Musashi, the little kid from Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact, is all grown up and has become an astronaut. He encounters a dead planet in his travels and arrives there just in time to watch Ultraman Cosmos fight a giant monster named Scorpus. When he returns home, Musashi decides to visit some friends on the island of Saipan where Scorpus once again appears and is fought off by a manta ray-type monster named Rayja who acts as protector of the ocean. A mermaid babe then takes our hero into the deep to show him her hidden home world under the sea. Predictably, Scorpus returns with its master, the evil Sandloss, in tow with the intention of decimating the Earth to ash, and the underwater kingdom right along with it.
Once again there’s some silliness here that seems a little ill-fitting. The stuff with the mermaid is lame and feels like an attempt to capture some of the female demographic. The SRC offshoot, SEA who are an underwater division of science exploration aren’t nearly as memorable either. Besides, let’s face it: Being underwater isn’t nearly as cool as being in outer space. The subplot with the mermaid’s jealous boyfriend slows things down to a crawl too.
The monster battles are where it’s at though. Scorpus is a pretty decent monster. He looks like a cross between Gamera and an oversized bedbug and shoots red flames. The scenes of his worldwide destruction are well done, and it’s a shame that so much of the film is a slog because whenever he and his minions are tearing up the town, The Blue Planet rocks. The moderately stylish finale when Sandloss blots out the sun and battles two Ultramen in darkness is solid, but it’s not quite enough to put this one in the win column. The Rayja creatures are decidedly less cool and look especially goofy when they start talking. Although the scenes of kaiju kicking butt fit the bill, whenever the action switches underwater, the movie sinks like a stone.
AKA: Ultraman Cosmos: The Blue Planet.
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