[Rating: 6.5/10]

Throw in and mix a messianic prophecy, an age old war between light and dark, and a bunch of people in a diner in the middle of nowhere and you get Legion.

The main reason I went to watch this movie is because I have an interest in angel/demon lore. I had read extremely mixed reviews on it, most of them were not very good I must admit, but I’m not one for turning down a movie just based on reviews so I decided to give it a go. After watching it, I have to say the premise actually had a lot of potential and there were some memorable bits, some good and not so (the old woman in the trailer was the creepiest thing in the whole film, do not like…). Okay, so let’s start with the positive: I liked the character of Michael, who was probably the saving grace of them film, that and his epic battle with Gabriel, who in contrast was rather disappointingly portrayed. I also like the image of archangels being war hardened soldiers who are still beautiful at the same time but in the chiseled, powerful way. I mean, while pretty boys are not a bad thing, in reality I think god’s army would be pretty well-formed from constantly fighting over the centuries. The bullet proof wings were very awesome. So in that aspect I think the producers were on track.

However, the main thing that griped me about the angelic host… why are only the archangels human-like and the rest of the army like some demonic spawn with no form of their own, not to mention horribly ugly and shrieky. They more reminded me of one of those zombie hoardes more than anything else, especially how they attacked their victims and their vacant walk and expressions. Also what was with the expandable limbs… I guess the people who made this film wanted a somewhat shock-and-awe-bending-convention thing going on but it just did not work for me at all. Also with regards to Gabriel and Michael, it would make more sense if their positions had been reversed. Another this that irked me was the overuse of the story of Jesus and the portrayal of God… While I consider myself a fairly religious person, poorly adapted plotlines of religious stories that don’t show any research are what make people get the wrong impressions of the religion, no matter what religion it may be. I quote this review that sums up how I feel about this aspect
Here’s the thing about God. He either needs to be treated with reverence or lampooned without mercy. Either he’s entirely responsible for all we hold dear or a goofy figment of fairy tale bamboozlement. There’s no middle ground. There can‘t be a middle ground. Legion‘s attempts to be both a goofy, foul-mouthed, cliché-ridden horror film and a judgmental, humanity-has-ruined-itself-with-free-will epic. Legion’s portrayal of a God who has totally given up hope and wants to destroy everything he has created is rather unbelievable. I also don’t like portrayals where God is all angry and wrathful. The show seemed confused as to whether it was horror or fantasy as the trailer made it look more horror.

Another reeding feature would have to be the secondary cast, as to tell the truth, Jeep had totally no personality, even his father, Bob was more developed, as well as the other patrons of the diner. Charlie, the heroine was a little better a but she didn’t do much as everyone was more or less just protecting her. I also quite liked the relationship between the Anderson family, in particular between the mother and daughter. They gave the show some psychological depth at least. I was sad at Audrey’s death. I don’t believe that they needed to kill off everyone just to get the obvious story’s point across.

Anyway, this show had quite a bit of potential but too bad it didn’t deliver as I hoped. Still, it wasn’t as bad as to sink into my list of movies I wish I didn’t spend my time on. My wallet just cries a little at paying full movie admission as I would not have minded watching this on rental dvd or as flight entertainment.

[Rating: 7.5/10]

Genre: tokusatsu, action, drama

Tsukasa Kadoya is a wandering photographer who suffers from memory loss. He cannot remember his past or where he comes from, but he holds the power to transform into the masked rider known as Decade, who is apparently fated to be the destroyer of worlds. As he traverses through the many alternate worlds and eliminates the foes within each, each step seems to take him closer to what has been foretold…

If there were such a thing as a visual encyclopedia for the Kamen Rider series, this would be the movie version of it. Kamen Riders from present and yesterday ‘reuniting’ in this series will probably be either something you love or not. One thing I must say, it certainly opened my eyes to the whole rider universe and led me to seek out some older series I have missed, since I am relatively new to this franchise (my firsts being Kabuto and Den-O). One thing I liked was that each world and main rider(s) had a fair amount of screen time (at least 2-3 episodes each), and I was surprised to see fairly decent developed back stories to what has been happening in each world since the end of the various series. The only sad thing was that the original actors of the different are obviously either too busy or old to reprise their roles, which will disappoint the hardcore fans a little, but does not detract too much from show. I enjoyed watching Tsukasa grow as a character and find his ‘home’, and I think his friendship with Natsumi and Yusuke was pretty well developed. However the villain Narutaki was a bit of a disappointment, because in the end he didn’t really do much and he had so much omnimous build up compared to Apollo Geist and co. My favourite universes in the show were Blade, Hibiki, Kuuga, Ryuuki. While I liked the Samurai Shinkenger episode, I found it to be unnecessary (they probably just had it since the two shows were going on at the same time), and I saw not much point for the Amazon storyline – plus the guy who’s Amazon is rather annoying. There was quite a bit of Kiva crossover as Wataru was a bit of a messenger/advisor, but at that point I didn’t really understand as I had never watched Kiva before, so maybe I may have to rewatch decade now that I have. Daiki is another character I could’ve done without as he didn’t serve much purpose.

