I'm interrupting your regular scheduled programming for a movie I got to watch last night. You may have noticed my streak for doing a review a day was broke yesterday. I had a lot to do after work and wasn't home long before heading out again to meet up with a friend of mine so we could go watch Shin Godzilla (2016). I was going to wait until this weekend to review it at my other blog, but after getting home late last night, I'm not sure how long I will be awake tonight. Since I have this movie watched, I don't have to worry about falling asleep while watching another one. So, I decided to go ahead and review it today.
It is just a normal day in Japan when a boat in Tokyo Bay is reported as adrift. After checking it out, and finding nothing, something happens in the bay. A large steam cloud is spotted and the underwater tunnel springs a leak. The government scrambles in a series of meetings to figure out what is going on and to figure out how to deal with various problems. Rando (Hiroki Hasegawa) is the first person to suspect there is something large in the bay, but everyone passes off his thoughts as nothing more than a joke, until something large does come out of the bay. Now they have a new problem to deal with as Godzilla stomps its way towards Tokyo.
When I found out that Shin Godzilla, or Godzilla Resurgence as it is being called on the International circuit, was getting a limited release here in the States, I was curious to see if it might play near me. The majority of the time I miss out on things like this. As luck would have it, though, there was a theater showing it within driving distance, at least one I didn't think was too bad of a drive. I knew I would get home well after my bedtime, and the ticket alone was $15, but what the hell...you know? This was the first time I was able to watch a Godzilla movie from Japan, so I went for it. To our surprise, the theater was pretty packed. Not sold out, but close to it.
I had a lot of mixed feelings about Shin Godzilla. I wouldn't really say that I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I find the movies enjoyable at the very least. I remember seeing some when I was a kid on a local channel now and then. Anyway, Co-directors Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno, who also has the writing credit, created a movie where none of the other movies matter, including the original film. This is a fresh start with the people of Japan knowing nothing about Godzilla, or as they call him, Gojira. The original Godzilla was based on nuclear testing. This one has more to do with the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Godzilla is still nuclear based at least. A large part of the plot is just the government holding meetings while trying to figure out what to do. Some of what happens here is rather funny, but it also feels dragged out as well. There are a lot of meetings, Godzilla, more meetings, Godzilla...and well, you get the point. The pace of the film is up and down because of this. Godzilla appears for a bit and it back to having meetings. Shin Godzilla is something a lot of fans wanted Godzilla (2014) to be, Godzilla just destroying things for the hell of it apparently. While there are some very cool scenes of this, which I will discuss shortly, I never felt any real tension from it. The government does its best to get its people out of the way and then attacks Godzilla. Even when the UN and the USA try to intervene in what the government of Japan is doing, I still didn't feel any real tension. Sure the effects are pretty awesome, but I felt the story was a bit lacking.
The effects are actually a bit of a mixed bag. While I loved the effects the majority of the time, there were places where I thought they could have been so much better. Oddly, those effects had to do with Godzilla himself. The effects for Godzilla are a combination of a man in a suit and CGI. When Godzilla first appears, I didn't think it was him. Godzilla looked so different...and, well, goofy. Godzilla eventually evolves into what we are used to seeing. The filmmakers wanted a new start, but they also wanted Godzilla to look more like he originally did, mean looking. They did do that, but there is so little movement in him. Other than his mouth moving, nothing else ever seems to move in his face. There was at least one time in the film that I just could not believe how bad Godzilla looked, and this was after he became the Godzilla we all know. That being said, the look of Godzilla was very cool, if you can get past the very long tail. The destruction that Godzilla causes is top notch. I was very impressed with it, especially the destruction of skyscrapers when Godzilla uses one of his new powers.
The acting was pretty good. Ren Ohsugi was funny at times as the Prime Minister despite playing it off straight. I also liked Hiroki Hasegawa, who after it is all said and done, becomes the main character. He also plays everything straight forward and very serious, but I have noticed that a lot from male actors in Japan. The main female lead goes to Satomi Ishihara. She plays the ambassador for the President of the USA. I liked her look and her acting while speaking Japanese. Despite playing a character who is supposed to have been born in the USA and wants to run for President some day, She wasn't all that great while speaking English. From what I read, she didn't know she would be required to speak English until after she got the role, so had to learn.
In Shin Godzilla, our title character displays some new powers outside of his atomic breath. I won't spoil them, just in case you do happen to catch it, but they are pretty good. The first new one was a surprise to me, as I thought it was blood at first since he was just attacked, but that wasn't the case. The effect, once he uses his atomic breath to this new one, was just an awesome visual. Another new power was also cool, the one he uses to attack planes with mostly, was also very cool. Though I was rather confused on how far away this new power could go. In the end, I was glad I went to see Shin Godzilla. It raised the bar with some of its effects, it's just too bad not all of them came together. It is a fun movie, but outside of the effects, I wasn't all that impressed with it. I don't know if it was worth the $15 price tag just to see it once in a theater, but I had fun all the same. If you get the chance to see it on the big screen, hopefully, you won't pay the same price, I think it would be well worth it for the effects alone. I'm sure they will look fine on a TV screen, and I'm also sure looks so much better on the big screen. If you are a diehard Godzilla fan, I'm sure you won't want to miss this one.
