Summary:
Like most of the Sentai crossovers, this film takes place in an undefined time during the newest series. Enter has joined with the remnants of the Zangyack Empire led by Bakkas Gil, Ackdos Gil's brother, in hopes of obtaining the Legendary Ranger Keys. It is said that the keys contain a power so great that, if placed in the wrong hands, can destroy the world. Naturally, the villains aim to use it for this purpose and have even recruited five uncanny pirates to reach their goal...
Meanwhile, it is a peaceful day at the Energy Management Center. The Go-Busters are enjoying some free time with their Buddyroids when a black galleon suddenly attacks Tokyo. The five Go-Busters rush onto the scene when they encounter Zangyack's forces. Suddenly, out from the rubble comes the Gokaigers. For some reason, the Gokaigers have joined forces with the Zangyack and begin battling the Go-Busters. Enter arrives and finds the final Legendary Ranger Key, and when the five are brought together a wormhole opens up and throws most of the Go-Busters, the Buddyroids, and the Gokaigers across time! Now, Red Buster and Blue Buster must team up with Navi to find their allies as the two teams must reconcile their differences and retrieve the Ranger Keys from the clutches of Enter and the Zangyack Empire.
Review:
Go-Busters Vs. Gokaiger works as a solid Go-Busters adventure first and foremost. We get a decent arc that really shows how much the Go-Busters depend on the Buddyroids; when they stop working at one point in the movie, it completely devastates Hiromu, Ryuuji and Yoko. In fact, it is this bond that seems to be the main focus of the story during the film's second half although it is alluded to early in the movie. However, what this means is that the Gokaigers actually get very little to do in the movie. As a crossover, the movie doesn't exactly do both teams justice. Instead, one team gets more focus and instead it feels like just a Go-Busters movie with the Gokaigers serving as guest stars.
Another common trope that seems to crop up in Sentai crossovers is time travel, and this movie somehow finds a way to get our heroes to the Edo period (obviously to save money by just using the permanent establishment/movie set: Cinema Village) and other random points in time. The pacing for the first half, as a result of shoehorning this in, feels stilted and rushed. The Gokaigers' true motive is revealed within the first 10 minutes of the movie, leaving them nothing left to do except let the Go-Busters take the spotlight for the remainder of the film.
The action scenes are solid for the most part, but not to begin with. The first battle between the Gokaigers and Go-Busters is way too rushed and ends abruptly thanks to the ever-reliable "Sentai wormhole". The choreography is high on energetic wire work, but is just too brief to be memorable. However, the fight scenes improve as the movie progresses. The showstopping battle in Edo has a solid mixing of mecha and Sentai action, with some dynamic shots placed against the burning village. Finally, the big finale is just one big piece of fanservice for fans of the mecha fights. The Gokaigers summon some of the most popular giant robots from the entire franchise, including MagiKing (piloted by BeetBuster and StagBuster, allowing us to FINALLY get our "BeetBuster's actor was also MagiYellow" reference), DaiZyuJin (yes, the mecha every MMPR fan should know) and GekiTohja to name a few. This heaping helping of awesome is part of what made Gokaiger so much fun, and it's nice to see this dash of fanservice placed in.
Other characters return too, but only briefly. Kaoru Shiba from Shinkenger has a brief cameo where she passes along a message to our heroes still in the present where to find Yoko, Gai, and J. Zealusto from Gokaiger appears inexplicably in Edo, and Yatsudenwani from Abaranger returns running the infamous Kyoryuuya Curry Shop that remains a favorite to reference in Super Sentai shows.
Keeping with the tradition begun in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger Vs. Engine Sentai Go-Onger: Silver Screen BANG!, the new Sentai appears in this film. The Kyoryuuger cameo is given a fair amount of screentime and is actually placed at a logical point within the movie instead of crammed in like these debuts tend to be. Other cameos include Basco and Escape, summoned as avatars by Enter. Their cameos are extremely brief as they are easily defeated, making one wonder why they even bothered placing them in the movie at all.
The actors are extremely comfortable as always in their roles (although it's an immense pity seeing Mao Ichimichi/GokaiYellow virtually given nothing to do), so instead I'll focus on the direction. This marks Takayuki Shibasaki's fourth theatrical feature following the Go-Busters summer film, the Kamen Rider OOO summer film, and Chou Den-O Episode Yellow and it's pretty clear he's still struggling to find his groove. He's a solid action director (although obviously influenced by Koichi Sakamoto), but as a dramatic director he has issues. For starters, he does a poor job with comedy, making every gag heavy-handed thanks to wacky editing and sound effects (when Hiromu has his chicken freak-out, I thought the film was having a seizure). Again, he's not a bad director, but he's got a long ways to go before I can consider him a one to keep an eye on.
Overview:
In the end, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Vs. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger The Movie is not one of the stronger crossovers. It has a decent arc for the Go-Busters, but the Gokaigers are given almost nothing to do. The time travel was unnecessary and stopped the movie dead, and the comedy doesn't work. Still, the action scenes are mostly entertaining especially the climactic mecha-filled finale. All in all, this is unfortunately a dissapointment, which makes me wary of any crossover written by Kento Shimoyama from here on. For those who don't know, he also wrote Tensou Sentai Goseiger Vs. Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: Epic on the Silver Screen, another disjointed crossover special that favored one team over the other.
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