ebiros2 This is a darker Ultraman that's set in a parallel universe. The movie is targeted for more mature audience, and it was made in the same time period as the Ultraman Nexus that also featured a darker mood.The movie closely follows the story featured in the first episode of the original Ultraman. Defense force F15 pilot Shunichi Maki (Tetsuya Bessho) encounters a red sphere from outer space. Prior to this event, another defense force pilot Udo (Kenya Oosumi) encountered a similar ball of light (this time blue in color) and transformed into a monster. From Udo's transformation, Maki is also suspected to turn into a monster and gets arrested. But his alter ego was Ultraman who came to capture the monster that took over Udo's body. Some homage to the original Ultra Q is also paid in this movie where Maki becomes a pilot of Cessna for a private corporation. The movie was part of the Ultraman N Project that was supposed to create a new appeal to the Ultraman series. Ultraman Noa, this movie, and Ultraman Nexus shares a common connection that became clear towards the end of Ultraman Nexus. But ultimately, this new darker vision of Ultraman series was unpopular with the audience, and the project was canceled.This Ultraman is really not Ultraman in my opinion. It lacks the style worthy of a super hero. Other may like the more realistic depiction of Ultraman, and opinions may vary depending on the viewer.

dimagic Giant monster movies can be fun, when it's old Japanese B-Godzilla or newer Cloverfield.But Ultraman is not like that at all. This is in the league of Power Rangers, very childish with people dressed in costumes and fighting each other on the miniature sets so they will look like giants. The story is also lame, nothing to challenge the mind. This movie is for kids under 8, people that want to see a superhero movie will be disappointed. I wanted to turn this off after first 20 minutes, but instead I just watched it in fast forward. I am not familiar with the original animated series, so the fans may enjoy the movie because of the nostalgic reasons. For me it was just waste of time.

rasta_robot Obviously, the first commenter knew absolutely nothing about Ultraman or the history behind the character, or of the culture gap this movie comes with. For those who aren't aware of the character, Ultraman is a classic Japanese superhero who, along with Kamen Rider, is the popular equivalent to our Superman. In Japan, Ultraman is instantly recognizable and apart of almost every child's childhood at one point or another. The budgets of the series is not always grand, so they are able to make do with what they have very well. Having said that, I will say the movie takes some good old fashioned imagination to enjoy. That's part of the culture gap. Japanese films rely on the imagination of the audience, and not just CGI to do the work for us. So, if you watch the movie with all the previous things considered, you should have a really good time.

Chung Mo Ultraman is fun. The original series was silly, cheap and imaginative. Ultra Seven, the second series, was still silly and cheap but had a tongue in cheek seriousness that made it fun as well. The numerous series that came after fell into a predictable "beat up the monster" rut that the kids in Japan loved but were never brought over to the U.S. The recent efforts to revive Ultraman are inspired by the re-imagining of the very silly Gamera movie of the sixties into the standard bearer of the kaiju genre. Well shot in high-def video (I couldn't tell it was until the credits said so), the movie works well as a stand-alone entry in the Ultraman tradition. The script is very good with an emphasis on human relationships. I have to agree with other contributors that this film is much better then most of the recent Godzilla films which were starting to resemble earlier Ultraman films. The special effects are very good at times with some excellent miniature work and some great combinations of real life with model work. The only complaints I have are with the music track and the direction. While overall very good, the director missed a few chances to raise this film up another notch. Sometimes the energy is lacking. The music, however, is a very mixed bag. The fuzzbox rock guitar has been overused by "children's" action shows for years and starts to sound like kazoos to me. The more classical action orchestral music is not inspired but at least it doesn't interfere with the action. It's like somebody forgot to tell the composer that they were trying to update the genre and the composer supplied a "by the book" soundtrack.Very adult without being unsuitable for most children, it's hopeful this movie along with the sister TV series, "Ultraman Nexus" (not the same story but equally adult) will find a US release sometime in the near future. Until then it's only available as an import.