Super Hero Taisen Kamen Rider feat. Super Sentai: Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider (2014) User Reviews

Nostalgia overload

[agentyang · 5/10 · 17 November 2020]

Heisei vs Showa is about riders fighting riders all while the Badan Empire hatches up an evil scheme. MUAHAHAH

Ahem... Anyways. When it comes down to the purpose of the movie, it serves more of a nostalgic/fan service movie instead of a movie with you know... an actual plot, character development, and movie score. The thing about the tokusatsu franchise in general is that they do not care about continuity at all. It's always in a different universe or alternate timeline. One thing I learned about watching any tokusatsu movies/shows is that you should not expect continuity. Ahem (DC Comics 3 Jokers) Ahem. One thing I also want to talk about is the use of another kamen rider to be a villain. I understand that the lore behind kamen riders are that they were originally created to be a bad guy BUT that does not mean the over use of the same device. It gets boring. Kamen Rider 15s villain role is a cliche role. He becomes bad to bring back his loved ones and then there's kamen riders doing kamen rider things. The BIGGEST problem I have with this movie is not the continuity. Not the horrible villains or plot holes... It was the ENDING! OH MY GOSH! I was flabbergasted. I was shocked at how lazy it was written. Like... WTF WAS THATS?! (sighh) With all the confused emotions aside, It was nice to see some of the showa actors come back to reprise their roles which made me smile like a kid again. I thoroughly was entertained by this movie. Its not a perfect movie but it definitely is Kamen Rider.

Action-packed all-star Kamen Rider mash-up

[BrianDanaCamp · 4 September 2017]

HEISEI RIDER VS. SHOWA RIDER: KAMEN RIDER TAISEN FEAT. SUPER SENTAI (2014) was evidently not well-liked in Japan, as reported in the "Reception" section of Wikipedia's page for this film, nor by longtime stateside fans of Kamen Rider, judging by the one previously published IMDb review for this title. I happened to enjoy it a great deal, but I can understand why Kamen Rider devotees would balk at it. Just think how American Batman fans would react if there had been a movie around 2005 where all previous and then-present incarnations of Batman showed up on screen together in costume, a lineup that would include Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale, and out popped the original TV Batman, Adam West, also in costume, but as a bad guy leading a fight against the later Batmans. It wouldn't have bothered me, but I don't think it would have gone over well with die-hard Batman fanboys. However, my exposure to Kamen Rider over the decades has been limited to sample episodes from a handful of different seasons, occasionally in subtitled form, but more often in Japanese with no subs. So I don't have much emotional investment in this franchise. My interest in a film like this is purely in witnessing the visual spectacle of dozens of Kamen Riders and various monster antagonists slugging it out in effects-filled martial arts battles staged almost entirely on actual locations in and around Tokyo. And this film more than delivers on that promise.

The copy I have of this does not have subtitles, so I used a synopsis from Wikipedia to help me keep a score card as to who's who among the many and varied Kamen Riders. It left out a lot of major details, so I'm not sure I could adequately sum up the plot if asked to. For instance, if there are good reasons why the older Showa Riders (Hirohito era) would turn against the younger Heisei Riders (Akihito era), they're not really evident from the synopsis. Or the actual reasons could just be as lame as they sound. Japanese fans insisted that the older Showa Riders acted completely out of character and I can understand that, although I'm wondering if it was simply the choice of the filmmakers to present a generational divide between the era when older and tougher looking actors were cast in the Kamen Rider roles, e.g. Hiroshi Fujioka, the original Kamen Rider from 1971, who has a role here, and the more recent 21st century versions where the Kamen Rider actors all look and sound like refugees from J-pop boy bands. Of course, once they're in costume, it's all stunt men of about the same age and build taking a whack at each other.