3 out of 5 I need to be the Queen of something
It is just a normal day in Japan when a boat in Tokyo Bay is reported as adrift. After checking it out, and finding nothing, something happens in the bay. A large steam cloud is spotted and the underwater tunnel springs a leak. The government scrambles in a series of meetings to figure out what is going on and to figure out how to deal with various problems. Rando (Hiroki Hasegawa) is the first person to suspect there is something large in the bay, but everyone passes off his thoughts as nothing more than a joke, until something large does come out of the bay. Now they have a new problem to deal with as Godzilla stomps its way towards Tokyo.
When I found out that Shin Godzilla, or Godzilla Resurgence as it is being called on the International circuit, was getting a limited release here in the States, I was curious to see if it might play near me. The majority of the time I miss out on things like this. As luck would have it, though, there was a theater showing it within driving distance, at least one I didn't think was too bad of a drive. I knew I would get home well after my bedtime, and the ticket alone was $15, but what the hell...you know? This was the first time I was able to watch a Godzilla movie from Japan, so I went for it. To our surprise, the theater was pretty packed. Not sold out, but close to it.
I had a lot of mixed feelings about Shin Godzilla. I wouldn't really say that I'm a big Godzilla fan, but I find the movies enjoyable at the very least. I remember seeing some when I was a kid on a local channel now and then. Anyway, Co-directors Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno, who also has the writing credit, created a movie where none of the other movies matter, including the original film. This is a fresh start with the people of Japan knowing nothing about Godzilla, or as they call him, Gojira. The original Godzilla was based on nuclear testing. This one has more to do with the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Godzilla is still nuclear based at least. A large part of the plot is just the government holding meetings while trying to figure out what to do. Some of what happens here is rather funny, but it also feels dragged out as well. There are a lot of meetings, Godzilla, more meetings, Godzilla...and well, you get the point. The pace of the film is up and down because of this. Godzilla appears for a bit and it back to having meetings. Shin Godzilla is something a lot of fans wanted Godzilla (2014) to be, Godzilla just destroying things for the hell of it apparently. While there are some very cool scenes of this, which I will discuss shortly, I never felt any real tension from it. The government does its best to get its people out of the way and then attacks Godzilla. Even when the UN and the USA try to intervene in what the government of Japan is doing, I still didn't feel any real tension. Sure the effects are pretty awesome, but I felt the story was a bit lacking.
The effects are actually a bit of a mixed bag. While I loved the effects the majority of the time, there were places where I thought they could have been so much better. Oddly, those effects had to do with Godzilla himself. The effects for Godzilla are a combination of a man in a suit and CGI. When Godzilla first appears, I didn't think it was him. Godzilla looked so different...and, well, goofy. Godzilla eventually evolves into what we are used to seeing. The filmmakers wanted a new start, but they also wanted Godzilla to look more like he originally did, mean looking. They did do that, but there is so little movement in him. Other than his mouth moving, nothing else ever seems to move in his face. There was at least one time in the film that I just could not believe how bad Godzilla looked, and this was after he became the Godzilla we all know. That being said, the look of Godzilla was very cool, if you can get past the very long tail. The destruction that Godzilla causes is top notch. I was very impressed with it, especially the destruction of skyscrapers when Godzilla uses one of his new powers.
The acting was pretty good. Ren Ohsugi was funny at times as the Prime Minister despite playing it off straight. I also liked Hiroki Hasegawa, who after it is all said and done, becomes the main character. He also plays everything straight forward and very serious, but I have noticed that a lot from male actors in Japan. The main female lead goes to Satomi Ishihara. She plays the ambassador for the President of the USA. I liked her look and her acting while speaking Japanese. Despite playing a character who is supposed to have been born in the USA and wants to run for President some day, She wasn't all that great while speaking English. From what I read, she didn't know she would be required to speak English until after she got the role, so had to learn.
In Shin Godzilla, our title character displays some new powers outside of his atomic breath. I won't spoil them, just in case you do happen to catch it, but they are pretty good. The first new one was a surprise to me, as I thought it was blood at first since he was just attacked, but that wasn't the case. The effect, once he uses his atomic breath to this new one, was just an awesome visual. Another new power was also cool, the one he uses to attack planes with mostly, was also very cool. Though I was rather confused on how far away this new power could go. In the end, I was glad I went to see Shin Godzilla. It raised the bar with some of its effects, it's just too bad not all of them came together. It is a fun movie, but outside of the effects, I wasn't all that impressed with it. I don't know if it was worth the $15 price tag just to see it once in a theater, but I had fun all the same. If you get the chance to see it on the big screen, hopefully, you won't pay the same price, I think it would be well worth it for the effects alone. I'm sure they will look fine on a TV screen, and I'm also sure looks so much better on the big screen. If you are a diehard Godzilla fan, I'm sure you won't want to miss this one.
3 out of 5 I need to be the Queen of something
