My annual mid-ish year round-up of acclaimed films I missed includes two dramas about green energy coming to rural Spain and a heartrending doc about Alzheimer's.
This year I wanted to go to a movie on my birthday and told my wife I wanted to see the killer robot movie, meaning M3GAN. When we got to the theater she was surprised we were seeing this and not "the Ultraman movie." There's a new Ultraman movie?!" I replied.
I enjoyed M3GAN but I'm ashamed I wasn't aware that there was a SHIN ULTRAMAN screening that night. The movie gods were trying to help. I'll rectify that error soon.
Happy to see SHIN ULTRAMAN get some attention here. I also got such a huge kick out of Anno’s SHIN KAMEN RIDER, which came out in late spring (and is currently streaming on Prime), that it sent me down a tokusatsu rabbit hole I spent much of the summer entrenched in.
As you say, the effects of SHIN ULTRAMAN are not meant to be seamlessly convincing, but modern takes on the effects of the classic series (which you can find on TUBI). Plus, the endless model kits in the background of all the shots at SSSP headquarters are a delight.
The Best Films of the Year (* According to Metacritic, According to Me): Part I
This year I wanted to go to a movie on my birthday and told my wife I wanted to see the killer robot movie, meaning M3GAN. When we got to the theater she was surprised we were seeing this and not "the Ultraman movie." There's a new Ultraman movie?!" I replied.
I enjoyed M3GAN but I'm ashamed I wasn't aware that there was a SHIN ULTRAMAN screening that night. The movie gods were trying to help. I'll rectify that error soon.
Happy to see SHIN ULTRAMAN get some attention here. I also got such a huge kick out of Anno’s SHIN KAMEN RIDER, which came out in late spring (and is currently streaming on Prime), that it sent me down a tokusatsu rabbit hole I spent much of the summer entrenched in.
As you say, the effects of SHIN ULTRAMAN are not meant to be seamlessly convincing, but modern takes on the effects of the classic series (which you can find on TUBI). Plus, the endless model kits in the background of all the shots at SSSP headquarters are a delight.
if you're checking this around October/November 2023: The Eternal Memory's on Paramount+ (along with a lot of other surprise documentaries).
"Perhaps American audiences don’t have the built-in fondness for a superhero who rose to prominence on a popular Japanese TV series in 1966"
but we do have a fondness for the American version that aired in the 80s!
So is this genuinely a weak year for film so far? Feels like it to me but I’m not the professional critic.
The final evening screening of Beasts in my town is tonight and this summary convinced me to see it!
Then the first Letterboxd review mentioned it opens with a horse being butchered so I got gunshy.