If, like me, you're an aficionado of Tokyo locations, there is much to savor here. A lot of the locations seemed fresh to me and I speak as someone who's seen dozens of sentai episodes, which generally use a lot of the same locations as Kamen Rider episodes. On my trip to Japan last year, I even visited some of the commonly-used locations. In this film, there was one sprawling office plaza early in the film that hosted a major battle and I wish I knew where it was. Midway through the film, when the boy, Shu, remembers where he lives and takes one of the young Kamen Riders with him to see it, it's in a sparkling clean, seemingly brand-new suburban development, complete with a beautiful bridge and park in the middle of the place. Sure enough, the bad guys show up and a major fight breaks out in this picture-perfect setting. The climactic battle involving warring factions of Kamen Riders and the monsters from the Badan Empire takes place in a wide modern plaza somewhere in Odaiba with the modernist Chuo-Ohashi bridge in the background. The action even shifts to the bridge at one point. The high point is when the underground base of the Badan Empire emerges to the surface, smashing through various landmarks of the site. It's all quite spectacular and offers much excitement and imagination. To make things even better, the Super Sentai participants include the Ressha Sentai Toqger team and the Red Ranger from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, along with his red T-Rex Zord. Their Zord combination is really clever and I only wish there had been more shots of it in action. I'm sorry that Kamen Rider purists are put off by this film, but the rest of us can just wallow in the colorfully costumed heroes and villains on display and their furious exchanges of blows and sword thrusts, plus the occasional effects-created combat tactics. Some of the Riders even have hand devices that can turn into motorcycles. (Paging Capsule Corporation!)

Don't Even Bother Watching This Movie!!

[xgray-03873 · 1/10 · 21 February 2017]

This movie is without a doubt, one of the worst, and I mean, the worst Kamen Rider movie that I've ever seen in my entire life. Not just as a fan of Tokusatsu, but a member of the human race. All these actors that were brought back together to reprise their roles, shouldn't have taken this offer or paychecks to even be in this movie. All the pacing was wrong, the fight choreography and stunt work was bad, the writing and directing was just terrible.

I did not want to think of Hiroshi Fujioka's Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider #1 as a villain from this movie, I wanted to remember him as a hero. Like in the movie, "Kamen Rider #1 (2016)". That was good movie, despite it flaws. But this?! this is just an embarrassment. Not only that....they immediately altered the events of Kamen Rider 555/Faiz in this movie to make me feel sorry for the absolute most hated character in the show?! *pfft!* Get the Hell out of here with that excuse of bad writing.

Overall, I did not like Kamen Rider Taisen, it was too painful for me to watch and I'd highly recommend watching better Kamen Rider movies like "Paradise Lost", "The Missing Ace" or even "Movie Taisen Megamax". I don't ever want to think about or revisit this movie ever again.

1 out of 10

Go to Hell, Shoji Younemura!!

A fanboy Circle Jerk

[Magixx-twoday · 3/10 · 28 February 2020]

After the Fiasco that was All Riders vs Daishocker and many more, we have yet another Rider crossover movie no one asked for.

Toei for the love of god, Please stop making these movies!!

Where do i even start?

I Seriously don't think i have ever seen a more poorly executed crossover in all my life, And given 40 years of Rider History that's really saying something, The Idea of Showa vs Heisei was a bad idea from the start, its simply a poorly written, poorly executed fan fiction written to serve fanboys.

The movie for one is so unbelievably chaotic, its all over the place, continuity flies out the window again and again with unexplained characters appearing and history being changed, it jumps back and forth between plots and will confuse the heck out of you.

Hongo Takeshi, the role model for all riders and ultimate warrior of justice, has apparently turned evil and is suddenly leading the Showa Riders in a crusade against Heisei Riders because......

The Badan Empire is kind of just there to shove a story down our throats between some dead kid and his father, Of course for villains we have the usual suspects that have been in the last 10 Movies since All riders vs Daishocker.

The ToQger and Kyoryuger stuff was just dumb and came basically out of nowhere, I was banging my head against the wall the whole time.

And of course worst of all, Decade and Narutaki continuing the same Shtick they have been doing since the Decade show itself Originally Aired....

For positives There were some nice moments especially the stuff between Jin and Takumi, Seeing Futo and Shoutaro again (Without Phillip!!), even ZX makes a nice cameo for like one scene before being completely forgotten about and cast into the background.

I give it 3/10, 1 for bringing back familiar faces, another 1 for the casts efforts, and 1 for the nice moments i mentioned before, other than that this movie has very little to offer except some poor fan service, The story is forgettable the characters are forgettable, its trying to do too much in little time, It feels it should have been 4 separate movies instead of this.