[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salaryman Zero

Superior 8 Ultraman Brothers

This was good. I was kind of expecting more from what I've heard is the best (both critically and commercially) Ultraman movie, but maybe I'm just burned out from consuming too much Ultra-material.

Regardless, I do like the central conceit of the Tiga-Dyna-Gaia trio being kids who grew up inspired by the original Ultramen, and I loved all the scenes with the Ultra Brothers going about their civilian lives. It's like the classic narrative of old soldiers who've fought countless battles, and now they've retired to the happy tomorrows that they deserve.

Ultraman is an inherently nostalgic and optimistic franchise, so building it around peoples' belief in their heroes was a smart thematic decision. And the copious amounts of fanservice didn't hurt either. I loved that they brought back all the wonderful actresses from the original shows, and all the references made me smile, especially since I'm rewatching the Showa stuff right now. My two favorites were: 1) When Mebius refers to Goh as Shin Ultraman-neesan, and 2) Seeing all the classic attack team jets at the end.

The only thing I was really meh about were the bad guys. Can someone explain the Black Silhouette? Were they just a metaphor for the hopelessness we succumb to if we don't believe in ourselves and our dreams? I don't know. Also some of the CGI work with Giga Khimaira has not aged well, but that's not really the film's fault per se. It's just cool to see TsuPro come so far with their VFX work.

Oh, and I still don't really get the parallel universe hijinks. Sooo Mebius got sent to an alternate world where Ultraman was just a show...but because the kaiju were summoned over, the people in this universe who were Ultramen in that other universe...suddenly got the Ultra powers from that universe too? I don't know. Ultraman continuity makes my head hurt.

Anyway. How many hours of Ultraman content have I watched in the last two weeks you ask? Only 135 hours. Let's see if I can hit 200.

This was quite the movie if I remember at the time. Tsuruno who played Asuka/Dyna was gaining popularity thanks to a game show at the time, THEY GOT NAKANO BACK which I thought would never happen since he is part of big name boyband, etc. I loved how they re-imagined not just the 1st Heisei Ultraman trio, but also the original Ultra Brothers and Fujimiya as well. And Mirai/Mebius playing the role of Marty McFly kinda was fun to see. And the cherry on top? Nakano's boyband V6 of Tiga's opening theme Take Me Higher returning to sing a new Ultraman theme. It was the perfect fan service movie I think still to this day.