GUYVER: DARK HERO - REVIEW
Ever watch a film and feel slightly dumber
after watching it?
Well I finally checked out Guyver: Dark
Hero, the sequel to The Guyver, and, let me tell ya, I’ve rarely felt this unsmart.
Based on an anime series and a manga, this
live-action effort was a cheap Hollywood production and was released straight-to-video in the US back in 1994. With a non-star cast leading the
way, this sequel follows a dude, Sean (David Hayter, not Mark Hamill this time, sadly), who can turn into some kind of ghoulish superhero as he discovers
that an archeological dig going on over in Utah may have the answers to
his past he’s been looking for. As it turns out, he’s not the only “Guyver” out
there and the finding of a spaceship unveils more uncomfortable truths about
his alter ego's origin. Now I know it’s cheaper for this kind of low-budget production to
just film in one place, one set, but 95% of this film takes place in and around
the archaeological dig, making it feel a little claustrophobic by the end. I
guess all the money went towards those Guyver costumes and those crazy
make-up/practical effects. Actually, those effects are easily the best part of
this movie: they bring some welcome gore (the film is R rated, unlike its predecessor), some amusing silliness and a certain
amount of creativity to the proceedings. The film itself, in spirit, is like a
cross between Super Inframan, The Power Rangers, Godzilla and a really shitty
American TV movie you might catch on Channel 5 on a Sunday night.
The acting throughout is abysmal, sometimes
to good comedic effect, visually, the film looks bland and the editing is erratic.
Had the scale of the film been blown up somewhat, perhaps Guyver: Dark Hero could have
worked as a huge piece of mindless fun. This is the kind of project that’s so
ludicrous on paper that, if you’re handed a small budget like this, retreating
into a single main set is almost counter-productive. You really need to go
all in with something like this. Up the scale radically, spend more time on the
effects and tweak the script so it’s a little more self-knowing, though not too much as that was partly The Guyver's downfall. As it stands, this sequel has its fun moments, definitely, but it could have easily been a
blast. Instead, we get a partly dull, partly entertaining goofy flick you can’t
help but imagine being both hilarious and hugely amusing in the hands of a keener Japanese production. About halfway through, the film shows signs of losing its
mind as more alien monsters are introduced and we get several mini fights between
The Guyver and his uglier cousins. The plot also loses focus around the same time and seems to be
making up things as it goes along, perhaps because it tried condensing too many
things which are better explained in the anime into one relatively short movie. I'll give it that, though: the film did try to stay truer to the anime this time around.
Do I recommend Guyver: Dark Hero? Those who enjoy
very dumb B-movies should check it out for shits and
giggles, I’d say. Fans of the original show and/or the first film should also have fair amounts
of fun with it. All in all, Guyver: Dark Hero has a good bunch of amusing, entertaining moments, despite its
overall weak, underwhelming execution.
Very silly.
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