Shin Ultraman

Best known for creating the popular anime 'Neon Genesis Evangelion.' Hideaki Anno serves as writer, co-producer and co-editor in this new adaptation of the 1960's character Ultraman. An extraterrestrial "dubbed" Ultraman crash lands on Planet Earth and becomes humanity's sworn protector, with the aid of the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol (SSSP) established by the Japanese government.

Modern Japan has evolved into a new battleground for giant creatures known as "Kaiju" to wreak havoc. Upon taking human form and living as one with the population to have an understanding of the human species. Ultraman concludes that mankind is worth dying for, and altruistically risks his life for the greater good. The audience is treated to bombastic action sequences, well-baked choreography and various fighting techniques from our champion which raises the entertainment value. The CGI is pretty outdated and don't translate well in certain scenes. But I wanted to overlook this flaw as I was devoted towards immersing myself in this universe. A large criticism I have is the narrative's lack of coherency. It contains an episodic structure where five stories are condensed into one feature. Making it difficult to engross ourselves into the storyline with too many subplots and a heavy amount of exposition to follow. This made the experience a bit tedious to say the least.

Despite the underdevelopment of the characters, they were likable as they had specific traits that helped them stand out. Whether it be Takumi Saitoh as the determined Ultraman or Masami Nagasawa as newcomer Hiroko Asami, delivering a humorous and charismatic portrayal of his "buddy" within the SSSP. Her onscreen presence was a favorite of mine. As the credits began to roll, I yearned for more substance due to the interesting premise. The storyline could have had a broader impact on the viewer, if fleshed out by the writer.

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After waiting for more than 5 months waiting for an international release, finally here it is, Shin Ultraman, and a review of it.

Shin Ultraman starts with a really great introduction to its universe, the problem they're facing, human characters, and our hero Ultraman himself.

The introduction is short but the director succeed at showing the audience everything in less than 2 minutes, even for the people who have never see Ultra-Q or the original Ultraman series can understand it very well.

The film pacing feels great up until the end of the first phase. All of a sudden the plot became very rushed and it feels like some elements from the original series are cramped into the script only to please the fans who have seen it.

CGI was an OK, still need a lot of work in some scenes, especially with the motion of the characters, but the rest are just acceptable.

I believe it will be a much better film is the duration is at least 20 minutes longer.

Conclusion: For the fans of old era's Tokusatsu, especially Ultra series will undoubtedly love this film with all of its references, but for those who's not a fan will probably struggle to reach the end of the film~

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.

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.