Masked Rider THE FIRST Review

In 2005, Ishinomori Productions and Toei Company, the people responsible for the Kamen Rider Series, decided to remake the original Masked Rider TV show into a theatrical movie, called "Masked Rider THE FIRST", in an effort to reach out to the fans of the older Tv show as well as the new audiences of viewers. It didn't chronicle the entire shows plot, and had several differences from the original, though mostly due to how the plot was more based upon the Manga adaptation by series creator Shotaro Ishinomori, and I'll be reviewing this film today.


It tells the tale of college student Takeshi Hongo(Masaya Kikawada), who is one day kidnapped by then secret terrorist organization Shocker and turned into a cyborg designated as "Hopper". He is soon after sent to assasinate two witnesses of a Shocker attack: journalist Asuka Midorikawa(Rena Komine), who had interviewed him on his research earlier, and her fiance Katsuhiko Yano. However, he has regains his memories and comes to his senses, causing him to fail in killing either, resulting in his assigned partner, Spider, killing Katsuhiko and making him look like the killer in the eyes of Rena.

Not too long after the incident, Katsuhiko is also converted into a cyborg and given false memories to believe he is a man named Hayato Ichimonji(Hassei Takano, who had previously been Masked Rider Raia in Masked Rider Ryuki), and is sent to kill the traitor Hongo as Hopper 2. Hongo and Ichimoji conflict with each other for a while before Asuka is kidnapped by Shocker to become another cyborg, and Ichimonji, who had been actively seeking the love of her, changes his ways to team up with Hongo and rescue Asuka from Shocker.

Amidst the main story is also a sub-plot about two terminally ill hospital patients, Haruhiko Mitamura(Eiji Wentz) and Miyoko Harada(Ryoko Kobayashi), who fall in love during what would seem to be their last days of living until a mysterious benefactor comes to the two claiming he can cure them. This sub-plot comes to the fore later in the movie in a surprising twist.


The acting here is great. Kikawada as Hongo is a terrific lead. He's emotionally conflicted about the loss of his humanity and the gain of his superhuman ability, as well as his hidden feelings for Asuka and how he can't tell her how he wasn't the one who killed Katsuhiko, but also is willing to sacrifice himself for her and conveys the message that life is beautiful, and he wishes to protect beauty. Takano's Ichimonji is played as a spectacular foil to Hongo. He's a selfish womanizer only cares about self-gain, yet has the heart to turn against Shocker, the force keeping him alive, for the greater good. Komine also does a good job in her own way as the love interest Asuka. Though she for a while resents Hongo for being who she thinks killed Katsuhiko, she's able to see the good in the mysteious Masked Rider, and when the time comes, she fogives Hongo completely.Wentz and Kobayashi have good onscreen chemistry, and the two give each other new reasons to hold on to life and live it to the fullest, and what happens to them in the end is something I won't spoil but it can only be described as tragic.

Among the main cast are also some guest stars. Hideyo Amamoto, who played Shocker commander Dr. Shinigami in the original series, reprises his role from beyond the grave through archival footage, and is voiced by Eiji Maruyama, a noted Seiyu(Japanese voice actor) who has had a few other tokusatsu roles. He is joined by actress/singer/model Mayumi Sada and Issa Hentano, lead singer of Da Pump, who performed the movie's theme "Bright! Our Future", and who also performed the themes Masked Rider 555 and THE FIRST's sequel, "Masked Rider THE NEXT", as two unnamed commanders. Another familiar face is Hiroshi Miyauchi, who years ago played Shiro Kazami, the main character of the second rider series "Masked Rider V3", as Tobei Tachibana, a recurring character from several of the Showa rider shows who ran the fictional Tachibana Racing company and regularly supplied riders with their Motorcycles, or Rider Machine as they were known as. They all perform well in their respective roles.


I've also got to give props to the action. It's well choreographed, never obstructive to the plot, and is really fun to watch. The film as a good balance of bike action and good old fisticuffs, with gorgeous-looking bikes and hard hitting fights that include the classic Rider Kick, Rider Punch, and even a Rider Chop. The suits are redesigned from their old looks and to me at least, look a whole lot better for it. This goes for both the rider and villain suits, which just look stunning, especially during night scenes where the the eyes of the Riders' helmet are illuminated among the darkness.

Thee music is all orchestrated and is truly poignant, adding to the cinematic feel it was intended to have. Each piece is used properly and accentuates each scene nicely.

Not to say this film is without flaws. Their are only a few action scenes, and it seemed like there should have been more. The film also forgoes the trademark henshin(transformation) poses as well as the calling of attacks, which, while it does make the film more realistic, removes a bit of the charm and flair of the show. The ending theme also isn't all that good, and seems better fitted for a more romantic film than this.

In the end, though, the pros outweigh the cons, and this is a great film. I think it would appeal to any rider fan at heart, and is a good way to get a feel for the spirit of Kamen Rider. It also has good drama, which means it can appeal to a slightly larger audience. The romance is mainly in the sub-plot, so big time romanctics might want to look for other films. Overall, this film Rider Jump-starts you into a gritty yet exciting time that is definitely enjoyable

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

P.S. This movie was given a Region 1 release by Media Blasters in 2007, and while you might be lucky to find a copy in a video store, your best bet for legally aquiring this film is by renting it from Netflix

The Last Airbender Review

M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender", based on the hit Nickolodeon TV Series Avatar: The Last Airbender, but missing the Avatar part because of James Cameron's film Avatar, has so far recieved many negative revierws, but I'm going to do something different. So all you people know, I am far from a guy who agrees with majority opinion. Anyone remeber "Dragonball: Evolution"? I loved that movie, and thought it was really excellent, even if most didn't like it. I like this movie even more than that, and I'll explain why in this review

As far as a plot summary, I don't have to say all that much. This movie, as part of a planned trilogy, chronicles the first season of the show "Book One: Water", so if you've watched through the first season, you know the basics of the story. It tells the tale of the four bending(element manipulating) nations, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, and how they used to live in peace and harmony until the Fire Nation turned on all the other nations, wiping out all the Airbending Nomads. The people believed that the Avatar, who could bend all four elements, would save them, but he was nowhere to be found.

