VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com After first Guyver film came out in 1991, it was hard to say whether a sequel would follow it. Its proposition to audiences and fans alike was not too impressive. The acting wasn't terrible and the story wasn't written poorly either. But the characters seemed weak in depth and the special effects looked cheap. But low and behold, a sequel did arise from all these things that people and critics found they were able to pick at. And for the people who did get to see this sequel, they were in for a surprise.The Guyver: Dark Hero, partially continues what was finished in the first movie. Sean Barker starts become haunted by the "guyver" armor as he also starts to lose the ability to control it. Pushing himself away from family and friends, he leaves his home to find answers to his problems. Screenplay writer, Nathan Long, left out the last two characters left on screen at the end of the first movie and for good reason too. They didn't help excel the first one anyway. Long also remembered to include Barker's girlfriend, Mizky, for a little while too. And although the casting is different for all the characters, there is still a lot of appeal to them.Casting was headed by Lisa Hannen, and her judgment looks like she knew what she was looking for. Instead of having Jack Armstrong reprise his role as Sean Barker, David Hayter was. Hayter would soon become the future screenwriter of the successful X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) and Watchmen (2009), which is amazing to see him making this film better just by acting. So initially, because he could not control the "guyver" he was forced to break up with Mizky. I'm glad screenwriter Long included this scene because it shows he hasn't forgotten the events from the first installment. But I still wish they were together. They looked good together.As Barker goes on his way, he runs into another girl, Cori, played by lesser-known actress, Kathy Christopherson. Christopherson also gives her role a fair amount of attractiveness. Of course, that's after you get past the nerdy prescription glasses she wears at first. And soon the bond Cori makes with Barker ends up being a healthy relationship. Of course, anyone would know this subplot would not be missed. As for many hero films go, unless it is an antihero, there's always a love interest. So it is of no doubt that Cori and Sean will look great together.One thing that amazed me, as it did probably to every other viewer was the MPAA rating. The rating went from PG-13 (the first movie) to rated R. That's actually a rare and unusual step that not many franchises take; but it worked. I don't know if it's because Steve Wang decided to direct on his own this time and "Screaming Mad" George was holding him back, but changing the rating made it a very enjoyable sequel. There's more carnage, which made the story seem more realistic than just people in rubber suits.The action was also much more fierce. Hayter was even faster moving and more agile than Armstrong as the Guyver. It was done really well as were the hand-to-hand combat sequences. The special effects seemed to have improved as well. Still the creatures look like they were just people in costumes but they didn't look as rubbery coated. The dubbing was also done better for when the Zoanoids spoke in their monster form. Even one time composer, Les Claypool III, did a decent job on the unreleased music score. It wasn't complex but it did have a tune that got the blood pumping while watching the movie; which I enjoyed.The only things I didn't find that were any better than the first movie was the dialog and background subplot. For me, the dialog still sounded like it wasn't written for a movie. Some of the lines just seemed unnecessary or out of place. As for the background subplot, Barker is able to figure out what the "guyver" unit was made for but the viewer must wait until the very end to understand what Barker learned. Why couldn't it just be explained when it was being explained to Barker? It just adds to the confusion. But weighing this against all the good things in this sequel, I can overlook it.Director Steve Wang's second take on the "guyver" unit is all around a better film. Its improvement lies in the special effects, action sequences and a better cast of actors.

