User reviews

The movie starts pretty strong, with a good fighting scene and the introduction of the Shin Kamen Rider who basically pays homage to the original Kamen Rider from 1971. Sadly, after the strong start, things started to go downhill slowly. The plot became cringy and the fan favorite Kamen Rider was more of a secondary character since they were focusing a lot on someone else.

When it comes to the fighting scenes, they weren't good, it's like they were inspired by animes like Dragon Ball Z and Nartuto, it doesn't sound too bad, but the CGI felt like I was playing a few years old PC game. Was it really that hard to make good fighting scenes like in the other Kamen Rider movies and shows?

The cast, the acting, the costumes, the bikes and the music were great, and the kid from The Last Samurai is actually our Kamen Rider.

Unfortunately, I wish I did something better with my time, compared to Shin Godzilla, the movie is a huge letdown. I'm giving it 5 stars because of the nostalgia factor and the positive things i mentioned above. It really pains to give such a low score to a Kamen Rider movie.

As the third of "Shin-" series, it is safe to say this title is much better than "Shin Ultraman" but way less developed than "Shin Godzilla" in terms of story, character and most importantly, relevance to the originals. My expectation had been low mainly because of the heart-broken experience in the disastrous parody of Ultraman by the multi-titles-holder Anno, thus the first sequence in this film surprised and even betrayed me a lot in a good way. Visual character designs are retrospective but fresh (almost as always), and battle scenes are exciting and speedy even though some parts are unrecognizable to see what is going on. If you can swallow some obnoxious fetishized scenes (a strong and straightforward woman& quiet but justice boy, rustic and long wordy scene, smell of woman for example) as his authenticity, it is recommendable.

Shin Kamen Rider (2023) is a movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a motorcycle racer who is kidnapped by a man who wants to take over the world. The motorcycle racer escapes but not before getting infected and turned into a super hero mutant driver. With his new powers he will try to stop his kidnapper from taking over the world.

This movie is directed by Hideaki Anno (Shin Godzilla) and stars Sôsuke Ikematsu (The Last Samurai), Minami Hamabe (Let Me Eat Your Pancreas), Tasuku Emoto (And Your Bird Can Sing) and Shin'ya Tsukamoto (Tokyo Fist).

The characters and universe for this picture are perfectly set up. The action scenes initially are great with fantastic kill scenes, gore, flying body parts, everything you'd want from a Kamen Rider picture. The villain had potential too. Unfortunately the content gets a bit too over the top, a bit too over done, and ran out of gas for me. I did enjoy watching it unfold, but it didn't have the same magic as Shin Godzilla.

Overall, this movie had enough worthwhile elements to make it worth a watch but isn't as good as Shin Godzilla. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend watching it once.

Shin Kamen Rider is a fun kitschy throwback to the1970s style tokusatsu genre, a meta re-telling of the Kamen Rider origin story, as part of his Shin Japan Heroes Universe tribute series.

Shin Kamen Rider is a silly piece of nostalgic cheese that might not be for everyone. Hideaki Anno's straight-faced direction will come off as a quirky spin exclusively for fans who grew up on the old Kamen Rider shows. However, first-timers may feel completely alienated trying to get in on the joke.

At its two-hour runtime, the script is episodic, equivalent to roughly four 30-minute episodes on TV, each complete with its villain.

The deadpan acting style that Hideaki Anno has maintained through these 3 Shin films remains an odd choice; the actors seem to be performing experimental theater or in a Yorgo Lanthimos film.

Every feeling the characters have is blatantly stated out loud, and as a result, the film feels more told than shown, focused on the plot, not the characters. I don't recall the acting in old Tokusatsu shows being this way, so it's not a matter of tribute. It's as if Anno is stripping these established cultural icons to their bare skeleton and just presenting them through chilled museum glass.

This cold bland performance style does work better here for Kamen Rider than in Godzilla or Ultraman. Anno builds in quiet meditative moments of the Kamen Rider contemplating his power and responsibilities that worked well. If deconstruction was indeed Hideaki Anno's goal, this is the closest he's achieved it.

