Shin Godzilla

This is an excellent show that differs from the standard hack-and- slash and action-driven natures of other recent films (Independence Day 2 etc.). It is one of the most narrative-driven films that I've watched in the last 2 years.

PROS:

• The acting was great as a whole, comprising of much seriousness and focus, typical of the exigency of a nation-wide disaster, in the top politicians of the diet.

• It is full of political irony, satire of the Japanese government's and bureaucracy's indecision and red-taping. There is great intelligence imbued into movie, and it shows that much research has been done prior to filming. It also shows the way in which foreign and indigenous affairs have been interwoven together in governmental decision-making. I greatly appreciate this as a whole, as the narration is full of meaning and subtlety.

• The special effects of Godzilla were absolutely wonderful, portraying both scale and grandeur in Godzilla's size and style. I greatly enjoyed the four main scenes where Godzilla made its appearance, especially its climax at the latter two.

• The pacing was fast-paced, and little time was wasted. A lot of content had been packaged into a duration of just 120 minutes. While watching, I thought that the film lasted for 4 hours, as there were so many occurrences!

• The style and pace also remains true to the original Godzilla classics. So is the provenance of Godzilla.

CONS

• Ishihara would not have fooled us into thinking that she is a Japanese-American English speaker!

• Overall, it is very dialogue-heavy. This is both a strength and weakness. A strength as there is much character development, but also excessive to the point that it sometimes can be dreary and draggy. This is the greatest setback of the film, and could have been further streamlined. Minus 1 star for this.

CONCLUSION:

• As a whole, I rate it 9 out of 10, and will watch it again.

• Most people who have an appreciation for subtlety and nuance, and also of vivid storytelling will like this film.

• However, those who prefer a CGI roller-coaster like Independence Day 2 or 2012 may be turned off by the extremely heavy dialogue.

If you are expecting a stereotypical monster movie you will be disappointed. This film is definitely much more of a political thriller than a monster flick.

The movie is filled with plain and mostly forgettable characters, however, collectively they make the real protagonist of the film: Japan. The film critiques and parodies a dysfunctional bureaucracy, allowing for some not so subtle irony and other comedic moments using techniques such as extreme close-ups, quick changes in POV's, rapid-fire dialogue to reinforce these while still allowing for suspense when needed. Its overly fast pace is a bit jarring at times, making it hard to concentrate with its many fast and transitionless cuts.

Shin Godzilla feels very much like a documentary, with convincing this-is-really-happening atmosphere. The filmmakers really make you feel like a participant and witness to the events happening throughout the film engrossing you into the universe and adding a huge sense of realism which adds to the political side of the film and the impact of the destruction.

Godzilla himself is also amazing, the combination of puppeteering, animatronics and digital effects create such a unique portrayal of the monster evoking terror and intrigue. Though, the cgi isn't always perfect, but this can be overlooked.

The ending is also a mixed bag, it has a great message of collaboration and ends with an interesting introspection on who the bigger monster is: humanity or Godzilla. However it did feel too cheap and easy which kinda diminished the realistic tone set by the film.

The movie is definitely not perfect but its multi layered symbolism and message are so interesting I couldn't help but be invested throughout the whole thing.

New version based on Japanese classic monster with excessive and modern computer generator FX . An unknown accident occurs in Tokyo Bay's Aqua Line, which causes an emergency cabinet to assemble , but only to say that the creature is so huge it's weight would crush it if it came on land . Nuclear waste and carlessness of man mutate a gilled creature in the Tokyo Bay. As an underwater prehistoric reptile emerges from the depths after he has been awakened from slumber by atomic energy and destroying buildings and people . With social media capturing the footage and with newly acquired appetite for atomic testing , the emergency cabinet meets to find out what the creature is and if it will be a real threat , then Godzilla's destructive power outbursts . They are proven wrong as the creature comes on land horrifying the people of Tokyo and knocking over buildings . Meanwhile , the monster appearance precipites an international incident .The monster scaring towners , terrorizing Tokyo and its streets , breaking buildings and everything to get in its ways. Later it comes back in its next form and is now taller , impressive and indestructable . The cabinet gives it the name "Godzilla". Along the way Godzilla clumsily destroys Tokyo office buildings, skyline , skyscraper and knock commuter trains of their elevated tracks . A god incarnate. A city doomed. Nippon tai Gojira. Reality versus fiction.

