Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

ipkevin Crows Explode departs from the flashy and energetic style of the previous Crows Zero films by being adopting a somber tone and giving a few of the characters real, fleshed out emotions and struggles. The problem is that this realism is mixed with the typical Crows action craziness of having various cartoonish thugs fighting for control of Suzuran, a high school that apparently has no classes or teachers. There's not enough time devoted to either and the film is unsatisfying as a result. And to be honest, I came for the fighting, but I left wishing there was more time spent on the drama. The dramatic scenes are in that classic Asian macho drama mold of cool/tough guys suddenly bursting into emotion they can no longer contain, with anger, fear, honor, and respect all coming together at once. It's the kind of awesome stuff that Asian cinema does best, but there just isn't enough time spent on the drama here. Too bad, as the little that is here is pretty good.

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.

Roua Despite the absence of Miike, Oguri Shun, Yamada Takayuki and the rest of the amazing crew, I never actually held previous prejudices on Crows Explode. But after viewing it, I can clearly state that it falls behind compared to its prequels.Being a fan of Miike's filmmaking, it was unavoidable to miss the highlighted foolish characterization, extreme violence and hilarious black humour inserted everywhere. That being said, I never expected Toyoda to do the same. After all, two different directors have entirely dissimilar ways of making their pictures. Crows Explode leaned to the realistic side way too much which was a bit wrong in my opinion; don't get the wrong idea, immersing the characters and fighting scenes in realism didn't sound like a bad treat but when it's over-done with this type of film then things are bound to become bothersome.To make things clear, this film had too many similarities with its famed prequels. The fight to become Suzuran's top leader was still used as the main thread to drive the plot. However, the fighting sequences to reach that objective were surprisingly demure and repetitive in a worrisome way. Although Toyoda tried to focus on the human emotions between his characters, he didn't exploit his main leads' potential to the fullest. Thus, many feelings couldn't get pass the screen barrier to reach the watcher's heart.Crows Explode narrative pattern was composed of several side stories that didn't serve any meaning at times. At the matter of fact, few of them were just used to fill the running time instead of building characters' back stories. To some extent, most of them were heavy to watch especially with the obvious lack of fighting scenes; they became utterly irrelevant to the film's development. Let's not forget the near-disappearance of black humour – which I clearly don't blame Toyoda for it. The last fighting sequence wasn't blowing but it delivered a nice punch after all.The entirely different cast is worrisome, isn't it? I know that many people can't imagine the "Crows" without Oguri Shun and Yamada Takayuki on top of them. I am a big fan of those two actors myself but shockingly, their disappearance didn't make me feel bad. I did want them to be in here but the new faces weren't bad at all. Led by rising stars like Higashide and Yagira, the acting department did the trick for the lack of better words. Some actors didn't convince me much but I can't put all the blame on them, the way their characters' were written didn't allow them to show a wide range of emotions or action.The cinematography was trying to be the same as the two Crows Zero but it didn't come out that way, I believe the yellowish atmosphere is the film's way of distinguishing itself from the others. The directing style and the setting of fighting sequences are debatable but Toyoda made sure to leave his mark which is more than enough to respect a director.Crows Explode had its own touch of filmmaking but the serious realistic depiction that Toyoda decided to use didn't come out entirely right, just like it wasn't entirely wrong. Due to its entirely different pattern, this sequel should be viewed for its own merits, comparing it to Miike's Crows will only make it harder to watch and judge.