As the most hyped tokusatsu movie of 2012, I’m giving this
one special treatment. I will start by
saying all the negative things said about it are absolutely true. I watched it with the hope these were false
but no. After watching it, I tried to
think of its good points and there are.
But the more I analyze, the negatives just outweighs the positives to a
point where I wish I could ride the Den-Liner and tell Toei to do it
again. There are just so many, many,
MANY wasted opportunities. But let’s
stop there and think.
I think the main reason I wrote that paragraph above, and
why so many of us hold the movie in low regard, is that we are spoiled. Toei has given us two All Rider movies in a
span of 3 years and an All Sentai movie just last year. All 3 of these were very good. We have seen how good Toei can make a
movie. But what if Super Hero Taisen was
the 1st ever franchise wide crossover movie? It would be the 1st time we would
see every Sentai and every Rider at the same time. Would we hold a different opinion then? Maybe we are so used to seeing a menagerie of
heroes onscreen during these recent years that this team up movie should have
given us more (and it should have!) Hey,
when I first saw Forever Red, I loved it to bits. When I first saw Super Sentai World, I was going
crazy by the fact that 5 Sentai teams and Megazords are onscreen. All Riders Vs Dai Shocker blew my mind and
everyone else’s when I showed them the final battle. Let’s Go Kamen Rider’s reveal of Dai
Shocker’s gargantuan form was one of the most visually stunning scenes I’ve
ever seen. 199 Heroes lived up to its
name as 199 heroes did show up along with 35 super robots. So by the time Super Hero Taisen came along,
were we not over saturated with awesomeness that we just couldn’t love this
“been there seen that” team up movie as much as the others. I don’t know for the rest of you but I guess
I was and I guess that means I’m growing up.
Well, enough heart breaking revelations, on this part, I will
review the movie but in a less detailed fashioned and more pictures compared to
my previous movie reviews.
The opening was really good.
Once I looked past Gokai Red disgracing the Legendary Seven Riders, I
could feel the excitement welling up of seeing Riders vs Sentai. The western style music really helped.
Gokai Red vs Fourze started good but really faltered at the
end. As always, Meteor was a bad ass, calling some
of Sentai’s toughest enemies weaklings.
I love Decade’s entrance.
His aloofness is fun to watch. I
love how he just told the Go-Busters, you die. Sadly, the fight was bland. He turned into Faiz and didn’t do anything
special. Narutaki as Doctor G was funny
by the he says his name as well as his prolonged Kamen Riiiiiiiiiiider.
I’m glad the Gokaigers got some lines; especially Pink.
Sucks they chose to focus on Blue and Green for the rest of movie. Just a very bad move Toei. Very bad.
Blue I can understand, he’s Gokai Red’s betrayed friend like Diend is to
Decade, but Green? I bet everyone would
have been happier with Yellow, Pink or Silver.
I was excited for OOO appearing but sadly, he was a minor
player. I expected Hina to throw some
medals to OOO at least but nothing.
Though the fight between Gokai Red and Decade featured
interesting match ups, it made me wish they threw their armies at each other
instead. Enemies fighting enemies are
just as interesting as heroes fighting heroes.
It really should have been Ryuuranger. If Toei did it right,
what an epic fight scene this would be.
This scene just makes no sense at all. Isn’t Kamen Rider Ichigo “dead”?
Short but sweet? No,
just too short.
Good to see henshin and roll call from Gokaiger. Gokai Yellow for the 1st time (in
my eyes) finally has a female suit actor.
I was pretty surprised at the noticeable difference when I first saw it.
Fitting music for these scenes
Odd choices for a Rider/Sentai team-up. There are literally a dozen more popular
Riders and Sentai teams to choose from and they go with Hibiki and
Go-onger? There wasn’t even a Rider
1/Akaranger team up fight! Come on, after
finally bringing together the two figureheads of the two series, why not give
them some screen time together doing what they best.
I was pleasantly surprised for this scene, since I like Geki
Yellow. But the Den-O riders just hogged
the screen time too much.
The most annoying thing about this team up is the fact that
Pink Mask actually had more screen time in this movie than the entire Gokaiger
series. That results in Pink Mask and
Pink 5, as the only two analogs of Gokai Pink, not getting any significant screen
time.
And what’s up with Fourze fighting solo? To showcase Magnet States? Missed opportunity for a team up with, I
don’t know, Go-busters or Super-1!
History was made the moment a Rider piloted a mecha.
Finally, a fantasy come true ever since Gokaiger and OOO
started airing, but I really, really, REALLY expected some sort of fight scene
where we actually hear them shout out each OOO’s forms’ attack. I was deprived of hearing Ahim in Putotyranno
form say or do ANYTHING, and that’s what I really wanted from that scene. And what did Gai do? Give Marvelous his Rider key, because he
surely did not insert the Saghozo key.
The Goseiger cards were anti climatic. But then again, all the Crab King did was
shoot them with lasers. He also never
used that axe once. They showcased
Ryuki, Blade and Hibiki twice. I just
love that pose and I do it often.
I would have preferred a cool history montage or all riders
and sentai pose while the “We are Brothers” song is playing or anything else
rather than the ending scene we got. It
just didn’t feel appropriate given the hype.
Instead, the things that stood out are guys smiling creepily at each
other.
I hope and pray the upcoming Super Hero Taisen Z will be the
movie it will surely be hyped up to be and let me experience the same kind of
happiness I felt the moment I got into this wonderful genre.
My final opinion: 1.5/5
- The few things that I liked saved this movie
from getting a 1.
- The opening, Decade’s aloofness, seeing Kamen
Rider 1 and Akaranger face off, Gokaiger roll call and the big gathering of
heroes.
