Shin Ultraman

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.

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.

All those kinda negative review is almost all true and happen to me. But still there something we can enjoy like several first fight is interesting but not that memorable. CGI also not that bad its still comparable with shin godzilla. Maybe with less destruction effects. Just hoping this movie gonna revived Ultraman but for me it gonna be hard to gained new fans from this movie. Is hard because sometimes the story is good and had nice pace. But then there's some unnecessary scene, plots hole, also those romantic wannabe is really bad. Also how the camera capturing main female is disturbing for me it just really unnecessary.

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.

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~