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.

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.

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.