ULTRAMAN SAGA - New 2012 Ultraman Movie

[monster of dark]

[ultrasanto]

[Godzilla 2000]

[MekaGojira3k]

[monster of dark]

[ultrasanto]

[narius]

[Ultraseven]

[kiryugoji04]

[narius]

[Mac]

[king_ghidorah]

[MekaGojira3k]

[kiryugoji04]

[Gman2887]

Finally got around to watching this one. I was expecting much worse, honestly. Many of the flaws seem like pretty standard Ultraman shenanigans.

The babes-for-bucks group didn't bother me as much either. At least not nearly as much as Taiga. Zero's complaints with joining him are as justified as they are amusing. I'm glad he didn't stick around with this one by the end.

I could ask logical questions, like how did these select few women/children survive Lord IronBatman's ImmaMakeYouGone wave. But then I'd have to ask why Zero didn't use the snazzy armor Noa gave him on Earth...etc... Clearly, these movies have no time to address such disposable nuances.

But seriously, I found this movie more coherent than Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy-- if not nearly as fulfilling. I was also happy about how little research I needed to do on Dyna and Cosmos to understand what was going on. The movie does a competent job of letting you know the bare essentials of their backstory, which is nice for those of us who have never seen Dyna and Cosmos.

On a minor note, I was disappointed that Kenji Kawai didn't return to score the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised when his theme for Zero popped up a few times. The rest of the score was so-so, but man did it feel good to hear Kawai's Zero theme. Great composer and great composition.

In comparison to the last two movies I didn't think it was all that bad. Of the three I'd probably place The Revenge of Belial as the best, despite some odd elements that turn me off. Still, I expected a real stinker with Ultraman Saga, so it was nice to see something fairly high above expectation.

[kiryugoji04]

So ULTRAMAN SAGA is totally getting re-released to theaters next month in the form of a new Director's Cut. Here's hoping it's turned into something a bit more watchable. The current version of the film definitely feels incomplete to me and I've been hoping for something like this to happen for awhile. Gonna keep my expectations pretty low though. XD

http://risingsuntokusatsu.com/?p=10339

[MekaGojira3k]

Coo.

[kiryugoji04]

So to follow up, I'm a little unclear on the exact details of the director's cut but from what little I've been able to glean through various Japanese reviews I've dug up, it was literally the same movie with the Ultra Brothers fight added in. Le sigh.

[Godzilla 2000]

Does tsuburaya even know WTF they're doing anymore? It's just one strange decision after another.

"Lets cut the ultra bros fight from the movie."
"What for?"
-shrugs-
"Done."