The magic kicks in during the action sequences. The old-school special effects, monster makeup, and the theme song all work together and in these short moments, I was whisked away back to my childhood. It was a simpler time when watching actors don silly masks and fight stuntmen dressed in rubber monster costumes on TV was sufficient entertainment.

Once it gets going, it doesn't matter that it's cheesy, the effects are shoddy, or that Kamen Rider uses the same technique to finish off the monsters every time. Those moments are quite fun.

Everything else in between, however, is quite the endurance test.

This is a very old-school tribute to the Kamen Rider character or that is what I felt from watching this without actually knowing the history. The way the design of the suit and action scenes can be directly placed in the 70s and won't make a difference is immediately juxtaposed with the amount of bloody violence and the introspection about it that comes right after that. There are a lot of themes that are very familiar through Anno's previous works but it never felt anything more than surface level. For the most part, it felt like a straight-up superhero story that is low-budget. But the episodic entry of characters, the monologues about happiness etc feels like it needs more time to have any heft to it amongst this campy action. As someone who doesn't have any idea about the character, this felt like it would have worked a lot better as an anime series. A lot of it is directed like an anime with the kind of shots and dialogues used but as it is not an anime, it doesn't have the same power. Also, the action would have been cooler and the cool music would have suited more in anime form.

This is coming from a non-fan, better known as normie: I think it's pretty enjoyable to watch from start to finish because the movie almost didn't give me room to breath like, dude it's full of action from the Toho logo to credits! Since I'm a non-fan, the things that bother the original fans so much pass me by like wind through canyons, so hey feel free to roast me if you want. CGI didn't bother me that much like in Anno's previous two shins, I mean I could still catch what's going on. Practical effect done rightfully even brutal in some parts, like blood splattering all over the place. I wonder if Anno already had plan to make another shin series of another Japanese IP after this. Shin-Super Sentai anyone?

7.5/10.

Yesterday evening when I discovered this was having an unauthorised (and I'm fairly certain illegal) screening at my local cinema this afternoon, my jaw hit the floor, but I am far from complaining. While he left our beloved Shinji Higuchi to handle directing duties on Shin Ultraman, Anno focused his efforts on Shin Kamen Rider and it's very much cut from the same cloth as its predecessors. Fast, stylish, cartoony and oh-so-charming, it opens with action and never slows down, not even afraid to fully embrace the camp and horrific qualities of its source material.

I'll admit this is the tokusatsu property I am least familiar with (at the time of writing I've seen ZO, J, Shin Prologue and, more substantially, Den-O and Fuuto PI), but even to a more casual fan of the series, you can easily follow what is ultimately re-imaged episodes of the original show stitched together into a movie. I'm yet to watch the original but the number of side-by-sides I was seeing on Twitter after clips of it were leaked, shows that Anno really does take pride in his childhood influences.

Hyped stylised like the previous Shin movies, there's some very overbearing and pretty redundant CGI in places where practical effects would have been preferable and even cheaper, but it fits the same tone and energy of its predecessors. Anno's direction is great and features the same variety of angles and strange composition choices that make these so visually engaging. The hyper-choreographed fight scenes also help immensely, unafraid to go all the way to 11 with squishy violence.

With regular Anno collaborator Shiro Sagisu committed to Shin Ultraman, in steps Anime composer Taku Iwasaki and boy, does he do a stand-up job. I'm definitely gonna have to get the soundtrack to this the moment it's released, so many styles of music all coming together in a seamless blend of beauty.

While I ultimately feel that Shin Ultraman is the best of these Shin movies so far, Shin Kamen Rider is a very close second. Anno goes hell for leather here, amounting to a beautiful love letter to one of the grandfathers of Tokusatsu, having fun but not poking fun and fully embracing his inhuman worldview he's only ever touched upon in previous movies.

I enjoyed the movie overall, when it comes to the original Kamen Rider I have only read the manga, I enjoyed a lot of the references and knowing that the story would be just 1 movie I knew that not all my favourite parts would be included.

The special effects are not Hollywood modern levels, but overall they didn't take away my enjoyment.

I think if you are a fan of the super hero genre and a fan of Japanese stories this is a must watch movie.

I do hope that we get a continuation of this story in the future.

