When one talks about the best Kamen rider movies from heisei phase 2, one that will likely come up a lot will be Kamen rider W Forever: A to Z/ The Gaia memory of Fate. While it played into the strengths, its comedy, its characters, the action, even if the villains not Katsumi and... the only girl in the group were fairly one note, it is one of the better films that the franchise has done. It was also notable in the way that unlike Heisei phase 1 movies, A to Z was canon to the main series, not an alternate ending, different universe or just not canon, it fitted into the main series. It was also unique for a while for Heisei phase two, following A to Z, with the exception of Fourze's summer film, they were either one-offs with no canon connection (OOO's) or set the main characters in an alternate universe (Wizard and Gaim.) Mind you, it is much easier for the film's to be sometimes insular as to get people to come in, but it is always nice to fit it together. Drive on the other hand was making it abundantly clear that this year's film was going to be canon and the series made that clear. With foreshadowing and an entire sub series of a future where the Roidmudes had taken over with Krim Steinbelt, Belt-san himself, leading them. What could this mean, what could it mean for the future, going into this I was actually a little excited going into this, A to Z was arguably the peak of Rider movies, SO I was Hoping that Sanjo could repeat that success.
During an encounter with a Roidmude, Shinnosuke is accosted by a man who tell him not too shoot. To his greater shock, he also calls him Dad. Before he can demand a DNA test, Krim suddenly goes Berserk and causes a massive explosion destroying the plant. Now on the run from the police and a mysterious Rider trying to kill our time traveller, the young man reveals he is Shinnosuke's son from the future Eiji. He soon reveals to the duo the future of 20 years, and its not pretty. It seems that Krim's outburst may bely an evil far greater than the Roidmudes of tody. With the law on their tail and the mysterious Dark drive, Shinnosuke may have to make the ultimate choice in order to save the future.
Oh god, Skynet has acquired rider technology, quick hide your Connor's
While Drive may have struggled with certain aspects in its run in regards to balancing action and suspense, it always hada heart of emotion beating inside of it, giving some of the most real emotions that I had seen in a rider up to that point. Suprise Future funnels its focus primarily on Shinnosuke and Belt-san's relationship, yes the whole Belt-san dying thing feels redundant seeing as how the last film had him dying, but their is a lot more emotion here now then at the beginning, we have seen these two grow as partners, a mentor and student and too a point good friends. They've argued, bickered but you can feel that they are the best of partners. So having to see Shinnosuke having every option to fix Belt-san and having to just end him is arguably one of the saddest moments, in a series that has had some rather heart wrenching moments in its run. Suprise future is arguably some peak drama going on here.
It's also helped that the film has some impressive action scenes, both in vehicles and out, it is a thrilling ride from start to finish that even see's the ride crosser pulled out to fight the bad guy's, and while their part in the story is much smaller by comparison, both Chase and Go do get some solid moments in the story during fights. Which can be seen as a detriment, with a focus on the Shinnosuke, Belt-san and Eisuke, much of drive's cast plays a more extra sort of role here just being observers of the situation, even the Roidmudes take a back seat to the main threat and only have one scene here, so if you are fans of certain characters then that may be a bit of an issue.
It says go, but I don't want you to go
And that could be the films biggest issue is that aside from Shinnosuke and Belt-san, much of the cast is on the sidelines, even Eiji despite his importance has a rather weak entrance all things considered, he shows up and then exposits about the future and what needs to be done. And much of the SIU not named Kiriko, Go or Chase are just stuck at police headquarters. It is a shame seeing as how they all came into their own as the series went on and their sideline is a bit dissapointing, but I think in this case it is acceptable, considering what the focus is here. That also comes at the expense of the villain Paradox, who is basically just an doomsday villain that the villains deemed too dangerous, not the most interesting but his subterfuge is one of the more interesting aspects about him showing himself as not only a dangerous foe, but a smart one. Dark drive's suit is really cool looking, this futurstic looking suit with tron lines, the special form shinnosuke gets here too isn't too shabby either, mixing both the past and future, as is the lesser power form Shinnosuke takes in Chou dead heat (Don't know why its called that since its technically weaker.) But it does well to give the feel the progress Belt-san made from proto-drive to final design.
Overall the film is really enjoyable... as long as you don't think too hard about. because putting any thought into time travel with this film, can be quite the issue, primarily the stuff dealing with Belt-san as he is destroyed and by extension the driver is destroyed, yet the one from the future still exists despite the fact it was destroyed and there's the fact that even after destroying paradox despite the fact that Shinnosuke had to use the future version, it doesn't disappear after the future is changed, but even then that belt should no longer exist since the future did changed and 108 didn't go back to change the past so that means that their should be an entirely different version and...
Sigh, I mean you can apply your own logic here, in a way that 108 caused such a major time paradox that the belt just ended up being the present belt. But that involves using logic that the movie doesn't bother to introduce and its stuff you have to figure out. Now was this last bit nitpicky and in the grand scheme of things not that important. Yeah, but that's the issue that comes with time travel, if it doesn't follow logic, then you are going to go cross-eyed at some point.
Despite its time travel sins (which considering what had happened with Taisen GP, would've made them more careful around.) Suprise Future is what I would consider a good movie. Not only is the character drama in tip-top shape, the action is some of the best in Drive giving more high octane car action that the show sometimes flopped on. It may dissapoint fans of certain characters, but in a sea of mediocre to outright bad films for Kamen Rider. Suprise Future stands near the top as one of the best.
FINAL GRADE: A+
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