"Shin Godzilla" Topic

The latest Godzilla flick is a re-boot of the whole thing, and made in Japan, for Japanese audiences. It is not going to get a general release in the USA, but it is playing this week at several theaters here in Southern California. It's in Japanese and subtitled in English. Subtitles are big and high contrast so they are easy to read.

MRS Bunkermeister and I went to see it and we both liked it. I liked it enough to buy the DVD and watch it again and again, assuming it comes out in DVD.

As Cloverfield gave us a new way to look at big stompy monster movies, Shin Godzilla also provides a new look at such movies. The point of view of Cloverfield was from a young man at a party who video records his experiences and we see a worms eye view of the monster attack.

Shin Godzilla is the opposite, we see the attack from the point of view of a senior member of the Japanese government. The action follows the behind the scenes research, legal arguments about the SDF use of force in Japan, and political ramifications of evacuation and telling the people too much or not enough information.

Of course, we still get to see tanks, attack helicopters, and a giant fire breathing monster burning down the city as is mandatory in a Godzilla picture. I like it.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

I was generally pleased with it, but it was certainly more of a political thriller than a true monster movie. Godzilla was even less mobile than in the old movies it seemed. As one of my friends commented, it seemed like he just stood there for most of the movie. His new breath weapon was cool. I just wanted a little more from him I guess.

The great debate over the legality of using the JSDF was an interesting discussion though, and tells me that it must be on the minds of the Japanese people at the moment.

Favorite line of the whole movie had to be,

"oh, the noodles are all soggy."

:)

I liked it but I would have liked a little more Godzilla in it.

Sold out at all theaters around me. Feeling sad.

Sounds like a good flick to look for.

I dig the name, too. "Shin" as a prefix/modifier word means both "new" and "core" (as well as a few related things). Taking both these meanings together, that gives us "Godzilla, Rebooted" in 'Merican.

I think I would dig the SDF discussion, too. The Article 9 limitation is worded in the philosophy of peace, but really born in the reality of a political system where a military junta could wrest control of the government from the Emperor. How these two views meld and change over time is very interesting.

I'm going to go see it tomorrow!

Got tickets! Some theaters have extended showing until October 22, so look around if you missed out.

But Article 9 was change slightly in 2014.

I saw it on Oct 11th and I did like it(mostly) but I think the big drawback to me was too much talking.

The scenes with Godzilla were great.

If it comes out on Blu Ray/DVD I'll buy it.

I liked it. I liked it a LOT, both in spite of and also somewhat because it was so different from most other Godzilla movies (and Kaiju films in general).

After this I'm getting into spoilers, so proceed at your own risk.

This is the first time we've seen a Godzilla that is unequivocally a mutation. The design seems to owe as much to the creature from the Host as it does to earlier Big G incarnations. This is a twisted, lumpen, deformed creature. It burns from the inside, it's features are irregular and asymmetrical, and it looks like it's constantly in pain.

This Godzilla is not a hero, it is a monster.

And it works!

I could wish that the CGI effects were better – there are times where it has a weightless feeling of floating over the live images rather than resting upon the ground, but in general the blend of computer effects, live shots, and models works pretty well.

He's also stationary for like half the movie, which is kinda weird.

Generally, in other Godzilla films, the parts of the films that I care about the least are the parts where humans are talking. I don't watch Godzilla movies to watch car chases, drama or romantic sub-plots, I watch Godzilla movies to see a dude in a rubber monster suit smash a model city and fight another dude in a rubber monster suit. Maybe even fight TWO other dudes in monster suits!

But despite the dearth of dudes in rubber suits, this movie drew me in. I've seen it described elsewhere as feeling like an Aaron Sorkin show, with a large cast spouting accurate-sounding jargon at high speed. I think that's an accurate description.

This movie isn't about a guy in a rubber monster suit fighting another guy in a rubber monster suit, it's about how a government responds to an unexpected natural disaster.

The allusions to the Fukushima reactor disaster aren't even subtle – they talk about radiation plumes spreading, Godzilla's steps land like earthquakes, tsunamis follow in his wake.

And there aren't any villainous humans, either, just mostly hard-working & dedicated individuals working together to solve a previously unencountered problem. It's a vision of a government out of Star Trek, not House of Cards. In a way it's almost like a police procedural – highly trained specialists investigating a problem against a time limit. The scenes are tense, well-acted (mostly), and compelling.

I also need to talk about the music.

Hollywood movies have SUCH BORING MUSIC today! There are exceptions, but I miss the sweeping and memorable themes of yesteryear! Man of Steel could have been VASTLY improved simply by adding John Williams' themes from the old Superman movies. That song evokes the character like nothing else does. It's the same for me with the classic Godzilla theme. It was used judiciously, sparingly, and perfectly. When the horns and strings start, you KNOW that is about to get real.

I mentioned earlier that the design of Godzilla was quite a bit different from the G we're used to. So was his Atomic Breath – now it's lasers venting out of the spines on his back, and he can shoot atomic fire out of is tail, too. It's a plot point – if he overheats he can die, so that's how he vents his internal biological fusion reactor. If he uses his fire too much, he cools down and enters a torpid state. It looks weird, and I didn't much like it, although I suppose it did work in the context of the film.

And shooting fire out of his tail? I thought it was stupid and ridiculous at first, but the final shot of the movie completely turned me around on that. His tail is rent and torn, and there are what look like tiny human/godzilla hybrid skeletons budding off of the tip. One of the long tears also appears to have teeth along it. Could it be that this Godzilla is an amalgam creature, an entire species of previously unknown marine reptiles fused together by nuclear waste? Because to me it looked like the tip of the tail might once have contained a mouth, and if he breathes fire out of his mouth, then he can breathe fire out of his tail, too.

It also goes a ways towards justifying why he keeps the tip of his tail up in the air, rather than dragging it along the ground.

So, while it wasn't quite what I expected, an it wasn't quite what I wanted, I thought it was a great addition to the mythology. Lots of new stuff to think about, and perhaps most impressively they made a movie about Godzilla where the humans were just as interesting as the Big G.

Worth a look!