Shin Ultraman (2022)

Shin Ultraman (2022) (シン・ウルトラマン) is a Japanese film directed by Shinji Higuchi.

As the threat of unidentified giant life forms known as ‘S-class species’ grows in Japan, a silvery giant appears beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

Among other distinctions, this film was selected in the Asian competition at the 2022 Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland! Not necessarily a good sign…

Shinji Higuchi is one of the two directors of the cartoon Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, the other being Hideaki Anno, director known for Evangelion and the film Shin Godzilla (2016).

I’m thinking that the Japanese seem to have found a way of making non-films! Indeed, this film doesn’t really feel like a film.

Taken from a television series described as Tokusatsu, this film can nevertheless be viewed without knowing anything about this universe. According to wikipedia: ‘Tokusatsu (特撮), a contraction of tokushu satsuei (特殊撮影) meaning ’special effects”, is the generic name for all video productions that use special effects and the aesthetics associated with these productions. The idea of tokusatsu spread thanks to the worldwide success of the first tokusatsu film, Godzilla, which was created in 1954 by imitating the film King Kong. Tokusatsu became completely independent of Hollywood film genres, despite its basis being the imitation of the King Kong film. “

That said, we will also remember the Metal Heroes, the best of which was Space Sheriff Gavan (X-OR in french) in 1982, followed by Space Sheriff Sharivan (Sharivan in french) in 1983, Space Sheriff Shaider (Captain Sheider in french) in 1984, Giant Robot Fighter Gungah (Jaspion in french) in 1985, Jewel Knight Spielvan or simply Spielvan (Spielvan in french) in 1986, Metalder (1987) and Ninja Robot Jiraiya or simply Jiraiya (Giraya in french) in 1988.

The Metal Hero series went through several eras. You know, these are the heroes who transform into robots, heroes dressed in metal armor, to fight monsters!

San Ku Kai and Spectreman are not officially part of Metal Hero. But there are obviously similarities between these series. San Ku Kai is a Japanese adaptation of the American series “Monkey,” while Spectreman is a superhero series from the 1970s.

Coming back to Shin Ultraman, the whole thing takes itself quite seriously! We even see the Japanese army in a deluge of special effects that match today’s technological advances, but also with old-fashioned effects to retain the charm of the era of the first films of this genre. Yes, those unfamiliar with the genre will simply say that the special effects are poor quality.

We see a succession of monsters arriving regularly on Earth. These monsters, created from foam or plastic, fight each other, destroying everything in their path, all accompanied by pretty good music. The production is decent, the actors aren’t always believable, and the story…
Ahh… I can’t do it! I just can’t !!!

Come on, I give up! In short, they take a stupid subject and any length of time, but all they do is fill it up. We throw in five or six minutes of action with more or less crappy special effects and wrap up this dud with a ton of endless back-and-forth dialogue that explains at length the whys and wherefores of a situation that otherwise makes no sense and has no coherence.

There are no stakes, and the characters and situations revel in the grotesque. Meanwhile, the average viewer will have slumped in their seat, asleep and numb from the ineptitude and torpor of it all.

And don’t give me the excuse of Japanese cultural specificities! It is objectively and, therefore, universally bad.
Yes, this film is a bore! It’s tediously filmed and poorly written. There’s far too much pointless chatter and the characters are relatively empty. I still can’t decide whether it’s badly acted. In Japanese culture, people don’t show their emotions too much. As a result, the actors overact and let themselves go completely when they’re on screen. And it’s like watching a manga!

The visual effects are sometimes okay… but I understand those who couldn’t sit through more than an hour. The lighthearted tone makes it clear that you shouldn’t take things too seriously (although the humor is pretty good!), but the story is bland and lacking in tension, seeming like a collection of episodes, with characters that are interesting to most people… It’s just hollow, laborious, messy, too long, and rather poorly made. And despite its visual ambitions and respectable budget, Ultraman fails miserably to deliver a satisfying experience. The script is confusing and poorly constructed, with dialogue full of pretentious jargon that seems more intended to confuse the viewer than to engage them.