Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate

Kamen Rider W has a ridiculously likable cast of characters, and this movie puts them on full display. Moreover, the show's writers really know how to put the heroes out on a limb and start sawing. But I can't say that the film earned the relationship between Phillip and Maria, or that the show's premise supports a feature-length film. The fights get repetitive and predictable before long. But as a fan of the show, I still found this enjoyable as a longer episode.

To the bad: Every beat of the plot is predictable, none of it really pushes the themes of the show forward, there's a really unfortunate queer-coded villain, and the 2010-era color grading is overbearing. To the good: Eternal is a rly good design and a coherent villain, it fits smoothly in with the plot of the series and everything it's been doing, the idea of evil versions of W's powers is a great high concept, and I had fun, overall.