Reviews

I really don't understand the hatred this movie gets. Let me start out by saying that I'm not really a Spiderman fan. My experience of Spidey came from the awesome PS1 Spiderman games, the 1994 Spiderman animated series and the Raimi movies. With that being said, Rise of Electro is one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. I'd put it up there with Winter Soldier, the First Avenger, Blade and even the Raimi Spider-Man films.

Andrew Garfield does a pretty good performance as Spidey, balancing emotion with excellent comedic timing. Emma Stone is wonderful as Gwen Stacy. Jamie Foxx is an excellent and quite sympathetic villain, even if he is pushed to the sidelines a little by Harry Osborn. The movie actually makes you care for all the characters, even Harry Osborn. And I'd be lying if I said Gwen's death didn't knock me on my ass, because of how shockingly gruesome it is for a PG-13 movie and because I would've thought they'd let her live.

I really liked what they did with the source material, updating concepts like The Rhino and Electro without taking out too much. Plus, I genuinely feel that this movie pulls off the 'hero rises from the ashes' storyline much better than Dark Knight Rises.

Is it perfect? No. But is it a good superhero movie? Hell yeah, it is.

Now this is sentai done right. I love this series from the bottom of my heart, and it's a crying shame that sentai isn't following this show's example more often. And on the plus side, it's better than most of the stuff on TV nowadays.

The characters are all likable an relatable, to the point where even Colon, the robot ally is given a tragic episode where she falls in love with a Jinmer, only for him to die horribly at the hands of VOLT. Even the villains are just as human as the main protagonists, to the point that when they each die off, you'll cry buckets over them. Even the ones in rubber suits, like poor Butchy. But my favorite character is Megumi, otherwise known as Blue Dolphin. She isn't like many female senshi, she's emotional, sure, but she's also sympathetic and by the end of it you just want to give her and her friends a hug. Oh, and Doctor Arashi was bleeding' hardcore!

The special effects are just awesome, even by 2013 standards. Sure, the morphing sequence isn't as detailed as later shows, but it gets the job done. The fight scenes are really darn good, emphasizing martial arts and wire-work over CGI.

The music is pure 80s' rock that sets the mood perfectly, my favorite tracks being the opening, by the red senshi Daisuke Shima, the theme for Live Boxer and Knock! Nekkyo No Live, both done by Kouji Kaya.

And the writing is absolutely superb, giving not only the heroes depth, but also delivering some pretty entertaining, and admittedly tragic stuff. It's probably the darkest, most mature take on Sentai ever. Even the filler episodes are extremely well done, including one where a time- traveling monster snatches a dinosaur from prehistoric times and it bonds with a human child ala ET. Or one where Dr. Obler's back story is revealed and he loses his humanity in front of his mother.

But whoever's reading this review, please watch this show! It is is one of my favorite TV shows to date, and I will explain why.

The visual effects are amazing, even in 2012. There's a lot of cool effects that the show uses to its' advantage, from the grainy stock footage to the elaborate sets-including Ghost Bank, which must have been a pain to maintain in working order for 39 episodes. Even when the show cuts corners, it's done well and quickly to compensate for the limited budget.

The costumes are simply awesome, from the organic textures of the Monster Army, to the Robot Warrior Army's steam punk aesthetic, and even the main character's costume are well detailed and look surprisingly realistic when compared to its' contemporaries like Super Sentai or Kamen Rider.

The main character, Tsurugi Ryusei, is a rarity these days. Not only is he very likable, but incredibly relatable, we begin to care for him and want him to win every time, though he has to work his way up from the bottom and up to the top in every episode, making his struggle feel all the more compelling. He's like Clark Kent-mild mannered when in civilian form, but incredibly bad-ass in his Metalder form. And the best part is that he doesn't kill all of his enemies in cold blood, preferring to let them live instead of proving himself to be no better than Neros. Even characters like Mai Ogi, the April O'Neil of the show, is surprisingly sympathetic and relatable, yet has her own quirks. Then there's Top Gunder, the most bad-ass character to fire a rifle, and a personal favorite of mine.

But the villains are my favorite part; there's so many characters to choose from, each one with their own subplots, personalities and agendas. My favorites would have to be Hedogross, Rhapsody and Bigwayne. Hedogross was someone I wanted to just give a hug, he came across as pathetic, yet he tries to make a life for his beloved Wisdom-and his death made me cry because it felt pointless, like a waste of life. Bigwayne's episode was my favorite, the story of an old veteran trying to desert his former life, only to be killed trying to protect his best friend teared me up because I felt for him. And Rhapsody was someone I genuinely wanted to survive; he wasn't evil, he just wanted his music to be heard rather than exploited.

Of course, that's not changing the fact that this series is incredibly dark and depressing, with characters dying frequently, Metalder having to face the consequences of his actions, the realistic atmosphere, the mostly gray morality and even implications that the only true monster is God Neros, the only villain who has a human face. Even his motivation to destroy the world via causing a third world war is some messed up stuff.

Is this show perfect? Nearly. Is it worth a watch? Definitely! You can find a full box set on Ebay incredibly easy, and I highly recommend it. This is how you write a mature, dark story, and I loved every minute of it. The tension, tone, excitement, and writing style are all incredibly unique and you won't find another like it.

This movie may be the worst movie of 2012.

First off, I would like to say that nothing is explained in this movie. Allow me to list them by order;

1. Why is Marvelous leading the Zangyuack forces against the Kamen Riders for no reason when we saw him on the Gokai Galleon in the last episode. Also, why is Decade the leader of Shocker for the third damn time already? Hasn't he realized now that whenever he pulls that s@#t it never-ever works out.

2. Why is Black Cross King a lackey, why is Warz Gill alive, why is Doras-or Crisis, for that matter-serving Tsukasa for the second time? Come to think of it, why is Narutaki a villain for the second time?

3. Why, in all that is good and holy, did Toei need to waste five minutes of screen time by introducing some half-arced time-traveling plot line-only for it to be Decade and Marvellous, which renders that entire scene f%$@$in pointless!

4. Why did the villains need Marvellous and Decade if they were going to kill them anyway? Oh, and more importantly, why didn't the Gokaigers-who served alongside Marvellous many times before-know that their god-damn captain went missing, when he was with them in the last episode?!

5. And finally-why-in all things sacred-does Kaito think it's a good idea to merge the two ships together and turn against the others when he was the protagonist for the entire movie up until that point.

Aside from that, the writing sucks on toast, with far too many characters to count, a nonsensical plot centering around Marvelous and Tsukasa playing 'kick-the-can' with two of the greatest franchises in television history, Joe, Kaito and Don all acting completely out-of character, advertising that points out the frocking obvious whilst having the supposed main characters- Fourze and Go-Busters-do absolutely nothing and a useless damsel-in-distress who does jack-all and you have an over-hyped, underdeveloped, nonsensical pile of trash!

My opinion-Avoid at all Costs.