xamtaro Three years after the dismal joke of a movie "Guyver", we are greeted with a second attempt at bringing the mildly popular manga to into live action with the movie "Guyver: Dark Hero", a loose sequel of the first guyver movie. For starters, I am really glad that the film rights to "Guyver" has passed into more competent hands. Gone is the campy feel and laughable story of the first film, replaced with a more competent script and a serious science fiction/action feel that still threads the line of B movie-ness but is careful to not fall headlong into the category of "silly".Needless to say, Guyver: Dark Hero is a highly enjoyable and entertaining adaptation of the beloved manga series, and is easily one of the better live action adaptations of manga in existence today. I believe it was a good move on the part of the producers to leave out the convoluted intergalactic backstory elements like the 13 "Zoalords", the "Lost Numbers", Hyper-zoanoid teams, etc. All that would have just confused the heck out of the audience who already would have trouble following the single backstory of the Guyver units' origins in this movie. Instead they left this story as "down to earth" as possible, wile still keeping the more crucial elements of the guyver mythos. In Guyver Dark Hero, the plot sees Chronos organization dispatch a team of Zoanoids to infiltrate an archaeological dig and excavate an ancient alien space craft which contains technology related to the Guyver. On face value, the storyline may seem rather simplistic to some. But upon subsequent viewings, it is actually quite a well written tale. The main character of Sean Barker is played very close to his manga counterpart "Sho Fukamachi" with only some Slight differences in his name, age and more realistic and mature approach in dealing with the responsibilities that come with possessing the violent power of the Guyver unit. Sean discovers that the Guyver seems to bring out the most violent side of him which leads to a tendency for uncontrolled, indiscriminate killing. That and his constant obsession with taking down the Chronos organization (which was thought to have been destroyed in the first Guyver movie, but Sean believes otherwise)has left Sean Barker without any friends, all alone in the world. He is afraid to get close to anyone since he is still a target for Chronos and he fears he may accidentally hurt those he cares about should the Guyver's violent side manifest. The second difference is that unlike Sho, who seems to fine with the violent tendencies and highly destructive powers of the Guyver, Sean Barker chooses to use the Guyver merely to augment his own fighting skills, only giving in to his savage violent side and using more destructive force when absolutely necessary. He is given ample character development in this movie and ends up coming across as a very likable character in the end. David Hayter turns in a strong performance as the main protagonist and masterfully portrays the part of a reluctant individual cursed with an alien power that he would rather have not have. Sadly, the rest of the cast does not fare as well. Aside from David Hayter's role as Sean Barker, the rest of the characters are not much to write home about. They are boring, two dimensional stock characters which might turn off some but I can safely say that the manga itself was just as much laden with the usual teenager and villain stereotypes commonly seen in such genre of comics. Some may go so far as to call it corny, but this movie is no less corny than the manga and anime OVA that preceded it. Steve Wang's credentials as a special effects and design supervisor are evident in the impressive amount of realistic detail given to the creature costumes. The zoanoid and guyver costumes are a huge step up from the previous movie. They look quite good for a 1994 production. Steve Wang does an adequate job as director here; nothing revolutionary to "wow" the audience but nothing painfully boring either. Despite the low budget of the film (I heard it was barely $900,000), he still manages to make the most of it and delivers one hell of a viewing experience (this show manages to look better than some other movies with more than 10 times the budget.)The high point of this movie is definitely the fights. Violent, fast paced, brutal and in-your-face. Skulls are crushed, throats are slit, eyeballs are blasted out of their sockets, and bloodletting is at an all time high when compared to other "tokusatsu" genre shows like Kamen Rider, Power Rangers or Ultraman. The fights are beautifully choreographed with slick martial arts moves and intense wire stunts with minimal camera tricks or "gimmicks" like slow motion. It amazes me how the stunt people were able to pull off such acrobatic martial arts moves while wearing such intricately designed, and most likely, heavy suits. Do not let the low budget of this movie put you off watching it; of Guyver: Dark Hero is proof that a low budget movie can still be a highly entertaining piece of work when left in competent hands with a little fanboy dedication thrown in(Steve Wang is a huge fan of tokusatsu movies like Ultraman ) . Though this film is by no means perfect and would not stand up to being compared to more recent big screen comic book adaptations, it is quite good considering its age, technology and budgetary constraints(and seriously deserves more than its current IMDb rating). It keeps very faithful to the look, feel and spirit of the original (something so many other live action adaptations lack) while presenting a fresh perspective on the Guyver mythos.

chrisgiant As low budget sci-fi movies go this is quite a interesting flick, with some excellent fight scenes. As for the creature effects, the Guyver/Zoanoid costumes are excellent and overall go to make the movie one of my personal sci-fi favourites. Ever since becoming the Guyver Sean Baker has been troubled by nightmares of alien ships and monstrous creatures. Worried that the suit that aided him in destroying the Cronos Corporation is now corrupting his sense of right and wrong. Although still using his abilities to fight crime he is struggling to fight against the impulse to kill that surges through his veins every time he calls upon the armour. He soon also finds himself being strangely drawn to an archaeological dig in Utah. But why do the digs benefactors seem so familiar and what of the increased reports of bear attacks in the local area? Despite the quite bad acting, Guyver: Dark hero is good fun, is a vast improvement on it's predecessor (Mutronics) and is much more in line with the great story depicted in the manga comics/cartoons!

Seiryu Simply put, this movie does a better job of capturing the feel of the original manga/anime. The first movie did little else but spit in it's face. Not only is Dark Hero more accurate in it's presentation, but it's surprising good considering it's budget. Steer clear of the "Jimmy Walker" Guyver, and check this out.