Watch The Guyver For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

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.

I will just jump straight in and say that this show IS NOT GUYVER. If this is meant to be a live action adaptation of the cult manga series, this show fails in so many aspects. Sure the manga did descend into shallow territory, with some one dimensional characters and an overall cheesy sci/fi story, but it took itself seriously. This movie seems more like a parody of Guyver and "tokusatsu" movies than an actual adaptation.Now I would not have been so quick to criticize this show if it been given a different title like "BioMan" or "Robo-Mutant". It could have been one really entertaining flick spoofing the many campy and over-the-top Japanese superhero shows like Masked Rider and Power Rangers like how "Mystery Men" spoofed the costumed hero genre of American comic books. But since it has the name "guyver" tacked on (and maybe a couple of similar aspects like the premise of a powerful organization as a front for a powerful alien race, the look of the Guyver and a "typical guy" protagonist) I naturally expected it would be as serious as the manga or the anime series.Looking at the film credits, I honestly cannot believe what possessed the producers to hire a director named "Screaming Mad George". If even his name is so weird, can we expect any less weirdness from his movie? From a mile away, you can smell the cheese that this show is so full of. From the rapping Zoanoid that looks like an overgrown Gremlin to the "slash/cut" scene transitions similar to those used in the Adam West Batman serials to even the horrible misplaced humor and "Wham! Pow! Zap!" style of campy action. All of it comes laced with that heavy cheesy flavor that would make even fans of the "Z"-est grade of B movies cringe in agony.The acting is on very extreme ends of a spectrum. Mark Hamil seems to be the only competent actor here who plays his Detective role with as much professionalism and dignity as he can, considering what he had to work with. David Gale and Michael Berryman (you may recognize this guy from the original "The Hills Have Eyes") ham it up to the max, taking the definition of "eccentric and over-the-top" villains to a whole new level. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the main lead played by Jack Armstrong and his girlfriend played by Vivian Wu, who do their lines with all the gusto of a lettuce wilting in the heat.The action scenes, which some people Laud as being the strong point of the film, are actually very mediocre. They come across as being only as good as the fights in low budgeted TV series with some lackluster fight choreography the likes of "Tattooed Teenage alien Fighters From Beverly Hills". The monsters look terribly goofy at best, hilariously silly at worst with cheap looking costumes. Furthermore, No attempt seemed to be made to disguise the fact that they are actors in suits bouncing about and doing their best to act scary. At least the guyver himself looks good for the most part, very true to the original comic."Guyver"(1991) would have made a fairly entertaining comedy spoof movie. But alas, it did not identify that target audience. Instead, this movie just ended up putting off many sci/fi action fans and alienating the fans of the original manga with its over-the-top humorous take on an otherwise serious story.What a joke. A good joke, but still just a joke nonetheless.

Why are people taking this film so seriously. It's bad but it was never meant to win Oscar's. I love bad movies that don't take themselves to seriously and this is one of those films. It's tongue in cheek, it's comedy. I watched this movie when I was a kid and loved it. That love will always be there even though I can look back at it now and laugh.So to all those slagging this film off- get a life. Go rent Schindler's List or something....10 lines of text!? What's that all about? I've said what I wanted to say... errrm... Did anyone watch American Psycho the other day? Does saying goodbye count as a line of text?