Kamen Rider: The First (2005)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

One of my all time favorites.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

When I first saw the cover of this film, I was really surprised with it since but also extremely happy since it was like a dream come true for me. Kamen Rider has been childhood hero since I was 6 and I'm still very fond of themTo get to this film, I have to stay that it was good but everything just seemed to be like going just too fast and it was more like the creators were focusing on Hongo more than Ichimoji rather than having both of the riders fight along side by side together most of the time. Apart form that, there were also a lot of parts which were not explained in the film like Kamen Rider 2's background, where did he get his bike and what was his real connection to Katsuhiko However, these flaws did not stopped KR : THE FIRST from being a great movie. The love triangle plot between Hongo, Asuka and Ichimoji was great and I really liked the part when Kamen Rider 1 saved Asuka from the spider monster defeating him in the process. The final fight was also great and I really like the choreography crew who worked out so well in making the fights very entertaining. The ending with KR 1 carrying Asuka in his arms on the beach in the end was really romantic indeed (as well as the one when they were riding together on Hongo's bike Overall, Kamen Rider THE FIRST is a great film and should be enjoyable for all the fans and its even better than its sequel THE NEXT. Its definitely something for the fans to enjoy

Watching "Kamen Rider the First" is a refreshing way for me to be reintroduced into the series that started it all: the original adventures of Takeshi Hongo and his partner-in-crime-busting Hayato Ichimonji. After all, I was only knowledgeable of the series from Black onwards.Contrary to the position that this was a lame excuse to create a ripoff movie, this presentation of the original plot is, according to the people involved themselves, more than a remake: it is a re-imagination of the plot, giving it a much more darker twist but still containing elements of the original show.Looking at the production: cast, costumes and probably everything else, anyone who witnessed the original Kamen Rider and is open enough to so-called "upgrades" would appreciate the movie very well. After all, though Kamen Rider the First is still most probably targeted for kids, it indeed also included the original viewers who are now most likely adults and are ready to witness darker themes. Basically, this is what Shin intended to project: unfortunately, the disturbing graphic content offed even adults. We might be even able to say that The First is Kamen Rider's successful attempt to cater to both kids and adults, accomplishing what Shin did not.To be candid about it, the movie tells the story of Hongo as not a saved-at-the-last-minute brainwashing to-be-victim but as someone who was turned into a puppet of evil but was redeemed before doing more damage to others and to himself as well. And Ichimonji is not the kidnapped-to-be-brainwashed that he was in the series, but, again, an "almost Shadow Moon-like figure" through Hongo's fault as well, but also someone who finally became a hesitant ally. The movie also contains a subplot which does appear cheesy from the beginning and might make people wonder why it had to be included in the movie, but I have one thing to say about it: when you understand it after watching the movie, you might understand as well why there are Orphenochs like Yuji Kiba.I defy the initial review that the movie is crap: I hate to say this but probably there are some people who thinks gold is crap and vice-versa, that's why they bashed on this. Or maybe they are also on the same line as the idiotic purists who are against Hibiki. Kamne Rider the First is one worthy watch and is probably the best means for someone to be initiated into the real world of Kamen Rider.

To say the truth, I haven't watch the old version of kamen rider the first, so I can't say there is a difference in it. But I quite like it. I heard this movie was the remake version, and thought of going to Hong Kong to catch the movie, and turn out the cinema did not have it, but at least I went shopping and waited for the DVD. When I watched it, I realize that we should wait for the DVD to come out. You can just turn on your speaker loud and get some popcorn and sit down to watch. I don't despite the movie but I think the movie is a bit too short to watch it in the cinema. I don't know whether the old version is longer but the bad guys die too fast and the action scenes are ( I think) less than 5 minutes. Just the "whack!" the bad guys just flew off the screen, so maybe if there is another remake of it, I think they should improve the action scenes. But overall, the movie is worth a watch.

I had heard of this film only after witnessing the true horror that is the more recent series of the Kamen Rider franchise, most infused with far too much pretty-boy angsting by actors who are so poor they couldn't convincingly appear on a soup commercial, coupled with female leads whom we're apparently supposed to consider ingratiatingly cute but who, in fact, are at least as incompetent as their male counterparts in terms of acting. While the traditional Kamen Rider series may not have been masterpieces themselves, many of them at least managed to convey the darkly fascinating world in which the Kamen Rider series is rooted, and to boot they had excellent and exciting fights. Not so in this film, which purports to be an homage to the original Kamen Rider series. In fact, that claim couldn't be farther from the truth.As with many of the more recent Kamen Rider series, this film is one that falls flat on its face for the attempt to inject 'adult drama' into essentially a children's series. And as always, with 'adult drama', the 'drama' in question consists of rather puerile acts and activities, childish participants, and seemingly arbitrary angst that prevents more or less all of the characters involved from being anything approaching sympathetic or interesting. Any real character development is eschewed in favor of attempts at artsy shots and sequences (which the director never once manages to pull off successfully), contrived plot devices that have no basis in the original material this claims to pull from, or totally superfluous scenes that make this seem much longer than its 1.5 hour running time. And in that seemingly interminable time, not one plot point is resolved to any satisfactory conclusion. In my mind, that spells utter failure, and I find it unlikely that this little terror will be sequelized.As with other films of this director, who seems only able to disgrace old and well-respected series with his unimaginative plodding, the focus on the human angst in favor of things actually happening brings down the film considerably. When we do get the marked relief of someone actually fighting, it's over too quickly and usually comes off as boring and too CGed-up to be anything but gaudy and confusing. Further, as usual with this director, unwelcome changes are made to the already perfectly adequate source material and then hastily discarded partially through because, quite frankly, they don't work; perhaps he saw this and decided they should be done away with, but if so he shouldn't have included them in the first place. As usual, a shoddy job.The actors fit into the aforementioned mold of being physically attractive but not much else. Further, every time they're actually required to do anything physically demanding, it's patent that they have no idea what they're doing. They are entirely unconvincing doing anything that doesn't involve sitting around whining, which they don't even manage to do that well; the acting talent gulf in this is obvious when veteran actors, terribly underused and misused for this travesty of film, outshine the entire rest of the cast simply by appearing for a few minutes in a throwaway scene or two. Films like this shouldn't go to the trouble of getting older and respected actors involved with the franchise in question, because they're only potent reminders of superior works. If they believe that it will bring in fans of the original series, they can think again. And while I have nothing against feminine-acting men, I do wish the director had given a bit more direction to some of the main actors who were supposedly very close to some of the generic females that paraded across the screen; they seemed much more interested in each other. While that's not a bad thing in my opinion, we shouldn't then be expected to believe they have any relationship at all with these girls.Movement and so forth also managed to be amazingly awkward, with one scene sticking out where a girl faints in a way so unlikely that it made me laugh. Certainly not the intended tone for that scene, but it unfortunately wasn't the first or only incident of people moving or acting in ways that were incongruously unlikely and implausible. How exactly can people do this? It's through bad direction, and that makes the horrid director's taint on this even more laughably obvious.Honestly, I can only hope this talentless hack is barred from sullying the name of any other old and respected series. Kamen Rider has been slighted enough by the recent series purporting to be faithful to the original source material. They're hardly little more than asinine soap operas with some flashy costumes and the occasional fight. If you're going to claim that your film is a return to the original Kamen Riders' era and tone, at least try to capture it. If this incompetent horror had decided to do his own original Kamen Rider film, it still would've been terrible, but not quite as insulting as claiming he was trying to redo the original series. Anyone who wants a real idea of what the original Kamen Rider series were like should seek out those series and not this pathetic excuse for film-making.