One year after the events of The Revenge of Belial, Ultra Force Zero (Ultraman Zero, Jean-Bot, Glenfire, and Mirror Knight) go to pay Princess Esmerelda (Tao Tsuchiya) a visit. Before they even get a chance to play catch-up, she and Jean-Bot are kidnapped by a rogue robotic planet-like sphere that’s on a collision course with a heavily populated planet. Rei (Shota Minami) and Hyuga (Hiroyuki Konishi) answer her distress call, and soon after, Ultra Force Zero also makes the scene to do battle with a giant robot army. It doesn’t take long before a mysterious entity drains them of their superpowers, and they must do battle against an evil version of Jean-Bot called Jean-Killer.
The Revenge of Belial was probably my least favorite of these Ultraman movies, but it at least looked cinematic. Ultraman Zero Side Story: Killer the Beatstar just looks like two episodes of the TV show slapped together. (Which makes sense because it kinda is.) Coming off the heels of my least favorite entry, I went into this Straight-to-Video sequel with some amount of trepidation. Fortunately, this one has a lot more heart and is loads more fun than The Revenge of Belial.
The monster battles and Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robot matches are a blast. I liked Gomora’s dust-up with a trio of robots, including one called “King Joe” who looks like he has two trashcan-shaped dicks. Speaking of crotch-centric robots, there’s another one that shoots flames from its bathing suit area. I’m not sure just who thought up all these dick-bots, but may the Lord bless them and keep them forever.
On the downside, Glenspark’s antics are still pretty annoying, but at least his space pirate buddies are nowhere to be found this time out. The saxophone-heavy score is kinda odd too and sounds like it would be a better fit in a ‘90s Skinamax movie than a newfangled Tokusatsu show. Still, there is plenty of good shit here. And by “good shit”, I am specifically referring to the scene where the bad robot finds his humanity and begins to cry. Is it corny? Fuck yeah! However, that’s the kind of corny crap I live for.
AKA: Ultraman Zero Gaiden: Killer the Beatstar.
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