Ultraman

As I was watching the midair climax of the movie (which is a lot of fun, by the way), I couldn't help but think that the music sounded very familiar. It was starting to remind me very much of Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony in c-minor. No sooner had I made this inner note to myself when the soundtrack actually started *quoting* the 8th, note-for-note! OK, OK, I know this has nothing to do with the movie, which is probably my favorite Ultraman so far... but I like commenting on musical trivia like this. (Another odd Bruckner quote comes in the opening credits of Victor Halperin's "Supernatural" from 1933, which uses a few bars of the Third Symphony in d-minor.)

What I appreciate about Ultraman is that it has so many great jumping-on points for people looking to get into the series; although The Next is one of the weaker starts I've seen, it is a noble attempt to update the formula with a much more adult tone. Particularly considering this was Tsuburaya's big attempt to revitalise the character after the problematic circumstances surrounding the broadcast of Cosmos. It's a more than welcome reimagining.

There's some lovely direction by series veteran Kazuya Konaka, particularly in its Top Gun-inspired opening. Great character work and performances, especially from Tetsuya Bessho and Kenya Ousumi, plus a banging soundtrack from rock artist Tak Matsumoto who provides brilliant updates to the classic themes. I do like Ultraman's new design despite it being a bit out there due to how radically different it is from the original but the updated Bemular is a truly frightening creation and more than worthy of praise.

Where I'm not particularly sold is the rather iffy use of CGI, especially considering how good the model work and suitmation are, and the cheesy dialogue at points that feels like it's trying to appeal to kids despite the tone of the movie is very much skewed towards adults with some pretty horrifying imagery to boot.

Regardless, The Next captures the heart of what makes Ultraman, well, Ultraman. His relentless pursuit of providing hope for humanity in the face of its destruction; while mixing in with the inner turmoil of its host who has more than his fair share of skin in the game. It offers up some extremely entertaining and well-executed monster fights and hits the right stride for those wanting a slightly more mature tone for the series. It's just a shame that the Ultra N Project failed because what we got here is a great basis for a newer take on the character.

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

ULTRAMAN THE NEXT [2004] was created as part of Tsuburaya Production's "Ultra N Project", which also consisted of the TV series ULTRAMAN NEXUS [2004-2005] and live stage shows involving the character "Noa".

The film follows the middle-aged Shinichi Maki - a father and pilot with an increasingly ill son. During a drill one evening to track an unidentified object over Japanese air space, Maki's jet crashes into a large glowing meteor, where he meets a mysterious figure. Unlike the more recent Heisei era Ultraman shows - such as the amazingly childish ULTRAMAN COSMOS [2001] - the film takes a more serious family-entertainment tone, as with Tsuburaya's classic shows such as ULTRA SEVEN (1967).

The special effects lead by Yuichi Kikuchi (GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA [2002]) are well polished, looking far better than GODZILLA FINAL WARS [2004], yet ironically costing about a third less to produce. The same goes for the soundtrack - composed by Japanese rock artist Tak Matsumoto - which is far nicer to the ear than the "rock n' roll" music Keith Emerson produced for Godzilla. The storyline is quite simple, yet touching and meaningful at the same time.

It's an overall solid production, and one I would certainly recommend.

Eji Tsurabaya, you've'e done it again. this movie is great, tonnes of action packed scenes with great special effects done by the same from the 2002 Godzilla movie, and if you saw that then you probably wern't disappointed. and again the return of every ones favourite Japanese super hero. ULTRAMAN him self. takes on a giant monster thingy. (its the only way to describe it) the movie caters for both an adult and a child audience and even a teenage because i enjoyed and I'm only 17. and if your thinking this is some how related to or a rip off of power rangers, your wrong, this pre dates power rangers by a few decades and as for the music, the music is done by the one and only, legendary Japanese guitarist and one half of the super band "B'z", Tak Matsumoto's score just really makes you go all hyper and alone adds action to movie. any way I'm not gonna leave any spoilers the movie is a fun family feature, or great for a night in with mates, maybe a girl friend (though they don't tend to like giant monster movies such) or even alone and is overall a great movie.