100 years later, two children from the southern Water Tribe, Katara(Nicola Peltz) and her older brother Sokka(Jackson Rathbone) discover a young boy frozen in ice, and set him free. This boy, Aang(Noah Ringer) later turned out to be an Airbender, as well as the Avatar. The two expected him to stop the fire nation and save the world, but there's a problem: he only knows Airbending. So together with Katara, Sokka, and his two pets, a flying bison named Appa, and a lemur bat named Momo, the group sets off to help Aang learn how to bend the other elements, starting with water, all the while being chased down by the exiled fire nation prince Zuko(Dev Patel) as well as the rest of the fire nation.

As said earlier, this movie chronicles the first season where Aang learns Waterbending, and if you want to learn more about the plot, just watch the first season of the show.

The first thing that struck me about this movie was its sheer accuracy. I have watched the whole first season beginning to end, and throughout the entire movie, I saw the way the plot progressed and the sheer accuracy it had to the show's story. There wasn't everything, but they kept in all the major parts, and there were even references to things from the show that didn't appear. In terms of story, this is one of the most accurate film adaptations of anything I've ever seen.

The look of the movie, while slightly atlered from the original counterpart, did have a lot of the same feel and was still impressive enough to be accepted and embraced. The costumes and landscapes for the most part, were highly representative of where they came from, and very few characters were hard to recognize. The sets and props were just the way they're supposed to look, and the few CGI creatures looked like they jumped from right from the small screen to the big screen. You can really tell what the movie came from just by looking

The characters were just about all the way they were supposed to be. Noah Ringer as Aang looked like he was too serious in the trailers, but actually seeing him in the full course of the movie, he was near spot-on. He really acted like he was a simple and cheery little kid, but when the going got rough, he knew what to do. The character, like his source, had doubts and regrets about his past, but eventually came to accept his fate and how he didn't have to do it alone.

Nicole Peltz's Katara really captured the spirit of how she was full of hope, and really believed in Aang. She saw the potential in him and really tried to help him fulfill his destiny, as well as supporting him in his efforts to master Waterbending, even though she hadn't mastered it herself.

Sokka was one of the characters I had a slight problem with. While Jackson Rathbone did an okay job, the writing held him back. In the series, Sokka is a goofball; The main source of comic relief, and a guy who liked to boast alot, while being somewhat cowardly. Here, what's emphasized is his lesser aspects. How he tries to be a good big brother and take care of his sister, as well as trying to be the responsible one, acting strictly and being something of a worrywart. That's not a bad thing, but the humor of Sokka was greatly missed with this character, and it could have made him a lot better.

Dev Patel was an excellent choice for Prince Zuko. He was completely determined to get back his honor and prove himself to his father at any cost. He had a great amount of pent-up rage, and when it was unleashed, it was really plain to see, yet despite his fury and villainy, he had a sense of honor and knew when to back down.

The other characters were also done quite well. Zuko's Unlce Iroh still maintained his sense of calm and a desire to forget the past and setttle down to have peace, as well as being very protective of his nephew. Commander Zhao of the fire nation, who will later become Admiral Zhao, was devious and arrogant, oblivious to the horrible things that he was trying to do. The Waterbending Master, Pakku, while not quite as developed as in the show, did display the same genuine wisdom. Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe was accuratle portrayed in her relationship with Sokka, and was willing to sacrifice for the greater good. Not too much was shown of Fire Lord Ozai, but he was shown to be unsympathetic and carefully planning to further his world conquest.

The action was great. The bending looked quite real, and I could hardly tell it was CGI. The choreography really helped portray the different styles of the four elements, and the benders pulled off their techniques with grace and poignance. While it was strange that most firebenders had to bend using an existing flame source, it wasn't a detractor.

The music was fitting, and set the right mood for most scenes, though one or two tunes seemed a bit out of place. Despite that, the many orchestral pieces felt very appropriate for a film of this magnitude.

I will also address some things. Some of the pronunciations are changed to sound more Asian, and considering the lore takes much from Asian cultures, I didn't see it as a problem. The casting has been complained about, but their are reasons for that. While Aang is caucasian, the Air Nomads altogether are a mix of different ethnicities, so a caucasian boy isn't out of the question. Katara and Sokka are potrayed as having features from their Grandomther who is from Northern Water Tribe, who are depicted as Caucasian as a whole, while the Southern Water Tribe are Inuit. The Earth Kingdom people are depicted as East-Asian, which fits the majority of Chinese culture, and the Fire Nation people are Indian, through some references to Indian cultrue like Agni, the Hindu god of fire. Personally, I can whole-heartedly accept this, though others may not.

Some parts of the story were left out, and the movie felt a little on the short side, but it got all the really important things, and did a good job setting up for the two planned sequels to complete the overall story, and hopefully the next two movies can have a longer run time than the first

Overall, this is an excellent movie, and definitely good for kids. If you really loved the TV Series and are willing to forgive some of the changes that are minor in the big scheme of things, then I think you'll enjoy. If you can't look past the potential flaws, you probably shouldn't see this film. As for me, I was very satisfied and look forward to more!

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Masked Rider Den-O & Kiva The Movie: Climax Deka Review

So like I said in my last review, Masked Rider Den-O spawned several movies, and still does to this day, though I forgot to mention that it was the first series after the Kamen Rider revival to ever have more than one movie, and for a little while was the only Heisei Rider show to have more than one. Now this movie really took people by surpirse. Den-O was popular during it's run, but the international fanbase had no idea that the series would last longer than just its TV run. This movie stands out a lot among the others, because not only was it the first ever Heisei Kamen Rider team-up, a long time tradition for it's brother show, Super Sentai, and doesn't exactly fit into Den-O canon. the film was originally planned to be a V-Cinema release, AKA direct-to-DVD, so they took some creative leeway and as such, the events are somewhat standalone, since they are never mentioned in any further movies, and the movie directly afterwards contradicts this movie's events. Does that make it a bad movie? Not at all!

