Urutoraman Tiga & Urutoraman Daina: Hikari no hoshi no senshi tachi

If you like giant monster movies, you will like this. Ultraman Dyna is faced with the threat of the Monera, an alien race that has somehow possessed the Earth's greatest weapon. This movie is only barely feature length, and somehow manages to drag despite being that short, but the special effects and fights are fun.

After watching this "movie" I reiterate that I don't understand the bitterness of people towards stuff like Kamen Rider Ryuki Vs. Agito, which was short and did what it had to do in 10-15 minutes maximum. This is the same exact thing just stretched out to a fully-blown movie clocking around one hour (!) in which Ultraman Tiga appears for ten minutes towards the end doing absolutely nothing of impact. Why? What was the reason for this thing to be so long? Just make a ten minutes commercial featuring the two Ultramen and get done with it, no need to spend so much money and waste so much time of the viewer to begin with. Stick to the main series - in itself very good, no questions attached - and don't bother with this one to begin with.

Greatly benefitting from a larger budget and its theatrical status, Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light ultimately plays like two TV series episodes cut together as a movie and less like the team-up promised by its title. Sluggishly paced but exceptionally well-directed the film does at least look pretty fabulous, Kazuya Konaka did a great job here while Tatsumi Yano's music is as great as it has always been. The model and practical effects work is marvellous and looks tremendous in the widescreen format, although the CG character work is abundant and extremely rough. The acting from its cast is solid, but like the show, I still haven't gelled with Asuka's character as a protagonist, even if this film largely focuses on his inner turmoil and occasional suicidal thoughts. The Tiga aspect of this film is more set dressing than anything else, with the titular Ultra only showing up during the climax but conspicuously missing his host, Daigo. While it is lovely to see most of the cast of the GUTS squad again, the conspicuous absence of Hiroshi Nagano doesn't make the reunion feel authentic. Ultimately, I wish the story for this one was better, there's a lot of good stuff in here but it just fails to stick the landing.