This is a roller-coaster ride plenty of destruction , wreak havoc , action-packed , thrills , chills and breathtaking scenes . Fun moments and frightening entertainment when happens appearance Godzilla carrying out an extreme mayhem , confusion and destruction . As Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster, then the cabinet sends a defence force to eliminate the monster but it evolves and starts inadvertently overheating with radiation and this causes the monster to run back to the bay, leaving a risk of returning to the cabinet . Based on the original Godzilla , any other bigger-than-life tale that span almost 60 years would have to answer some serious question about plot repetition . Fantastic design creature , being well and brilliantly made by means of state-of-art digital efects .The motion picture was competently directed by Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi . Finale leaves door open for an inevitable follow-up but still no realized.

Other movies about the Japanese monster, always produced by Toho productions and with rubber suits, miniature sets, are the following ones : the classic ¨Gojira¨ (1955) or ¨Godzilla King of the monsters¨ by Inoshora Honda ,commercially hit in the US , being one of the first post-WWII Japanese film to break American boxoffice including ridiculously primitive FX even in its own day ; ¨Godzilla king of the monsters¨(1956); ¨Godzilla raid again¨(1959); ¨Godzilla vs the sea monster¨(1966) Jun Fukuda; ¨Godzilla on mosnter island¨ (1972) , ¨Godzilla vs Smog monster(¨72) , ¨Godzilla vs Biollante¨ , ¨Godzilla vs King Ghidora¨, ¨Godzilla Vs Monster Zero¨ , ¨ Godzilla vs Megalon¨(1976); ¨Godzilla¨ (1985) , ¨Godzilla vs Megagodzilla¨(1993); ¨Godzilla revenge¨, ¨Godzilla 2000¨....

This is a film of extremes. You get sequences that deserve to be ranked as some of the most incredible in the Godzilla series, but which are preceded and proceeded by seemingly unending tedium.

It seems as though writer/director Hideaki Anno wanted to not simply focus on what is seen "on the ground", but also the procedures and back room politics that go into how such a threat would be dealt with. As a concept that sounds interesting enough, but you have no clue how thin that interest is stretched in what is essentially a 2-hour boardroom meeting. We get shots of absolute devastation as buildings are ripped apart; sandwiched between prolonged scenes of politicians shuffling through rooms trying their best to avoid political responsibility.

I know what you're thinking right now. Yes, you, the reader. I know exactly what is screaming in your head at this very moment as you read these words and the previous paragraph; because it is the defense I've heard from absolutely everyone whenever these criticisms are brought up: "But the film is supposed to be like this! It's a satire of Japanese politics showing how ineffective they are when emergency action is needed!" I know, I get it. The film made this point *abundantly clear* in just the first 10 minutes - and then it continues making this point over and over and over again for the rest of the movie. I'm sorry, but excusing these boring, uninteresting, and grueling scenes as 'satire' does absolutely nothing to make them any less unbearable to sit through. Penn and Teller's video game "Desert Bus" might be a brilliant satire of inoffensive gameplay in the age of moral panic (not to mention of gamers' need to make games as 'realistic' as possible), but that won't stop the game itself from boring you to tears and becoming more like a test of endurance than entertainment. My point is that whenever people say "it's making a really intelligent point" my reaction is "Yeah that's great. Wish they tried making a good movie instead."

This is something that's actually very common to Hideaki Anno's work: He spends so much energy using a sledgehammer to ram his messages into your brain that everything else just falls apart. Characters, for one thing, are so undeveloped that they could've switched lines around between actors in every scene and you wouldn't be able to notice they were meant for someone else. To paraphrase a criticism once made by Mark Kermode, "It is a petrified forest of woodenness". One would think aliens had sucked all the personality from every living human and we were instead watching dozens of automatons trying to calculate the best way to fight Godzilla. The only person who stood out was the American adviser(?) and that's only because she's hot and acts kind of cute.

