Ultraman: Rising (2024)

directed by Shannon Tindle

USA

121 minutes

4.5 stars out of 5

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I Ken feel it.

I've been extremely excited about this ever since it was announced. The clear passion that Tindle and his creative team have for the source material gave me a lot of confidence that this was going to be a project that treated the Ultra series with the respect it deserves. I've just finished watching the film, so I'm going to get some initial thoughts about it down and then come back and edit it, and hopefully out of that mess will come a semi-coherent review.

It's hard to make broad statements about a franchise that's been going for almost 60 years, changed hands numerous times, evolved, grown, branched out, and incorporated the efforts of a huge number of people, each with their own vision. It's hard to say "this is what Ultraman is about" with thousands of episodes and dozens of individual series as well as spin-off movies. But I think if you ask anybody who has seen a good amount of any given Ultra series, they will all be able to give the same answer: it's about protecting the people you love. It's about letting love and care be your strength. Ultraman: Rising nails that 100%. To the point where it's almost hard to enjoy it as a fun, rollicking kaiju movie because you're too busy absorbing the surprisingly nuanced statements about parenthood, responsibility, and redemption that it makes.

However, it is fun. Buckets. The animation style is gorgeously fluid, and the attention to anatomic detail - though stylized - makes it feel like all the characters, human and not, are made out of tangible stuff, not just modeled on computers. I was really wowed during the fight at the end when Ultraman shouts at Dr. Onda and you can see his chest expand as he speaks. A lot of work was put into making Ultraman expressive and I think the way that's achieved here is really unique: the animators decided to give him mobile pupils, which provided him with just enough expression to feel dynamic without compromising his iconic look.

Ultraman's redesign in general is really interesting. I'm a huge stickler about Ultra suits. I have very strong opinions about what I do and don't like. I was on the fence about our man when I saw him in promo images and .gifs from this film, but in motion he just works - for a lot of reasons, especially the detail in his body language and expression mentioned above. I saw a lot of fans skeptical that his goofy-ass proportions could look good on screen, but I think we should remember that Ultraman had goofy-ass proportions in 1966 too. In fact, I would be surprised if the distinctive awkwardly padded chest and shoulders of the original suit did not inspire Ultraman: Rising's Ultraman design at least a little.

Emi is also animated remarkably well. You can tell the animators had to have spent a lot of time around babies and toddlers, because although she's a kaiju, her body language is completely accurate to how a real human baby moves around and acts. I particularly love how well they captured the way a baby's mood can turn on a dime: we're happy, we're laughing, we're smiling, and then... oh... oh no...

There's just something really thrilling about the whole idea of this thing to me, as somebody who has absorbed the Showa-era Ultra series into my heart and soul. Seeing something that is modern and accessible to total newcomers but still pays so, so much homage to the original series. If you read kana there are a ton of easter eggs in the background of every shot. Not just from Ultraman '66, but a few from Ultraseven as well. Ken's soft drink brand, the fact that his uniform number is "7", there's a billboard at one point that says "Kiriyama", some shots of Alien Metron... I also wonder if Ken's dad having a leg injury that put him out of commission as an Ultra is an intentional nod to Seven, but that might be going off into the weeds a bit. The Japanese dub also managed to get Hiroko Sakurai (Akiko Fuji from the 1966 Ultraman) in a small voice role. I want to mention that Emi does the jumping shie dance and at one point has Mothra's roar, but that may not necessarily have specifically been intended as a Mothra reference, since her roar was used for many, many Ultra series kaiju as well. So, you know, these folks have definitely watched more tokusatsu than just Ultraman.

If I had any qualms about this at all, it's the style of humor. It's not terrible. But... hmmm. Maybe I just don't watch a lot of modern children's movies.

Anyway, this film is almost more interesting for the stuff it doesn't do than the stuff it does. The defense team isn't even remotely depicted as being the good guys. Ultraman's origins are never explored. (Sequel?) Ultraman's roster of abilities is refreshingly limited: it's beam city, baby, and not much else. I'm fascinated with the idea of an inherited Ultraman, and even more fascinated by the idea that the ability to transform didn't leave Ken's dad: does this imply Ken's kids, and their kids, and their kids, will all be Ultras? Was everybody else in Ken's family stretching back from time immemorial also Ultras? There's so many unanswered questions here, and none of them feel like loose ends. This is a movie that sparks the imagination, and that is something I know for certain Eiji Tsuburaya would approve of.