Shin Godzilla Spoiler Free Review

Hey everyone, back again with another review. This time, we’re looking at a film I’ve been waiting to see for a while now, and finally got the chance to do so. This week we’re talking Shin Godzilla, the latest installment of the long-running franchise from Toho Studios. This is in fact the twenty-ninth film they’ve made for the big guy, and the thirty-first overall. As usual no spoilers ahead.

This was a fairly highly anticipated in our house. Any new kaiju movie is, to be honest, but Godzilla… Godzilla is top of that list. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an opportunity for us to see this film in its limited North American theatrical run, as the closest place it was showing was four hours away and we couldn’t make it work. So we’ve waited for home release and now we’ve finally gotten to see it. I was surprised to see our version was a dub, also, and not subtitled. And…. I don’t know if it was worth the wait. 

Let’s get something out of the way here; this isn’t a terrible movie. There are some interesting ideas presented and satirized, mainly to do with the ponderousness of the bureaucratic system and how it can be as much of a hindrance as a help in an unusual and emergency situation. They really hammer that point home, too. There is a lot of politics and maneuvering and people in suits yelling about needing to make decisions.

like this

 And that would be a really fascinating study if the story had let you have the time to digest it. This movie flies along at an insane pace. It’s literally boom, boom, boom, with no time to let the previous point sink in before rushing off to the next thing. I’m not entirely sure why the plot needs to rush along so quickly, it’s in such a hurry to get to the end it doesn’t even stop for breath. It was honestly hard to take notes because taking time to write even quick notes made me feel like I was behind. 

I’m not really sure how to talk about the acting. The Japanese actors seemed to be good physically in their acting. The voice dub actors were fine, I mean some were better than others but it was overall good. I wouldn’t mind, if I wanted to watch this again, seeing the Japanese version to compare the two.

I wonder if in the Japanese version the woman in the left corner still talks like Velma from Scooby Doo.

The music was interesting, to say the least. They used the original Gojira theme, which was kind of nice to hear. Not that I think this Godzilla deserved it, but we’ll get into that later. That wasn’t the only re-used track, and in fact there were a number of musical callbacks to earlier films in the Toho universe. There were also a couple of parts where the music cue shifted quite abruptly into a more rock-guitar thing and seemed really out of place. It sounds pretty cool just listening to it by itself, but it was such a weird tonal shift in the film and quite jarring.

One thing I actually really liked was the camera work. There were some very inventive shots especially when the army was called out and the tanks were moving into position. I thought that was really well done. It was shot very much like one would expect a Godzilla movie to look otherwise, but I really liked what they did. There were also a few with characters using laptops and a phone that were done in a way I hadn’t seen before and was impressed by. 

Okay, last but not least, let’s talk about the big guy himself. This was a reboot movie, and as such Godzilla got a massive redesign that while still looking like him, was quite different from what we’ve seen. Not to get into spoilers, but he had more than one look in the film. I’ll be honest, I hated the way Godzilla looked. From the first trailer I thought he looked terrible and that hasn’t changed. He looks more like a zombie version of himself; like a burned, twisted, undead creature.

 I’m not a fan at all, but his final, Godzilla-proper look is miles better than how he looks when he first comes ashore, which is my absolute least favorite.

I'm only not posting it because spoilers

 I’m not sure I like the atomic breath either, it honestly was more like a laser and, without spoilers, went a little too… crazy at times. It felt like they just overdid it. It looked like the arcane enchanted baddies from Diablo III.

this was all I could think of

I feel like I may have been harder on this movie than I should have been just because Goji looked so damn bad. I get that they were going for something different but the tiny, unblinking eyes and the big, derpy, muppet mouth just didn’t do it for me.

duurrrrr....

 It also seems kind of petty that they made Shin exactly 10.5 meters taller than Legendary’s 2014 Godzilla, as if they had to one-up it. The CG was really inconsistent too, and it’s a good thing they used more than one method to bring Godzilla to life because sometimes it was downright bad. Because this is a reboot he also got a new, updated backstory. I’m not sure I like it, as it changes the symbolism and metaphor of Godzilla to something more updated. I get they wanted to do something different with him and a modern retelling of Godzilla’s origin would have to be something different, but it really feels like they’re fixing something that isn’t broken. He did have a really good roar, at least. According to my more knowledgeable other half, his roars were mainly from the Showa era (encompassing 1954’s Gojira up to 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla) except for the last roar which comes from the Heisei era (which began with 1984’s Return of Godzilla and ended with 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah). There’s also that last shot, which all I’ll say is I don’t like the implications of. 

