You know, I wonder if the person who decided on the end name for this movie war knew what an ultimatum was outside of it sounded cool, an ultimatum is a final demand that upon rejection may result in some severe consequences, but I can't really say that the riders are forced to to accept or deny an ultimatum in this movie. Though maybe I am overthinking this title as someone who has been cooped up in his house for very long and am over analyzing the most minute of details. But either way, Ultimatum was the fourth Movie war following 2010, Core, and MegaMax which teamed up the then current Rider Wizard, with his predecessor Fourze. Four movies in, has the formula improved, or has not much changed since 2010.
SYNOPSIS
Five years after the events of Fourze, the Kamen rider club members have moved on with their lives, working towards their dreams now that the world was at peace, but the crew soon finds itself needing to come back together when a group of psychics backed by a Zodiac threaten their former school once again. Meanwhile in the present, Haruto and his friends come to a Monster plant in order to rescue children who had been kidnapped by the last remants of a demon clan by the name of the Akumizers who intend to get back at humanity as revenge for driving them underground years ago. In order to shut down the Monster Plant, Haruto travels into the eldest captive's underworld to stop anymore monsters from coming out, but what is the plan of the Akumizers and what does it have to do with this Zebar and monsters of old.
Once again we have a story that is two episodes of the show respectively with a big climatic action set piece right at the end, but their is a better attempt at connecting the story through a singular big bad rather than two separate villains coming together near the end which does help. This film also has a couple Shotaro Ishinomori references in it, for starters the main villains the Akumizers are in reference to an old Toku show, 1975's Akumizer 3, with all three of the Akumizers being a homage to one of the three heroes from the original series. It is more neat than anything else, if you knew and watched the series than it is an interesting reference, its not like you would have need to watch the original series to fully get this and was a good choice considering Wizard's aesthetic of magic and demons/mythical creatures the monsters often took in the series.
FOURZE PORTION
Fourze's portion does start with a bang with a pretty impressive opening action piece that is mostly out of suit which is impressive between Fourze's secondary Rider, Ryusei, and some men in black. it leaves you pumped up and ready for whatever comes next. Though after that we do slow down a little to much in order to show what has changed in the past five years, as the entire club has gotten pretty impressive jobs only five years after school, probably the most egregious is the main character who despite having his best score being a 50, is somehow already teaching and the film doesn't really feel the need to explain how a failing student was capable of becoming a teacher in five years. Pacing here is a bit of an issue, one of the bigger offenders in the film is a chase scene in the middle that goes on for a bit too long than it is necessary before getting a fight scene, and then we get a montage of getting the gang back together. I do have to say I almost immediately liked the cast, I hadn't watched Fourze at this point but the chemistry they had with one another and just how enjoyable they were does give me something to look forward to in the future when I do get to Fourze. Some of them also get in on the action during the main climax which I do enjoy when the non-rider characters do get something to do in regards to the combat. The villain side of things is a bit weaker, the main villain, Kageto Banba, isn't anything intersting, the standard evil I want to have superior beings rule over the planet because. Then there is the Monster League, a club consisting of psychics the Banba is exploiting to further his goals, their the standard outcast kids who finally have a place to be after being ignored The more interesting thing about the whole thing is they are a Shotaro Ishinomori Homage. Okay so the main member, Saburo Kazeta, is literally a new generation version of Inazuman, a character created by Ishinomori who appeared on TV and Manga from 1973 to 1974. Like the Akumizer homage it is neat and if you did grow up with the show or manga it is nice, but the problem comes from taking away from the actual focus of the title characters, as he ends up being the one to destroy Banba after he trounces Meteor, here comes Saburo to come and save the day and defeat the Zodiart, and if you had no idea who Inazuman was, this comes out as nowhere and takes focus away from the riders which this movie is about. It is neat but unnecessary to the main plot. Also, while I like the idea of Gentaro throwing his driver into a vat of molten magma as a sign of truce and that he wants to be friends, it rings sort of hollow as he will have to transform again soon for the big movie war at the end Overall, I am interested in going to watch Fourze after seeing this thanks to the cast, but their are problems, I don't think it is paced fairly well and the inclusion of Inazuman feels a little forced, its passable but for some, it probably isn't the ending they were wanting for the rider club.
