Movie Review: Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum

Though this is only the fourth entry in the series so far, the Kamen Rider Movie Wars films are rather mixed. While W and Decade's Movie War 2010 was a pretty good film with some weak elements, OOO and W's Movie War Core was pretty terrible all around. On the other hand, Fourze and OOO's Movie Wars Megamax is one of, if not the, best Kamen Rider films around. Even though that's a hard thing to follow up, it'll be interesting to see how Kamen Rider Wizard and Fourze's Movie Wars Ultimatum does on the grand scale of things.

We start the film with Phantom's Medusa and Phoenix working alongside demons known as the Akumaizer 3 (characters based on an old series by Kamen Rider creator Shotaro Ishinomori) on a machine that can create an infinite supply of monsters using four gates. However their plan needs an extra element added, so one of the Azumaizers, Eel, travels five years into the future. This is where our story begins...

Fourze Portion

Club is back in session.

The Kamen Rider Fourze section of the film takes place five years after the events of the series, with the cast now having left school and taken on (rather impressive) jobs. Kengo is now a scientist working on a way to communicate with the Presenters, Yuuki is an astronaut, J.K. a journalist, Miu a model, Shun a professional American Football player, Tomoko a novelist and Ryusei an Interpol agent. Gentaro on the other hand has continued his mission to befriend everyone by becoming the latest teacher at Amanogawa High. But when a Zodiart appears and is manipulating students with their own special powers, the Kamen Rider club must reunite to face this final threat.

After an exciting opening fight sequence where we see Ryusei and Inga Blink (from the Fourze movie) take down a team of genetically-enhanced soldiers in South America, this part of the film gets off to a pretty slow start. Ignoring just how Gentaro has the qualifications to become a teacher in a mere five years after leaving High School (the same goes for the whole cast really, so it's best just to roll with it), the set-up of conflict between Gentaro and his four "Neo-human" students is lengthy enough without an added chase sequence that seems to go on forever. Once the Kamen Rider Club is rounded up and together again (including a new freshman member who doesn't do all that much until the very end), things really begin to pick up. We see a maturer Kamen Rider club kick ass together, with even Miu, Kengo and J.K. getting in on the fight action.

After an impressive middle section, it's a shame to see this third of the film fall into mediocrity once again. It's resolution concerning the Fourze Driver is touching and makes sense, but shoots itself in the foot a bit since the thing is needed once again five minutes later. The leader of the Neo-Human students, Saburo, also evolves into another classic Ishinomori hero - Inazuman. Unfortunately, his inclusion feels rather tacked on and kind of takes the spotlight away from the returning heroes.

All in all it's a semi-serviceable end to Kamen Rider Fourze, but certainly not the one the Kamen Rider Club deserved.

A fun cameo, but really necessary?

Wizard Portion

Bringing the style

Next the Kamen Rider Wizard section of the film takes us back into the present, with Haruto, Rinko, Shunpei and Koyomi arriving at the Akumaizer base to save the captured Gates. Uninterested in helping the Akumaizer trio, the Phantoms tell the group that they will need to enter the Gates' underworld in order to save them. Wizard dives in, with Rinko and Shunpei unwittingly following. Here they discover a world where the same day is repeated over and over, and the key to getting out lies with a mysterious magical girl that goes by the name of Poitrine.

Once again the film serves as a dumping ground to homage a past Ishinomori hero, only this time its Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine of the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series. While her appearance has much more plot relevance than Inazuman's inclusion, it's still difficult to care about this pretty obscure character who's suddenly been thrust into the limelight. The plot of needing Poitrine to choose to stop reliving the same day over and over is pretty unoriginal in itself, which only serves to bring the section down even more.

However Kamen Rider Wizard is a very flashy series by nature, it so certainly puts on a good show as far as the visuals go. Even a spectacularly bad CGI ostrich/chicken...thing can't detract from Wizard's flashy attacks and brilliant fight choreography. It also wins point for having Rinko be useful and actively engage monsters (since y'know, she's a cop and carries around a gun), something the series seems to avoid as much as it can.

Personally I found this section to be a little weaker than the Fourze one, but there wasn't a whole lot in it. It's low on plot but high on eye candy, so a pretty average score all-around.

Fighting evil by moonlight, winning love by daylight...?

