The Reel Rejects - ULTRAMAN: RISING (2024) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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Starting point is 00:01:36 I was sitting there going like, I mean, at the end, it certainly seemed like they were going to Kaiju Island because it seemed like, you know, Gigantron would be able to guide them, you know, at very least. But, you know, I was wondering if mom was maybe there if she had, like, found it or something. But at the same time, yeah.

Starting point is 00:01:56 But at the same time, yeah, it's funny. I really like the way that they dispersed the information about the family because, you know, you meet them when Ken is just a baby, a child, like a young child. And then you have this 20 year time jump. And at first you imagine like, oh, maybe mom died then, you know, or maybe they both died, you know. And then you slowly get the information back. And I like the way the plotting moved and the way the characterizations were like fleshed out and stuff. I just really like that they let you kind of sit with certain things and figure it out as we go. So, yeah, it's like once he comes back, you're like, oh, okay, dad is alive and oh, okay, mom is gone, but not necessarily dead gone.

Starting point is 00:02:39 And just, yeah, like, you know, this had so many of the fun elements I would expect from, you know, a kaiju movie and something based off an Ultraman, obviously. but this didn't feel like it was going too heavily for nostalgia necessarily and certainly like this tradition is a very strongly represented one in the current landscape especially here because we've got the legendary monster verse going and thriving and we have obviously the Toho Godzilla stuff still going and thriving but yeah like this this take for an animated movie felt really nice because it felt like it's certainly something that could dazzle kids and appeal to it. to kids, but this wasn't really shying away from just treating the character stuff with the grace that I feel like you would want to for just a broadly appealing story in general. Like it had nuance. It wasn't too dark, but it wasn't also afraid of acknowledging death and acknowledging the true cost and risk of, you know, being a part of the fight and, you know, such a physical one, too, but that comes, you know, with the cost of destruction and death. You know, and the fact that, yeah, you had, like, the antagonist guy, you know, part of me was wondering if they were going to do any kind of send-off moment with him.

Starting point is 00:04:01 And I don't necessarily think you need it. Like, you know, I think you could perhaps expound on that character further if you wanted this to be like an even richer experience. But even with the antagonist, you know, you get where he's coming from and he's a character that demonstrates a certain level of, of, of. uh integrity certainly and a certain level of compat I don't know if compassion is quite the right word but it's like you can tell that he cares about his team and he cares about the well-being of you know the citizens of japan the people of earth you know he's doing this because he lost people and ultraman was you know ultra man wasn't able to stop it in fact you know ultraman might have you know made those immediate circumstances worse and so like you get where this guy is coming from uh and you know he's certainly has an imposing presence, but it's not too much of, like, you know, so far off the deep end that this doesn't even seem like a real person kind of thing. And having it be that Ken has to, you know, recover and raise this kaiju baby. It was just such like a nice

Starting point is 00:05:05 twist. It's a nice, like, thing to throw in. Like, certainly again, it makes it appealing, I think, to younger audiences. And it gives you, oh, I was going to say, there's some Tim Henson in here some polyphia in here which some of those guitar moments I bet were probably with him on him on at least some of those like riffs and arpeggios but yeah having it be that

Starting point is 00:05:30 Ken has to raise this baby and that that becomes part of you know the the fun but also the peril I thought was a really lovely twist and it gives you a way to kind of make fresh the well-trodden

Starting point is 00:05:46 you know landscape of again Kaiju destruction yeah but uh yeah what are your thoughts first and foremost i want to say that love love love how much heart this movie had from start to finish from that opening scene where we see ken as a little kid when making his curry with his dad and then like the head

Starting point is 00:06:05 shoulder i'm at the forehead touch with his mom watching the game and then us revealing like where he is in his life at this point and i did that thing where this wasn't our first insights into seeing him as Ultraman but this is the story in which we learn where we see him become a hero like a real hero from a place

Starting point is 00:06:26 of not obligation but of desire a place of calling and we see him do that through learning how to let people in, learning how to love, learning how to forgive and the whole notion of flipping the

