MASKED RIDER: THE FIRST

Ret's Go! Raida Kicku!

The fact that I still actually like the old-generation Kamen Riders gives me an odd feeling. It was something I was supposed to leave behind me more than a decade ago. But honestly, what's not to love about the Rider Henshin poses? The incredibly combustible henchmen? The fact that their jump kicks aren't just jump kicks, but Rider Kicks? Seriously, to them, even the simple act of swimming absolutely must be called the Rider Swim. It even says so in one of their intro songs.

At any rate, all that good stuff is taken out of this movie, which is a remake, or perhaps just a modernization of the very first Rider series. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Nowadays, a jump kick is just a jump kick. Even so, people who whittled away their precious youth watching the Warriors of Justice defeat terrifying mutants such as Bat-Frankenstein and Utility Ladder Man would have liked to hear the Riders yell "Rider Kick!" at least once in the movie. Or I would, anyways. Just for old times' sake. I mean, c'mon, it's not THAT silly. Is it?

Rider Henshin? Baibai, gone. Utility Ladder Man? Absent. Is that a bad thing? Maybe, depending on what you expect in a modern remake. What they did leave behind, to my undying joy, is one of my all-time favorite villains: Shinigami Hakase, aka Doctor Death. I always felt that, out of all the evil leader characters that show up throughout the Rider series, he had the whole "villain" thing down pat. Aged and cranky, yet hale and hearty. Extremely old-fashioned, yet surprisingly charismatic. Complete with his ol' gravelly voice and his crooked grin, there's no better person they could have chosen to bring back from the dead. In comparison to him, almost every other villain was more of the grouchy-couch-potato-Dr-Claw archetype.

And the Riders themselves? Yes, I like their updated look. They're sleek. They're intimidating. They're actually distinguishable from a distance. I like how Takeshi Hongo starts off somewhat unsure of himself and his newly acquired powers. I liked how Hayato Ichimonji starts off being a complete jerk. What I don't like is how he has to make pouty faces just to make it REAL obvious that he's, you know, a bad dude and all.

If, by this point, you're completely lost about what I just said, then you probably never watched the Double Riders in action all those decades ago. I say it doesn't matter. Watch this movie.

It's shiny.

P.S. Look up Takao Nagaishi in IMDB. Honestly, with movies like those, what better person could they hire for a kid's show?

Director: Takao Nagaishi
Genre: Action
Year: 2005
Rating: 7.2/8
On DVD at HKFlix