Shin Kamen Rider

This movie does not give a single ファック. Some of the worst shots ever lined up by a camera are married to incredibly kinetic, bloody punches; then an angle of inspired badassery captures stunt performers who have forgotten their choreography; and nothing makes sense, on purpose, and it's silly as soap-corpses and as serious as death. What a ride. The bat-aug will haunt me forever.

I was baffled by pretty much all of the plot stuff, but that hardly matters because this was a total blast. Hideaki Anno's work here is as gleefully inventive as ever, leaning into the fact that this is just a bunch of people dressed up in costumes punching each other, but never getting arch about it. The action set-pieces are genuinely superb and I was delighted by the constant revolving door of new bizarre characters and stylish locations.

"Recommended for 12 years or older", Amazon Prime tells me when I started the movie. Right before Kamen Rider gruesomely rips apart several poor henchman and everything gets drenched in blood. While the actual monster fights aren't as violent, the tone stays on that level. If you like guys in terrible costumes fighting guys in even more terrible monster makeup, you'll love this. If not... *riderkicks you in the face*

Better than Shin Ultraman but not as good as Shin Godzilla. Character designs were amazing, fights were super fun. Just didn't feel the whole sentimental moments were earned because of how recently the characters had met, but overall good.

I thought this might be a good entry point to Kamen Rider as a franchise, but BOY THIS IS NOT THAT. It felt more like a greatest-hits compilation for Kamen Rider fans, because I spent most of my time absolutely baffled and confused. Sometimes the action is good, and sometimes it's so CGI that you can't really call it a live-action movie anymore. Still, some of the animation was great, and there were a handful of dazzlingly beautiful shots, especially near the end.

Let's be fair here, Hideaki Anno is an overrated hack, yes some things he has done are cool but most of them feel lackluster, unfinished, rushed, or just plain disappointing. This was just a mishmash of previously explored Kamen Rider ideas that were done better in the first Shin Kamen Rider story.

Prefer Ultraman and Godzilla, but it's quite a ride. Sometimes all you want is a grasshopper-human mutant cyborg and his cyborg friend fighting corporation that created them -- Shocker, an AI-led company that built these super hybrids and is willing to make humanity happy by sucking their pranas -- life energy -- and separating them from their bodies -- aka extinction. Action is awesome -- splatter! -- and gotta love the beautiful establishing shots before and after every violent encounter.

Not sure what to feel about this one. I can’t quite tell if the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff or vice versa. The pacing is insane, and there’s (not surprising for an Anno script) way too much explanatory dialogue. But, like with Godzilla, there are some absolutely sick moments of action and some really cool imagery, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt. (Also not seen under the best circumstances, probably needs a rewatch.)

story was meh, CGI was terrible, costumes and camerawork however were stellar.

I honestly expected too much from Anno. The set design and photography are great, the acting is passible, but the cgi and story are all over the place in terms of quality and the pacing is just awful. I might actually dislike this more than I did The First and The Next.