Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #30 (12/2)

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[MekaGojira3k]

[Henry88]

[eabaker]

[MekaGojira3k]

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[MekaGojira3k]

[Henry88]

cant find any screen caps of this one

[king_ghidorah]

UltraGalaxy wins!!!


I nominate MekaGojira3k for next weeks.

[MekaGojira3k]

This was the 2nd Ultraman movie I had ever watched. I really love it. I think Nexus does a great job of boiling the basics of the Ultraman concept, but I love Legends not only because of stuff I generally think is "awesome" but because it deals with the mythology of the Ultras. I also dig the opening that homages the very first Ultraman episode.


So, I think Belial is pretty great. It's the classic fall from grace story and I love it. I'm also a sucker for black and red color schemes. The really interesting thing is how much Belial did. He tries to steal the plasma spark gets banished, then fuses with a Reiblood and because an uber Ultra. He then gets thwarted again and is imprisoned. Finally Belial is freed by Zarab, who gets more than he bargained for and Belial just kicks ass all the way to his goal. I also love how he arrives on the planet of light. He crash lands holding Taro by his throat and simply states "I'm back."




I can understand the complaints against all of the green screen usage in this and Ultraman Zero The Movie, but honestly the mobility it allows the film makers for some of the crazy fights makes it worth it. It also helps the two films really stand out from the other Ultra project and helps unify it and its sequel. I also really like the look of M78.


It's cool to have Gomora and Rei along for the ride. Ultra Galaxy itself felt like a throwaway show and pulling them into a major story arc involving the Ultras makes great use of them. I don't really feel like Dyna is necessary at all. It's an alright cameo, though I suppose with Ultraman Saga the cameo served at least as a set up for that in some small way.


I think Zero is sort of a weird part of this film. He feels almost as tacked on as Dyna showing up. Honestly, I would have just dropped that part of the film, had the Pendragon crew overcome Zetton Seijin but still get the info as to where to go. I think the film needs some more time with Zero before he gets to be a badass, although I suppose that undermines the reveal. At least more of Zero before he is tempted by the plasma spark.

Also, thanks K_G for the thread duties for this week

[king_ghidorah]

Very well stated.

I think Belial is one, if not the best, Ultraman arch nemesis introduced after all of these years. I really wish they would have gone further with his seeming sympathy, and connection with all of the kaiju that the Ultramen have killed over the years. I think there was a way to make that the forefront of the conflict between the 2 sides...simply put, have the Ultramen been right all of these years, killing kaiju for the sake of humanity? It'd be kind of cool if Belial wasn't just the cliched guy striving for power...but that he was striving for power because he didn't like the treatement of kaiju. Would have given Gomora a nice shot at center stage along the way when he would ultimately choose to side with the Ultras because of their commitment to justice, even if they have literally butchered countless kaiju.

As far as the actual film. It's fun, bright, energetic and light. The fight scenes are the best I've ever seen in anything Ultra related.

Zero is an ok central character. Actually better than ok. I like that he starts off rough around the edges, but eventually rises to the ranks of the compassionate, warriors...the Ultra brothers.

Let's see....what else. I love seeing all the kaiju. The score is one of the best toku related scores I've heard since....hell...Gamera 3? EX Gomora kicks ass. I think he'd prob own most Ultramen in a fight.

So, in closing. It's a great film that I'm glad to own on blu ray. I bought it along with Gehara from Amazon.jp and both of those films are the best things to happen kaiju films since GTB...and seeing as how GTB is divisive amongst fans, I'd call this film and Gehara even bigger successes than Gamera the Brave.

[klen7]

Finally watched this... my only Ultraman exposure so far has been the original series, Tiga and Nexus... so it was nice to see The original Ultraman, but it felt a lot like a green lantern movie since i didnt know who most of the characters were

Overall I enjoyed the film, but let me break it down




I liked that there were a lot of monsters, but i disliked how quickly they were dispatched, some classics were taken in down in one or two hits


I liked the monster of monsters that dwarfed even the ultramen


I liked this cameo


I really disliked the Ray.. controlling Kaiju like puppetty pokemon kinda rubbed me the wrong way


I also disliked Ray's crew, not sure what series they are from but i'll skip it..



I give this 3 out of 5

[MekaGojira3k]

[klen7]

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Is there too much of a good thing? I loved how this started out with the Bemular fight. I loved seeing M78, the planet of light and all the Ultrapeople and learning more about their mythos. I loved the Belial design, and can see why he's so popular.



I loved seeing the jubilee of monsters. The problem was that everything just seemed *too* big, and for how great, albeit short, the Bemular fight was, it turned out to be one of the longer normal monster fights with all the other cameo kaiju being dispatched even more quickly.



And then Zero shows up and suprisingly makes even shorter work of the foot soldier kaiju. I get that Belial's the big bad here, but something feels a little off decimating these monsters so quickly when individually they'd normally fill an entire regular episode. For the record, I'm not a huge fan of G:FW's rampage across the world either for the exact same reason.

But what bothered me was the lack of scale. Because the movie centers so prominently on the Ultramen and their mythos, there's no reason to have anything in frame to have them appear giant sized when they're fighting. It's not until the end when they fight the monster made of monsters, which actually is pretty cool, that things feel pretty large.


What's he doing there?

It's also kind of obvious that this was mostly filmed on a green screen set. Although the effects and acting are pretty good despite that. Ultimately I found myself missing the human angle, which is usually the opposite when I watch a kaiju flick or Ultra show where I want to see more Ultra and monster action. Like I said, perhaps too much of a good thing? Also, I am not a fan of the Ultra King's design. Despite all these Ultramen from different eras interacting with one another, he's the only one that kind of stuck out in a bad way.

I'm going to need to revisit this again sometime down the road. Perhaps after watching the Ultra Seven set to see if I'll feel differently. It may be because its a bit different from the typical Ultra formula that I'm used to that I feel a little overloaded from it. Definitely liked watching it though, just didn't love it like I was hoping.