Shin Ultraman

Re-review. Its is based on the mythology of the Theft of fire, and the titular Ultraman as the trickster. Despite its concrete plot, its ruined by 112 min of recital of importunate lines without any character development nor emotional expression. Though it claims to be a "Science Fiction Film" from its title, its absent from social commentary, artistic expression, ideas, nor acting. Not even a story. It is a patchwork of favorite scenes from the original "Ultraman," stitch together with prematurely understood ideas, and filled with easter eggs that serves very little purpose. Its an expensive "fan made video." But, hardly a "film" with mise en scéne.

I went into this excited as anyone else who's a fan of the golden era of Japanese Kaiju cinema. But once things got going I felt there was a problem. First off I will say the Kaiju designs were cool. But that's where the positives end. The CGI was lack luster at best. I typically don't like the term "looked like PS2 graphics", but this really did not look good. Then there's the forced quirkiness of the characters and situations they are put in. But my biggest complaint is that there wasn't any linear, coherent plot. It truly felt like they filmed four separate television episodes and just smashed them together to form something they could show in theatres. It was hard to follow because there wasn't any primary plot TO follow. I had to fight to keep myself from walking out or falling asleep. One other major sin is that the fights were just boring. None of them lasted longer than a few minutes, which again comes back to each segment feeling like it was meant to be a single TV episode. I loved Shin Godzilla, but they really dropped the ball with Shin Ultraman. Two hours I wish I could get back.

5 episodes crammed into almost 2 hour of duration! For a non-fan and first timer (meaning first time watching the original ultraman or it's modern reincarnation) like me, it's quiet annoying and confusing since it doesn't give us much time to know, root, or sympathize with any of the characters. But for the fans of the original series (the 60's version), it's quiet probably gonna be a nostalgia trip with all the namedrops, the designs, and even the fight choreography that pay homage to the original source material. Love the fact that the Anno made sense some of the elements from the original series to appeal to the updated modern science and technology while making sure the movie doesn't lose its fantasy status. It's always a win to a science enthusiast like me everytime a filmmaker gets the science right or at least sounds plausible to audiences with different levels of science comprehension even though it's beyond applicable in real life. 7.5/10.

'Shin Ultraman' is 'Neon Genesis Evangelion Revisited' or yet, the other way around! And that's very good! Yeah... It is episodic, so what? In my humble opinion, Anno has always been a huge Ultraman fan! And Enangelion is definitely a rehash of the original Ultraman show, which was just as scary and sci-fi as no one other kid's show at the time... In the original Ultraman, people were eaten alive, the monsters and heroes were always borderline, and the Giant Silver Alien itself was a kind of 'when everything else goes wrong' device for the Scientific Patrol. Ultraman was really very much of an alien and a space invader too! Anno managed to deliver this level of weirdness to the EVAs and I always thought that the best Evangelion had to offer was about the strangeness of being, yet temporarily, attached to what is essentially an alien giant lifeform/bioweapon. And to the very scary yet probably real fact that after such an event, you are everything else except an average regular human again! The alteration/dissolution of the 'self' that comes together with this is probably devastating! Think about it: It would definitely be a life changing experience! And alien lifeforms are probably way far from relatable than we can even anticipate... All those concepts are there! I especially enjoyed the idea - that to me totally works - that Ultraman is in fact a very abstract extra-dimensional entity which is using a suit! Like a futuristic (way futuristic!) cosmonaut or a bit like DC's Captain Atom! Another very interesting idea comes from the reinterpretation of Ultraman's powers as a set of side-effects of mastering the 'Beta System' development! I really loved the fact Ultraman doesn't really fly, in the aerodynamics sense of the term! From my point of view, Shin Ultraman is not merely a superhero movie: It is a very good science-fiction movie! Hope you all enjoy it! Auf Wiedersehen!

Shin Ultraman really is a movie made by fans and for fans, you can really see the passion behind it shines through in the work with the reference & little nods to the classic show here and there while still being its own thing and not being overly relying on them Shin Ultraman kinda feels like "Rebuild of Evangelion" of The Ultraman franchise, i guess it make sense considering the people who worked on Rebuild of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi) also worked on this too, so the style and vibe kinda rubbed off into this movie it faithfully captures the spirit of the Original 66 Ultraman show not just by using classic design, sound effect, & amazingly remade soundtrack (which are composed & arranged by the talented Shiro Sagisu) but also by understanding the core theme massage & philosophy of the classic show while still putting its own spin to it by adding stuffs like social & political commentary in them but the movie aint perfect i feel like the movie is structured kinda weird, it felt like watching 5 different episodes instead of a 1 cohesive movie and also the CGI while it looks amazing most of the times it can look wonky sometimes i hope they improve that in the sequel but overall its a must watch for a tokusatsu fans..