wildfire160

like a lot of planned trilogy's it suffers because it doesn't conclude the story so you might want to wait until part 3 is released before watching The Four .. however both part 1 and part 2 were very well made a lot of cgi flying and wire-fu but some interesting characters and a few good fight scenes(more in part1 than part2 though) and some very good cinematography at times,what i loved most was how they were prepared to really let loose with the magic/fantasy aspects of the story western cinema just doesn't seem to get how to do that even in the big budget fantasy films that Hollywood produces... another excellent part of the production was the score and the musical direction it was very impressive...i really need to see part 3 now

Its a fairly decent film,the script isn't that bad,and for being a TV film had some very atmospheric moments,given the way it ends obviously they were aiming for a TV series but i really had to laugh when i read the trivia page "a pilot for a series never made" because whoever made this should be suing the makers of "Lost" big time.. There are so many comparisons between them that to list them all should take pages JJ Abrams Damon Lindelof and co should be shamed of themselves for so blatantly ripping off "Danger Island" without giving either the director Tommy Lee Wallace or the writer William Bleich any credit ...not even a little nod in their direction in any interviews.. Lost is the better show its written better and the cast is better but i just wish they had been a bit more honest about how they came up with the idea for Lost

I was very impressed by Ultraman,i was expecting it to be a cheesy piece of badly made fluff but to my surprise i found it to be quite well made and very well acted...

OK maybe the sfxs weren't up to ILM or WETA standards but they tried really hard and even though it still had that typical Japanese "man in a suit" look the model work production design and visual effects did look good...

In lots of films of like this the child actors normally come across as quite bad and almost unbearably cute(which i hate in a film) but these were good something not usually found in this type of Japanese film...

Its sometimes very hard getting the balance right between campy fun or serious genre films,its much easier to make a successful comic/campy film than a film like Ultraman which takes itself very seriously get it wrong and the film will turn into a nightmare... something that doesn't happen in this film..

overall it was a good film well made and enjoyable to watch...well worth catching on TV/DVD