Before the movie, we get a nice little animated feature with the Taros and Kivat Bat III(Kiva's partner/Henshin device voiced by Tomokazu Sugita) called Momotaros's Let's Go Kiva, though it's strange in how the characters(at least the Taros) are photo-still heads of the acutal characters, on diproportionate bodies, while kivat is a rather choppier version of himself. It starts with Kivat explaining the history of movies, similar to how he give a mini-history lesson during the recaps to the Kiva TV series, usually with some relevance to the plot of that week's episode, though Kivat here is interupted by the Taros, who take turns saying what they think a movie should feel like, but Kivat gets back in charge, and seems to tell the story of how he met the person who would become Kiva, but the credits stop him from doing so. The short is a fun little way of starting off the feature.

So this movie starts with a couple of bank robbers driving away from the scene of the crime, with the police in hot pursuit. Things look sticky, when from out of the blue comes a guy on the Machine DenBird. It's M-Ryotaro(Ryotaro still played by Takeru Sato, Momotaros voiced be Toshihiko Seki), and he's got a shotgun! While he fires some shots to shake up the robbers, a van drives in front of them, and the back opens up to reveal Urataros(Voiced by Koji Yusa), Kintaros(Voiced by Masaki Terasoma), Ryutaros(Voiced by Ken'ichi Suzumura), and a little girl. Said girl blasts the getaway car with a bazooka flipping it over. The group gets out of the van, joining up with M-Ryotaro as a narrator explains that they are the DenLiner Police, who take on the jobs the regular cops can't handle, and the group introduces themselves with Momo's signature pose and catchphrase, though modified to include "we" instead of "I".

Heres where this can be classified as AU: the Den-O TV series ended with Ryotaro turning in his Rider Pass in, since he no longer needed to be Den-O, and the DenLiner, with it's crew and the Taros in tow, left to once again wander time. In this movie, we have a situation where the DenLiner gang, Ryotaro included, became a sort of Imagin-capturing police group, and as such, the movie plays out like a Police Drama, with plenty of guns to match.

Getting back to the plot: Ryotaro, the one in the group with the most sense, boots Momo out of his body, berating them for wasting time with posing, including the little girl, who he refers to as Hana. This is actually Hana, though a de-aged, 10-year-old version of her former self nicknamed Kohana(Played by Tamaki Matsumoto) who first appeared in episode 33, as a path to the future when Hana came from started to form. The real cause of this is that the original actress for Hana, Yuriko Shiratori, dropped out of the show due to unclear circumstances, so they had to replace her. So after the spat, the two robbers reveal that one of them is contracted to the Pink Rabbit Imagin, who hops out of his host's body(no pun intended), and the other turns into the Horse Fangire, one of the monsters from Kiva. Ryotaro and Momotaros get down to business, transforming into Den-O Sword Form, and the group goes charges into action.

After that, we get an opening credits sequence similar to the second opening to Den-O, with the same song, and features clips from the movies, the original openings to Den-O and Kiva, as well as clips from the PV(Promotional Video, the Japanese equivalent of a Music Video) to Climax Jump Den-Liner Form, the song being played.

After the opening credits, we get back to the action. The group has moved to an abandoned field, and while the others take on the Imagin, Momotaros squares off with the Fangire, who's pretty tough. It isn't too long, though, before Momotaros finishes off the orse with an Extreme Slash, and Ryutaros blows the Imagin out of the sky with his Ryuvolver. Getting back to the DenLiner, we see that the dining car has been renovated into a detective office, and we meet Kazuya Suzuzi(Played by Ryota Murai, who would later got on to play Yusuke Onodera/Masked Rider Kuuga on Masked Rider Decade), a detective sent to help with the DenLiner Police's investigation of a stolen Rider Pass, one belonging to Owner(Kenjiro Ishimaru), though Suzuki is extremely scared of the Imagin. We're also treated to a scene where Naomi(Rina Akiyama) warns everyone of a sharp turn and we see why it's not a great idea to have an office inside a moving train.

In the next scene, we meet our villains, wanted criminal Seiya Kuroki(Played by Kenjii Takechi) and the evil Imagin Negataros(Voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa). While we don't find out much about Kuroki, Negataros is physically an inverted-colors Momotaros with a different belt buckle, hence the name. He's the one who's stolen Owner's Rider Pass, and plans to create an evil orginazation ala Shocker from teh original Masked Rider, under the name Negataros Corps, and wants Kuroki and his men to join him. He has with him several Fangire, all of whom never reveal their true forms, while Kuroki has a bunch of henchmen and his right hand woman, Sarah, who's also the contract holder for the Clown Imagin. With them are Yuto Sakurai(Yuichi Nakamura) and Deneb(Voiced by Hochu Otsuka), who are posing as bodyguards for Negataros.

