SHIN ULTRAMAN (2022)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*                                                                                                                                                  Though I grew up watching dubbed US reruns of the sixties ULTRAMAN series, the show didn't grab me as it did so many others here and in many parts of Asia. I found the episodes too repetitive, so I've watched almost none of the later serial shows or movie adaptations. But the producers of SHIN ULTRAMAN suckered me with their title, which made me think that this production might be a radical rethinking of the original concept, as 2016's SHIN GODZILLA was for that franchise.                                                                 

Instead, aside from a cute joke about the movie's title in the opening credits, everything about this SHIN seems like a tedious recycling of the TV show's already repetitious tropes. Once again, giant kaiju perpetually menace Japan, bringing about the formation of a monster-fighting task force, the SSSP. Once again, a helpful alien named Ultraman descends to Earth to help the locals with their infestation, but during one battle with a big beastie, SSSP officer Shinji (Takumi Saitoh) is slain. And again, Ultraman then merges with Shinji's body and takes on the Earthman's identity at the SSSP. My impression is that Ultraman's imposture simply went on from the first episode of the sixties teleseries to the last, with each story hinging on Fake Shinji morphing into gigantic Ultraman to battle a titanic creature. But since a feature film needs more closure than that, SHIN ends with Ultraman sacrificing his life to bring the innocent Shinji back to life. (Sorry if I spoiled the big revelation.) In between the start and the finish, there are various conflicts as to various alien presences, and which are or aren't good for Earth, but none of them stuck with me. There was a moderately entertaining sequence wherein a young female SSSP officer gets transformed into a giant woman, but this didn't involve any interesting plot-action. The movie made a lot of money, and given the limitations on my knowledge of ULTRAMAN trivia, I might be missing all sorts of nuanced references. But as reboots of ancient franchises go, I'd like to give this one a kick in the SHIN.