Kamen Rider Eternal movie released

[takenoko]

So this was a fun movie. My only problem is that this movie basically has no connection to the characters as they were depicted in the A to Z movie.

Abbreviated version: It's a good movie with a bad ending through no fault of its own. Even if the movie is pretty good in every other aspect, there's really no good way to make it connect to the KRW Forever movie with the premise of this movie.
Hit the spoiler tags for a more in-depth rant:

Spoiler

Here's what I mean. In the Forever movie, NEVER was a band of one-dimensional characters that existed to be defeated by the Kamen Riders. There's a reason why Trigger and Metal basically mute and Reika's death scene was shortened for the theatrical cut. You weren't supposed to care about these guys... at all. They were just ruthless killers with generic stereotype A, B, C to differentiate between them. Heck, we were even given a backstory for Katsumi and that didn't give us a clear motivation for why he was acting the way he did. He was just a bad guy, and that's all we needed to know.

So in this movie, the writers have a conundrum. They need to make these guys likable. They've got to make the audience cheer for what they're doing. A good writer would show some sort of character arc that take shows Katsumi's change in personality and explains his villainous behavior in A to Z. Unfortunately, we've got writers who are about as subtle as the Star Wars prequels, so all we get is a switch going off at the end of the movie and suddenly Katsumi and gang are bad guys.

The worst part of the ending is, "Hey Katsumi, you like/love Mina? Then make her a NEVER." "Noooo!" "Wait, what? Why not? You're about to do that to everyone in Fuuto. You've got the fucking power to bring dead people to life, what are you being so emo about?!" It's like the writers knew this was a plot hole, so they decided to fill it with Katsumi throwing a temper tantrum. It makes no sense, nothing about the ending about this movie makes any sense! I almost wish they just cut all the scenes of Katsumi going crazy and just left it with NEVER doing their poses and walking cool down the beach or on the top of buildings.

So I spend the movie liking these guys then <record scratch> now I have to hate them. Totally jarring.

But shoddy story aside, it was still a pretty fun action flick. Since Reika was the most sympathetic villain of the bunch, the movie basically follows her entrance into NEVER up to the events that begin A to Z. And if not scrutinized too much, it was still a pretty fun movie. They even gave Trigger and Metal Dopants some lines in this one (catchphrases and taunts yelled in battle don't count as lines) and made Luna actually kind of likeable... in one scene.

It's just a pity that this'll be the last of the W movies, because it definitely comes off as the weakest of the bunch. And it has a pretty weak ending as well. After the story was done, what happened to Mina and the surviving W members? I guess Shoutarou and Philip make amends with NEVER, but overall it doesn't feel like those two and Akiko (why is she in this movie) really take away anything from hearing that story. And what happens to Mina? The movie just kind of ends on kind of a hollow note since the main thrust of momentum was in the back story.


Edit for Cod-E music video:
I'm surprised by how much work went into this. They had that power rangers director do some action, plus Takanashi Rin (ShinkenPink) credited as the heroine. And you know, we don't get to see how cute Takanashi Rin can be, like when she's singing along with the band. Plus, if you overlook the age difference, they sort of made for a cute couple.

[Phoenix512]

I can understand why everyone else except for Reika would follow the deranged Katsumi when he begins his campaign against Fuuto. I can't really accept that Reika would become so not caring so quickly especially after Katsumi rejected her request to allow Mina to become a NEVER. Seeing how Doctor Prospect killing everyone in the Village shouldn't elicit "I'm going to send Fuuto to Hell." but "I'm going to take down Foundation X for them being heartless bastards."

So I guess Alcatraz is still operational in the W universe. I wonder if Country S is actually Singapore.

Yeah, the action was good but I didn't really need Shoutarou and the others there. I would accept it being a backstory without any cuts to the present.

[Catastrophe]

After watching this, I have determined that this Red Eternal bullshit was just an excuse to make another damned Figuart. It's a poor excuse: 'Oh, my arms and legs are red because I'm not compatible with it'. And I assume them justifying giving him Utopia in this movie explains the total asspull of it in the series.

I'm gonna watch Accel Returns again. Just because it was good.

[Xamda_Shattered]

I concur with you, Takenoko. Personally, I felt that this movie was the best of the bunch.
A detail dissection is as below:

Spoiler

Basically the premise of this movie builds up to A-Z Gaia Memories of fate. But the twists and turns in this movie makes it go deeper into the mythos. In the end of the movie, where Daidou refuses to turn Mina into a NEVER whereas he was prepared to turn Fuuto into a hellish playground full of NEVERs is a clear indication of his insanity. Plus, this movie solves a lot of plotholes in A-Z (ie. Daidou having a LostDriver, Knowing which T2 Gaia Memory to take, why he's batfuck insane.....)

I disagree that this movie is boring. Sure, there are parts where the story gets predictable, but somewhere along the story someone just brings it back to being interesting.

About Eternal Red Flare, universally yes, it was a lame excuse for another SHFigurart. But the same goes to Accel Booster (Ooh, my leg has been broken! I must fight! Oh! Now I can fly!).

In the end I found this movie to be more engaging and better plotwise than Accel Returns.

