'Shin Ultraman' (2022)

A poster for Shin Ultraman (2022) on display at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills. Photo by Brett Homenick.

I finally saw Shin Ultraman after almost a week after it was released. There was no major reason for the delay, other than timing. But, having seen the film at long last, here are my impressions.

Overall, it's the second-best kaiju-related movie that's come out since 2014. (I still put Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the top slot.) But that may not be quite the praise it probably sounds like. 

The first hour is by far the more entertaining half. It's full of nostalgia and references to mid-1960s Ultra-stuff. Things start to drag in the second hour, which becomes much talkier and less dynamic. Even Ultraman's battles suffer in the second hour. It just doesn't stay interesting.

But the extent to which I can even say that Shin Ultraman is "interesting" is a bit uncertain. I enjoyed the film when it was reminding me of the original Ultraman series (and, at the very beginning of the movie, Ultra Q). It felt like a genuine love letter to the work of the original Tsuburaya Productions craftsmen. Unlike Shin Godzilla, the use of the original series' music and sound effects wasn't out of place here. It was entertaining to see Showa-style monster battles with updated special effects (even if the CG was sometimes of questionable quality).

But I can also see all the above as a demerit. If a film's highlights are the things it borrows from other sources, how good can it really be? (Maybe Quentin Tarantino can help us answer that one.) Essentially, when Shin Ultraman wasn't waving references to the original Ultraman or Ultra Q in front of my face, I just wasn't invested.

That said, I do think the characters are a step up from Shin Godzilla. There were some amusing moments from most of the main cast. Some scenes involving Masami Nagasawa, though, have already caused a bit of controversy online. If the movie gets some kind of release in the U.S., well, I'm just saying it might be a good idea to stay off Twitter for a while. 

This was a tough review for me to write because my feeling about Shin Ultraman is basically lukewarm, and I just don't have that much to say about it. It's certainly not great, but it's also not bad. The fact that it isn't terrible, though, is probably cause for a bit of celebration. But what's good about the film are things we've already seen, quite frankly, done better. I'm also not as well versed in Ultraman lore as other tokusatsu fans are, so I'm afraid I just don't have any hot takes. 

It was all right, I guess.