After a crazy scene where R-Ryotaro and his hip-hop dance posse, another thing pulled straight from the series, go on an arresting spree of anyone who looks suspicious, we see that Ryotaro's sister Airi(Played by Wakana Matsumoto, no relation to Tamaki) as well as her two constant stalkers, journalist Seigi Ozaki(Akira Nagata) and spiritualist Isse Miura(Ryo Ueno), come along with her as she pays a visit to where her brother works(it's basically established here that the DenLiner Police's existence is public knowledge). We get a sweet scene where Ryutaros gets a boxed lunch from Airi, who he's always had a major crush on, as well as a cool part where Owner knocks everyone out with his own DenGasher Gun Mode shat shoots flags. Then after a big commotion involving Ryotaro and Suzuki meeting Wataru Kurenai,(Played by Koji Seto) AKA Masked Rider Kiva, and his friend Shizuka Nomura(Played by Rina Koike), the two go undercover and discover who thir enemies are, and we get some wild scenes where the DenLiner Police storm the hideout following Suzuki's one man assault, we learn of Suzuki's backstory and his desire to follow in his father's footsteps, and so it's up to Den-O, Zeronos, and the rest of them to stop Negataros, who later turns into Masked Rider Nega Den-O


As far as Den-O movies go, this one really stands out for a lot of reasons. In this story, Ryotaro is a lot more proactive and less timid than he used to be, suggesting that this is an alternare timeline to the series ending, and really once again shines as a character. Yuto takes something of a backseat, though we do get to see U-Yuto, which doesn't work quite as much as U-Ryotaro. Kohana and the Taros are really in the supporting roles, and don't steal the spotlight all too much. Suzuki is given a good deal of focus, and really gets his time to shine in a face-off against Kuroki, who is significantly less detailed.

Negataros is a subject all his own. In all honesty, while he is cool in action, conceptually, he is one of the most lazily desinged villains in all of Den-O. Dark versions of main riders has been done before with Heisei riders like Ryuga from Ryuki and Dark Kabuto from Kabuto, and the idea of that was always done lazily. In the case of Negataros, Nega Den-O, it doesn't help that he's stuck with an identical Den-O Belt to the regular in appearance, but with a voice and sound mod to be lower pitched. He's also stuck with a single "Nega Form" that is just Den-O Sword Form with recolored armor, and yet is given the ability to use any mode of the "Nega DenGasher", which is only different in having a recolored Aura Sword(the blade to Sword Mode). The Nega DenLiner is not much better, though it's oddly filled to the brim with Gigandeaths(giant reincarnated Imagin) rather than normal weaponry. So conclusively, Nega Den-O is pretty good in execution, but kind of ruined by lazy concepts.

The action is not quite typical Den-O fare. It has a lot of gunplay, plus the whole bazooka thing, which was used twice, the second time to not-so-great results. It features a lot more untransformed fighting than a typical episode of Den-O, so what little transformed fighting we do get is greatly appreciated, though it's not too little that it doesn't feel like a Den-O movie. Not to say that the fighting is perfect. There are two occasions that heavily stand out: One is when Den-O's Climax Form(a combiantion of his first four forms) does his rider kick, the suit doesn't go into its Kick Mode as it would in the show, as if the crew forgot, and the other is a painfully obvious instance of wire fighting, that, if it didn't look obvious enough, was show to be wire fighting in front of a green screen during the end credits, which play over a bunch of behind-the-scenes clips. Though we do get another train battle, this time with an appearance Kiva and Castle Dran, his giant dragon mixed together with a castle. Though since the battle takes place in the world between time, that raises a lot of questions that further place this in AU Territory

The music this time around is a lot more like the series, featuring a lot of familiar BGM pieces, as well as all 6 Insert Songs from the show played within the movie, and not all of them were even put into battles, making it seem a bit forced. But it does capture the Den-O spirit to a fair degree

Though it is supposed to play out like a police drama, it somewhat lacks in the drama, since at a little an hour in running time, they don't quite have the time to do so, though it is a pretty typical run time for a KR movie. It does add drama mainly from Suzuki, though the police thing mostly seems to be a theme, and not too integral to the course of the movie. Other than how Suzuki was involved, the cosmetic changes made to seem more police like, and having the antogonists be criminals, it plays like an episode of Den-O for the most part, with more action and humor than drama, though there was drama in Den-O, it wasn't used too often.

If you're wondering why I'm taking so long to get to Kiva, it's because he wasn't all that important. If you watch the trailers and other promotional materials, you'll see most of his involvement. Wataru appears 3 times, and Kiva only twice. Kiva as a whole is only is around 10% of the entire movie, so It's not so much Den-O & Kiva as it is Den-O featuring Kiva, and since this was released very early into Kiva's TV run, we got nothing really new, since the only Fangire we saw in its true form was the one that was used in Kiva's first episode, and Kiva didn't do all that much fighting himself. So while this film was advertised as a rider team-up, that is only minimally true.

Overall, whilst "Ore, Tanjo!" could appeal to Den-O fans as well as people who like action movies in general and even fans of Kamen Rider movies, this one is for Den-O fans only. It won't satisfy fans of police dramas or fans of Kiva, but Den-O fans will absolutely adore it for how much it's like the series, although it interstingly enough features no time travel, but that doesn't hinder it. If you've watched past episode 33 of Den-O, then feel free to watch it at any time, since after that point, it sdoesn't spoil anything from the show. It's a great Den-O movie, but that's the only front where it truly succeeds.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Masked Rider Den-O The Movie: Ore, Tanjo! Review

Ahhh, Masked Rider Den-O, the show that got me hooked to the series. More popularly(though not officially) known as Kamen Rider Den-O, it was the 2007 entry in the Kamen Rider Series(formerly the Masked Rider Series prior to the 2010 entry, W), but if you're a fan today, you know about Den-O. Why? Because its popularity lasted longer than just the run of its TV series, spawning 2 post-series movies to use the original title, as well as the currently-running Cho Den-O Series Movies. While many long-time fans complained about it being vastly different from other Kamen Rider shows, I was not among them. I loved the show from start to finish, and every new movie pleases me even more than the last, so today, I'll be reviewing Den-O's original movie, "Ore, Tanjo!"(I'm Born)

Set between Episodes 27 and 28,(A rarity for Kamen Rider Movies, that usually take place in an Alternate Universe, or AU) it starts with something seemingly typical of a movie: a Jewelery Store robbery. However, the thiefe in no ordinary robber; he's possessed by an Imagin, one of the monsters of Den-O, a genie-like being from the future who can make a contract with a person to grant one wish, and in return, the Imagin has access to any point in that person's past, but they specifically go to a treasured moment of the contract holder. He steals a necklace, but as he's about to grab it, it's snatched away by a young man with vibrant blue eyes, glasses, and smooth, stylish hair with a streak of blue in it.