Don't go into it expecting it to be the best movie ever made as some people seem to think it would be, but a Japanese crazy hero movie and you will enjoy it for what it is.

I have to admit that I wasn't harboring any expectations at all when I sat down to watch the 2023 Japanese superhero movie "Shin Kamen Raidâ" (aka "Shin Masked Rider"). I was only familiar with this movie by its title and from the mask worn by the main character. However, I haven't seen the Anime, so I am not really familiar with this character or the universe in which the story takes place.

However, I must say that a movie such as "Shin Kamen Raidâ" is somewhat of an acquired taste, and I think you need to be Japanese and having grown up with these type of strange superheroes in order to enjoy their movies. I found very little entertainment in the script that writers Hideaki Anno and Shotaro Ishinomori had put together. And I made it about 50 minutes through the 121 minute runtime, and then I just tossed the towel in the ring. I had found nothing enjoyable in the movie, and it was quite a struggle to keep focus on what happened on the screen, as I just simply didn't care one bit about the story or the characters.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I am sure that the actors and actresses put on good performances. I just didn't take a liking to the character gallery in "Shin Kamen Raidâ".

Visually then "Shin Kamen Raidâ" was an okay movie. Not top of the line special effects, but definitely good enough.

My rating of "Shin Kamen Raidâ" lands on a three out of ten stars. And having made it 50 minutes through the ordeal, I can honestly say that I am not returning to attempt finish watching "Shin Kamen Raidâ".

Overall : B+ Story : B Art : A Music : B.

Like with Shin Ultraman-the last tokusatsu re-imaging penned by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno-Shin Kamen Rider feels like it should have been a mini-series rather than a movie. The film is split into five distinct acts, each with its own largely self-contained plot and a mutant cyborg to be defeated. Unfortunately, the 120-minute nature of the film means that not all of them get the time they need. This is most apparent at the start of the film, where the origin of Kamen Rider, the backstory exposition dump, and the first big battle are all crammed into the first 15 minutes.

Overall, Shin Kamen Rider is a solid film and a love letter to one of the grandfathers of tokusatsu TV shows. Clearly, everyone involved with this film had a real passion for their work and what came before. While it has problems in pacing due to its insistence on following an episodic format, it also has the best character work and emotional moments seen in any of the three "Shin" tokusatsu films. Whether you're a Kamen Rider fan or not, if you've enjoyed Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, or Shin Ultraman, this film is worth watching.

This movie is a disappointing experience, marred by subpar CGI and lackluster acting that detracts from any potential enjoyment. While the concept and plot had promise, the execution falls flat due to the glaring issues with visual effects and performances.

The CGI work in this film is nothing short of disastrous. From poorly-rendered creatures to awkwardly integrated green screens, the visual effects are jarring and take the audience out of the story. The lack of attention to detail in the CGI undermines the movie's attempts to create an immersive world, leaving viewers struggling to suspend disbelief.

The acting performances add to the film's woes. The cast, unfortunately, seems uninspired and disengaged, delivering their lines with little emotion or conviction. This lack of commitment to their roles makes it challenging for the audience to invest in the characters or care about their journey.

The combination of weak CGI and lackluster acting results in an overall sense of amateurishness that permeates the film. Instead of being drawn into the story, viewers are left cringing at the awkward visual effects and wooden performances.

Additionally, the film's plot, which could have been a redeeming factor, fails to make up for the glaring flaws in CGI and acting. While the concept shows potential, the execution lacks coherence and leaves many plot points feeling underdeveloped and unresolved.

Despite any efforts made in other aspects of production, the subpar CGI and acting ultimately undermine the film's potential. It becomes a challenging task for the audience to overlook these glaring issues and find enjoyment in what could have been a compelling story.

In conclusion, this movie suffers greatly from its horrible CGI and lackluster acting. The visual effects are unconvincing and take away from any sense of immersion, while the performances lack the passion and skill needed to make the characters come to life. Despite a promising premise, the film fails to deliver, leaving viewers disappointed and disengaged.

This is the third "Shin" movie in what I'm not sure is really a series, or what it'd be best described as... but there are three movies now that have been either directed or written by Hideaki Anno, and each one has a title beginning with "Shin." There has been similarities in style and tone between the three, even if each has different characters and events.

