Shin Ultraman is a fun and endlessly charming sci-fi flick that retains what made the original Ultraman show so great, while elaborating on themes that could've been used a bit more screen time in the original. 

Shin Ultraman is a reimagining of the original 1966 cult classic, focusing on remaking a few important episodes from Ultraman and weaving them together into a cohesive narrative.  This review is spoiler free so I’m only going to discuss the main themes of the movie, and will only share minimal spoilers. 

Summary:

The story begins with an introduction to the SSSP: a paramilitary organization tasked with defending Japan from the various kaiju that have inexplicably begun to crop up across the country. We get to see the team in action against Neronga, a kaiju that absorbs electricity, during one of its rampages towards a power plant. While checking drone footage of Neronga’s attack, one eagle-eyed SSSP member spots a child that failed to escape the towns during the initial evacuation. He valiantly rushes into the town to rescue the child… Only to be killed by flying debris, when a massive red ball of light falls from the sky and square in front of Neronga.  

When the dust settles and Neronga recovers from the blast, a mysterious silver giant emerges. Neronga unloads a deadly blast of electricity into the giant to absolutely no effect.  Neronga attempts to go invisible and flee, but it ultimately does nothing due to the amount of dirt it kicks up in its escape. Before it can get away, the giant blasts a beam of energy causing Neronga and the mountain range it was hiding in to explode.  As the SSSP members stare in shock, the giant quickly flies away. The giant is quickly dubbed “Ultraman” by the prime minister. 

Curiously, the SSSP member who died from Ultraman’s impact blast shows up to work the next day, completely unscathed. It turns out that Ultraman, fascinated by his willingness to sacrifice his own life for that of another, decides that he is the prime candidate to become his human guise. Ultraman, now appearing as a member of the SSSP, learns to shun the cold, uncaring, and brutally logistical ways of his kind to instead embrace his “humanity”. The longer Ultraman spends on earth the more he begins to love the human race and understand the value of life, an alien concept to the numerous extraterrestrials who have been arriving on earth as of late. 

Unfortunately the aliens Ultraman and the SSSP must face did their homework. As opposed to full-scale invasions the aliens use bureaucracy and the laws of Ultraman’s home planet to try and bar him from interfering with their nefarious schemes. Unfortunately for them Ultraman doesn’t care and he beats the ever loving snot out of them. But for breaking the laws of his home planet, an emissary from the land of light is sent to personally deal with Ultraman, and the planet Earth as well.  

Review:

While an alien learning about humanity after landing on Earth is a pretty tired trope by now Shin Ultraman does it well, with Ultraman’s change of heart being a gradual change. It’s also refreshing to be able to watch a piece of superhero media that isn’t the garbage that Marvel has been coughing up as of late.

We will now consider other aspects of the film: music, cinematography, special effects, and action.

  First is the music, and it’s very good. Toro Fuyuki’s music from the original show is as great as ever and used sparingly enough so that whenever you hear it it feels special. The original songs are amazing as well. Shiro Sagisu’s score perfectly fits the mood of whatever scene it is used in.  

The cinematography of Shin Ultraman is certainly unique. Most scenes are shot from about the last angle you’d expect: hyper close-ups, POV shots, and low angles are frequently used. Not a single scene in this movie is shot normally and in tandem with the special effects (which we’ll get to soon) this creates a sense of zaniness that’s undeniably very fun.           

While lacking the polish one might expect from a major blockbuster, Shin Ultraman’s special effects are still great and manage to retain the campy charm of the original show (and while “campy” usually has a negative connotation I mean it in the best way possible). And on another note, you can forgive Shin Ultraman’s occasional lack of polish when you consider that this film had a smaller budget than a single episode of She-Hulk, but despite its comparatively small budget Shin Ultraman’s CGI looks better than that of its competition by leaps and bounds.

The action is very good all throughout Shin Ultraman, so if kaiju violence is something you crave this film can and will scratch that itch. Much like in the original show, Ultraman prefers to fight with his bare hands, punching and grappling any monster or alien foolish enough to engage in combat with him, the great thing about this is that it gives each blow a genuine sense of weight and force behind it. 

While on the subject of the original show, Shin Ultraman’s fight scenes occasionally recreate moments from the original show beat for beat. While this may seem lazy, these moments are rare and short enough to remain fun easter eggs to those who’ve seen the original show.