Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop
No Result
View All Result
Dream Wired
No Result
View All Result
Home Movie

Netflix’s U.S. Reboot of Japanese Franchise

rmtsa by rmtsa
June 15, 2024
in Movie
0
Netflix’s U.S. Reboot of Japanese Franchise
74
SHARES
1.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


You might also like

New Trailer For The 4K Release of SHIN GODZILLA — GeekTyrant

Can You Recognize These ’80s Celebrities Today?

Chief of War Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch

For millions of Japanese viewers as well as countless fans across the globe, the Ultraman franchise, pitting a giant superhero against giant kaiju creatures of all shapes and breeds, has been a popular staple since it was first launched as a TV series in the 1960s.

But for this critic and likely many other viewers, especially in the U.S., the new English-language reboot, Ultraman: Rising, will be their first encounter with a character who’s been taking flight for over a half a century in live-action, animated and manga formats.

Ultraman: Rising

The Bottom Line

Ultra cute.

Release date: Friday, June 14Cast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamyln Tomita, Keone Young, Julia HarrimanDirector: Shannon TindleScreenwriters: Shannon Tindle, Marc Haimes, based on the “Ultraman” franchise from Tsuburaya
Rated PG,
1 hour 48 minutes

The experience is not unlike discovering Star Wars for the first time by watching the 2015 J.J. Abrams version, which doesn’t ring much of a bell if you haven’t seen the earlier ones. Still, the the team behind this endearing if familiar feature-length take does a good job at ushering us into a whole new world of heroes and villains, while trying to make the rehashed material seem meaningful.

Much of that material won’t seem new, especially for anyone who’s already seen a Godzilla flick, or one of the Pacific Rim movies, or Big Hero 6. But writer-director Shannon Tindle and co-writer Marc Haimes, who wrote the script for Kubo and the Two Strings, do their best to enhance it: Not only do they add a brand new subplot involving the baseball career of Kenji “Ken” Sato aka Ultraman (voiced by Christopher Sean), but they introduce a real emotional arc about the hero’s traumatic past, as well as an extremely cute fatherhood narrative where Ultraman is suddenly forced to raise an orphaned child.

That child, Emi (Julia Harriman), is no ordinary baby but a pint-sized kaiju dragon, which means she’s about the size of a garbage truck. Pink and cuddly, and with the ability to destroy a state-of-the-art mansion in one temper tantrum, Emi is picked up by Ultraman after a duel with Gigatron, one of many creatures the hero battles as a professional monster-fighter — a job he does while also holding down a career as a professional baller.

In fact, Ken is not only a baseball player, but one of the world’s greatest. At the start of the movie, he gets traded from the L.A. Dodgers to Japan’s Yomiuri Giants, triumphantly returning to the homeland he abandoned with his mother as a child. Back then, his father, Professor Sato (Gedde Watanabe), was the first Ultraman, and now it’s Ken’s turn to pick up the legacy, even if he’d much rather be lounging around his bodacious villa and scoring home runs.

If the Spider-Man motto is “with great power comes great responsibility,” the Ultraman motto, at least as the American reboot explains it, is about using “power to bring balance.” It’s a very Zen-like approach to the superhero métier that’s illustrated by Ken trying to juggle two taxing jobs while also raising the adorable but untamable Emi, who gets more and more unwieldy as he grows older, projectile vomiting and pooping with extreme kaiju force.

While the original Ultraman shows and cartoons were memorable for their epic battles between monster and man (well, a massive man powered by alien forces and supreme technology), Ultraman: Rising will likely touch viewers, especially ages 10 and under, for its story of a young man trying to be a good father while also reconnecting with his own estranged father, in what ultimate becomes a parable about responsible parenting.

That doesn’t mean Tindle, who co-directed the film with John Aoshima (Maya and the Three, DuckTales), doesn’t deliver the goods when it comes to the genre’s requisite city fights, including an epic attack above the Tokyo Dome while Ken is standing at home plate. The filmmakers also offer up a decent new villain in the form of Dr. Onda (Keone Young), an evil scientist who heads up the KDF (Kaiju Defense Forces) and who was traumatized by his family’s death during a monster attack. Fatherhood, yet again.

For kids who have never seen any of the above-referenced movies or shows, Ultraman: Uprising may be something of a revelation, and the team behind the relaunch deserves credit for giving the half-century-old franchise a new stamp. For others, including those who don’t know Ultraman but know the kaiju genre well enough, much here may seem redundant, even if it’s all given a touching twist.

Either way, the fight is likely to keep going as long as there are monsters roaming about and superheroes to stand up to them — and IP that can regenerate itself for decades to come.  



Source link

Tags: FranchiseJapaneseNetflixsRebootU.S
Share30Tweet19
rmtsa

rmtsa

Recommended For You

New Trailer For The 4K Release of SHIN GODZILLA — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
July 28, 2025
0
New Trailer For The 4K Release of SHIN GODZILLA — GeekTyrant

Shin Godzilla is coming back to the big screen in 4K, so I’f you missed the movie when it was first released in 2016, now is your chance...

Read more

Can You Recognize These ’80s Celebrities Today?

by rmtsa
July 28, 2025
0
Can You Recognize These ’80s Celebrities Today?

The ’80s were a decade defined by excess. You had your big hair, bold fashion choices, and big personalities.From TV and movie stars to sports heroes and pop...

Read more

Chief of War Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch

by rmtsa
July 27, 2025
0
Chief of War Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 Release Date, Time, Where to Watch

The Chief of War Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 release date and time is right around the corner. As per the show’s official schedule, the first two...

Read more

‘Fantastic Four First Steps’ Opens Solid $218M Globally

by rmtsa
July 27, 2025
0
‘Fantastic Four First Steps’ Opens Solid 8M Globally

Mister Fantastic and his family are back on the big screen, only this time under the rule of Marvel Studios instead of 20th Century Fox. In a needed...

Read more

New Trailer For PEACEMAKER Season 2 Brings Wild Chaos and Pocket Universe Mayhem! — GeekTyrant

by rmtsa
July 27, 2025
0
New Trailer For PEACEMAKER Season 2 Brings Wild Chaos and Pocket Universe Mayhem! — GeekTyrant

Am awesome new trailer for Peacemaker Season 2 dropped during the incfredibly fun Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, and it’s everything fans were hoping for and...

Read more
Next Post
Florida Teens Arrested in Dangerous TikTok Door Kick Challenge • Hollywood Unlocked

Florida Teens Arrested in Dangerous TikTok Door Kick Challenge • Hollywood Unlocked

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized

CATEGORIES

  • Celebrity
  • Comics
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • Music
  • TV
  • Uncategorized
No Result
View All Result

Recent News

  • ‘Get Back to My Roots’ With New Project
  • Claressa Shields & Papoose Turn Heads With Fight Night Style
  • New Trailer For The 4K Release of SHIN GODZILLA — GeekTyrant

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Celebrity
  • DramaAlert
  • Gossip
  • Movie
  • TV
  • Music
  • Comics
  • Shop

Copyright © 2023 DramaWired.
DramaWired is a content aggregator and not responsible for the content of external sites.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In