Shin Ultraman

The new Ultraman movie is showing in US theaters for two nights only.  Last night was the subtitled version, tonight is the dubbed version.  I toyed with the idea of going again tonight, but I don't think there's a need to.  I enjoyed the movie plenty last night.

There's always cause for concern when you hear a story is being "reimagined" or "updated", and this movie was no exception.  Having seen the character names, I knew that the new movie was not about our old Science Patrol friends--these are all new characters.  The "Science Patrol" of the dubbed 1960s TV show has been given it's original Japanese name of SSSP, the Science Special Search Party. They are no longer a paramilitary organization that fights monsters with VTOL jets and rockets and ray guns, they're now a team with laptops who analyze monsters and try to determine how best to defeat them given today's technology.

And then there's Ultraman himself.  The modern writers relied significantly on the original series for background.

The story of how he came to earth is similar--he was accidentally responsible for the death of a human, so he chose to share his life force with that human.  The human transforms into Ultraman via the "beta capsule", a thin cylinder with a button on it.  He's from the "Land of Light" in the TV series, from the "Planet of Light" in this movie.  And of course, he can fire the spacium ray from his crossed hands!

What I really appreciated about this movie is how it was able to bring the original Ultraman story into the modern day without destroying the original.  For example, in the original series, the monsters were clearly just men in a rubber suit.  With today's CGI tech, the (one) monster in Shin Ultraman could have been a fearsome computer-generated creature that actually looked alive!  Instead, this monster, while not a man in a rubber suit, was CGI generated to appear just campy enough to be recognized as an homage to the original series.

The SSSP members wore logo pins, but unlike on the TV show, they were not communication devices.  The telephones rang with the same tone as they did on the TV show.  But what was for me the most exciting part was in the one scene in which the original "Science Patrol March" was played when action was starting!

If you're curious, here's episode 1 of Ultraman from 1966:

The Science Patrol March starts at 5:43.

Obviously, a full length motion picture made for today's audiences has to be more sophisticated than a TV show from 1966, and Shin Ultraman had a much more involved plot that merely defeating a ravaging monster (a kaiju in Japanese).  Still, the writers and director were able to weave into the movie those references mentioned above, generating nostalgia for the original at no cost to the modern story.

While Shin Ultraman is a good movie in its own right, I wonder if a viewer unfamiliar with the original series would enjoy it as much as I did, lacking as they would the background information that makes it even more enjoyable.   Still, I had a ball watching this movie.  I'll add it to my collection if it comes out on DVD or Blu-ray.

Update, 1/14/22:  The childhood friend with whom I watched Shin Ultraman shares the following:

I was just really impressed how they managed to bring such a familiar feel to it while still making it contemporary.

I was prepared to be disappointed and was pleasantly surprised how well done it was.  The makers clearly hold the source material with reverence.