Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Ultraseven X: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 5, 2022

Ultraseven X debuted on October 5, 2007 in Japan and was marketed more towards an adult audience. Indeed, fans were presented with something substantially different from previous Ultraman entries. While the very essential core remained, the show took a darker turn, losing the playful antics and streamlined formula construction of past entries and here presented a far more morose, gloomy, and hopeless vision. Ultra vs. Kaiju battles remain, but the show's characters and larger narrative support structure radically depart from previous entries, especially Ultraseven, this show's forefather and the source for this re-imagining. For better or for worse fans need to realign expectations in order to get anything of value from this one.

Official synopsis: Awoken from a fevered dream, a young man can barely recognize himself. A mysterious woman hands him a spectacles-shaped item, and she says hold the key to tremendous power and tells him it is his duty to save the world. Before asking any more, he and the woman are torn apart by a violent explosion. Soon he is contacted by a secret organization named DEUS. He is told he is Agent Jin and that his job is to rid this world of vicious alien invaders.

The story has something of a Blade Runner meets The Matrix meets They Live vibe about it. That should offer a substantial clue as to where the story goes, and indeed the comparisons reveal a story with darker themes and more challenging narrative content compared to past Ultraman shows and films that largely follow a wash-rinse-repeat cycle of over-the-top action and a general silliness within the main storyline contexts. This series foregoes the basic sentimentalities and childlike story drivers in favor of a gloomier forecast on the world. The dystopian setting, frigid production design, and deeper and denser thematic content -- however astute, overt, or obtuse it may be -- certainly pushes this far away from the mainline franchise, even if it plays in the same basic universe. It's a welcome change for a show that has found success in strict formulaic adherence, but it also shows that, at least in this iteration, such a severe drift is not necessarily needed or even workable for the franchise.

But fear not: the story, for whatever plot dynamics and narrative twists and turns, for however dark and weird and weirdly engaging (for an Ultraman franchise entry) the content may prove to be, it all largely plays secondarily to the action...or does it? The action is where Ultraseven X most comfortably fits into the generally expected (and accepted) flow, but it's both rote and given little in terms of overall screen time. Most of the show is dedicated to Jin and company solving the episode's mystery, and they usually earn more interesting and engaging action over Ultraman Seven. It's a strange structure and flow, and it will certainly not appeal to the younger demographic that has been carrying the show for so many decades (of course the original fans are well into middle age and beyond at this point, so maybe the thought process was to build a show that tied back to roots while offering a gloomier, more "adult" perspective), but it ultimately doesn't work particularly well.

Ultraseven X: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek brings Ultraseven X: The Complete Series to Blu-ray with a disappointingly choppy Blu-ray presentation framed at 1.78:1 and presented at the 1080i resolution. The picture is flat and visually unarresting, which is partly due to the bland digital video photography but also the shoddy encode work which leaves much to be desired. Banding is a regular occurrence, macroblocking is steady and renders backgrounds – and some foregrounds – unnaturally choppy and inorganic. Noise is minimal, at least. Detail and definition are subpar. The picture lacks crispness and fluidity, favoring a flatness and poor texturing that leaves humans and environments looking smooth and video-flat. Color dynamics are virtually nonexistent. The palette is very drab, very spartan – there's not much life here – and even when some would-be examples of splashy color appear on the screen, there's just no sense of life or visual interest. Black levels are flat and pale, whites lack dynamism, and skin tones are flat and pasty. This is nothing at all special to behold.

Ultraseven X: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is presented in the native Japanese only; optional English subtitles, which default to the on position, are included. The track is weak. There's no saturation to driving rain in the opening minutes, falling with a tinny sensation across a limp and lame front side. Explosions lack heft, large dynamics are flat and uninteresting, and battle scenes lack any kind of real tangible range, intensity, or really anything of sonic interest at all. The presentation struggles to concern itself with anything other than basic delivery, and even in musical and spoken word essentials there's a certain detachment and disinterest at play. The action is the biggest hit, though, with that inability, or unwillingness, to power through with even a semblance of something sonically resembling the literally larger-than-life action playing out on the screen.

Ultraseven X: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Superior 8 Ultra Brothers contains no supplemental content on either of the Blu-ray discs. The main menu screen only offers options to select episodes and toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does ship with a non-embossed slipcover. Inner print artwork is included.

Ultraseven X: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ultraseven X does not rewrite the entirety of the Ultraman formula, but it is certainly amongst the most divergent and potentially divisive franchise entries of them all. Far darker, far moodier, far more atmospheric, far more human-focused, the show favors shadowy sets, drab colors, and bleak visuals to carry its darker themes and heavier social commentary. Longtime fans will want to check it out, but this about the last place to start for newcomers, if only because it's so tonally unique within the larger Ultra canon. Mill Creek's two-disc Blu-ray set delivers subpar video and audio. No extras are included. For hardcore fans and those collecting the franchise on Blu-ray only.