Okay, so that's why most of the film is 3/10. So why is it 5 instead? It is almost completely because of the middle bit of the movie. Without spoiling anything, the sequence from Godzilla arriving in his final form to when he 'finishes' is one of the best 20 minutes in any Godzilla movie ever made. If you are a fan of the series, this one part is why you're watching. For all the critiques I could level at Hideaki Anno, he is never better than when he portrays a concerted effort against a threat. When Anno actually gets around to showing the mechanics and tactics implemented by the humans, it stops putting you to sleep and pulls you right in. The tension builds and builds, and it all leads to a scene that I would daresay call beautiful. A huge part of what makes this part so impactful is Shiro Sagisu's incredible score. The scene on its own would be devastating enough, but with his composition it becomes something more. You will find yourself in awe and mesmerized by what you see.

To wrap the rest of the movie up, the film quickly devolves afterwards yet again into boardrooms and endless minutes of people yapping. Even the way they 'solve' the Godzilla problem is disappointing. Again, I don't wish to spoil anything, but what they come up with is so ridiculous that it would've never worked in a million years. There's suspending your disbelief, and then there's a plan that's akin to smothering a giant monster with a pillow. Okay, the actual plan is not *that* ridiculous, but they way which they carry it out is absolutely hilarious, and just shouldn't have worked. Given how they've witnessed Godzilla "powering up" his atomic breath, everyone within a mile of him should've been blown to hell, and yet it conveniently doesn't happen this time.

So yeah, boring movie, bad resolution, but with 20 minutes of perfection in the middle. What a weird film....

After waiting for a whole year, I finally got my hands on the award-winning Japanese film "Shin Godzilla", directed by Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) and Shinji Higuchi (live action Attack On Titan). With the praise this film got, did it live up to the hype for me? Yes and to an extent no.

The film is a modern-day remake, showing how would the Japanese government (and to an extent other governments) react if Godzilla showed up for the first time today. This film is one of the more politically-charged entries in the franchise and is more of a thriller than a straight-up monster movie. There are lots of characters, a majority of which don't have much personality, but the main ones like protagonist Rando I found myself latching on to. Some the best scenes are when the characters stop acting like politicians and have casual and occasionally humorous dialogue. At least they took the whole situation very seriously with rarely an over-the-top moment much like the 2014 film, a breath of fresh air within the franchise. There's also this mystery element that plays a huge part in the story which I liked very much. Just as the 1954 film was a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this one reflects the Fukushima meltdown as well as the tsunami and earthquake Japan suffered a few years back (goes to show that Godzilla will always find a way to stay relevant).

How does Big G himself hold up? Pretty good. His design is more-or-less an update of his original 1954 look, his skin looking like radiation scars. New to the series is that Godzilla EVOLVES throughout, starting out smaller and very odd-looking but growing larger, more powerful, and even smarter as the story progresses, making him unpredictable. I also enjoyed the exploration of his biology, that is how this creature could exist. My complaints fall under a few things, strictly on his main form: his arms are too small and he isn't very expressive, mostly just lumbering along in a straight line. When he does gets mad, however, that's when he really shines. The action scenes are entertaining enough and there's plenty of destruction featured with some surprising moments here and there. The special effects are largely CGI with elements of practical effects, both of which are good; Big G isn't a man in a suit this time (kinda disappointing) but rather motion capture, though there are a few well-done miniatures. Some sound effects are of the old era and the music is a mix of the original's by Akira Ifukube with some new ones by Shiro Sagisu, a lovely combo. There's even a track from Evangelion (Decisive Battle).

My favorite scene: The first time Godzilla uses his atomic breath. Set at night with a mournful choir singing in the background (w/ English lyrics), the suspense that builds to the monster unleashing his power and rage upon the world was epic, chilling even, and has tremendous payoff. It's a truly apocalyptic image.

There are a few issues to address. I admit the pacing isn't the best. The beginning particularly has some rapid editing and there are texts on the screen throughout (often naming a character and political position) that are quite distracting and take getting used to, though I suppose you're supposed to feel as rushed as these politicians. Also, there's a huge gap before the climax where there's no action going on that I honestly think the filmmakers should have cut down a little. I like the characters and what's happening to them, but I would have preferred for the film to cut to the chase a bit.

Overall, this movie has its faults for sure, but I'm still glad I saw it. It was an interesting twist to my favorite fictional character. More films in both Japan and America are on the way and I can't wait. Long live the King of the Monsters!