Guyver: Dark Hero (1994)

For all intents and purposes, "Guyver: Dark Hero" is a fairly competent and oft-thrilling adaptation of the popular Japanese source material created by Yoshiki Takaya back in 1985. It boasts plenty of action, cool creature designs and blood by the bucketful. And as a follow-up to the generally disastrous 1991 release "The Guyver", "Dark Hero" is most definitely a substantial improvement, eschewing the comedic stylings and slapstick humor that plagued that film and replacing it with darker imagery and a more violent tone. In my review of the first American film, I noted that I almost viewed the franchise as being an adult version of properties like the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"- a claim I'll stick to. And this movie delivers on that kitschy promise for the most part, despite a clunky and sometimes unsatisfying storyline.It's been one year since Sean Barker (David Hayter) bonded with the alien Guyver unit and destroyed the vile Cronos Corporation. But Sean's personal life has suffered due to these events... His relationship with Mizki has come to an end and he is plagued by haunting dreams and the blood-lust that the Guyver brings to him as he uses it to fight crime. When he learns of a recent archaeological dig that has unearthed strange remains and cave-paintings appearing to depict the same symbols he sees in his sleep, he sets off to discover the truth behind the Guyver unit- along the way encountering a beautiful scientist named Cori (Kathy Christopherson) and learning that his Zoanoid enemies are still out there... waiting to strike back.What makes this film work in comparison to the previous effort is the dedication returning director Steve Wang has to craft a tale true to the darker and more adult tone of the original manga and its earlier anime adaptations. Wang clearly listened to the fan-base and its general dismissal of that 1991 original and decided to reward those who stuck around with a proper "Guyver" story. And thus, the rating has been upped to a "hard R", the action is made far more brutal and hard-hitting, and the comedic overtones have been greatly reduced, giving the entire experience a more serious flavor. While it is true that this sequel has a greatly reduced budget and was released direct-to-video in 1994... these factors really don't have all that big an impact on the final product. It's well-made, with excellent fight choreography, a wonderfully moody score and excellent effects work for the most part.I also felt the performances benefited greatly this time with the new cast. David Hayter- famous for being the former lead voice- actor in the "Metal Gear Solid" video-game franchise- makes for a very cool and troubled brooding protagonist. Sure, he's not the world's greatest on-screen actor, but he gives Sean a nice sense of pathos and also knows how to kick some serious butt. What more could you ask for? Supporting roles by the likes of Christopherson are generally well-played. And villainous roles are all adequately cast, including Bruno Patrick as a deliciously vile cretin of a baddie.All that being said... the story is nothing to write home about, and it does drag the movie down a bit. I don't know if its because of the reduced budget or because they were afraid to try doing too much, but the plot is just generic and pretty darned unsatisfying at the end of the day. We've seen stories like this, told better, a million times before. Sure, you could argue that the story was never the main focus of the franchise, but it was still vital. I used to own the entire twelve-part OVA series based on the manga, and it did quite a bit with the setting and the characters. But this movie just feels like any 90's sci-fi action schlock flick. You know what's gonna happen. You know the twists and turns that are coming from a mile away. And there's no surprises at all.It all comes down to this. "Guyver: Dark Hero" is not a great film. I don't even think you could make a compelling argument that it was even particularly good. But it is fun. It is entertaining. And it does nail the tone and the spirit of the original source material. If you're looking for the definitive adaptation of the characters and the story, you won't get that here. But if you're just looking for a halfway decent time and a pretty entertaining little film to enjoy, you could do far worse. The strong action, darker tone and halfway decent performances definitely make this one I could recommend. Especially if you're a fan of the series. And so, I give "Guyver: Dark Hero" a very enjoyable but only slightly above average 6 out of 10. Great entertainment value. So-so film.

The creative minds behind the first Guyver movie obviously noticed the tone problem they had so for this film they picked a tone and stuck with it. The result is everything that made the first film enjoyable heightened by a more serious tone and squared to near perfection. Everything about this film is improved, the creature design is heightened, the fight scenes are shorter and to the point, the acting is miles better, the stakes are higher and the tone is fixed on a darker more serious style that makes the film great to watch. One of my favourites in the genre, highly recommend. Director Steve Wang was planning on following this film up with another one but the rights reverted back to their original owners who were not interested in another movie, a crying shame in my opinion.

Just as a note, this is a review based on the edited PAL DVD release.Seriously, people aren't going to expect much from this. It's a B-movie, with unknown actors based on a cool, but average-in-popularity anime.Let's get this point out of the way first. It's not a brilliant movie. It's a low-budget movie, with some seriously bad acting (David Hayter seems to have about 4 facial expressions in the movie). So why do I find it so appealing.Admittedly, I bought this movie on the basis that it starred David Hayter. As a fan of him as Solid Snake, and his writing on the X-Men movies, I couldn't help but get it. It's true he's a better voice actor than actor, but I still enjoyed the movie.Why did I enjoy it? Well it's just a fun movie. Though a lot of it is actually quite cheesy, especially the dialogue, there's nothing like a good old sci-fi movie with martial arts.People can't deny that some of the fighting in the movie is quite cool. However the DVD I had lost about 10 - 15 minutes from the original film, so some of the better fight scenes and gore was removed.That's what probably did the worst for the movie. For a B-movie, it was great, but since the DVD lost a huge amount, I didn't get the full story... Nor did the story seem to make any sense. Despite that shortcoming, enough was there to give you the basics.Conclusively, the score may suggest the movie is only average, and it is to some extent, but really, it's just a movie full of fun.

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.