I have also watched the movie All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker. While it answered the questions left in the series’s cliffhanger ending, I felt it could have been much more developed character and plotwise, as it was basically just a battlefest of Decade vs. everyone else, and then vs. the main baddies. The movie was also a tad too short and felt rushed throughout. That said, I guess we should take into consideration that most of the target audience are children, but why is it that the opinion is that children can’t have an attention span longer than a certain amount of time? I would think if it’s something they really enjoy, they could sit there a bit longer.

Overall, Kamen Rider Decade is a solid tokusatsu series and is something I would recommend as a taster to someone who would like somewhere to start with, since there have been so many seasons out already. It’s really like an overview of everything that has happened so far, as it is the commerative 10th Kamen Rider series. It an example of the possibility of a successful crossovers. The soundtrack is also quite decent.

You’re also probably going to remember this quote after watching 31 episodes~ “I’m just a passing by Kamen Rider.”

[Rating: 7/10]

Genre: Tokusatsu, Action, Mystery?, Romance

Wataru is the teenage son of Kurenai Otoya, a brilliant violinist and playboy. Kiva is a hero who protects the human race from the soul sucking monsters known as the Fangire. And then you have Yuri, a member of a secret organisation who hunts said monsters. Just what is the connection between all of them? The story unfolds over a twenty year period…

This is my first Kamen Rider series review here although it’s not the first I have watched. Ever since I discovered them I’ve been pretty hooked, because to me it’s like Power Rangers meets Ultraman but for adults (that is, with darker, more mature themes). It took me two watchings of the first couple of episodes before I could proceed with Kiva, because of the each episode being half set in 2008/the present and the other half in 1986, and the flow wasn’t always smooth so it was a little confusing at first. Also there were quite a number of characters and incarnations (sort of) of characters. That said, once I got the used to the time switches and understood more of the story as it was revealed I grew to like it better as it went along.

I like that the characters were pretty well fleshed out, except for Otoya who I wanted to hit/strangle half the time, yet I couldn’t help but like him and his eccentric ways to a certain extent. I think for me the female cast were the standouts of the show, and while they may have seemed rather stereotypical at first, I enjoyed watching their stories unfold and their characters develop, my favourite being Megumi, the other girls were likeable but the became a bit of train wrecks at end which was disappointing, considering how strong they started off. I’m glad Yuri ended up happy later though. The only female I did not take to was Shizuka, who was rather annoying most of the time. I felt she was rather extra and served more for a plot device. Amongst the male characters I found Bishop most intriguing, I’d like to have known more about his past and the 3 Arms Monsters, Jiro, Ramon and Rikki were pretty awesome. Bishop’s actor, Murata Mitsu has pretty good stage presence, he costume and makeup were pretty creepy but somehow compelled you to want to look at him. I didn’t really care much for Nago but started warming up to him halfway through~ I thought his relationship with Megumi was quite cute. Wataru was a pretty likeable character as well, though I found his personality change near the end pretty sudden, even if the events were leading up to it. The Fangire being inspired by stain-glass designs were rather pretty, probably the most attractive monsters in the Kamen Rider franchise that I know of (the Worms in Kabuto were pretty ugly buggers). The effect where the Fangire patterns would show on the human form came out quite nice.

