I have maybe seen a couple of episodes of Ultraman as a kid and don't even know which era it is from. So, I didn't really get any references in this. It starts off like it's a sequel to Shin Godzilla, as Japan is constantly inder kaiju attacks and the fast-paced meetings and conferences to deal with it. But it slowly changed the pace and kind of turned into feeling like a TV show. The characters are given more importance here but everyone is designed to be weird which isn't necessarily bad but as the film relies on that connection it didn't completely work either. The kaijus, the mind-controlling and shapeshifting alien villains etc seemed to be something these Tokusatsu genre films love. Even though the alien villains' plans are much like how they'd do it in the old days, the way they presented them made them feel exactly like politicians which I enjoyed really well. The film is often very silly but doesn't really embrace that and even tries to be philosophical at times which just feels like a confused attempt more than anything. Not a bad start of the year, but a bit disappointing considering the reputation of these films.