This is our hero, Ryotaro Nogami(Played by Takeru Sato), who, besides being possibly the unluckiest person in Japan, is also a Singularity Point(a person who can resist Imagin control and is unaffected by changes to the flow of time), and has 4 Imagin partners, as opposed to the one that most people get.

He appears here possessed by Urataros, a suave, lying, and perverted blue turtle Imagin, and U-Ryotaro proceeds to run away with the necklace. When the robber catches, Ryotaro is possessed by the gold bear Imagin Kintaros, taking away the glasses and giving him a ponytail with a gold streak and golden eyes. K-Ryotaro uses his Imagin-inherited strength to push him back, and then he switches out with Ryutaros, a child-like purple dragon Imagin, giving him a cap and purple-streaked tangly hair and matching purple eyes(the pattern is obvious by now of how possession works for him). R-Ryotaro then begins to breakdance, and some rockette-style tap dancers, hypnotized thanks to one of Ryutaros' special powers, follow suit(Trivia: Takeru Sato does all his own breakdancing). This is all a distraction, as R-Ryotaro gets away. The robber follows him and finds an unpossessed Ryotaro. The Imagin takes control of the robber and asks who the multi-faceted person he's chasing is, and Ryotaro then gets possessed by Momotaros, the first Imagin to join him in the shows chronology(Urataros being 2nd, Kintaros 3rd, and Ryutaros 4th), giving spiky red-straked hair, and of course matching eyes. Then after a snarky remark, the robber faints as the Molech Imagin jumps out of his body. M-Ryotaro then takes and straps on the Den-O Belt and transforms into Masked Rider Den-O Sword Form with the call of "Henshin!" and a swipe of his Rider Pass(a special train case pass). He then does his signature pose along with his catchphrase for which the movie's subtitle is a play off of, "Ore, Sanjo!"(I have Arrived!).

Because of the posing, Den-O dropped the necklace, allowing the Imagin to complete his contract and flee into the past. After a berating from his comrade Hana(Played by Yuriko Shiratori), Den-O uses a Rider Ticket to follow the Imagin into the past on the DenLiner, a time-traveling battle train. Den-O Sword Form makes quick work of him using the DenGasher Sword Mode's "Full Charge" finisher attack Extreme Slash. After that, the two head back, and Ryotaro reminisces about he used to live nearby. This moment is interupted when the DenLiner zooms by, having been hijacked by a bandit named Gaoh(Played by Hiroyuki Watanabe) and his gang of Imagin lackies, thanks to the Molech, who was among the gang, luring Den-O to that point in time.

With nowhere to go for the time being, Ryotaro and Hana go the the Milk Dipper, a cafe where his sister worked at in the present time. There they meet Ryotaro's 12-year-old self(Played by Takuya Mizoguchi), as well as the stuck-up white swan Imagin Sieg, who had previously appeared a few episodes before the movie's placement, and possesses Ryotaro and acts like a prince as usual, being snobby and bossy. To break up the crazness, Yuto Sakurai(Played by Yuichi Nakamura), Ryotaro's ally/rival Masked Rider Zeronos, and his Imagin partner Deneb, comes and takes them with him on his own time train, the ZeroLiner, to follow Gaoh, who in the meantime has stolen the Owner(Played by Kenjiro Ishimaru) of the DenLiner's golden Master Pass that can control any time train, as well trapping the other 3 Taros and holding Owner and the DenLiner's coffee-server Naomi(Played by Rina Akiyama, who had previously played Mana Kazaya in Masked Rider Agito), and uses his own Infinity Ticket, to enter God's Line that can take him to any point in time, and he plans to use it to obtain God's Train and use it to erase time.

After they catch up and Zeronos has a brief battle with ther bandit who transforms into Masked Rider Gaoh, the gang are balsted into the world between time, and it then becomes a frantic time traveling world tour as Den-O and Zeronos try to stop Gaoh from completing his villainous plan.

This movie, like the series, is funny, exciting, touching, and overall awesome. Besides the Movie-exclusive Gaoh, it also features an appearance by the Sieg-possesed Den-O Wing Form, which only had a momentary appearance in the show, and the younger Ryotaro, nicknamed Kotaro, gets to transform into Den-O Mini Sword Form, complete with a higher-pitched version of Sword Form's BGM, and has a few more firsts for the series, such as the debut of the Taros Imagins' personal weapon, and an exciting final battle featuring multiple Ryotaro's transformed into 4 Den-Os, each taking one of his four main forms, Sword, Rod, Ax, and Gun, as well as a train battle between the combined DenLiner and ZeroLiner against the God's Train, the GaohLiner.

Ryotaro really does well to show how even though he forgot everything about being a hero, that it won't stop him from doing the right thing. He shows exceptional bravery when it's truly needed, and does what it takes to set things straight. Hana here is very supportive, and really helps Ryotaro cope with his troubling situation like always. Yuto shows a lot of guts and actually has a big part in setting up the climax for the film, with Deneb there to always support him in his fatherly way. The Taros shine a lot in how they can be exciting, humorous, and just never boring. Owner and Naomi aren't too influential at any point, but there presence does keep things interesting as well. As for Kotaro, he does a great job of showing how Ryotaro was as a kid, what ways he has and hasn't changed, and the person they picked to play that role really did seem like a young Ryotaro.

Getting to the main featured characters, Sieg and Gaoh. Sieg is an interesting character on his own. Princely and arrogant, he works in mysertious ways yet has truly noble intentions. He seems to always be on a high horse, yet has surprising charisma and poise that keeps you enthralled with him. Den-O Wing Form is quite similar to Sword Form, yet the blue wing-like eyes, golden bodysuit, and the way the armor blends together white and silver seamlessly along with some variation to the shoulderpads, makes it very interesting, as well as the way he can switch from calm parry attacks to swift strikes makes him enjoyable to see in combat.

