Guyver

I love tokusatsu, in any shape size or form. So I was excited about this film when I first heard of it, an American tokusatsu based on an anime I had never heard of with a really cool premise, a human discovers an alien device which turns into a suit of living armour (I love living suit superheroes). But there is one distinct problem with this concept, translation. This was during the 90s and people weren't sure how seriously to take anime yet, a problem which translates into this film which has no idea what kind of tone it's going for. Firstly the positives; the fight choreography in this movie is nothing short of fantastic combining martial arts and wirework with really cool powers, the look of the Guyver and the Zoanoids is really really well done, the music is intense and energetic and the acting ranges from over the top and goofy to good, Mark Hamill is in this film as a cop trying to solve the mystery and he is great as always. But the film is completely ruined by it's tone, there are two movies going on here, a goofy over the top fun film and a serious gritty film, the two mesh HORRIBLY and so the film ends up being no fun at all, Give it a miss.

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.

The "bad news" outweighs the "good news" for this movie.

BAD - The dialog in here is very stupid; the acting is poor (Jack Armstrong, Vivian Wu?); there is too much violence and simply a general Class B-type production feeling about this whole film, making it dumb overall.

GOOD - It was very light on the profanity and sometimes had some pretty good special-effects with the humans turning into monsters.

STRANGE - Added to the cast is television star Jimmie Walker, who played a goofy "Kid Dyn-O-Mite" character on TV, and Mark Hamill, from the hugely-successful Star Wars movie series. Wow, times must have gotten tough for those two actors to be in this movie!

OVERALL - After watching this for an hour, it was hard to get interested enough to finish the film.

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.

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.