Starting point is 00:06:42 concept of this hero on his head because it's someone that's known for taking down kaiju and having it raise a kaiju and learning how being a father in his own right and then having that relate to his relationship with his father was just all so clever i thought that stuff was really smart and having the villain also be a father who experienced loss and this whole thing is just essentially this big thematic story about family in general and wrapping that up under the guise of like a superhero story which was really I don't know, different really inspiring.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Thank you in there. Yeah, because I would say this is like the true definition of a family movie. You know, it doesn't skews super young, like something like the minions or something like, I don't know, like Pop Patrol, but it's not like too mature out of its leagues where somebody of a younger audience wouldn't understand it or would go over their heads. I think it's that perfect middle ground, that perfect balance that everybody can enjoy. And like, I think it's dope that this is on Netflix, but God, this would be so cool to see in theaters. Yeah, man. This would be really dope. And I want to acknowledge and give the movie praise also for Netflix allowing them to really go ham in the animation department because everything slapped, dude, from its way that it was able to have those homages to anime and both with its like stills and like certain shots they would use from like him running, showing from the back, like going to his attack.

Starting point is 00:08:09 Extreme perspective angles. Yeah. those stretches and then those little cuts to like steals within manga that was really cool and really clever and this just movie really encapsulated that sense of culture and I really

Starting point is 00:08:25 I really dug that you know and watching him go from this this really selfish dude to somebody who yeah learn how to love I said that a little bit earlier but yeah just even the you felt that in the music

Starting point is 00:08:41 as well and just its sense of of heart even like when we're talking about it earlier the fact that the the the robot had died or wasn't it mina yeah yeah even Mina yeah Mina had died and just and it's like that little detail too is like oh she's based on your mom but but even still just like she's always there and she's got enough personality that you know and and is a remnant of their time together right even even without the mom you know she's family yeah exactly yeah and and getting to see them all kind of early on like that really drives that home yeah i think this movie is i don't know how well versed into like the rest of the mythos of ultraman is or like it's where it is with its spin-offs or like it's just like reworking something that's already

Starting point is 00:09:33 established lore within that that universe or if it's like something just like brand new for audiences but I definitely think this is something as a a new timer or a newcomer to this franchise is definitely got me curious and interested to check out the rest of Ultraman. Like, how does this vary in adaptation from the other ones? Like, is there this nuance of being able to understand that kaiju's are more than just like these monsters

Starting point is 00:10:00 that you get to punch or is it kind of straightforward, more traditional in the sense that, oh, we got to take that these kaijuks because it's just screwing everything up. and even his sense of care as far as being a hero because he was kind of reckless he was just kind of like going around like messing up the streets messing up the buildings and then the fact that through being a father made him a better hero in general and a better baseball player and a better baseball player just all around better with his life and yeah it's and did that thing where it is allowing itself to be focused on the story that it's telling while also giving little nuggets to where where the story could be going. Yeah. Both with its teases about the mom and then his relationship with the reporter. And I feel like those are all things that are going to explore in the sequel. If they get a sequel, hopefully they do.

Starting point is 00:10:50 And yeah, all of these things just really worked really well together. I do have a couple small criticisms and I said him, said it while we were watching the movie. Didn't make sense that he was trying to climb a tower to save this baby when he can clearly fly. And they've expressed no sort of restrictions on the fact that when he can't, playing when you can't fly. Also, the fact that the baby recognized the mom, even though the mom was already dead and under the water, dead and under the water.

Starting point is 00:11:15 And the first person she saw was an Ultraman. So I think that was a little inconsistent, but I think those two minor things aside, the movie was great. I had a really good time. Very unexpected. And it's crazy because I think that, you know, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:11:32 maybe for like word of mouth or something, but I don't know if I would have gone out of my way to go watch this movie, but I'm so happy. and so grateful that I did. Yeah. And I think that so many people should because it's honestly one of the best animated movies at the year. Big thanks to G-Fuel for continuing this awesome partnership we got going on. I've joked about, well, a truth, actually.

