Faiz: Paradise Lost

[Oblivion]

Yes, that's pretty much why Takumi is my favorite Heisei Rider.
The main Riders, since Kuuga, seem limited to play either the "overly nice/naive good guy" or the "self-confident and assholish" role...Takumi being sort of a mix of characteristics makes him a more interesting KR in my view.

As for Paradise Lost...i'm not really a fan of all those AU movies, but this one at least seemed more ambitious than usual, some aspects were played even better than in the series.
Overall, it's pretty good and i don't mind considering it as an alternate ending.

True, Takumi is more realistic than some of the newer lead Riders. Though people had complained about his character and his 'poor' acting, which I thought was kinda fine? It was pretty spiritless and stuff, but isn't that part of Takumi's characteristic? I can't really stand Eiji to be honest. He's like a badly done Godai Yusuke redux.

I'm much more inclined to consider the movie ending as the ending to the series than to think about the open ending we got in the series. I was watching HK dub, didn't really understood what was happening at the end beside that Orphenochs has evolved too much too fast and couldn't handle it and the King Orphenoch was the only one who could save them all, but yeah...after all that hype it was just one rider kick to beat up the King Orphenoch? Oh, then he's not dead, recovering in a fish tank with that girl Orphenoch. It didn't sit well with me. It was too rushed, and it was finally starting to get good.

I really didn't like the idea of the Albino Joker though, especially since it's basically a Hajime redux without the emotional tension.

Really? Albino Joker was a very natural addition in my opinion. Since it's AU, I didn't really thought much about how other Jokers can exist, but in a full deck there are supposed to be 4 joker cards anyways. So I was like "Rock on! Another Joker!" Not to mention the red and white worked for the design. Kinda makes you wonder back in the series were there any other Jokers too, and would Kenzaki becoming a Joker turn the number of Jokers to 5? Would that disrupt the Battle Royale system? :O

I also think I may be in the small minority that enjoyed the fight in the beginning of MA.

You and me both, if you're talking about the warehouse like place where Blade faced Joker. I really liked it, though it only took Blade base form to beat Joker? I'm just going to close an eye and say he deformed from King form after the brutal fight.

As much as I'd grown to like Paradise Lost, Missing Ace still tops my rider movie list.

 

[Lynxara]

True, Takumi is more realistic than some of the newer lead Riders.

I'm not sure I'd call Takumi realistic, he's more what I'd think of as a melodramatic character. I do think that with Takumi, though, there was a unique emphasis on giving him consistent mannerisms and a motivation that wasn't grounded in pure idealism.

To some extent Shouichi and Shinji were just riffs on Godai, but Takumi was completely his own person. He clearly wasn't inspired by anything Toei had done recently, he was inspired by the needs of the story the Faiz creators wanted to tell. That's a really laudable thing Rider rarely does anymore.

 

[Oblivion]

Well, he's certainly more realistic than some of the recent lead protagonist are. I can believe that someone with a personality like Takumi's could exist in this world somewhere, but it'll be hard to convince me that there's Akikos or little Eijis around somewhere. True, when it comes down to it, who's to say personalities like that doesn't exist, but yeah. It's easier to imagine Takumi as a real person.

Now that you mention it, has any of the Showa rider ever acted like Takumi? None of the lead actors in the heisei era actually was like Takumi huh? Closest maybe would be Tsukasa, and that's still kinda far off.