Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (July 11, 2023)
As a kid, I delighted in the TV adventures of Ultraman. Decades later the franchise remains active and we get a 2022 feature film entitled Shin Ultraman.
Destructive creatures referred to as "S-Class Species" regularly appear around Japan and cause damage. Standard weapons don’t impact them, so the government forms the “S-Class Species Suppression Protocol” (SSSP) to deal with the invaders.
While their efforts only enjoy sporadic effectiveness, a mysterious silver giant shows up and helps defeats the S-Class entities. Dubbed “Ultraman”, the SSSP works to partner with him and combat the continuing S-Class threat, though complications arise.
If you asked me to offer any specific memories of my childhood Ultraman experiences, I’d come up blank. As noted, I loved the show way back then, but I don’t recall anything about it beyond the image of the title character himself.
This means I don’t go into Shin with any fears it’ll impact my nostalgia. Because I remember nothing about the series other than its existence, the 2022 flick can’t damage those impressions.
Even if I did maintain strong memories of the series, Shin wouldn’t damage them. Nothing here becomes so problematic that it would damage the property’s legacy.
On the other hand, nothing about Shin manages to enhance or revive that legacy either. Oddly dull and inert, this becomes a forgettable flick.
With a budget only around $6 million, the producers clearly chose to spend most of that money on visual effects. To their credit, these elements hold up surprisingly well.
Of course, given the history of Ultraman, Shin could opt for intentionally cheesy elements and just claim they did so to stay true to the source. That would seem like a valid approach but I nonetheless feel glad the movie didn’t wholeheartedly embrace the campy side of the street.
Not that Shin avoids nods toward the franchise’s silly roots. In particular, music echoes a “surf rock” vibe and the story itself feels like a wink toward the source as well.
Though perhaps I should put “story” in quotes, as Shin doesn’t exactly go heavy on plot. It tosses out a variety of threads but never really engages in one particularly coherent narrative.
Which seems fine in theory, as no one goes to an Ultraman film with the expectation they’ll find rich drama. Nonetheless, Shin’s tale seems so thin and poorly-developed that it feels badly undeveloped.
Characters exist as clichés and not much more, even though we spend a lot of time with them. While Shin does pull off better than expected visual effects given its budget, that comes with a price: an awful lot of fairly stagnant footage.
Shin devotes a lot of its running time to shots of humans behind laptops, and a lot of other “filler” footage materializes as well. I get it: with so little money at their disposal, the filmmakers needed to find ways to tell the tale without effects involved.
Unfortunately, this makes Shin slow and stale. At 112 minutes, it runs far longer than necessary, as tedious expository scenes go on for extended periods that the movie doesn’t need.
Again, the budget appears to create these issues. Due to the lack of funds, Shin can’t spend much time with actual Ultraman action.
This sticks us with endless and meandering scenes that just blather on and on as the characters chat about various plot points. Perhaps if the story managed more intrigue, this wouldn’t become an issue, but given the flat nature of the thin story, the fact we get stuck in dull expository sequences harms the film.
Ultraman exists as a character with the potential to benefit from a modern update. Unfortunately, Shin Ultraman fails to give us anything other than a dull and forgettable adventure.