Gaoh has to be my favorite Den-O villain ever. He's gruff, strong, and gives off this aura of power. He's just about always intimedating, makes big boasts, and can really back them up. Another thing tolike is that he's just evil, no backstory, no reason to be sympathetic for him; He's just pure, unbridled evil. His Rider form also impresses. The golden bronze armor with tons of teeth and spikes really give him a jagged and menacing look, making it unmistakable that he's the villain. He shows his power in combat, where he's cocky and truly gives Den-O and Zeronos a really tough time. The GaohLiner Is well designed and absolutely bestial, like a wild animal as opposed to a train, and really seems like a truly destructive force that hould never have been unleashed

The acting is superb, featuring several guest stars, inlcluding Aki Hoshino as the princess Senhime, Tomonori Jinnai as the samurai Sanada Yukimura, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi as famous ninja Kirigakure Saizo, and Shingo Kawaguchi(who had previously played Masked Rider Todoroki in Masked Rider Hibiki) as Saizo's arch-rival Sarutobi Sasuke. It also feateures some guest voices from Tokusatsu alumni: Hidenori Tokuyama(Masked Rider KickHopper from Masked Rider Kabuto) as the Molech Imagin, Takashi Hagino(Masked Rider Ohja from Masked Rider Ryuki, a series that was recently adapted into the american Kamen Rider Dragon Knight) as the Cobra Imagin, Yasuka Saitoh(Bouken Black from GoGo Sentai Boukenger) as the Newt Imagin, and Masato Uchiyama(Masked Rider PunchHopper from Masked Rider Kabuto) as the Salamander Imagin. The guest stars all perform really well, and the main cast is at their finest, bringing out the emotions of their characters and keeping things enjoyable.

The action and special effects are dazzling and exciting, with top-notch CGI for not only the time trains, but also other things like dinosaurs that appear in one scene. The fights scenes are smooth and never boring, with charcacters chatting while they're going at it. Although it is unfortunate that we don't ever get a battle between Den-O Wing Form and Gaoh, as was advertised on the theatrical movie poster, what we do get of these those two is unique and really stands out.

The Final Cut of the movie adds a few new scenes, Gives Gaoh a more thorough transformation, and adds Double-Action Gaoh Form to Gaoh's first fight scene along with Double-Action Wing Form for Den-O Wing Form's fight scene, giving it a better experience. I suggest watching the Final Cut, which has been suntitled by the people at fansub group TV-Nihon, for the best way to view it. If you love Den-O, you'll love the movie, and it's also a good watch for action movie fans too. As Momotaros would say, "From Beginning to End, it's at a Climax!"

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Akira Review

Alright, beginning with this, I'm going to try to start avoiding spoiling the whole movie in my reviews while still getting down to the meat and bones of it all.

This time, I'll be reviewing the 1988 cult classic "Akira", which was written and directed by Kaysuhiro Otomo, the Manga-Ka behind the films source material. Set in Neo-Tokyo, 2019, 30 years after a nuclear explosion decimated the original Tokyo, and follows the paths of two members of a bosozoku biker gang called the Capsule Gang, Shotaro Kaneda(Voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) and Tetsuo Shima(Voiced by Joshua Seth). It starts one night, when the Bosozoku Gang is doing battle against their rivals, the Clown Gang, and on the same night, people are rioting in the streets against the Government, whilst a disguised man is leading a wrinkled blue boy to a woman named Kei(Voiced by Wendee Lee). The two conflicts collide in more ways than one, as Tetsuo strays from the others and the fleeing man is gunned down, leaving the boy to fend for himself, and leading to Tetsuo crashing into the boy, only to have his bike explode, the strange boy totally unharmed. As Kaneda and the others arrive, a military transport helicopter arrives, and a group of soldiers led by Colonel Shikishima(Voiced by Jamieson Price), who take the boy, named Takashi, as well as Tetsuo, despite the pleas of his friends. The Colonel takes him to one of his head doctors, Onishi, who examines and experiments on him, stating that his brainwaves are sililar to that of the unseen yet eponymous Akira. Later, as Kaneda and the gang are being interrogated, he eyes Kei, and convinces the officers tolet her free with them, only to begin to hit on her. Meanwhile, Tetsuo escapes the hospital to meet with his girlfriend Kaori(Voiced by Michelle Ruff), and he steals Kaneda's bike to go for a joyride. The two are confronted by the Clown Gang, who try to rape Kaori as payback for injuring one of their members. Kaneda shows up, only to find Tetsuo beating up the Clowns, saying that he doesn't want to be saved to Kaneda. He then starts having strange delusions and visions, and the military recaptures Tetsuo. Soon after, whilst Kaneda meets again and follows around Kei, he discovers that she's part of an Anti-Government Guerilla group, who plan to break into the military's main base. That night, Tetsuo wakes up, appearing to have developed telekinetic powers, as he is haunted by giant, monstrous toys, who are soon revealed to be Takashi, along with two other kids, Masaru and Kiyoko. While Kei's Guerillas, with Kaneda in tow, sneak nto the building in diguise, Tetsuo follows the three Espers to their playroom, where Kaneda and Kei also arrive to in time. After reading Kiyoko's mind, he finds that Akira is the cause of his delusions, as well as his location, do he breaks out and heads to find Akira, but as the Colonel reveals, if Akira is uncovered, it could mean disaster for Neo-Tokyo. So while Tetsuo is after Akira, it's up to Kaneda and Kei to stop him.