[Phoenix512]

Huh? Did you actually read take's post about Eternal? How can you concur with him when you and him have completely different opinions about the movie? Also, Accel Booster was somewhat more different compared to Eternal Red which was red flames, lack of cape and memory slots.

I wrote my first post before skimming through take's cut of the movie which the problems of the movie to me were corrected for the most part.

[HyperDrake]

Doesn't impress me much coz it lacks a great deal of explanation for the background and or the transition of the personalities of the NEVER members into that of the full time terrorists in the A to Z. Perhaps, they should have inserted a bit more terror side-missions for NEVER to build on their insane characters. I mean, they could have just made a simple narration that goes >> 'after defeating this movie' main villain, they go for another hundred of missions and building their terrorist personality in the process before preparing for the Fuuto mission in the A to Z'; if they don't want to waste more duration making such scenes.

But, aside from the storyline, it's decent enough for me regarding the action scene. I like a Rider story which main characters are villain riders or riders with bad personalities. In A to Z they intend for NEVER to act like true bad guys but in this movie, they simply put them as anti-heroes.

[Therm_Kitty]

Everyone's already mentioned the gap between these characters and the ones in A to Z. This is a gap that movies like this were meant to fill. It's not like their future personalities are complex, either. Just do a montage of ever-vicious fighting, standard fo toku. This movie is just self-defeating.

Eternal Red Flare was like Crystal Skull: a way to make cheaper toys. As a toy commercial, these movies do a bad job of selling them. Accel Booster is different. The use of the Adapter seemed logical there, they did a good job of making it look cool without going into deus ex memoriam and it was even justified.

[Numba1shadowfan]

WHY IN THE HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK DOES THID MOVIE HAVE COMMENTARY, COMMENTARY I CAN'T ENJOY THE MOVIE BECAUSE OF THE FUCKIN BACKROUND VOICES, FIX IT IMEDIENTLY!!!!!!

[SimpleGeekAce]

Did anyone else notice BoukenSilver as well (he's one of the mercs, gives Rina a thumbs up and in English 'Good job' during the first mission? I love these side movies, its fun to spot various stars.

I also believe the mother of Daido was also Queen Beryl from the live action Sailor Moon series.

Any more bingo?

[OOOKaiser]

I LOVE YOU GUYS but one thing I don't get Katsumi turned evil because of some Psychic girl got killed?

[Numba1shadowfan]

You know it is a bit hard to watch the movie when there is COMMENTARY IN THE MOVIE, PLEASE RELEASE A HD VERSION WITH NO COMMENTARY IN THE BACKROUND, PLEASE IM BEGING YOU

[Therm_Kitty]

You know it is a bit hard to watch the movie when there is COMMENTARY IN THE MOVIE, PLEASE RELEASE A HD VERSION WITH NO COMMENTARY IN THE BACKROUND, PLEASE IM BEGING YOU

Just turn it off. It's a seperate audio track, just switch to track 1.

[NeonZ]

I think the characterization differences between this movie and W Forever are supposed to come not only from the ending of this movie.

Spoiler

There's also the whole amnesia subplot. The NEVERs were all forgetting their past, and that, adding with the events shown at the end of this movie, is probably what leads to their one dimensional personality during W Forever.

[Skull Rider]

Well, for me I find the movie very interesting. And thanks to that lunatic gay, adding a bit comedic element to the movie. Well, I think I should put the comments about the story-line in spoiler tag too. Maybe the movie itself not as good as KR Accel Movie, but it has it's strong point.

So, the story itself, and my POV of it :

Spoiler

About Katsumi :
I think because of what Katsumi said, when you become NEVER you will slowly lose your past memories and human emotions. Being the 1st NEVER subject, he already lose most of his past and human emotions. And the harmonica act as a symbolic to Katsumi turning from a Hero into a Devil. Mina death is a blow to him and consumed his whatever reason/ideal/cause/etc and taking revenge against not just the Museum, but Fuuto instead. Well, this is what I see, might missing a few points here.

About Never :
A slight story from each NEVER members, at least they have a little background story. Though they need more explanation, especially that Metal guy. Dunno if loving nature being useful to a group of mercenary soldiers. LOL at the Luna guy, screaming his breast is bigger and kinda at almost goofing each time of his scene. Got nothing to say about Heat girl, but thank god, the Trigger guy has more line than GAME START.

About Kazu :
Well, that's explain a lot of how he turned into NEVER. He is a very important person in Foundation-X after all. To think that Kazu already possessed the Utopia memory, but still opt to use the Eternal memory. Good thing they implement the memory compatibility from the series and the memory choose it's user from A to Z. That explain why the Eternal memory become useless to Kazu when Katsumi trying reaching it and choose Katsumi as it's user although it just a test memory.

Oops, looks like ranting instead of my two cents of opinion. Though it just a history lessons of the villain that hurting Fuuto. And becoming Devil isn't that cool as riding with the Devil. Peace~

EDIT:
Forgot to include the NEVER points. It's there now :p

[Catastrophe]

About Eternal Red Flare, universally yes, it was a lame excuse for another SHFigurart. But the same goes to Accel Booster (Ooh, my leg has been broken! I must fight! Oh! Now I can fly!).

Keeping in mind that that form got some use, and was created by the movies plot coupon. It had some relevance to the story at least.