Directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi return to take on Ultraman after having directed Shin Godzilla a few years earlier.

Of course, if you listened to our podcasts around the time this project was announced, you would’ve heard me breaking a vein multiple times as I was not thrilled that this duo was filming an Ultraman movie. Their Shin Godzilla, I found, was a shallow, egotistical, excessively pandering, and mindless piece of drek that, while effectively taking on politicians, did nothing in the wake of advancing Godzilla’s character nor representing the character in a light that complemented the story they wanted to tell.

So it was with great apprehension that I wandered into Shin Ultraman expecting nothing but the same mishandling of a character so many of us love.

However, I am pleased to say that Shin Ultraman doesn’t entirely belong to the dung heap as Shin Godzilla. It is a back-handed compliment, sure, considering how much I loathe Shin Godzilla, but Shin Ultraman does have some improvements that severely hampered Shin Godzilla while, simultaneously, committing some of the same transgressions as Shin Godzilla.

Some of those transgressions include a complete recycling of kaiju roars and sound effects that are inappropriate for the type of film Anno and Higuchi, once again, are wanting to make. As I mentioned in my review of Shin Godzilla, I believe such decisions were made to placate to older and long-time fans of the respected properties. I have no issue with wanting to pander to the audience, but to the degree in which some films pander to long-time, die-hard fans is where I take issue. Similar to Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman panders to its audience in much the same way. Even much of the musical score is completely recycled from, not only the original Ultraman series, but even Ultra Q as well. In a general sense, much of the score, outside of pandering and sounding like it doesn’t completely fit with the movie the directors are attempting to make, some of the cues are ill-fitting for certain scenes.

Comedy is another issue with Shin Ultraman. Sure, the Ultraman franchise isn’t tagged with deep, serious themes like the Godzilla franchise, and has always tended to err more on the side of light-heartedness more so than going the serious route, it reminds me of so many Marvel movies…and not in a good way. The attempts at comedy are excessive and repetitive. The main ongoing joke, if you will, is Hiroko Asami always grabbing her ass and those of her colleagues. It begs the question as to why her character has this idiosyncrasy that rightfully deserves to have her promptly lose her job as a result of it falling under sexual harassment. Nothing is mentioned about this so-called gag’s history with her character and what purpose it serves.

Which brings me to the topic of characterization. Shin Godzilla‘s characters were one-dimensional types that were incredibly unlikable and not easily sympathetic. Here, the characters are a little more likable, mainly because they aren’t assholes, but the same issue of being one-dimensional is still a problem here. Once again, we have no idea of the backgrounds of any of these characters nor any motives other than to stop the kaiju because they work for a governmental organization whose sole responsibility is to eradicate those kaiju. Even Ultraman Zoffy comes into play near the end of the film to bring about the appearance of Zeton to destroy the Earth. I’m not all that familiar with the Ultraman saga, so I even asked Jason if he was aware of Zoffy being a villain at any point during the run of the Ultra series. He claimed he hadn’t, which made Zoffy’s motives all the more head-scratching despite saying some nonsense that Ultraman had defied some ill-explained rule that is was never established in the first place. There is even the sequence where Hiroko Asami is kaiju-sized and we get next to nothing as to why this is the case.

This is just one of the many confusing moments of the movie. So much of it feels like three separate films without any appropriate segue or conclusion. We get three different Ultra aliens coming down to take over the planet only to be stopped by Ultraman moments later. Alien motives are explained and begin to unfold, sometimes, in a spew of jargon that sounds more like waxing philosophy (such at Metfilas) than anything else. It’s moments of puff pieces that come off more as being designed to prolong the movie rather than to tell a story. I truly believe some of these moments are Higuchi and Anno attempting to make it seem as if their movie versions of these iconic characters are more sophisticated when, really, it’s a bunch of shallow bull that adds up to nothing. I swear they have a disdain for their viewers.

What also is a continuation from Shin Godzilla, although, thankfully, not as extensive as that movie, are scenes involving our characters staring into the camera which represents their computer monitors. It happens more in the first half of the movie more than the second half, but is one that continues that tradition of attempting to spew mumbo-jumbo jargon and make-believe science to make an attempt at explaining what is happening. Instead, the more appropriate task would’ve been to leave it alone and to simply let things happen because, well…it happens. Not everything needs an explanation as to why it is.

The effects are fairly good in Shin Ultraman but are a bit of step down. I say that as a result of some of the kaiju, including Ultraman, definitely looking CGI in a lot of scenes and their movements are nowhere near as smooth as that of Godzilla’s in much of Shin Godzilla. I thought the effects work made it seem as if I was watching cut scenes from a Playstation game rather than watching a movie.

But what makes Shin Ultraman more entertaining than Shin Godzilla is that Anno and Higuchi don’t extensively try to make this movie more than it needs to be…by and large. For the most part, they stick to what made the classic Ultraman series fun which was the fights between Ultraman and the kaiju. It keeps a bit more of a light-hearted approach that falls more in line, and does it more successfully, than Shin Godzilla attempted with its more serious tone.

In summation, Shin Ultraman is a more entertaining film to watch, but it commits some of the same sins as Shin Godzilla, though not as extensively. The movie also suffers from bad character work, ill-defined motives, lack of proper conclusions, garbled dialogue, and a confusing plot that still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense after watching this movie several times. As of writing this review, I know Higuchi and Anno directed a Kamen Rider movie; something I can’t say I think will be any better than this, but I sincerely hope they are done after that, because their way of making films of beloved, iconic characters has proven to be nothing more than a showcase of having disdain for their viewers and the subjects they’re working with. Shin Ultraman is a film Ultraman fans may find more enjoyment in than Godzilla fans will find with Shin Godzilla, but that doesn’t mean the film isn’t without a number of issues that could’ve made it much more than it is; and that is the sad legacy directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi will leave behind with their takes on these beloved characters.

C-