Akira, in its time, was extremely well recieved by Americans, and for good reason. The story delves into the realms of nuclear holocaust, human experimentation, and psychic powers, amongst other things, but it never feels forced. The art and animation are smooth and colorful, as well as greatly-done. Its bike chases and other action scenes really grab you and pull you in, and though the climax features one of the most horrific things you'll ever see in an anime, it still turns out great. The characters are fun, intrigueing, and exciting, and the relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo truly illustrates the tension and conflict between the two, yet in the end, they're still the best of friends. The voice acting is very well done, with many well-known voices that outshine the original english dubbing, which was infamously bad if you ask just about anybody. The soundtrack is extremely unique, with strange, almost tribal composures with a lot of ominous chanting, which somehow just fits the futuristic cyberpunk setting. It should be mentioned that this movie definitely earns its R rating, with vast amounts of language, violence, gore, and disturbing imagery, and isn't for the faint of heart. If you can handle all that, though, definitely check it out. All in all, Akira is a masterpiece like no other.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Sherlock Holmes Review

While this is not the first film adaptation of the classic character, this film doesn't quite seem to be what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have imagined his works to be like.

The films starts as Sherlock Holmes(Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted partner, Dr. John Watson(Jude Law) are in the final steps of rescueing a girl who's about to be killed in some ritual sacrifice, and also arrest one Lord Henry Blackwood(Mark Strong), who is later executed for practice of black magic. During this time, we see that Holmes is a rather proficient fighter and can tell a lot about a person just by looking at them(though he has no sense of tact), and has some strange habits like shooting the wall of his study when he's bored. He is soon approached by an apparent old flame, Irene Adler(Rachel McAdams), who comes to him with only a letter, which he and Watson later find to be a case for a missing person, Luke Reordan, whom Holmes insensitively refers to as a "ginger midget". Not long after, Holmes is called up to be told that Lord Blackwood has risen from the grave, and also discovers the dead body of Reordan at the cemetery where Blackwood was buried. And so, Sherlock Holmes is on the case. The duo get into several fights along the way, as well as many sticky situations, Holmes always pulls through. In the meantime, Lord Blackwood two more deaths occur, though we see that both of these are casued by Blackwood. The first is his own father, Sir Thomas, who drowns in his own bathtub, and the other is an American ambassodor or something of the like who instantaneously combusts when he is shot by Blackwood. Soon after one incident in which Irene is captured, and Holmes and Watson free her from a meat processing factory that explodes soon after they escape, she meets with a mysterious man who hired her to manipulate Holmes' affections for her. Nearing the climax, Holmes puts the pieces together and concludes that Blackwood plans to kill the members of Parliament, so Watson, Irene, and he stage a daring operation to sneak into the parliament building, where we get more action scenes, leading up to the climactic battle between Holmes and Lord Blackwood, ending with Blackwood truly dead hanging by the neck from metal chains over the river Thames. So in the end, Holmes wraps up how Blackwood survived his initial hanging and we discover the identity of Irene's previously unknown benefactor, setting up for a sequel.

I actually have mixed feeling on this movie, and I'll get the bad points out of the way first.

The films plot was confusing and hard to follow, and I feel the beginning could have used a narrator, and keep in mind, I saw this movie just today, but I didn't get into too much detail because I couldn't remeber a lot of it. This leads to why I couldn't remember a lot besides the first reason: aside from some of the action scenes, the film was rather boring. Robert Downey Jr. may get down the British accent pretty darn well, but the amount of emotion he puts into the character pales in comparison to Jude Law's Watson. The plot of having Holmes go after something equivalent to a Satanist really didn't interest me, and my mind would wander off while watching. The villain was portrayed well enough, but I didn't get much of an impression of him, since we didn't learn much about his motives aside from wanting to peform some sort of ritual, though I probably missed that if it was there. Another problem, and this one really does matter, is the was Sherlock Holmes was written. Everyone knows he was an amazing detective, but this Holmes seemed too perfect. During a couple of his early fights, he would actually do a play-by-play of how he'd hit his opponent and what effect it would have on the opponent, and both times went perfectly. Not only that, but besides his ability to deduct just about everything about a person just by looking at them, whenever there were clues lain about, he would solve them in a few seconds, give or take a minute or two, and that got to me. The movie just made him seem too good, and it seems like the movie would have been a lot shorter if not for the fights and other action sequences.

With mention of that, I can now segue into the good parts that kept it from being awful. The first being the action. The fights were all well choreagraphed with bits of humor thrown in, and you could see how much of an effect the fights had, even when Holmes didn't give a rundown. The action and special effects made for a lot of exciting and dramatic chases, escapes, and other such things. Also, while I did criticize Holmes for figuring things out too fast, he would do it cleverly and with humor to make it somewhat enjoyable, and he managed to leave no plot threads lying around. The story was well thought out, even if the subject wasn't my cup of tea, and it was somewhat amusing seeing Holmes explain to Blackwood how he figured out his scheme while Blackwood was being dragged down by a beam on a rope that had been caught on his leg.

The DVD was rather disappointing since it was even less then barebones, only having the options to play the movie and go to the language/subtitles menu, without even a scene select menu. Overall, while the movie had a lot of things that either made it boring and tried to get to the action as fast as it could, said action did save the movie from being downright awful. Personally, I hope the planned sequel makes up for the shortcomings of this film, and if you really liked it, buy it, but if you're only mildly interested like I was, just rent it.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

