Paul Magne Haakonsen Not being familiar with the manga upon which this movie franchise is based, I have nothing to compare it to. So it is solely based on seeing the movie alone that I can review this 2014 movie.First and foremost, I must say that the fight scenes in the movie were plenty and often quite good. But with that being said, I should also move straight on to saying that this movie was essentially nothing else than just one pointless fight scene after another.I managed to last one hour into this movie before I gave up out of sheer and utter pointlessness to the movie. It was nothing else except fighting, and that wore thin already within the first half hour. But I decided to stick with it, as I would assume that the movie would pick up and add some story-telling to the layers. But no, that was not to be.There was no storyline to "Crows: Explode" (aka "Kurôzu Explode"), none whatsoever. And that fact was something that the movie suffered from tremendously.I just threw in the towel after 1 hour and I am not going to return to finish this movie, and I am not going to take the time to watch any of the other movies, because the torment of watching this for one hour was more than enough.I can't even comment on the acting in the movie, because there was literally no acting in it to base such a comment on. I am sure that people in the movie were good enough fighters in each their own way, but it just didn't appeal to me in any way.This is definitely for a fans of the manga, but for anyone looking for an entertaining movie that is driven by a story, stay well clear of this one.

quincytheodore Crows as a testosterone fueled, violence heavy gangster series always has its niche. I was rather taken back of how different Explode was to its first two predecessors. It doesn't have the same flair of comical wit, brash vicious scuffle or even the pristine visual. The worst mistake is how it churns so many subplots that none are actually fleshed out. Whereas it's easy to care for Genji and his rag tag friends, the short focus makes it hard to invest to any of Explode's characters.There are simply too many characters presented in short amount of time. With about four plots running at the same time, each with intertwined relationships, the story is hectic and muddled. You have the Suzuran boys, the rival school, yakuza and the other side characters, each with their own back stories and all tied up in convoluted struggles. Even the main character, Kazeo, isn't fully developed.It doesn't help that he as protagonist has so little range, but without wanting to compete or talk for that matter, Kazeo is surprisingly dragged by others. Pacing is plodded with unstable twist, some characters apparently have long relationships despite scarcely being in the same scene for a few minutes. Explanations leave much to be desired as most only mentioned slightly, but later on they would be talking privately merely for dramatic effect.There's not much ground to build on, leaving the eventual clash lackluster. Previous Crows needed two movies to introduce the rival school, but here it's thrown in about one third of the movie. It's probably better to highlight the struggle on Suzuran first as there are considerably many individuals that can be showcased or have feud with each other. As it stands now, most Suzuran students are only shown briefly with one, mostly two, fights under their belts.Compared to its prequels, Explode's most easily notable change is the visualization. It looks significantly drab, lacking the poise that makes Crows Zero seemed clean regardless the murky battle the characters often found themselves in. The shots are appropriate on some instances, but mostly the movie is confined, and for the fight scenes, sadly they don't bring the same level of anticipation.There's a bit of comedy either, but that doesn't really resonate. Fights are pretty good, thankfully the bread and butter of the series serves well. However, even this has some flaws on its choreography. In some cases, characters are seen swinging wild randomly or just standing unmoved. This shouldn't have happened since with few polished and good editing it would look better.I had much hope for Explode, but frankly, and sadly, without the Crows brand it would be just an ordinary gangster movie.

CHi RiLo This Crows movie is GAY!!!!Let me be clear, I am an avid Crows-X-Worst and I have read the mangas including side stories but I am clearly not impressed with the movie unlike Crows Zero 1 & 2 did. The following supports my review.Plot - the plot is a mediocre REMAKE of Crows Zero 1 since I think it's a lot the same. The King of the Hill fight/s for example, for me was the signature scene of CZ1 and I don't think using the same will yield the same impact as the first movie did. Although on the manga, fighting for the top spot is prevalent and the movies does not follow the exact storyline but I am sure the makers could possibly make something more interesting than this from the comics which will wow the audience. For instance, instead of having the King of the Hill fight as the main scene, they could instead make an all out war between Otsu Group(Yakuza) and a one-time unity between all leading factions of Suzuran and alliance with Kurosaki Industrial. It's up to them how to detail the connections on the participants on the war. Fight Scenes - this is the best factor which really disappointed me. Unlike the previous movies where fights were brutal and extremely violent and bloody, it was natural to expect to see the same. But I am very disappointed with those half-ass-ed fights. Honestly, the feeling of excitement from Kagami and Ryohei's brawl was not even worth comparing to Genji and Serizawa's fight to the top. On a side note, I guess the movie guys were told to minimize the violence in the movies, I don't know who reprimanded who but this is just my guess.Lastly, to explain as to why I still rate the movie with 5/10 though it totally left a bad after taste was because they added or should I say enhanced a movie effect/factor, that is the Emotional movie scenes and/or inputs. Let me cite examples which made me appreciate this movie.a. Each main character like Kagami, Ryohei, Shibata and Fujiwara were introduced with back stories with different levels of sadness and emotion.b. Ken Katagiri was already understood to live a normal life in the 2nd movie and acts as support to some characters. I appreciate the role they had for Ken in this movie because he stood not only as an Suzuran alum but also the straightened out Jarhead Ken. Adding a bit of romance between a woman also adds interest in his character.c. The camaraderie between the boys are still decided or leveled with fistfight but, since the characters had deep seated emotional back stories, the friendship they like to show was way more emotional(not that strong and manly) making the bond look like the typical Crows-X-Worst way. Lastly, the movie was not that exciting and thrilling to watch because if you're following the mangas, you will get the feeling of disappointment that they are not advancing to the real storyline on the manga. I know everyone has been waiting for Bouya to come out, honestly I initially thought this will be the prequel movie having the Maki-Pon-Hiromi VS Hideto Bandou characters before officially introducing Bouya but to my disappointment it was not.To sum it up, the makers REALLY need to improve the next movie(if they will still make one) or at least level it up with the first two movies. If they will continue this, chances are, they will defame the Crows-X-Worst mangas prestige also affecting our dear Hiroshi Takahashi's name(which we don't want, right?) and most likely that their upcoming movie adaptation will not sell. Cheers.

KO L I knew that Takashi Miike wasn't involved with the title, so I kept an open mind when I started watching it. But the fact is this movie was horrible, and It felt like I have been watching this movie for 2 hours when I was only 60 minutes in. First, the casting for this movie was horrible, none of the new actors looked like they are suited for their roles. They tried to do a more complex story but it wasn't captivating, and left out a lot of great character development that we saw in the previous 2 films. The bad storytelling also made a lot of the fights in the movie seem meaningless.Most of the great elements in the series(not only the movies) that made Crows great are completely missing in this film. The moments in the previous movies that made you pumped up along with the great music that came on at the exactly right moments are gone. They tried to forced the issue in the movie with similar situation/music, but it just completely failed because I wasn't into the characters and the story. The fights were also extremely boring lacking the moments where they would pull off some sort of choreographed move. There are a lot more reasons but those are some of the main reasons that I didn't like this film. I can't say that this is an unwatchable film, but all of the different things that they did very well in the franchise are all missing. So, I am guessing you might like it if you didn't like the first 2.