Dai-Nipponjin

Honest question for anyone's that seen this: Was any of that real, or is the child show feel of Super Justice at the end a reveal to what was really going on all along? What do each of the monsters represent in regards to his emotional state? Who and what was dropping the monsters into Tokyo in the first place? Is the bigger when it needs to be recurring line a thinly veiled sexual reference? I have questions about this movie.

I want to give this a higher rating for its uniqueness, but it really feels like two movies: bad-CGI kaiju-geki weirdness, and a great mockumentary interview film. They don't mesh. And I was turned off by the former until a fantastic deus ex machina obliterates the 4th wall at the end. You can't be too angry, just confused.

The type of movie only Japanese could make. It starts like a parody of an artsy type documentary about odd man with a terrible sense of fashion, and then it goes completely bonkers (and I consider myself as a hard-to-surprise viewer) as a kaiju-movie parody. Although a certainly unique combination, it only results in a couple of 'WTF did I just see' kind of laughs and a shrug of being underwhelmed.

The mockumentary idea is as cool as it is mishandled....VERY boring. However there is enough imagination to keep us fans of very weird films watching. And the last 15 minutes are one of the greatest out there wtf scenes I've seen since watching executive koala... The ending alone gained this movie an extra ten points on my rating

A dry and cleverly satirical mockumentary about kaiju that devolves into hysterical farce for the finale.

This movie gets points for unabashed and sometimes hilarious weirdness, but the realism it achieves in so many of the scenes only accentuates the fact that most of it doesn't make any sense at all. The ending, while amusing, felt like the director had no idea how to bring the character to any kind of conclusion. I feel like I was missing some very big piece of information, maybe its all one huge japanese in-joke.

The monsters were hiiiiilarious, the rest was not.

This is without a doubt the weirdest freaking movie I've ever seen. The mockumentary aspect got really annoying really quickly, the concept may have had potential, but got way too lost in its own desire to stand out by being ungodly crazy and weird. The only part I found done well was the satire on capitalism/sponsorship. The fight scenes add in a few laughs, and that last scene...I may never in all my life be able to understand it.

well, that was.....interesting, i guess.

Thank you Super Justice.

Insane...I don't know what my expectations were, but they were blown out of the water

wow this was pretty strange, all the crazy monster characters are pretty cool and it works that they are all done with extremly obvious cgi, what doesnt work is how boring the mockumentary parts are, it took me 3 trys to watch this movie because i kept falling asleep. I didnt find it as funny as i was expecting, there were two parts that were mildly funny and the rest was just entertaining. The ending was both awesome and completly retarded at the same time.

Movie just misses out on being something special. As is it is weird enough to get by on, with some pretty bizarre imagery.

Genius film. Loved both the mockumentary part and the ridiculous battle scenes.

Outrageously pokerfaced parody of ultraman style monster movies. It's not unlike Godzilla done in the style of This is Spinal Tap. Little strokes of genius abound like the strangling monster's comb over.

The film has an entirely unique personality, as well as some bonafide social critiques running through the absurdity.

Props for the weird monsters. Everything else is shit.

"Matsumoto and Mitsuyoshi Takasu trade the grand for the gargantuan, the battle-drama for the video game fight." - Sara Schieron

So I survived a Japanese stab at the mockumentary genre. While it gets props for indulging in weirdness of the extreme kind, it's attempts at jumping between genres proves it's downfall. The universe that Matsumoto is trying to create feels unfinished, and too many questions go unanswered for anyone to derive anything even remotely logical from the story. The deadpan mocku-humor often falls flat, and the monster bashes are too many - too simular - and for Kaiju worshippers only to enjoy.

"Weird for the sake of weird" is a descriptor I toss around a lot, and while it may seem cheap and dismissive, the fact still remains that it fits here. Maybe a lot gets lost in translation and a larger repertoire of Japanese cultural references is required to eke any more enjoyment out of this one than I did. The CGI fights and the ending are hilarious in a "what did I just watch?" sort of way, but otherwise approach with caution, even if you dig Godzilla, Gamera, Ultraman and their ilk.

Either it should've been played straight throughout, or been more of a parody. As it stands, it is neither comedy not drama nor mockumentary, and it feels 30 minutes too long as well. However, the bizarre elements are highly enjoyable (despite, or thanks to, the somewhat crummy CGI) and the concept is pretty neat. Making the fantastic into something mundane has a lot of potential, not all of which has been used here.

- absolute torture