The robots(?) in the movie are fashioned after the ancient bug eyed things. Influence for Huitzil (Phobos) of Darkstalkers. This movie was in 1990, so kind of perfect timing to be fresh in the minds of the Capcom game creators.
This French site, translated, has a ton of interesting and insightful info about this movie, the Ultra Q TV series (aka, the X-Files 30 years before the X-Files), and Ultraman.
Be warned, despite this tame Ultra Q movie being reviewed very well, his site also has some very gross stuff and raunchy stuff. The site seems to review every single movie that existed in the horror realm: https://perdudansla5edimension.com/ultra-q-the-movie-legend-of-the-stars-1990/
It will be difficult to explain to a Westerner the importance of the Ultra Q series , but we can sum up by saying that without it, the popular icon that is Ultraman would probably never have seen the light of day. This superhero capable of growing at will is probably the greatest representative of tokusatsu on his own, at least on the small screen, and is at least as responsible as the atomic lizard for the importance of giant monsters in Japan. But before his first appearance, there was a sort of prototype (which partly gave him his name) working on the same principle: each episode presented a gigantic and menacing creature through an orgy of small models and rubber suits, and this time no alien robots to solve the problem. Prefiguring a little of the X-Files , the show showed a trio of journalists investigating paranormal phenomena each
week in an atmosphere sometimes not far from a horror film."
"Well, in reality the general atmosphere was a real weather vane and the comic or parodic stories rubbed shoulders without problems with the more tragic or paranoid plots, but in any case the thing had its little effect at the time, helped it is true by a successful opening credits. If it had continued a few more years we could probably have considered it as a Japanese equivalent of The Twilight Zone , but the producers changed their concept in order to enter a more family framework and thus enlarge their audience: color replaced black and white, action replaced mystery and above all a sparkling alien took the place of human reporters. A successful bet since the franchise still persists today while Ultra Q is practically forgotten from all memories despite tiny returns during the 2000s ( Ultra Q: Dark Fantasy ) and 2010s ( Neo Ultra Q ).
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But the idea is rather good because if Ultra Q could be seen as a precursor to The X-Files , Ultra Q: The Movie could just as well be its prologue since three years later the American series would provoke an international craze for flying saucers, conspiracies and the Strange. Moreover, it is exactly on these elements that the feature film focuses, almost ignoring the giant monster that only appears here two or three times, very briefly. The screenplay prefers a slow exploration of Japanese folklore, which it recontextualizes in a very contemporary setting while injecting science fiction elements. The journalists come across a borderline Lovecraftian cult, investigate inexplicable deaths and have a close encounter of the Third Kind while realizing that their tales and legends are not fictional. Chris Carter's entire formula is therefore found here and without the slightest second degree.
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He's pretty cool, with his long thin horns serving as a lightning rod that allow him to spit out a charge of energy like Godzilla. Pure ultra kaiju that doesn't hide its obvious inspiration from Inoshirō Honda's famous creature, and besides the music imitates that of Akira Ifukube as soon as he appears on screen. His almost "human" eyes are pretty weird though, even if the fact that he can blink them is a nice detail, and the last images of the film present this brilliant idea that he is not at all the sea god that one might think, but in reality a biomechanical creature [[[note by me, it looked like Mechagodzilla]]] like HR Giger that is an integral part of Wadatuzin's spaceship. Of course Tsuburaya is not Toho (or even Toei) and the quality of the models and suitmation remains rather limited, the sets being empty, not very elaborate and often lost behind smoke screens. Television work, you might say.
All this is amply made up for by the incredible staging of Akkio Jissoji, always looking for the shot that pops and creative framing. Almost every image is meant to be aesthetic or atmospheric, like this Torii gate overlooking a mysterious island, this Sea God sign on the facade of a building plunged into darkness or these spotlights replacing the trees of a bamboo forest. He also knows how to show pollution, like with these factory chimneys hiding the view of Mount Fuji and this garbage scattering everywhere during the takeoff of the alien ship. A marvel that would really benefit from the Blu-ray treatment with all these plays of shadows, lights and colors. Good work that can also be found in the music, not far from the experimental compositions that Mark Snow will deliver for X-Files but also very reminiscent of the creepy sounds of Christopher Young in Hellraiser and Freddy's Revenge .
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