Urutoraman Kosumosu: The First Contact

There's not much to say about (double-checks title) Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact, because it's a very ordinary (double-checks sub-genre) tokusatsu film. This kind of thing should be up my alley more, since it's not too far removed from the kaiju genre at all, but the Ultraman stuff I've seen (admittedly not much) doesn't always do it for me.

And this one definitely didn't. It's an almost serviceable family sci-fi/action movie, and feels a bit entertaining when the big creatures or aliens or whatever are on screen, but otherwise, whatever. Boring, but possibly watchable for a kid, so maybe it succeeds in that regard. And if it's for kids, and it's watchable for kids, it could be okay... that's reaching a bit. But I've got nothing else.

So, why watch this? For work, I wanted to do a ranking that involves highlighting one great superhero movie per year, for every year of the 21st century so far, and 2001 was a dead zone. Seriously. 2000 has X-Men, 2002 had Spider-Man, and then every subsequent year had something (oh, maybe 2020 is going to be another difficult year, but we'll see), but 2001... pretty much nothing. An animated Justice League film that I don't think was ever theatrically released, and Jet Li's The One, if that counts. And then nothing, and apparently The One isn't even good. So I thought "why not pick Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact? Maybe it'll be a fun/weird watch," and it was pretty mild on that front.

But that's the backstory behind watching this, and it's longer than the review, but you have to write about whatever you can. I learned that the hard way, by picking a potential topic without realising the desolate landscape of superhero cinema in 2001.

This movie is obviously for younger children, but that doesn't mean there is nothing to enjoy here. The fight scenes between ultraman and the baltan are awsome and this film deserves a watch just for that. Some of the CGI isn't very good, that my main complaint, but is was 2001 so that's really just a nitpick. There are some really goofy scenes like this part where all the people start singing to the baltan, witch I thought was hilarious. I started watching the ultraman cosmos show before I saw this, I didnt even know this existed, I dont think u have to watch this to watch the show but I would recommend it.

The characters and acting aren't bad and the plot is serviceable for a movie aimed at kids, not for everyone I'm sure but I really enjoyed it. The music at the end is a jam.

Yeah, you've read it right. This prequel had clearly no reason outside catching the interest of the Ultraman fans by presenting them the iconic villain from back the first Ultraman, because outside that purpose it serves absolutely nothing since there was no particular need to elaborate on how Ultraman Cosmos and Musashi met in the first place and, most importantly of all, this movie doesn't attempt in the slightest to show the reason why, in contrast to other Ultramen, both Ultraman Cosmos and his human host prefer to help monsters instead of just killing them. So, there's no point in watching this movie outside the fanservice thing and few, scarce laughs inbetween. It's watchable once but you're probably going to forget it, so I wouldn't bother in the first place.