Guyver

The Guyver is not the best film, but it's certainly not the worst. Let's just say Brian Yuzna has been involved in better films. If you can survive the Jimmie Walker rap scenes, you'll be able to survive this movie. You know from seeing Jimmie Walker's name in the opening credits that there is going to be a Dyno-mite joke cracked somewhere. It is extremely corny (EXTREMELY), however the creature designs are actually original and cool and make the Guyver worth watching. The Guyver itself is awesome. The movie does have its moments ("I am the Guyver") though. The main reason I am commenting on this mediocre movie is the presence of Jeffrey Combs. He plays Dr. East, and all Re-animator fans will get the joke there. Also Dr. Hill from Re-animator plays the villain once again. If your in the mood for something that requires a short attention span or you enjoy corny movies (I belong to the latter), then watch the Guyver.

Oh, I love you, 1990's media and entertainment! You're so silly and you don't know any better!

In 1985, artist and writer Yoshiki Takaya created the popular franchise "Bio-Boosted Armor: Guyver"- which started out as an ongoing Manga comic about a teenage boy who inadvertently bonds with an alien weapon known as the "Guyver"- a bio-mechanical symbiotic suit that grants him superhuman abilities. He uses the suit to battle the "Zoanoids"- evil shape-shifting creatures who work for the nefarious Cronos Corporation, and are trying to take over the world. At its core, the story was weak but the comics and subsequent anime adaptations were decent fun. In many ways, it was almost like "Power Rangers" for adults- non-stop action, gooey creatures, alien weapons and plenty of martial-arts battles between archetypal heroes and villains... only with brutal, bloody hard-core violence and some sex appeal! It's media junk- food... but tasty media junk-food.

So it makes sense that it ended up being the center of one of those early attempts at Americanizing and re-adapting a Japanese property for Western Audiences with directors "Screaming Mad George" and Steve Wang's 1991 release "The Guyver." It was a simple story that should have worked well and easily translated from one culture to another. After all... it's a classic tale of good-guy vs bad-guy. What could go wrong?

...Well, a lot as it turns out.

While by no means a complete train-wreck and with a handful of engaging and effective sequences, the American film adaptation ultimately left quite a bit to be desired due to some key fundamental issues. These issues mainly pertaining to its lightning-fast pace and a mournfully inconsistent tone that never found the proper balance between adventure, drama and comedy. Viewing the film is often akin to changing channels on a television for an hour-and-a-half on a slow afternoon- you'll see quite a bit to like for brief snippets, but it doesn't really work together and it's not necessarily going to leave you feeling fulfilled when all is said and done.

Jack Armstrong stars as Sean Barker, a sort-of geeky but likable enough protagonist who studies martial arts and has a thing for fellow student Mizky, played by Vivian Wu. One night, he stumbles on a mysterious alien artifact that inadvertently latches onto his body, turning him into "The Guyver"- a Bio-Boosted superhero. As it turns out, Mizky's father was actually a shape-shifting "Zoanoid" and was killed trying to smuggle the unit away from the nefarious Cronos Corporation, who sought to use it to enslave humanity. And so, Sean must try and use the Guyver armor to protect Mizky from the other monstrous "Zoanoids" who come looking for the unit and seek to eliminate all loose ends- including the two of them! They also get help from a cop whose investigating the murder of Mizky's father, and is played by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

I believe that this particular property could work for American audiences if done properly, but I don't think that was the case here. This was one of the earliest attempts at adapting a Manga/Anime franchise for American audiences, and you get the feeling there was a lot of studio meddling and second-guessing behind-the- scenes. The violence and general "weirdness" of the original stories is largely absent, action is kept to a minimum, and there's way too much focus on broad slapstick gags and pop-cultural humor in almost every scene. It's almost as if everyone involved got cold feet and decided not to commit to faithfully adapting the story out of fear it was too "weird"... and so they compensated by trying to throw in a lot of out-of-place jokes and gags to win the audience over. That's the main problem here... the failure to commit to the material. Going into "self-parody" territory as this film does is a risky move and often doesn't pay off. Thus, the film lacks drama, excitement and intrigue for too much of the run- time.

This isn't helped by ludicrously quick-paced editing that gives the film virtually no breathing room. Having seen several of the anime adaptations in my younger years, the film seems to try and cram several volumes of the original story into a single package while also doing its own things at times, and it doesn't really flow too well. You feel like you're watching a much larger story that's been edited down to only hit on key points, robbing the movie of subtlety and nuance. If the movie had an extra twenty minutes of so to play around with, it might have worked. But not as an 88-minute feature.