Movie Wars Ultimatum

*Obligatory "Haha Nadeshiko is riding Accel" comment*

Finally the Movie Wars Ultimatum section of the film sees the two Riders, along with Meteor and Nadeshiko (who turned up right at the end of the Fourze section) come together in order to stop the Akumaizer and save both Poitrine and the world itself. They are joined by the previous Neo-Heisei Riders W, Accel, OOO and Birth for an all-out attack with explosive results and brand new power-ups.

While the section does indeed include a total of eight Riders, don't expect a whole lot from them. Eiji makes a brilliant cameo saving Koyomi outside of the underworld and prompting the whole thing, but the Riders that appear inside the underworld are constructs rather than the actual Riders. This isn't explicitly stated, but I assume it's the case because a) they don't transform and b) W turns into FangJoker, which would require both Shotaro and Philip to be present at the battle. This is possibly due to the production team being unable to get all the actors back for a cameo/voice clips, and while it's nice to see all these Riders together they do offer little more than glorified backup.

Most of the portion itself is taken up by a tanker chase with the Riders pursuing on their bikes. This does put the "Rider" back in Kamen Rider, but the sequence itself is far, far too long with several bad camera angles. Wizard and Fourze get a really great fight sequence against the Azumaizers in their Cosmic States and Flame Dragon forms, before receiving all new power ups to battle the obligatory final CGI threat. These are "Dragon Rush style" and the long-winded "Meteor Nadeshiko Fusion States"...both of which are pretty underwhelming. The former is essentially a sneak preview of the underused All Dragon Style (with slightly different colouration) and the latter is Fusion States with rockets and skis. Despite the disappointing forms the action itself is top notch, provided you don't mind Toei's rather noticeable CGI in over-abundance.

So once again it's a portion that delivers on the flash, but has very little substance behind it. What does deserve to praised however is the brilliant twist ending to Poitrine, which saves the film from a horribly cliché ending and provides the best laugh of the whole thing.

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Final Thoughts

Movie Wars Ultimatum is no Megamax by any stretch of the imagination, but thankfully it's no Core either. None of the sections really stand out, each having just as many flaws as positives, if not more. Still, it's a perfectly fun way to kill two hours if you just want to see a crossover between two particularly flashy Kamen Riders, just don't go in expecting a satisfying conclusion to Fourze or a particularly engaging plot.

Series REVIEW: Kamen Rider W

In terms of spectacle, following an anniversary series is always going to be a difficult thing. Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters is currently struggling to make a name for itself following the 199 hero extravaganza that was Gokaiger, and back in 2009 Kamen Rider W faced a similar problem following Decade. But while Go-Busters has taken the look and feel of Super Sentai a step forward, W is a more back to basics approach but with a few new things thrown into the mix. The show ran for a total of 49 episodes, with a number of feature length films and the usual variety of tokusatsu specials such as DVD mini episodes and net movies.

"Count up your sins."

In the windy city of Fuuto, there is underground distribution of devices known as Gaia Memories - small USB-like drives that turn the users into super powered monsters known as Dopants. Following the death of his boss, self-proclaimed "hard-boiled" detective Shotaro Hidari works with his partner Philip to solve various cases in Fuuto, usually involving Dopants in some way. Using their own Gaia Memories in a double driver, the two are able to become a single Kamen Rider - Kamen Rider Double, to battle the Dopants. They are soon aided by Ryu Terui, given the power to become Kamen Rider Accel by the mysterious Shroud. The Kamen Riders follow the Gaia Memory circulation to its source - the organisation Museum. What link do both Philip and Shroud have to Museum at its powerful heads, the Sonozaki family?

Two detectives, one Kamen Rider: Philip and Shotaro

Our two heroes are very much the opposite of each other - Shotaro is has a heart of gold but not too bright, while Philip may have access to all the world's knowledge, he keeps himself to himself and seems to have little interest in the outside world. As these two characters work together, they both take on a little bit of each other's way of thinking and grow into more rounded characters. They're often serious, but not to the point they can't work with comedic settings. Shotaro's naivety often gets him into trouble (particularly with women) and Philip is like a child at Christmas when he discovers something new - obsessed one minute but quickly throws it away when something shiner comes along. 

Their boss, Akiko Narumi, is the series' comedic centrepiece with her loud outbursts and seemingly never ending collection of captioned slippers. Her character starts off as annoying, but becomes much more bearable once the more serious Ryu comes onto the scene. In fact, Akiko and Ryu rub off on each other just as much as Shotaro and Philip do.

