seizô himself, and a certain new Rider makes an impressive debut (he is on the poster, by the way.) And the rest of the cast is pretty much returning characters!
Okay, there's Gackt's interesting little cameo. He's certainly a different approach to the character he plays. I liked Gackt just fine, though I think if you hadn't seen the music video for "The Next Decade", you'd be missing out on some parts of the character which aren't really covered here. Gackt puts in a nice performance though, and I enjoyed his scene.
In place of the usual movie-only Riders, there's a new little trick (or form) for a preexisting one. It feels a little superfluous, but looks cool and makes for some good drama.
Instead, we've got all those Riders coming back! Budget-saving fun! Although actually, I don't think they've ever looked better. In my opinion, in resurrecting the past Riders they did it just right in bringing them back as we know & love 'em. The costumes are refurbished, use modern materials and look spectacular on the big screen.
I like the costumes in movies like THE FIRST & THE NEXT, but those are, in my eyes, different characters. In those movies, it makes sense to create new versions that are distinct from the originals.
Here, it's... complicated, but I feel they should look like how they've looked for years, given how the story works. Plus, it's just so much more exciting to see the Heisei Riders on screen with their predecessors the way they're remembered. The old guys are still as great as ever, and almost everybody gets to show off at least one signature power. A few in particular make for really nice moments.
There's some original actors who do turn up, though only very briefly. Their scenes are a welcome addition though.
Only a couple other Riders have any sort of dialogue, and as I've hinted, Toei didn't got the whole nine yards when it comes to the voice casting, though I'll live. Past Rider movies and shows got away with this, and I liked those. At least the Riders all pretty much feel right, and sound right in one particular way.
Two Riders in particular are absent for much of the movie, but when they show up, it's worth the wait. It's also nice to throw in some other Riders too, along with the main 26. It offers a chance for more original voice casting! And one Rider who didn't appear in many of the early publicity photos gets perhaps his finest moment yet, outside of his own movie.
The monsters are all old, with some literally being the original suits and a couple being the attraction suits from stage shows or exhibitions. They're great though. I love the whole idea of Daishocker, with all the Rider villains finally having enough, joining together, and coming up with the ultimate evil plan. It's great just seeing a ton of mishmashed villains together, like in one of the classic movies. All that's missing is the role call, though that might have gone on for a while. It's an unabashed monster mash.
A certain popular lead villain (okay, it's Shadow Moon, he's on the poster) is cool as usual. He puts up a good fight. There's another villain (again, on the poster) who shows up right at the end. It's quick, but cool.
The music was okay (very dramatic) but I'll have to give the OST a listen. The sound effects though were top-notch. Without saying too much, they really did their homework with those.
The action scenes are great, dynamically shot and well-staged. The big epic final battle alone was worth the price of admission, kicking off with that slow-mo walk and culminating in the biggest bang ever... twice! The effects are what we've come to expect, with some dodgy CG, but that's CG for you. The real effects always look great.
Some mention must go to the stunt guys. There are a TON of them in this movie! Everybody's on fine form and as the making-of shows, they did put in the extra effort to try and get all the moves and poses right. Special mention must go to Tominaga Kenji, the original Kuuga himself, returning to do... what else, Kuuuga. The others are all stellar, and I'd never believe that V3 & Amazon were the same main suit actor if I hadn't read it.
And I think that's about it. Overall, my initial impression of this movie was "awesome", and that still holds. Like the Decade TV series, it does some things in a way that will take some getting used to. But if you can get behind it, then it's highly enjoyable.
I've nitpicked it to hell and back, but I really do have to admit that it's pretty great and the most fun I've had watching a Rider movie in years. It mixes some hard storytelling with explosive action, and there's a reasonably satisfying conclusion. And for good measure, loads of nostalgia. It might not be the perfect Rider movie, but it gets pretty close.
And besides, there's still 2011.
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Mind if I also post this to my blog?
ReplyDeleteI'll give you credit and link back to your blog.
Great! A movie to remeber. ^^
ReplyDelete@GekiDan: Yeah, that's okay.
ReplyDelete