Still, the movie isn't a complete failure. Several cast members are a lot of fun- particularly Hamill who is giving it has all, and a memorable and delightfully over-the-top turn from David Gale as the evil "Fulton Balcus"- the big-bad head of the Cronos Corporation. The practical effects used to bring the Guyver to life are awe-inspiring and still hold up well to this day... its a fantastic design and looks like it was pulled straight from the pages of the original comic. And the action is a great deal of fun, with well-choreographed fights and some fancy moves unlike anything we had quite seem at the time.

As it stands... I don't hate "The Guyver." I saw it when I was getting a bit too old to like "Power Rangers" but not old enough to appreciate more adult fare, and it was a good transitional film to watch. It's a heck of a movie for a 12-year-old, and I think older children will get a kick out of it. And it does have some good aspects to it. It just doesn't take itself seriously enough and has some glaring production issues that will hinder its appeal for older audiences or fans of the existing franchise. I give it a sub-par but watchable 4 out of 10.

Despite what many reviews say, I really liked this. It may be dated in special effects, and be crawling in flaws, but it is a generally enjoyable movie. Sean Barker finds a strange alien mechanical looking device that merges with his own body, turning him into a cyborg-like superhero. When Zoanoids, Werewolf like people that can turn into mutants, appear and start chasing him down in order to obtain the device, Sean uncovers Khronos Corp.'s evil schemes.

Fans of the Guyver cartoon and comics may or may not like it. A lot of the "best bits" from the cartoon's storyline are involved in this movie but are done slightly differently. While the action and Zoanoids(monsters) seem like an adult version of the Power Rangers, and some of the tongue-in-cheek gags almost take over the Guyver's story, something about the movie is just irresistible. The problem is it's impossible to put your finger on what it is.

Reminiscent of a lot of the late 80s to early 90's action comic inspired movies, the movie never takes itself too seriously. Weather that's a good or bad thing is your decision. There are times where the comic relief, or purposely amusing action scenes can start to become annoying, as any fan of The Guyver is obviously looking for some serious action and gore. It does have it's moments in that department, however.

The movie covers most of the main Guyver story, apart from the actual origin of the Guyver. A sequel, "The Guyver: Dark Hero" spawned from this(although it can be watched on it's own and understood, especially if you have seen the cartoon or read the comics), which takes The Guyver much more seriously, and uncovers the origin of the Guyver, whilst at the same time throws constant violent action at you.

Casting is good in the means of appearance, Mark Hamill as a CIA agent must have boosted the sales of the film, and Michael Berryman makes the perfect mutant, with his bald head and evil stare, but the acting could use some work.

Hardcore fans of the cartoon or comics may be iffy about the tongue-in-cheek humor used in this movie, but as long as it's not taken too seriously it can be a great movie to watch. The important part is that it FEELS like The Guyver. If you don't want to put up with lots of flaws and comic relief gags, then go for "The Guyver: Dark Hero" which is much more similar to the cartoons and comics.

I first watched this in the early 1990's, and I wasn't familiar with the animation or Manga versions of the "Guyver". I merely found this movie because of Mark Hamill was in it. And I have watched it a couple of times since then, with years in between each viewing.

And I will say that "Guyver" actually still holds its ground today, as it is still watchable and enjoyable, just as it was back in the early 1990's.

The story is about a young man who discovers an alien device which fused his own body with that of a cyborg organism, effectively making him an ultimate fighting machine. But the secrets of the guyver is sought by others, and soon monstrous creatures start to show up to take back the guyver unit.

"Guyver" has adequate special effects, especially taking into consideration that the movie is from 1991. Sure, you can clearly see that the creatures are just suits worn by actors inside them. But the design of the creatures is still impressive and passable even by today's standards. And the conceptual ideas behind the guyver and the creature designs is unique and quite memorable.

As for the acting, well, people were doing good enough jobs with their roles and characters. Of course, this is not thespian acting in the making, so you know what you are in for.

It was nice to see Mark Hamill in this movie, despite not being the lead actor, although he was billed on the front of the movie cover. So people might actually be lured in on false pretenses, because he does not have the lead role. But it was also nice to see David Gale, Vivian Wu and Jeffrey Combs make small appearances in the movie. And if you are a fan of Jeffrey Combs, then you should get a kick out of the fact that his character in "Guyver" is named Dr. East.

As campy and cheesy as "Guyver" actually is, it is still a very enjoyable and entertaining movie.

mark hammil is not the guyver but still its a great movie.i think it would be cool to be a guyver.the special effects are awesome.the only thing wrong with this movie is the boss baddie the guy who plays him over acts.if we could take out the boss baddie the movie would be perfect.