This is an automated archive.
The original was posted on /r/movies by /u/alanjinqq on 2023-08-07 10:37:34+00:00.
As a Kamen Rider fan, I am always looking forward to this movie and I am completely unaware of it airing on prime video lol. Even as a Rider fan, I must say that this movie is weird and extremely self-indulgent for Hideaki Anno.
To briefly introduce the Kamen Rider franchise, it is a 50 years old Japanese superhero TV franchise about bug-themed costume hero fighting bad guys. The series does not have a continuous narrative, each season has almost no connection to the previous one except for having similar themes and idea, sort of like the Final Fantasy series. Shin Kamen Rider is adapting the very first OG series, which I cannot pretend to be too familiar with it as I only read the manga version.
Shin KR told the story of Hongo Takeshi, an introvert who got kidnapped by a cyborg robot cult named SHOCKER. SHOCKER changes Hongo into a super powerful cyborg but Hongo escapes before getting brainwashed as a mindless soldier. Then Hongo need to work together with Ruriko, a mysterious woman who has secret ties with the leader of SHOCKER. Together they need to stop SHOCKER from taking over the world!
The editing and storyboard of the first half of the story is very disorientated, kinda like Shin Ultraman where Anno is trying to speedrun a few TV episodes in one hour. You have the classic Anno exposition where characters spit out paragraphs of exposition in seconds like they are self-aware. The movie does pick up in the middle and I find myself quite invested in the relationship between Hongo and Ruriko. The villain is a bit confusing but I like how the movie ends with “the hero need to keep fight evil towards the end”, it has the perfect Showa vibe.
Fight scene ranges from absolutely amazing practical effects to hot pile of CGI dogshit. The costume designs are really cool and I like how tangible they look. The “Good” fight scenes are basically recreations of the 70s TV effect with modern technology, it is pretty dope. And the whole movie is actually shot on iPhone.
Overall Shin KR is definitely the most “arthouse” self-indulgent one in the Shin trilogy, it makes sense because this is fully written and directed by Anno. While Shin Godzilla is co-directed with Shinji Higuchi and Ultraman is solo-directed by Shinji Higuchi. You can definitely feel the influence of Higuchi in the Shin franchise where he is responsible for holding back weird ideas from Anno and make the movie approachable to the mass audience. Unsurprisingly, Shin KR also have the lowest box office in the franchise.