Kamen Rider Accel - vroom vroom!

The show's formula takes the format of two-part episodes (with a "one year later" epilogue to round things off at the very end), giving the detective elements a chance to properly come into play. It's filled with plot twists abound, but if you're anything like me you'll have them figured out way before they come into play. Thankfully, even figuring it out 20 odd episodes beforehand doesn't spoil the satisfaction of seeing the events you've predicted unfold on screen, and even then there's bound to be at least one thing that catches you unaware.

Earlier I mentioned a "back to basics" approach with the show, and this is something best shown in the Kamen Rider Double suit itself. Its a very basic yet effective design, with the two person motif only really reflected in the half and half colouring. Different power ups are reflected by alternate colours and tiny aesthetic changes (for example, Cyclone is the only one with a muffler, Trigger has the gun, Metal the staff etc). Sometimes its mixed up a little, such as FangJoker having Philip as the base body rather than Shotaro, but the iconic base design isn't compromised. Accel on the other hand has a busier design, but a solid colour. Plus he can turn into his own bike, which is damn cool even with the shaky level of CGI involved.

One for the photograph album: The Sonozaki family

With each Gaia Memory embodying something different, there's no set aesthetic for the Dopants - something which works both as a blessing and a curse. While they might not be limited to a single look, a lack of uniformity means that some look drastically better than others. It doesn't help that the show opens with lacklustre designs like T-Rex and Money, but even higher tier ones like Terror, Claydoll and Smilodon may divide opinion. But if anything, the weaker designs only make the great ones more eye-catching - Weather, Nazca and Taboo do not disappoint. But as with other Kamen Rider series, it's not always the look that makes the monster - it's the person. The Sonozaki family, made up of Ryubee (Terror Dopant) and his daughters Saeko (Taboo) and Wakana (Claydoll) are the perfect villains because they are human. Their twisted view of Fuuto and mission in life is what makes the characters threatening, and evolve just as much throughout the show as the protagonists do. The other key antagonists that come and go, Kirikho (Nazca) and Shinkuro (Weather), are opposite ends of the spectrum - with one honourable and the other power mad. Even among the one-off Dopants the sheer variety of motives and personalities is staggering, and often paints them as villains before they've even touched a memory.

Kamen Rider W also introduces us to a potentially bigger threat, one that has played a hand in the franchise since: Foundation X. We don't see much of them, but they certainly make themselves known as something with much bigger things in mind. The seeds were sown in W and carried on into OOO and Fourze, so hopefully something bigger will come to light one day.

Kamen Rider Skull

Double and Accel aren't the only Kamen Riders featured in the overall W universe though. With the movies playing a large part in the overall narrative (repeatedly referenced following where they take place in the series timeline), the total canon riders appearing in the show is bumped up to four. Movie War segment "Begins Night" not only explains the origins of Double but also introduces Sokichi Narumi - not only Shotaro's boss and Akiko's father, but also Kamen Rider Skull. Though his appearances are fleeting, Skull plays a huge part in W. Sokichi is everything Shotaro aspires to be, while also rescuing Philip from Museum and putting the two on the path to becoming Double. Shotaro's initial guilt over his death also reflects his amatuerish nature in earlier episodes, as well as his inability to tell Akiko the truth about her father. 

Kamen Rider Eternal

Meanwhile W's full length feature film "A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate" introduces us to NEVER - a rival project to Museum's Gaia Memories which uses undead soliders as trained mercenaries. After losing project funding from Foundation X to their rivals, NEVER return to Fuuto to take revenge using the memories themselves to take the city down. Among their ranks is Kasumi Daido - Kamen Rider Eternal. While Eternal has much less of an impact on the overall narrative than Skull, that doesn't make his presence any less worthwhile. Both Skull and Eternal would also see prequel films after the series' completion - the former within Kamen Rider OOO's Movie War Core, and Eternal one half of the "Kamen Rider W Returns" direct to DVD releases - the other half continuing the story of Accel.

Kamen Rider W isn't a flawless series, but those flaws it has are either things down to personal preference or so minute that they don't hamper the end product. What it is is a show with engaging plot lines that stick to its motif, brilliant characters, great action and themes that often veer into territory that Western children's TV probably wouldn't dream off. W comes highly recommended as a show that won't just please die hard toku fans, but one that could probably sell newcomers on it too.