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.