WIZARD PORTION
Wizard also starts out strong with Haruto and company fighting not only their season's foot soldiers, but previous seasons foot soldiers, it is also sees the others also get in on the fighting, which I feel was especially missing in regards to Rinko who despite being a police officer rarely did anything outside of being apart of the cheer squad or protecting gates. We also get a more deep exploration of underworlds in this film as we see an actual a world within a Gate's underworld where she is ... a Shotaro Ishinomori reference.
"Another check of Toei's Tokusatsu history later.
So Yu kitamura is Poitrine, the main character of her own titluar series back in 1990. It was part of Toei's Fushigi Comedy series of programs that focused on cute robots, unusual and cute creatures, magical girls and child detectives. While Poitrine is better intertwined and doesn't feel like she does take the story away from Wizard, her story feels a little derivative in that it is that Yu needs to stop living the same day over and over again has been done better elsewhere. Oh yeah, and the members of the Monster League from the Fourze portion show up here as children as I guess a means to further connect the stories. That being said, this is more Kamen Rider Wizard, meaning that its strength in its aesthetics and music are there, as also takes the weakness's of Wizard, the story is primarily fluff in service of action that will never be brought up again, some of the characters are either annoying or have so little to do you wonder why they are here, in this case, Koyomi is stuck outside the Underworld with monster and it shows she is kind of helpless against it. That being said the action on display here is some of the best in the series in my opinion so if you wanted more of Wizard in that way, well here is more.
MOVIE WAR
So now we are now at the big crossover, and immediately I have questions as Gentaro pulls out a ring that allows him, Ryusei and Nadesiko (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention at the end of Fourze's portion she shows up to help a friend of theirs, she had previously appeared in the previous Movie war but she shows up like right at the end I didn't feel it was necesary to bring her up). Wonder where that ring comes from, well, wait until the end. So they jump in to help Haruto who is getting his butt handed to him by a large group of monsters from the past 4 years of Neo-heisei, following that is some pretty good out of suit fighting, I know I keep bringing this up but I always do like seeing the actors actually fighting out of suit as it does give credence that they can fight with the need of their suits. Oh and then Eiji Hino, Kamen rider OOO's shows up stating that Gentaro called him up and gives the children rings that allowed them to summon the previous two series primary and Secondary Riders to join in on the fight, they get their own fight scenes before we go off to the big climatic bike versus giant vehicle. This probably the weakest set piece of the film, with some rather shaky cinematography and poor camera angles that make the action a little harder to look at. Not even the final one, which yeah it is primarily CG but is rather well shot and put together despite the rather noticeable change from live action to CGI. Before we end let's go back on that fourze ring, so how did Gentaro come to have this ring, well, Haruto takes the ring that future Gentaro gave him and gives it to him when he goes to give him back his driver that his future version took from him to deal with the Akumizers, creating a stable time loop that is better to not think to hard about because then you start drinking just as hard as father time when fiction decides to do this kind of stuff
CONCLUSION
Ultimatum is perfectly passable. The action scenes are rather well done throughout and their is good in both portions in regards to characters and exploring elements of both series. But they both bogged down by issues. Whether it is some of Wizards base series issues or how shoe-horned in the Inazuman stuff into Fourze, look, if you liked the inclusion of Inazuman into Fourze's story that is fine, we are all human and are allowed to like and hate different things, I just felt this would've been better done in an individual movie that didn't cut into the final time that this cast would be fully together. If you have a free afternoon and just want to see some good action, then I can reccomend this, for people who want some better substance, this is can be considered something that is not necesary viewing.
FINAL GRADE:C
コメント