So, after setting all this up, it's time for my first review, and I'll start off with a movie I saw just today. "Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time", named after and containing a plot loosely based on that of the 2003 video game of the same name, tells the story of Dastan(played by Jake Gyllenhaal), who we first meet as a young orphan living on the streets of the Persian city of Nasaf on a day where, after viewing an act of bravery and honor, King Sharaman adopts him and makes him an eponymous Prince of Persia(though the Prince from the games was unnamed, they gave him one in this movie for practical reasons). We then cut to 15 years later, when the army of Nasaf in planning to attack the city of Alamut, which a spy had recently clamied to be secretly farging weapons for Persia's enemies. We here see that Dastan's appearance has been based upon that of the Prince in the second game, Warrior Within, and that he possesses all the same acrobatic skill and proficiency as his counterpart in the games. The attack, which came as a complete surprise to Alamut, succeeded and after the battle, Dastan discovered a mysterious dagger that he claimed for himself. Later, at negotiations with the royal family, Dastan meets the beautiful Princess Tamina(played by Gemma Arterton), who takes the place of Farah from the game, and his brother and fellow general Tus(played by Richard Coyle) plans to obtain a greater control of the city by marrying Tamina. As is the tradition, he needs a gift to give to their father for his blessing in return, and the Princes' uncle, Nizam(played by Ben Kingsley), suggests the dagger that Dastan found, but Tus denies it saying that it's Dastan's spoil for the keeping. Tus later gives Dastan a holy prayer robe to give to their father instead, and at the ceremony, after Sharaman decides to have Tamina marry Dastan since Tus already has many wives, Dastan gives puts the robe on him, and it precedes to burn the King to death as it was, unknown to Dastan, poisoned, and it then kills Sharaman. Accused of murdering the King, Dastan flees from Alamut with the help of Tamina while his other brother Garsiv and his men chase after them. After getting far enough from the city, the two argue about what to do and Dastan decides to abandon Tamina and go on by himself, but after she plays up to his conscience, he comes back for her. That night, as they discuss the dagger, Tamina tries to take it for herself and kill Dastan in the process, but he accidentally hits the jewel on the dagger's hilt nd has an out-of-body experience as he sees time itself rewind to just before she tried to take the dagger, and the process repeats itself. After getting a grasp of what was going on, Dastan stops Tamina from killing him, she explain that it is the Dagger of Time, and that it can only hold a minute's worth of the sands of time. Assuming that Tus framed him for their father's murder in order to take the dagger for himself, Dastan decides head back to Alamut and prove this by demonstrating the dagger's power, and to do that, they must go through the Slaves Pass, which is said to be trecaherous and deadly. As they enter, they are ambushed by bandits and meet their leader, Sheik Amar(played by Alfred Molina), and his knife-throwing servant of the Umbaka tribe, Seso.
Sheik tries to take the dagger, but Dastan exchanges it for Tamina, who is to serve him, and he takes a vial of the Sands of Time that she was wearing around her neck. He discovers that the Slaves Pass is really a cover for illegal ostrich racing. He sees that Tamina has been forced into being a drink-server for the audience. In the midst of a race, Tamina causes a ruckus, Dastan releases the ostriches, and the two escape to head to the next city, Dasara. Meanwhile, Nizam meets with a mysterious man who is the leader of a group of people called Hassansins. In Dasara, the two disguise themselves as servants to a nobleman and sneak in. When Dastan sees that his uncle is there, he arranges for them to meet in secret so he can tell him about what really happens. During the secret meeting, Dastan sees that Nizam's hands are burned in the same way that his father was. He tries toshow Nizam the dagger, but it turns out

that Tamina took it and ran. Alerting Garsiv to Dastan's presence, he's chased and escpaes once again, where he meets up with Tamina. She later tells him the origin of the dagger, Dastan realizes that Nizam was the real traitor and wants the dagger to go back far enough to make himself king, and the two head to the temple where Tamina says she must put the dagger to stop Nizam's plan from ever coming to fruition. En route, they are once again cpatured by Sheik Amar and his goons, but make a deal when Tamina promises them treasure from the temple. That night, they are attacked be Hassansin snakes, but Dastan uses the dagger to stop them. When they get to the temple, they find that all the guardians are dead, and the Hassansins were waiting for them. So while the others fight them off, Dastan and Tamina go to put the dagger in its rightful place. They are stopped, Tamina is knocked out, and the snake from before takes the dagger and brings it to Nizam. In a hurry, the two rush to Alamut, where they fight their way in. meanwhile, Seso retrieves the dagger for them, but at the cost of his own life. Dastan then goes to see Tus, tell him of the dagger's power, convince him that Nizam is the traitor, but it doesn't work. In a desperate move, Dastan kills himself with the dagger, but Tus uses the dagger to go back before Dastan's suicide and stop him. Unfortunately, Nizam later takes the dagger and heads to the Sand Glass, where all of the Sands of Time is held. Dastan and Tamina go through a dangerous underground trap room, but Dastan falls and is swept away only to find himself closer to the Sand Glass. The two get there at the same time as Nizam, and Dastan fights him for it. Unimpeded, Nizam stabs the Dagger of Time into the Sand Glass and opens the chamber, unleashing the Sands of Time, which begin to ravage Alamut. Dastan and Tamina are knocked off a ledge, and Dastan tries to hold on, but Tamina lets herself drop down so that he can stop Nizam. Saddened at the loss of the woman he grew to love, Dastan comes back up and just bares manages to pull out the Dagger, while we see various earlier events in the film within the Sand Glass. In an amazing twist of fate, time is reversed all the way back to whe end of Nasaf's capture of Alamut, and with what he already knows, he tries to stop Nizam before his plan can even start. He convinces Tus to trust his heart before the advice of counsel, but Nizam attempts to kill Dastan but is stopped when he is stabbed and killed by Tus. After a humble apology to Tamina from Tus, he sees fit that Dastan, the noble hero, marries her, and while that Tamina knows nothing of Dastan, he hopes that they will know each other better in the future.


This was an amazing movie. After the Pirates of the Caribbean films, this kind of excellence can be expected from director Jerry Bruckheimer. The acting was top notch; The way Dastan and Tamina threw witty banter and clever insults at each other at first but eventually grew to really care about each other was magnificent. Ben Kinglsy's Nizam was a well-written and clever villain, and Alfred Molina played a great comic relief role that didn't drag down the movie. The story was compelling, exciting, and heartwarming, and kept me interested. This film also had great fight seqeunces that really had the right amount of action and adrenalineput into them. the Special effects work was also above par, especially the Sands of Time sequences, that reflected how the player saw it happen in the games. This is probably one of the best video game-based movies I've ever seen, and I can highly recommend it to action movie lovers and fans of the Prince of Persia game series.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars