Ah summer, god I despise summer. It gets too hot, its hard to cool down especially if you are hot, drinks seem to go far faster than in other seasons, and if you are not working it can feel like you are wasting away-
Sorry, Summer just gets me in a mood, but as every summer comes and goes so does a season of major blockbuster releases for people with the time and funds to go. In japan many major series in japan will see some theatrical outing during this time, this of course includes Kamen Rider and for the 2011 Summer, W got its movie with Forever: A to Z/ The Gaia Memories of Fate. So how does it stack against the main series and as a movie on its own?
Futo finds itself in chaos, as Gaia Memories begin to fall from the sky that are based previous Dopants that Kamen Riders W and Accel had defeated. But that is not the main problem, rather a terrorist group that goes by the name of NEVER, lead by their leader Katsumi Daido, who also is a Kamen Rider himself, Eternal, who intends to turn Futo city into a hell on Earth as vengeance against the Museum. Okay, I need to bring this up, I know it is only two people but why blame Futo alongside Museum. But is like blaming Wisconsin if you dislike Mac and Cheese since it is where a lot of cheese comes from. It seems like overkill to despise a place for one certain thing.
Okay, despite a retread of a certain character trait of one of the main characters, I like this story. It raises the stake far above the plots of the main series and gives us a great villain in the form of Daido, terrifying and serious in his goal and ruthless. Giving us a few early fights with previous dopants is a good way of showing how far our heroes have come since the beginning of the story and sets up that the villains are far different than the basic run of the mill criminals and unsuspecting patrons. Speaking of them, I really, really enjoy Katsumi Daido, in direct comparison with the series main antagonist Ryubee, he lacks the quirks of the old man, Daido is serious, cold, and completely ruthless, willing to sacrifice so many to see his vengeance against museum through. I also really like how Eternal looks, it has this mercenary kind of look going for it, the choice of giving him a completely white look to contrast his completely evil personality, and he just makes that cape work even in combat. His fellow mercenaries are not bad but they are mostly defined by the personality they are intially given, there is the silent stoic one, the big rough and rowdy tough guy, and the campy comic relief. The only two members two get any sort of characterization is the token dark chick, Reika Hanehara, who we get more scenes with outside of action scenes where we she her choice of memory comes from the fact that she misses the warmth that she had when she was alive and gets a few more word before her death at how she can't believe how much Katsumi had changed. The other Maria S. Cranberry... yes I know her last name is a berry, but hear me out. Maria serves as this sort of switch and bait for the main series. The arc that this takes place after, the old dopant gave revelation that Shroud was Phillip's mother which puts him at conflict as he believes that Maria may be Shroud out of disguise, which leads to conflict when she does betray them for Katsumi. Going back to that mirror of how Never, Maria can be seen as a counterpart to Shroud, both are used by the respective leaders of the villain faction who they are related to family wise whom they try to stop with the help of the heroes, though in Maria case helping the heroes comes at her life where Shroud was already dying. At least I think she is dead, the director's cut shows someone in similar clothes dressing up as shroud, I think it was suppose to be a mystery of whether or not she and Shroud are the same person even though or maybe she is becoming an entirely different Shoud and I am just going to move on before I go cross-eyed.
It is interesting to see dopant forms of the the W's own, a sort of interesting take on what has been used by the heroes is now turned against them. They all also look pretty good with the personal favorite being Trigger dopant with the grey matching the light blue. Action wise it is pretty good, every form between W and Accel gets used here and is used to best matched each situation and we get some new forms and sneak previews. Notably for this series is the appearence of Kamen Rider Joker, Shotaro's weaker form using the lost driver just with the Joker Memory, the form funnily enough, has some elements of a previous rider, Kamen rider Black, notably in that its finishers are both named rider kick and rider punch are attacks he uses both in this film and series proper, this was also a prety easy sell for actor Renn Kiryama to do as he stated in interviews that he was a fan of Kamen Rider Black growing up. The other major sneak peek was for a show that was not out yet but was on the horizon as W was coming to an end, the first appearence of OOO's gives us some an intial preview of who the rider is but also gives us some insight into what he has going for him with an extra module for different power ups.
CONCLUSION
A to Z is what I would consider a good movie. It not only gives us another chapter of W's story which is canon with the main series, but gives us good action scenes, fun villains and just a sense of raised stakes. Its not perfect by any means necesary, the final sccene of the city coming in to give W more power screams of cop out to me. BUt I can reccomend this to those who Want More W.
FINAL GRADE: A-
Comments