The method of storytelling for Kiva was quite unique, and while confusing added a lot of interesting things to the show – it’s rare for back stories to be in such depth, let alone take up half of each episode (and effectively the series). I like how everything and everyone was related to each other though I think the overall execution could have been a little smoother and more coherent. It seemed rather experimental at times. I’d recommend this show to Kamen Rider and Sentai fans who are already fans or familiar with this sort of show, but for someone watching this genre for the first time, I’d probably recommend another series as 48 episodes is quite a feat to sit through~

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

[Rating: 7.5/10]

Genre: Action, Sci-fi

Following the victory of the Autobots, Sam Witwicky aims to put his ‘save the world’ days in the past and focus his new college life and girlfriend. However, he comes into contact with a remaining piece of the AllSpark and starts to see weird symbols everywhere… This doesn’t look too good, especially with the revalation that an enemy known as The Fallen is coming to earth to get his revenge on the remaining descendants of the Prime family…

I must say that I enjoyed this movie compared to the first. The storyline in this one had a bit more depth even though it was still very predictable. And the characters had more development. Mikaela is a strong and independant female character, and I felt that she outshone Sam, who still remained pretty much the same.  Former agent Simmons probably surprised me the most. Even though he was there more for comic-relief, he was actually one of the more outstanding characters, and I shall remember him climbing that pyramid and the destruction of Devastator for some time. Sam’s parents were also given more air-time in this film and they were rather endearing to watch even though his mother was a little cooky.

As usual the visual effects were stunning. Jetfire was my favourite robot in this one, and I was right with my intial assumption of him (that he would end up helping them in a big way despite being a former decepticon). Bumblebee was cute as he was in the first movie. The only annoyances I had with this movie were Leo (he was very whiny, but then again I guess you can’t blame him, he was just thrown into all that). And also the part where Sam set out to find the old transformers was a little deceiving. I was expecting him to go and look for more or most of the old transformers from their various hiding places (like Jetfire) and gather them into a little army for a bit of a showdown at the end. The final battle between Megatron and The Fallen was rather short as well, though I like that they showed more of Major Lennox and his men, instead of just focus on Sam and the robots. Megatron looked really cool with the added power from Jetfire – it was such a pity Jetfire died, I’d have liked to see more of him, he’s like the token crazy old man but with a good heart (though in this case crazy old robot).

This movie was definitely an improvement from the first, which makes me excited for future installments~

[Rating: 4.5/10]

Genre: Action, Fantasy

For his eighteenth birday, Goku’s grandfather gives him a mystical object known as a dragon ball. When Piccolo, an evil alien from outerspace invades the earth, Goku finds himself on a quest to reunite all seven dragon balls in existance, for it is only their combined power that can defeat Piccolo and save humanity.

Yeah, it’s pretty straightforward, nothing to burst a braincell for, and I can here the fans of the original anime and manga series crying out injustice! However, we must keep in mind that it is a Hollywood re-make of a Japanese anime, placed in a futuristic sort of American setting, not some bygone era of Japan, and it was condensed for the early teen crowd, possibly for viewers even younger, so looking at it from that point of view, it was actually pretty decent. Not fantabulous but alright for something that is targeted to a certain group of people. And before anyone starts bashing me for even daring to call it decent, my decent means borderline, or close to just passing. It is not meant to be an adaptation for a more mature audience, such as The Ring or Ju-On: The Grudge. This is like Americanizing Power Rangers (which if you didn’t know, was actually a Japanese series), except Power Rangers got the airtime for a whole series and more, whereas Dragon Ball Evolution got a movie of a little more than an hour and a half. The storyline of DBE is simple and straightforward, alot of the ‘awe’ factor is reliant on fast happening action sequences and special effects. I do have to admit Emmy Rossum did much better as Bulma than her wide-eyed doey role in The Phantom of the Opera. Her bike was very spiffy. How convienient would it be to have automobiles that could fit into your pocket? No need to worry about parking and exorbidant fees that come with parking. One of my main gripe was that they could have extended the movie a little longer. The final battlescene was extremely anticlimatic, lasting too short to take in, after all that build-up you’d expected the showdown to be a few minutes longer, and more specular. And the cut-scene at the end? Does that mean there’s a sequel? I doubt I’d be willing to pay another $10 (thank god for discounts) to watch the next show. I wish they’d understand that one show by itself is good enough, but they want the money so it can’t be helped. No point complaining about it. Just don’t watch it if you don’t want to, that’s all. Next grip is the script. The script is one of the most cliche and uninteresting scripts I’ve ever come across. Even though I’ve never seen the actual Dragon Ball anime, I’m sure it would be wittier than that (but it is a kid’s anime, so…)… but this just redefined overused, with a capital ‘O’. It could be a script for ‘Superhero movie’ for all I know (like Date Movie and Scary Movie). Honestly, even if I was a kid I’d not have thought much of it. Sure it was at least somewhat entertaining and it had some nice effects but that was about it. And Chi Chi? Pretty girl but Extra much?