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