Fandom Roars: Warriors of the Star of Light

    Near the moon, the Super GUTS team is locked in combat with the flying monster, Geranda. Ultraman Dyna appears and takes the fight to the moon's surface. Geranda is immune to Dyna's attacks. Dyna summons his last bit of strength for one final kosen (light ray) attack... Suddenly, a huge wave of yellow energy fires from above and behind him, destroying the monster. Dyna looks up and sees a mysterious battleship. As its huge shadow engulfs him, he notices a TPC mark on it...

    The mysterious battleship is called Prometheus. It's being developed by Dr. Kisaragi on TPC's Kriomos Island base. Dr. Kisaragi boasts to the Super GUTS team that Prometheus is the ultimate, unmanned fighting machine and that it is even more powerful than Ultraman Dyna! Prometheus is piloted by preprogrammed data taken from the minds of the world's top military strategists. Asuka mistakenly volunteers to have his data added to Prometheus...
    Asuka wakes up in the infirmary with a concerned Mai looking after him. She's relieved that Asuka has recovered, since he promised to take her out and let her pilot the GUTS Eagle for the first time. Asuka is very disconcerted as his sleep was fraught with disturbing images, namely that of Dyna getting killed by Prometheus' Neo Maxima cannon.
    Asuka's recovery is interrupted, as alarms sound throughoutr the base. The island is under attack by a strange flying saucer. The TPC forces counterattack, but to no avail; Asuka and Mai scramble to help. The saucer is the Monera Seed is piloted by the Monera seijin (aliens). Asuka transforms into Ultraman Dyna, but before he can attack the Monera Seed... Prometheus launches and blocks his way.
    Dr. Kisaragi's true purpose is now revealed: to destroy Ultraman Dyna! With images of his defeat still in his mind, Dyna attacks Prometheus. Since Prometheus is being piloted by Asuka's combat data, it knows all of Dyna's powers and weaknesses. Prometheus and the Monera Seed combine to become... Death Facer! Dyna transforms to Miracle Type to combat this formidable foe, but to no avail. Death Facer's Neo Maxima Cannon all but nukes the island and the battle reaches a standstill. The Monera Seijin declare their victory and leave in triumph.
    Asuka is really in bad shape now. Not only was he hurt in the battle, but Mai was heavily injured as well. With feelings of guilt and loss of self confidence, Asuka wanders the streets. He comes across a kid, Susumu, who is holding a battered vinyl toy of Ultraman Tiga. The kid tells Asuka that Tiga never lost to any enemy and that even at the darkest hour, the light prevailed.             Asuka is taken by this image of "the light" and tries to fmd out more information about Utraman Tiga. His search leads to Commander Iruma, who is now riding a desk. Asuka asks her about Tiga and says that he wants to meet him. Iruma fills him in on Tiga' s last battle and mentions that it was the light inside all of humanity that helped him in the end. Asuka doesn't have much time to mull this over, as the Monera Seijin announce their plans to attack the K-3 area at noon. Dr. Kisaragi is returned to normal, as the Monera presence leaves her body. (Yeah, we should have guessed all along that she was under alien control,
with all that funny jewelry and dark lipstick!)
    The area of K-3 is evacuated and the TPC forces line the streets and air, waiting for Death Facer to appear. The clock strikes noon and Death Facer does indeed appear... but from underground, not by air! The alien monster makes short work of the tanks and planes; the Super GUTS team puts up a valiant fight, but they are soon overpow- ered and Ryo's Eagle becomes lodged in a building! Asuka runs through the streets and in anger transforms into Dyna. This time, powered by images of his friends, Dyna's Strong Type is a match for Death Facer. After ripping both of its arms off, Dyna punches a hole straight through Death Facer, defeating it.
    But, the Monera Seijin have one more trick up their sleeve: all of the aliens fuse together and form the ultimate titanic en- emy, Queen Monera! As Iruma, Dr. Kisaragi, Susumu and others watch the battle from a shelter, Ultrarnan Dyna is about to face his toughest battle yet...

COMMENTARY

    If you thought that the effects in Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna and even Ultraman Zearth were great, you ain't seen nothing yet! The special effects in this movie are virtually flawless; dare I say, they even comes close to the level of Gamera 2. Given that the film is non-stop action, a steady stream of great effects constantly bombards the viewer. Mattes, pyrotechnics, miniatures, and an extensive use of CGI are all effectively used to full advantage. From the opening battle on the moon, right up until the fmal confrontation, the SFX are top notch. Great effects, coupled with expert directing, make for one incredible ride.         The Monera Seijin and the transformation from Prometheus/Monera Seed to Death Facer are all completely CGI effects. Queen Monera is also largely accomplished via CGI, with ten independently moving tentacles. But what about the story? It seems to me that the makers chose in favor of action, rather than story .Since this is technically a kid's movie (and the large amount of screaming boys and girls in the theater helped to drive this fact home), the story is just good enough to keep things moving at a fast pace. The streamlined story allows for some truly exciting and spectacular action set pieces. There's just enough drama in between the action to link everything together without dragging. What we get is a double-edged sword: the kid in me was overjoyed by the sheer action spectacle of it all, but the adult in me craved a little more depth. I enjoyed the fast pace of the film, but couldn't shake the feeling that it was all just a bunch of eye candy.
    Where the story fails, is in the ending. After the defeat of Death Facer, the film runs out of steam. The team up between Tiga and Dyna should have been a real treat for the viewer; what we get, however, is something straight out of a TV episode. Queen Monera is an awesome monster and it should have taken a lot of effort and power to defeat it. The final battle is extremely anti-climactic and could have used a bit more planning and imagination. The writers tried too hard to recapture the feel of the final episode of Ultraman Tiga. Tiga's sudden reappearance to help out Dyna is contrived and much too short; Tiga appears for a little over 5 minutes! I hate to say it, but it's almost useless. What was the point? Given that the Monera Seijin had Dyna's combat data, then Tiga's appearance should have thrown them off and given Dyna the extra help needed to fmish the battle. This wasn't even hinted at, although it was what I was expecting to happen. Instead, the two heroes pose, flip around and finally fire their light rays at the same time, defeating Queen Monera. Personally, I would have been more impressed if the film just featured Ultraman Dyna, with just passing references to Tiga.
    The whole "the light is inside all of us" deal has been beaten to death already, not only in the Dyna tele-series, but throughout the whole Tiga series as well. Also, during the final battle, Iruma dons her GUTS uniform and joins the fray in an old GUTS WING. While this was supposed to be a dramatic and rousing scene, it comes across as just stupid and embarrassing. One other minor complaint is the fact that the Dyna theme song wasn't used at all throughout the film, which would have added a nice dramatic touch to some of the action.
    While the ending battle takes a slight dip in quality, the final shots with the human cast more than make up for it. There's a touching scene where the original GUTS members visit Iruma in her office. But instead of Daigo, we get to see his and Rena' s daughter, appropriately named Hikari (in Japanese, hikari means light). Nice touch! Finally, we're left with a fully recovered Mai having the time of her life piloting the GUTS Eagle with a air-sick, but happy Asuka in tow. The ending credits feature a new song by Kageyama Hironobu (Jetman, Maskman, Dragonball Z) called "Shinin' On Love."
    Overall, Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna is a solid, slick production that's sure to please Ultra fans of all ages. Also, the high quality visual effects and production values make it a perfect "weapon" to use on those who may think that Japanese live-action is "cheap" or "fake." The minor shortcomings in plot aside, this film is certainly worthy of repeated viewings and brings further glory to the ULTRA legacy.

KAIJU FAN ONLINE