Shin Godzilla is the best known of the three, and I think lives up to the hype as one of the best Godzilla movies. Shin Ultraman was one I felt a bit let down by, even if it had some fun moments and certainly wasn't a miserable watch by any means. I feel somewhere in the middle, when it comes to Shin Kamen Rider.

The biggest problem I had with Shin Ultraman is also a problem I have with this movie. It's too episodic, and I just wish all the different events were streamlined more (it's an approach that might work for some more than it works for me). I didn't feel it was as repetitive as Shin Ultraman, but some fatigue set in around the halfway mark, I can't lie.

However, it's made up for by the sheer absurdity of Shin Kamen Rider's best sequences - mainly anything to do with action. It's gleeful, weird, and surprisingly bloody at various points in the film, and whenever there's a fight or a chase going down, it's a blast.

The dialogue/character stuff in between is all decent, if you're to judge each scene on its own... I just wish there had been a bit more of a structure here, and antagonists/new characters not getting introduced right out of nowhere. That would've made me go from liking this to loving it, I reckon.

Produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the fourth and final film? In Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe.

Epic Kamen Rider adaptation with stellar cast and production quality. The questionable campy style, pacing and editing confused me a lot. The story didn't had any anchor or fleshed out characters for emotional weight. Also the ending was sad and depressing and thus disappointing for my personal taste.

Produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the fourth and final film? In Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe.

Epic Kamen Rider adaptation with stellar cast and production quality. The questionable campy style, pacing and editing confused me a lot. The story didn't had any anchor or fleshed out characters for emotional weight. Also the ending was sad and depressing and thus disappointing for my personal taste.

As a long time Kamen Rider fan(real riders not the late heisei/reiwa stuff) this bring so muc joy for me.

There's some flaws for sure.. like the pacing, some actions feels a little off, and how a certain character(no spoilers) pretty much carried the later parts of the movie. But it really captures how a Kamen Rider should be, Ilove the visuals, and I don't mind the violence because if you read the manga that's how it is, how strong the rider. And it's obvious this movie isn't for kids unlike the tv shows. All in all it feels like a love letter to us old fans.

Those who watched the original series and read the manga will definitely love this, to me it's everything it needs to be. Ishinomori sensei would be proud.

Here's hoping for a sequel, perhaps with V3 being introduced.

It's absolutely 10/10, maybe 100/10. Anno brought new perspective on Kamen Rider universe, especially when Hongo asks himself for his ways to kill everyone to save the world. It was the first time I saw Kamen Rider MC asks himself about his ways. The music and atmosphere also strengthen the psychological vibes on the movie. I also love it when Anno kill the heroine and MC, show us no plot armor on his movies. And most important, Anno brought us legendary motorcycle fighting scene that we rarely saw on the series. After all, this movie are perfect for me and very recommended for Kamen Rider fans.

After the really good godzilla movie i thought that this could be a masterpiece ... but the actors director was so cringe that omg ... sometimes the actors literaly stops make a pose and talk some bs that sounds cool ...

Dunno if those cringe moments are on purpose or not.

Dunno if this is the director fault or the actors fault but OMG !

And most of the dialogue was written by a kid ? Almost everytime someone start to talk, it look like a kid wrote the speech ... Super robotic, not natural and just to trying to be cool ?

Some combat scenes are nice ... but after a really nice min of action, they keep putting something REALLY cringe that ruins everything ...

The actors look like a rock, kinda of mark wahlberg stile of acting ... always the same face, always the same tone of voice. I really think they actually stop before talking ... and the ones that move and talk are really creepy ...

CG is great and pretty bad sometimes.

But the history is kinda good ?! Some parts are not well thought, but the overall is good, could be great.

Music is good, but sometimes don´t do the work.

The armors are really nice !

Movie could be way better ... but they really messed up a good history ... and that is the worst kinda a bs they could do ... At the end of the movie the acting got a litte better ... they stopped the trying to be cool thing and the movie got smoother, but omg ... it took time to got there.

Last battle was the worst of the movie ..

And the final thought ... WTF are those traps for the motocicle ?!

