This Ultraman flick is a little bit different from the rest because it takes place in “the real world”. Three friends do everything together, including watching the first episode of Ultraman when it premieres. Thirty years later, they grow up and get real jobs. One day, a mirage of a mysterious city appears over Yokohama Bay. The mirage turns out to be the Ultraman Universe where the battle from the last movie, Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman Brothers is still playing out. During the battle, Mebius winds up in the real world and has to recruit help from the real Ultraman Brothers who have no idea they possess superpowers.
Although Superior 8 Ultra Brothers is more or less a middling effort, there are still a few worthwhile moments. I enjoyed the opening with the kids rushing home in time to watch Ultraman on TV. It was also neat that the heroes knew how to defeat all the monsters, just because they saw it on the show. I also dug the Back to the Future 2-style scenes of characters interacting with events from the previous movie, although this concept is almost immediately dropped as soon as it’s introduced.
While this installment has some good ideas, it ultimately takes a long time to get the ball rolling. There are also way too many subplots as each of the three friends have a lot of emotional baggage that needs to be unpacked before we can get to the monster mashing. The scenes of them being unhappy in their lives and stuck in a rut with their frustrated girlfriends is a bit much. One of these plots would’ve been okay, but three is pushing it. Ultraman? More like MidLifeCrisisman.
Even with all that going on, there’s still an outrageous amount of padding. (Did we really need a Hawaiian luau musical number?) The scenes of Ultraman Mebius’ avatar trying to convince the brothers that they’re really Ultramen get repetitive too. Also, it runs a bloated ninety-seven minutes, and honestly it could’ve ended twenty minutes sooner. However, there are so many subplots that the movie is forced to wrap up at the end that it rivals Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for the sheer amount of false start endings.
The film also opens up a can of worms that it never properly deals with. If Ultraman enters the real world where he only exists as a TV show character, can he sue for back royalties? Or can Tsuburaya Studios sue him for copyright infringement? You know the movie isn’t working when you start focusing on shit like this instead of the plot.
The good news is the model work of the city is impressive. It’s full of elaborate details and is epic in scale. The monsters are also quite intricately designed. It’s a shame they kinda wind up getting lost in the shuffle. Some of the CGI is a little chintzy in the final battle too, but honestly, that’s the least of this movie’s problems.
There were seven Ultramen in the last movie. This one has eight. Sometimes, less is better. For a movie called Superior 8 Ultra Brothers, it’s inferior to Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman Brothers in just about every way.
AKA: Great Decisive Battle! The Super 8 Ultra Brothers. AKA: Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers.
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