TUBI CONTINUED… ULTRAMAN GINGA S THE MOVIE: SHOWDOWN! THE 10 ULTRA WARRIORS (2015) ***

An evil alien is going around the galaxy defeating Ultramen and collecting them like Pokémon cards.  He brainwashes a beautiful princess, who has the power of using mirrors as prisons, into thinking the Ultramen are her sworn enemies.  The only two Ultraman left on their checklist are Ultraman Victory and Ultraman Ginga.  Eventually, Ultraman Zero joins the fight and together, they try to break the spell the villain holds over the princess.  

Since ‘tis the season, I thought about doing a brief run of Christmas movies for this column.  Instead, I just settled on picking one or two here and there.  Much to my surprise, Ultraman Ginga S the Movie:  Showdown!  The 10 Ultra Warriors is a Christmas movie, so I get to kill two birds with one stone.  (Well, it starts with a Christmas party that’s interrupted by an alien invasion, at least.)

The film clocks in at just over an hour long, so the Kung Fu battles, kaiju collisions, and monster mashing comes at a fast and furious rate.  Little time is spent on plot, and we only receive the barest wisps of exposition, which is appreciated in something like this.  In fact, I admired the movie’s brevity and its ability to compact the maximum amount of plot information with the minimum amount of storytelling. 

Plus, it’s just plain fun.  The finale where the imprisoned Ultramen are freed and must fight a gauntlet of their previous foes is a neat way to combine good old-fashioned men in rubber suit fights with shameless fan service.  The subplot where Ginga and Victory become handcuffed together in order to learn how to work as a team is pretty funny too.  We also get an amusing sequence where the villain turns the human heroes’ worst fears against them, which finds them being attacked by zombies, bugs, and uh… giant tomatoes?!?  I’m not sure if this was supposed to be a tip of the hat to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but it sure was hilarious. 

AKA:  Ultraman Ginga S:  Showdown!  The 10 Ultra Warriors.  AKA:  Ultraman Ginga S:  The Movie.  AKA:  Ultraman Ginga S Movie Showdown!  The 10 Ultra Brothers!