I so wanted this to be good as a fan of kamen rider and Shin Godzilla, but I hated it from beginning to end. There was almost no character development. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. And why was Kamen Rider so shaky? Dude looked like he had some sort of neurological disorder. He was literally shaking in every scene - like trembling as though he were freezing cold in every single scene. Other than in the intro, the fight scenes that are normally so exciting and well-choreographed in the series were rushed and uninteresting in this movie. The climactic battle was especially boring, which is very unusual for kamen rider. Wasn't a fan and will never watch again.

Perhaps wait and see this on the third Monday in September? That apparently is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan.

Although I was not familiar with the original versions, I could clearly sense the homage woven through this. I went with one of my sons who had seen Shin Ultraman. He was also a fan of Evangelion, I suspect Hideaki Anno helped fill at least half of our California theater.

Ultimately, we both felt this was okay but likely would resonate more with people who grew up with Kamen Rider. I actually think my son was hoping for *more* of the practical special effects as would befit the tokukatsu genre.

One of those effects was kind of sweet in terms of the foamy fatality for villains and heroes alike. It's explained away early on as a form of self-destruct to preserve enemy capture of technology. Perhaps one other practical tip if you are thinking of seeing this with young kids, there is a lot of death....tidy and foamy....but a lot. Didn't offend me, just surprised me. (Perhaps the US marketing mentality keeps villains around for reboots and cereal toy futures?)

Two other askew thoughts...

1) The chaste nature of relationships. I suspect an accurate homage, but again a US flavored movie would have included some teen heart-throb romance. Instead here there is an emphasis on the uniformity/sanctity of the team/family/country. It was funny to me that the sultry "Scorpion" villain in her battle frenzy throes would exclaim in English. Was that the wicked West and our prurient ways contrasted vs the noble selflessness of the true Japanese?

2) It was unclear to me if the daughter were augmented or entirely an android. I suspect the latter, but there was an odd focus on her former friend and now foe wanting to see Ruriko cry. Similarly my favorite character, the enigmatic and remote "K" is clearly more GPT than DNA, and his ritual with flowers in pocket after the foam evaporate seemed to speak of the quest for a soul in the machine.

By the way, the "K" and insect nature of the augmented beings did bring an interesting hint of Kafka that might just be me.

"K" injected a more modern taste of AI into this decidedly retro film (A brief history of "I" and "J" and their creator *may* allude to the more fearful side of the AI concern craze.) Also the augmented Bat and talk of virus I told my son had to be a modern nod to Covid, but he thought there was actually some sort of vampiric virus in the original. Maybe just me, it was funny that the first two villains were a spider-man and a bat-man.

Bottom line, this felt like visiting a friend's house with a vintage toy collection, but it is placed up on a pedestal, in a vacuum- packed case. So a bit hard to embrace fully for me. Perhaps on the meta-level, Anno sacrificed his selfish creative instincts to preserve the original sanctity of the show, and that feeling he had as a young fan.

Another incoherent video made by an incompetent fan boy, Hideaki Anno. Like his previous films, it lacks character, story, coherence, acting and mise en scène. The character were underdeveloped. The actors stood still in front of the camera the entire runtime, and their resting b face performances did not improve the incomprehensible plot. It was impossible to sit through to such boring picture. However, somehow the targeted fan boy audiences were convinced they've watched a masterpiece. The bar seems to be set very low for a "good film" in Japanese market. Another mystery of how an incompetent film maker is still working and even praised.

Just a totally unnecessary and boring remake of an already boring series (which was better than this, if you can believe it) made by an ex-Otaku and Ultraman fan who thinks of himself as the pseudo- intellectual that he isn't and has never been because...because he repeats the same depressive, bloody and overcomplicated for the sake of overcomplication stuff that he's been doing since 98% of the second part of Evangelion and in particular the crappy End of Evangelion took the best of him, with the decent Cutie Honey movie as the lone exception. It fails as a tokusatsu, it fails as a remake of the 70's series, but it completely excels at showing why no one sane in his or her mind would care one bit about the Shin Japan Heroes marketing tool in the hands of the current version of Hideaki Anno, not even the lovely Yoko Takahashi making a single for it could save it. Avoid at all costs.