DVD Review: Ultraman Gaia: The Battle In Hyperspace
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: B
DVD Special Features: N/A

Alright.  This is like an X-Files conspiracy.  I just got done feeling warm
and cozy with not knowing who the heck Ultraman Dyna and Tiga were and now there's an Ultraman Gaia?  Exactly how many are there and how many series have been made?  First they were on Earth and now there's supposed to be some battle in hyperspace?  How are we supposed to feel about this?  Yeah, I know. Shut up and review it, right?

When a young boy, Tsutomu, who has a major hero worship issue with Ultraman Gaia dreams of a glowing red ball, a girl and a city on fire, he is surprised to discover a similar looking ball the next day along with a similar looking new student in his school.  Coincidence?  What does he make of it all,
though?  While puzzling over it, the ball tells him that any wish he makes
will come true.  Instead of keeping it all to himself, he runs and gets his
best friends so that they'll believe him.  They don't, so Tsutomu wishes to
meet Agent Gamu (the human who turns into Gaia) of the XIG team (don't ask
because I have no idea what that stands for).  A huge disturbance appears
overhead and the fighter plane carrying Gamu appears.

Needless to say, the friends now believe him, but he also attracts the
attention of the local bully who decides to wish for a monster.  A quick
showdown unfolds as Ultraman Gaia battles the monster, but soon disappears
and is transported back to his own Earth dimension.  All is safe for a little
while until the bully decides to steal the ball once more and this time wish
for an even more power monster than before.  Back in the other dimension,
Gamu begins to recall his excursion in the other realm and realizes that
Tsutomu and the rest of the world will all be destroyed unless he can find
some way to get back and battle the new threat.

As per usual, there is a prototype ship capable of taking someone where they
need to go, so Gamu returns.  The nice little red ball has decided to possess
the bully and his friends and spawns two more monsters to defeat Ultraman
Gaia.  In a rare moment of heroism, Tsutomu knocks the ball away and wishes
for some assistance.  Ultramen Tiga and Dyna appear and you can pretty much
guess what happens next.

The story seems to borrow from an original episode of Ultraman (in the
beginning anyway) while also bearing similarities to "The Last Action Hero".  
The moral of the story about being careful what one wishes for gets across
pretty well as does standing up for oneself and making intelligent decisions
in life instead of really stupid ones.  Wishing for a really cool looking
monster with destructive powers is all fine and dandy until your neighborhood
gets demolished.  Yeah, those kids will be in therapy for a few years.  While
the special effects were decent and this felt more like a theatrical film
than episodes edited together, it ultimately wasn't as entertaining as
"Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna".  It just felt like it was missing some of
the excitement that the other disc had.  Oh, well.

Picture and audio quality are superb once again and, as with the previous
DVD, we are given the option of watching the feature in Japanese with English
subtitles or in a dubbed English version.  Unless you're under the age of 12,
stick with the Japanese version.  I think I'm developing a fondness for h
earing that language.  In any case, extras are confined to trailers and I
again need to state that I dislike the price tag of $24.99 on this disc.  How
many kids are going to be able to get their parents to splurge for this?  I
have a hard enough time spending $14.99 on the Scooby Doo DVDs that have the same running time and extras and those discs are for…  Never mind who those are for.  Suffice to say that I have a problem with the cost.

The nice thing about the Ultraman features is that there's no nudity and no
foul language and there's usually some overriding theme or lesson that
doesn't become preachy in getting its point across.  These are fun films and
a welcome return to the fantastic realm we left behind when we became adults.
My inner child is absolutely grinning!

Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies, been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com

COMMENTS
Date/Time of Posting:  Jul 19 2002 / 23:41:27
IP Address:  218.20.162.194
name = Tim
where = timytimtim@hotmail.com
Subject = about the suit
comments = what is the suit for Ultraman Gaia made out of??

Dear Mr. Alan,
--I work for the international division of Tsuburaya Productions in Japan,
the producers of Ultraman. I just saw you nice reviews of our movies
Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna and Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in
Hyperspace. Thanks for the kind words about the DVD releases. I thought
I'd answer some of the questions you brought up in the reviews.
--In the past 36 years there have been 14 Ultraman TV series as well as
numerous movies and spin-offs like Ultraman Kids. The latest is Ultraman
Cosmos which is currently running in Japan. Ultraman Tiga comes from the
1996 series, Ultraman Tiga which just premiered this Saturday on the Fox
network. Ultraman Dyna was the follow up, then came Ultraman Gaia. Each
Ultraman TV show has been set in its own fictional Universe with the
exception of the Tiga and Dyna shows. That's why Dyna and Tiga can
appear together, but in order to bring Gaia together with the two of
them an abstract Last Action Hero type plot was used. The Tiga & Dyna
movie was not edited from the TV series, but was all newly created for
the movie. Same with the Gaia movie. XIG stands for eXpanded
Interceptive Guardians. GUTS is for Global Unlimited Task Squad. GUTS
first appeared in the Tiga TV series and were upgraded to Super GUTS for
the Dyna TV series. And you're right, they're all just variations on the
old Science Patrol.
--Brad Warner
Tsuburaya Productions

Date/Time of Posting:  Nov 30 2002 / 20:04:12
IP Address:  161.142.49.38
name = Lai Yuen Meng
where = ljml@jaring.pd.my
comments = XIG STANDS FOR XTREAM INFORSMENT GATE