I can't believe im saying this but this was honestly pretty bad. I mean fuck, the only reason why i actually watched the Saber show was to watch this movie, the movie that everyone said was the best V-Cine ever. So good that it made the show better.
But to be honest about it, the film is pretty bad.
Technical and Visuals wise yes the film looks good, no other KR film even comes close to the care that this film had with its lighting, cinematography and the like. But the story, and the villains honestly just disappoint, and it doesn't help that the action scenes itself aren't really that exciting either.
Two of the three main villains are shallow, boring and uninteresting characters while the 3rd one Yuina is only one who showed flashes of actual character and connection.
In all honesty this should've just been a Kento movie, his story is the one that makes the most sense here and the one that feels the most tragic. Why would i care about Mamiya when he isn't actually Touma's friend? and it's not like we see that friendship anyway, we only he see him running around attached to Touma and be scared of dogs. Same with Rintaro's dad, we don't actually see scenes of them actually bonding or Rintaro having any indication of struggle or regret in spending a childhood without a father/father figure. For Rintaro's part they honestly should have just leaned more on the burden of casualty and the loss of memories from the people he cares about.
But in Kento's case we actually get so much flashbacks and scenes of their relationship. So much so that it makes you wanna root for their relationship to actually stay. It's why his story is the only one that truly becomes tragic and emotional.
Still the film isn't all bad, there are scenes here that actually show flashes of its full potential. The scene with Rintaro having to face the burden of all the people that were sacrificed in their battles was actually done beautifully.
But that's all there really is, flashes of what it could have been.
The Show and Superhero Senki are both miles better than this. Im usually not this harsh when reviewing toku films because im very much aware of the budget and time constraints that these films have, and the tone shifts from psychological horror drama to standard toku is understandable because at the end of the day the goal of the film is to sell toys.
But because everyone hyped this up so much, my standards of what this film would present just got way too high.
I just left my seat filled with disappointment. I really wish i saw the film that everyone saw and hyped up, but unfortunately i just didnt.
