Shin Ultraman

1. A reimagining of Ultraman and the 37th film in the Ultraman franchise. The second live-action installment in Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe. An epic tokusatsu entry with brilliant and realistic practical and visual effects combined with outstanding battle choreography. Well written dialogues with humour and political awareness regarding Japan's weak government bureaucracy and United States' over dominance in Japan's internal affairs.

2. A reimagining of Ultraman and the 37th film in the Ultraman franchise. The second live-action installment in Hideaki Anno's Shin Japan Heroes Universe. An epic tokusatsu entry with brilliant and realistic practical and visual effects combined with outstanding battle choreography. Well written dialogues with humour and political awareness regarding Japan's weak government bureaucracy and United States' over dominance in Japan's internal affairs.

I was very excited for Shin Ultraman, and jumped at the chance to see it as part of a film festival. I'd given up on expecting it to get a cinema release in Australia, so this seemed like the only chance to see it on the big screen. It was at a cinema that always shows movies in their original language (even when they screen old Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki movies), so it was disappointing that they had a dubbed version. I've heard worse dubs - mostly from older movies, usually in the martial arts genres - but even if it wasn't a terrible dub, it still ruined most of the humor. You can understand certain lines and moments as comedic, but without them being in their original language, it's not genuinely funny; more just, "Oh, I assume that's funny."

Dub aside, I still think I would've been slightly disappointed with this even if I'd watched it the way it was intended. It's oddly paced, and features action that progressively gets less exciting as the film goes on. There are certain fun sequences that balance being silly and cool well, but I felt the action generally ran out of steam after about the first hour or so. And then it kept feeling like it was building to a climax, only for the scene not to be the climax, and then on and on until it eventually ended.

The character stuff is all acceptable, and having the human storyline intersect with the giant monster stuff by having a man who can transform into Ultraman is a nice way to bridge what often feels like separate parts of the same kaiju movie. It feels like Shin Godzilla in parts, when it comes to the human stuff, but never feels quite as cutting or clever as that film was, with its satirical elements and the way it unapologetically mocked bureaucracy.

For some fun action and spectacle, I think it would've been a decent watch if it had been in Japanese with subs. The dubbed version I'd give lower than a 6/10, but I won't knock the film overall for that; I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel if the version I'd watched had been the proper one. And I do ultimately think I still would've felt disappointed by the final half-hour or so of this, the pacing, and the familiarness of many of its sci-fi concepts, even if there is still a bit of fun to be had within its two-hour runtime.

I understand the design philosophy behind most of the scene and its a homage to OG ultraman hayate. If you have been watching ultraman since your childhood you know ultraman is actually a dark and entertaining story with alot of meaning treat it like eva. It is depressing at time but ultraman signify the light to your dark times. Thats why hikari is a word been used over and over again. If your new and just judge based on omg idk whats going on go and find the meaning behind it there.you may find your answers.

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.

The CGI is passable, the acting is passable, the fight scenes are decently choreographed, and the filmmaking is exquisite. However, almost everything about this film has a caveat.

As someone who'd watched all the original Showa series, the sound effect/art homage decisions were extremely welcome. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the film, nothing is ever perfect. Instead of giving the fans a completely faithful Ultraman with all the shticks we've learned to love like the color timer, the grunts, the human-like exhaustion-staggering, they decided to cut all of that in favor of a "shin" (new) design claimed to be based on the original concept art of the late designer for the original Ultraman. This new design, unluckily, isn't memorable or aesthetically pleasing in the slightest. I simply don't understand how they can have such immaculate attention to detail on the references of the original sound effects, poses, special moves, and art splashes, yet completely undercut what matters most in the visual design.

The story is surprisingly unpredictable. Although it utilizes many tropes, every time I thought the film was about to have its penultimate final fight, the fight ends abruptly and suddenly there came a bigger threat. This is what I appreciated about the story. And yet, again, the shortcomings are impossible to ignore.

The characters are incredibly bland and one-note. Neither the characters or their relationships were built up properly. The film doesn't even attempt to give a reason as to why the SSSP team would have an attachment to Ultraman's extremely unlikable human host, and yet they do anyway. The film does however like to shovel blatant exposition down the viewers' throats to move the story forward.

Of all its faults, the cinematography was pretty great. There weren't spastic unnecessary cuts in the fights. Even in the most boring of scenes, there was always something to appreciate about the unique angles the scene is shot at.