I have never watched a single second of Ultraman movies or series, hence it can be argued that this is the reason why I didn't like this movie. But then again, shouldn't a movie be accessible and enjoyable to everyone, regardless of whether they are familiar with the source material or not?
SHIN ULTRAMAN, in isolation, is a bizarre film with a lot of questionable narrative choices. The film is about an extraterrestrial alien named Ultraman, who fights other extraterrestrial threats to protect humanity. The film takes its one-line premise so seriously that it's literally about that. A threat appears, Ultraman neutralizes it, and then the whole process repeats; that's essentially the plot of the film. While watching the film, it feels like you're watching a monster-of-the-week format tv show, whose 2 or 3 episodes have been joined to make it a feature-length film.
The film isn't outright boring, but it's rather uninteresting once you realise what trick it is repeatedly pulling in terms of its storytelling. There is also a veiled commentary here about the incompetence of legislation and the complicated working process and red-tapes involved in bureaucracy, but Shin Gojira already did it better, so this too feels like a retreading of old grounds. This film also suffers from the same unsatisfactory climax as Shin Gojira, and while it's not as laughable as the previous film, it still falls in the realm of disappointing.
The only thing that genuinely blew my mind was its special effects and great fight sequences, and since this film's reported budget is around 6 million USD, I still can't believe how good it looks. The fight scenes are this film's USP, but they are few and far in this drearily paced film which should have trimmed at least 20 minutes from its runtime.
SHIN ULTRAMAN, in isolation, is a bizarre film with a lot of questionable narrative choices. The film is about an extraterrestrial alien named Ultraman, who fights other extraterrestrial threats to protect humanity. The film takes its one-line premise so seriously that it's literally about that. A threat appears, Ultraman neutralizes it, and then the whole process repeats; that's essentially the plot of the film. While watching the film, it feels like you're watching a monster-of-the-week format tv show, whose 2 or 3 episodes have been joined to make it a feature-length film.
The film isn't outright boring, but it's rather uninteresting once you realise what trick it is repeatedly pulling in terms of its storytelling. There is also a veiled commentary here about the incompetence of legislation and the complicated working process and red-tapes involved in bureaucracy, but Shin Gojira already did it better, so this too feels like a retreading of old grounds. This film also suffers from the same unsatisfactory climax as Shin Gojira, and while it's not as laughable as the previous film, it still falls in the realm of disappointing.
The only thing that genuinely blew my mind was its special effects and great fight sequences, and since this film's reported budget is around 6 million USD, I still can't believe how good it looks. The fight scenes are this film's USP, but they are few and far in this drearily paced film which should have trimmed at least 20 minutes from its runtime.