Interesteg What makes it different from others?

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Charles Herold (cherold) This is an odd little movie. Some nebbishy teacher sews a recreation of a suit from a short-lived superhero show, and find himself dealing with aliens. The movie doesn't make a lot of sense, unless it's all this guy's fantasy, and the movie doesn't really play much with that possibility, instead just letting it all unspool. I like some sort of rationale for what happens in a film, but the audience is expected to just accept that all of this happens for no good reason at all. The silliness of the aliens and a few other things give it the quality of a kid's movie, but even kids movies generally make some attempt to explain stuff.There are some cool things in this movie. The dead-on recreations of a cheesy Japanese TV show, the relationship between the low-key teacher and the disabled child, the final amusing superhero battle, but I was never fully invested in the story, perhaps because it lacked rationality or perhaps because it was just kind of slow moving and a bit muddled.Neither as weird or as good as Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman is acceptable but not much more.

MartinHafer Takashi Miike is a very, very difficult director to label. Some of his films have been incredibly violent and gory (such as ICHI THE KILLER and AUDITION)--so much so that I could never recommend them. Some of his films have been strange and highly enjoyable comedies (especially HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS). In recent years, his films have even tended towards being children's movies (such as his Ultraman series on TV and THE GREAT YOKAI WAR). Because of this wide, wide range of films, I was apprehensive to watch ZEBRAMAN, as I had no idea what type of Miike film it would be. Fortunately, it was a blend of both his weird quirky films AND his excellent family-friendly films.Here in ZEBRAMAN, you have the story of a very nerdy elementary school teacher who secretly longs to be his TV hero, Zebraman. It seems that in the 70s, Zebraman was a very short-lived show and the guy has loved it ever since. This isn't so odd, but the fact that he's made a Zebraman costume and imagines himself to be this great superhero is!! What makes it even weirder is where it all goes next--into a strange and surreal direction that I just didn't anticipate. Rest assured, the direction is very odd and it involves this nerd having to save the planet from evil aliens!!! The film is all in good fun and does it all tongue in cheek--never taking itself too seriously. Excellent direction and a nice story make this a winner--even if there are a few lulls here and there before the crazy and very exciting conclusion.

upendra-1 Zebraman: yes, it's a superhero movie nipping at the heels of a glut of recent superhero movies. And yes, it conforms to every trope of the superhero movie genre: loser gets superpowers, triumphs over an unstoppably evil menace, gains love and admiration, etc. And yet, Zebraman has a quality which is more endearing than any other superhero movie of recent memory (even Tobey McGuire's Spiderman, God love him, doesn't elicit as much sympathy as Zebraman).This may be due to Sho Aikawa's affably inept hero: even in grislier Miike films, Aikawa's quirky sputterings and perpetually buggy expression are hard not to like. But even more relevant to Zebraman's success is its director, Takashi Miike.Of course Miike made his reputation as director of the most unbelievably violent films ever put to screen, but the truth is there are plenty of slasher flicks out there gorier and more depraved than even Ichi the Killer (hard to believe, right?). What makes Miike's work so enduring (and the rest dusty bargain-bin items) is something which underlies all the shooting and stabbing and torture: a palpable human thread which somehow pierces right to the heart. Miike's philosophy seems like that of a war-film director: humanity is more sharply noticeable when contrasted against inhumanity.But in Zebraman, we have a new entity for Miike, or at least an entity he only occasionally trots out: a film which goes straight to the humanity in lieu of the usual bloodletting. What violence there is tends toward the comic, and rivals the worst in a PG-13 movie.Needless to say, Ichi-junkies will find Zebraman too tame for words. The arterial-spurt crowd should stick with Fudoh or Gozu for their freaky horror fill. But for the crowd that found Ichi hard to stomach, give Zebraman a try: it's much more palatable.On the negative side, the film does run overlong, and slows down considerably toward the end. But don't despair: Zebraman's ending is well worth the wait. Black and White Ecstacy!

Alexander Bizarski I'm a huge fan of Miike's work and I think he made this movie to mock at his usual audience. He knew one would think "wow, that sure will be some twisted interesting film" so he made the most-cliché movie ever instead of that. That's the thing I like about Miike, he always changes and surprises his fans. If we start with the vision - the movie has some interesting stuff shot. That's a plus for it. Even though the budget had been low, the work is done nice here. Except for the ALIENS - What the hell?! They reminded me of The Flabbers! The music sucked like a hooker. At one time I almost threw up. The plot is the worst part of the film. I almost fell asleep till the end. So stupid, so predictable... And where did all the super powers come to that loser teacher? We see him normal and after a second he has all the super punches and kicks and he even teaches himself to fly?!? And that handicapped kid and his mother. One would think that Zebraman is a pedophile, and then other would think that he cheats on his wife with the cripple's mother. The whole movie is pathetic. I wish I never watched it. I think even my dumb-ass brother who likes Virtual Rangers wouldn't like this Zebraman movie!