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Starting point is 00:13:21 It's been a great year or so partnering up with you. Trigger you every day. Yeah, I hope people show up for this for sure because, uh, because yeah, especially, you know, Netflix animation is, is more of a recent phenomenon, at least in terms of like the big Titans. animated content and whatever else in movies and everything but this yeah i thought had a lovely sense of flourish for its art style um i love the little anime like obviously you know we're well into the era of computer 3d animation and you know there are certain similarities to other studios

Starting point is 00:13:55 in that regard but i like that this had the very angular and very anime what seemed very anime inspired character design you had like you know certain things like hair and all that that's like very kind of sharp lines stylized and then you would have these moments like you said that kind of in just brief flashes it's not like the whole thing is doing like oh hey spider verse or oh hey uh mutant mayhem but you know you do have those brief moments where appropriate yeah we're going to add some flashes of you know line work on a white background or we're going to add like those newsprint dots to something just for emphasis just to remind you of part of the tradition of where this comes from and from what i understand obviously the Ultraman began as a live action series, but has been also extrapolated upon in manga and anime and other various modes of, you know, of various media. But yeah, like the grace with which the story unfolded, like it's, you know, something of a of a traditional place to go for like a family movie. However, yeah, I thought that this managed to fall on that side of like family movie versus

Starting point is 00:15:03 kids movie like yeah anybody could get into this you know fathers and sons mothers and and daughters whoever you know it's like uh there's just such a nice kind of grace with which they seemed really focused on making sure that that stuff sang uh and i liked yeah going from japan briefly to you know southern california essentially san francisco and l a with the different giants and dodger stadiums and whatnot like that little thread of baseball being a thing i thought was nice and yeah having that detail where like the woman on the news is like yeah he's back now it just doesn't seem like he cares at all and uh and yeah watching him find a reason for himself to invest and also to heal some of the traumas that have probably contributed to his not being a very good ultraman in the first

Starting point is 00:15:49 place probably resents having to do this he probably resents the idea of ultraman in general and i like that with the drama stuff like they really i thought that stuff they made quite human in a very nice way because this easily could have been like, oh, dad, like, because of this angst that I feel like, I'm just going to be, you know, adversarial at all time. And like, it wasn't, it didn't fall into that trap, that kind of cliche, you know. And I liked that we got to explore, you know, what it's like to be raised by a superhero, at least touch on it a little bit, the fact that he, he had this resentment for his dad because he felt abandoned, even though the dad will he believed himself to be saving the city to try to save his family or to protect his family

Starting point is 00:16:35 but inadvertently caused this distance between his family because he wasn't able to be there for the games and for like the graduations and stuff because he was too busy fighting kaiju's and then even though he was there and like he obviously did it because there was this love there because he has this in an innate sense of good you know you can't see that when you're growing up and you're a kid and that feeling just like builds and grows you know when it's your dad yeah and i'm sure we didn't get to explore this aspect of it but i'm sure there there is that sense of even resentment for having to be the thing that caused your childhood so much neglect and you know a lot made you put up those walls in the first place yeah and and you get why he's such a lone

Starting point is 00:17:23 you know kind of character such a loner obviously very confident uh but yeah you get why he's like it's the me show it's just all me doing everything you know he's almost seems like he's avoiding attachments because of this and then having to watch you know him basically become apparent and sort of experience that side of this conflict firsthand i thought it was just a really nice way to yin and yang the storylines around and uh and yeah like when he does finally reunite with his father reluctantly and they're working together um yeah i just thought like there there were just so many like this is one of those movies where like you kind of forget your watching animated characters and you're like, oh, yeah, just like the performances back and

Starting point is 00:18:02 forth. They're really nice. I really like the voice work. Um, and yeah, like him with the reporter, I kept rooting for them. Yeah. If they ever do any more of this, I would love to see more of her and more of their little story continue. Totally. Um, but even that, like, even that was kind of nice because it was like, you could clearly create something romantic out of this if you wanted to. And they could in the future, but it was like, it didn't even need to explicitly do that. And like, and, and, and yeah, I just thought yeah like what they for the most part what they chose to focus on was appropriate like for my money i would have taken maybe a handful more minutes for a few more sort of personal wrap-ups or personal scenes or whatnot but in terms of like an adventure and in terms of something

