To be honest, I forgot that the canonical ending to Zi-O was that everyone became high school students. So for the first half of the movie, I was watching it as a "what if" story. And I feel like that worked better than being a continuation of the Zi-O series; my amusement actually went down a peg once I remembered that this was following a world reset for Zi-O. Perhaps that's what Toei should have done as well, but oh well.
Anyhow, focusing the episode on Geiz was a good idea. And not for nostalgia reasons (though that that certainly plays a part), but because Geiz's actor comes off as the strongest of the trio. I generally dislike dissecting acting skills too much since the material itself is a huge factor, but Geiz's actor is just straight-up more believable as the character than Sougo's is; he's a lot more entertaining to watch as a result. So making a story where he's the lead works better for everyone, as it lets the strongest actor carry the production.
The actual story is nothing terribly deep. But it's entertaining enough. Geiz is a good guy, even if he (rightfully) wanted to kill Kamen Rider Turnip early on. So giving him a story where he gets to be the big hero - and in a reasonably believable way - works well. His new form is nothing special in regards to design, but it's a good analog to Grand Zi-O. Though like the other DTV movie suits, it's clearly not designed to be durable; at no point do any of the villains make contact with the suit (I presume they only have a "hero" version and not a "stunt" version). Which makes him look powerful for sure, but also borders on being a bit silly.
And oh man, that transformation jingle. That "little" song was 28 seconds long. Mind you, that's not the entire transformation sequence, but just the jingle itself. I don't believe even Grand Zi-O's full jingle was quite that long. It's really quite ridiculous.
Meanwhile, as everyone else has already noted: yay, Tsukuyomi actually gets to do something as a Rider! That only took 20 months. It's basically fan service, but I'll take it.
Speaking of fan service, I wasn't expecting there to be a bunch of secondary riders in this movie, as it was a DTV production. So that was a pleasant surprise. I'm also a bit surprised that it was mostly older characters - I think Birth is technically the most recent - but then again Birth and Accel are always fun to watch. Toei presses the nostalgia button hard with Zi-O, and this movie is no exception, but it's handled better here than it is in a lot of Zi-O episodes.
What in the sam hell was up with that sequel bait ending though? As far as I know, this is the only DTV movie that Zi-O is getting. They only initially announced the one and never announced a second. So that's a bit frustrating in a sense, as it teases something that was never in the works.
Side note: Boy, Tokyo must have good hospitals if a broken foot gets you inpatient treatment and an overnight stay!
Aha, that's why that suit looks so familiar! That is definitely a rework of the Diend kaijin; I'd recognize the face and shoulders anywhere. It looks like they stripped out the Shinkenger monster elements and reworked it to be closer to Another Decade. Which makes sense for a budget-limited DTV movie.KRDangerousZombie wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 6:29 am I'm also in two minds whether Another Diend was a lazy alteration to the old Kaijin Rider suit from that Decade x Shinkenger crossover, an intentional homage to said crossover or both.
What's the chronological order here, anyhow? Does this movie come first, or Reiwa. I'm assuming Geiz comes first since it was almost certainly filmed shortly after the series ended. But I reserve the right to be wrong.
"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company Toei."Catastrophe wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 1:58 am Why is it people still get hung up about 'That's the way they wanted'.
Gord Drive motherfuckers. They don't use foreign languages correctly.
