Change Your Image
ElReneXuande
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Zhen · San guo wu shuang (2021)
Dynasty Warriors is an Ok, but Risky adaptation of the Hack and Slash games
Dynasty Warriors became as a surprise when it was announced, a live action adaptation of a video game franchise that also is based on a very long and iconic novel like Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Expected to launch a great number of sequels, it probably wouldn't happen in the future, but let's go on parts.
As for the movie itself, it was fine, more than i though it would be. I have divisive opinions on the cast, but they do their roll ok, the designs are reminiscent from the eight game, as well as music from the ninth game.
The fight scenes were also pretty good, weren't as sleazy or cringy to look at, with decent effects in wind, fire, and earth. They even go as far as to explain the reason why some characters have their aura powers in the first place, a great touch that goes in pair with the game's logic.
One problem people would have is the narrative, since is very straightforward and sometimes clumsy, because it is expected that people that get interested in watching this movie be fans of the game or the novel, which would be fine for them, but dull for the rest.
But the biggest problem of the movie is the ending, because it is open wide, with a lot of not answered questions waiting for a sequel that probably wouldn't be made, a real shame because it had potential for the most important parts of the game like the Battle of Red Cliffs. As a whole, it is a fine and worthy but messy adaptation of a game that is also cheesy to begin with.
Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight (2008)
Kamen Rider, For Ventara and the Earth
As someone who has watched Kamen Rider Ryuki several times before, i actually was aware about the existence of the american adaptation, but i didn't saw it until recently.
Ryuki itself was a Battle Royale theme series about monsters in a mirror world and 13 kamen riders than need to fight for survive in order to get a wish from Kanzaki, the main villain. The adaptation now called Dragon Knight makes a great number of changes but remains faitful to the overall concept of fighting monsters in a mirror world now called Ventara and even naming other worlds in the way. The bad guy is now called Xaviax, which objective is to kidnap all the people from earth to be their slaves in his destroyed planet, and, in order to accomplish this, he used the counterpart people from the earth dimension to become the new Kamen Riders with the promise of giving them everything they want.
I gotta say, motivations in this one are far better here than in the original, Kido in Ryuki was very out of place with everyone, a detective, an attorney, and even an assasin, but here feels more organic, and having a more clear connection with both his father and Xaviax is more reasonable than just save people, making him both the objective and the center of the conflict.
The first 30 episodes were actually pretty great, the acting, the characters, how the story is build, how organic and important the world felt and even the footage used was used effectivily. But the last 10 episodes were actually the weakest part, more specifically when the Survive mode appears, oh, and also Adam, the Kit counterpart that starts the betrayal arc.
Even with this issues, i gotta get credit to this adaptation for getting rid of the time reset ending of Ryuki, and making a more satisfactory ending that matches both the series and the Power Rangers as well, giving us one of the most satisfying endings of any Kamen Rider series.