Starting point is 00:18:43 that is clearly celebrating continuing and also just reminding you of the impact of this kind of story these kaiju uh stories you know and and seeing yeah where like a pacific rim clearly got a bunch of inspiration where you know the monster verse movies that legendary is making right now clearly grabs some inspiration right um it's just so fun and I hope that people like that you know we're watching this in a moment

Starting point is 00:19:08 where like I have no idea what the response will be but uh but yeah like coming in again as sort of a noob and uh understanding that this is a bit of a different thing but you know still hopefully in the grander tradition of Ultraman this was such a fun time I was dazzled and uh and really endeared and this makes me now want to go put on some more ultraman and and i am curious to know like yeah as the original um you know it's like godzilla is in part obviously a commentary and a response to the history the tragedy uh during world war two but it's also you know and there's an

Starting point is 00:19:43 ecological element to it as well and i wonder if the whole thing about yeah like we got to stop kaiju when they're wrecking the city and they're you know killing people but they're also just animals and they're also just creatures that are just doing their instinctual thing and don't deserve to be just eradicated due to that and I like the the concept of that and I'm curious I feel like they could have maybe even expounded that much more like I like that they had the theme of like that is part of our goal and that's part of the opposition that the other guy is bringing in is basically he wants to wipe them all out for our sake I think that's a compelling debate in and of itself and if they do more of these I would love to see that kind of of further extrapolated upon because at least in terms of this story, that's more of a theme that underpins everything but isn't necessarily resolved or there's not some kind of grand plan at the end of like, okay, so here's how we continue to ensure our coexistence. You know, I feel like that's something you could certainly do more with in the future. But it does make me wonder if that was always a part of the Ultraman canon or if it became

Starting point is 00:20:49 a part at a certain point where it's like, yeah, we're going to have these fun monster battles and fights and stuff but the point is not that we just have to destroy them all you know like maybe there's a way that we can you know is kaiju island a big part of the overarching lore and is that the kind of ideal place for them all to be you know yeah and something else that i'm like as we're sitting here talking that i kind of realized i would have liked to have seen uh ultraman senior as maybe more like a little bit active of a character because he really is very sparse than the the large chunk of the movie sure but the fact that that you're his actions stem both our protagonist's way of moving forward and our villains

Starting point is 00:21:30 way of moving forward yeah because you know he's the fulcrum yeah exactly he's the he's the fulcrum you know because he wasn't fair to protect his son in his personal life he has this resentment and and has become like insular and selfish and takes up the mental reluctantly but I have to imagine because his failure as a hero or not being able to be there all the time in that aspect of thing because he's only one guy he then inspired the villain to then take up his sort of mantle to in destroying all kaiju's because he blames both the kaiju and ultraman for his family's death yeah i think that that was very interesting i think nice inside in yeah it was a very much a uh a cool like mirror to what our

Starting point is 00:22:20 protagonist were going through. And it speaks to that struggle of, again, the great power, great responsibility thing. And the fact that, like, this is, as much as there is triumph and as much as a movie like this, you kind of want to end on a big triumph. Like, this, I would have to imagine that if

Starting point is 00:22:36 you were actually Ultraman in real life, there's probably a good amount of acceptance of the fact that you can't save everyone and there will be tragedy that you are partially responsible for that you're just going to have to live with and i got that sense you know without it getting too dower i got that sense and so yeah it's like

Starting point is 00:22:56 there i feel like yeah there there's certain things they could certainly have expounded upon if they wanted to but i really like most of everything that we got here yeah and uh just the tone the flavor the vibe the feeling you know felt pretty special pretty unique so i agree yeah i would love to see more we'd like to see more in this universe same same same okay guys would you guys like to see more Ultraman in this universe, let us know down in the comments below, and we will see you guys in the next one. Pieces. Pieces.

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The Reel Rejects - ULTRAMAN: RISING (2024) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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