So, in conclusion, I wasn’t crazy about this one. It’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but I wasn’t really feeling it either. This is a really polarizing movie as well; lots of people loved it and lots of people hated it. Well, outside of Japan at least, Shin Goji got glowing reviews in his homeland. If you’re a kaiju or a Godzilla fan, I’d leave it up to you to make up your own mind on it. Not a fan? I’d skip it because you’d probably find it boring. At least Toho’s next feature, Godzilla: Planet of theMonsters/Godzilla: Monster Planet looks really intriguing, and I like the idea of seeing the big guy in animated form for something different.

5/10        

Movie News Roundup!

Sadly, no movie reviews this time around. I hope to change that for next week, but for now, let’s look at some of the news around the internets. There's actually quite a lot to talk about; we've got superheroes, adaptations, rumors, anime, trailers and more! So let's get to it!



Wonder Woman Origin Trailer

We started off our week with a new trailer for the Wonder Woman film, dubbed the ‘origin’ trailer. There were some really interesting things in this trailer, including a young Diana and showing her Amazonian training. There are a few things that are especially intriguing to me: the idea that she should be trained to the extent that she is and that there is some truth that she shouldn’t know (I have a pet theory about this, but I could be way off on it). I really love one of the last shots there where she brings the gauntlets together lightning builds around them, it’s a great contrast to earlier in the trailer where their powers go off and she seems scared of it. I have hope for this one, and my little girl is really excited to see it, so I hope it all pans out.


Box Office
I just had to mention this quickly. Beauty and the Beast absolutely slayed this weekend, opening at $170 million domestic ($350 million worldwide total) and knocking Batman v. Superman off top spot for a March opening. It’s already the second-highest grossing film of the year behind Logan (which passed $500 million total worldwide). I haven’t seen it yet, so I have no idea how good the movie itself is, just that a lot of people must have been excited for and/or enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see how the next round of Disney live-action does, with Mulan scheduled for November of next year and Aladdin (directed by Guy Ritchie) about to begin casting. I’m intrigued, especially since they seem to be doing all of my favorites all at once.


Dark Tower 

 Now to another project I’m anticipating. Up till this point we have had so little regarding this adaptation/sequel-ish of Stephen King’s iconic gunslinger. No trailer yet, but now we’ve finally got a poster. I’m not entirely sure why they’ve gone the Inception/Doctor Strange angle for this, but it’s a neat visual. Especially Matthew McConaughey’s Man in Black upside down at the top, with Idris Elba’s Roland and Tom Taylor’s Jake at the bottom right-side up. As someone who loves the books, I can’t explain this choice, but I can tell you that the tagline is exactly what I thought they’d go with. It’ll bring in fans like me, even ones skeptical about the whole sequel/not adaptation of the thing, and pique the curiosity of people who don’t know what the phrase means in the context of the story. I also found an article posting a song (link is the whole thing from YouTube) that was supposedly supposed to be from the trailer that never materialized in October (though was apparently leaked. I didn’t see it either way). Again, another dark, moody cover of a classic. This one is somewhat better than the last few, at least. What makes me scratch my head is that it would be an excellent choice of song had they gone with Roland’s appearance from the book, but since they aren’t doing that, why use it? Either way, I really, really hope we get a trailer or something soon, if only to show us what we’re getting into come July.


Godzilla Anime

Let’s switch now from gunslingers to kaiju. Netflix is apparently working on an anime film featuring the King of the Monsters for later this year. It apparently has a more futuristic setting for the big guy to stomp through, and will be the 30^th Godzilla film produced by Toho. Not many other details yet, but once there’s more to tell, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Kaiju are a big deal (pun intended) in our house, so once it’s released, I’ll definitely be checking it out.

How big is Godzilla in our house? Big enough that Cookie Monster got a makeover for one of the kids' birthday parties.

Guardians Cast
What’s a movie news article without some Marvel, am I right? News is out that Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rosenbaum have parts in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 in roles that are significant to the film and the greater MCU. Of course, no word on who they are playing, but there is plenty of speculation back and forth on who they could be. This video posits Stallone could be playing an incarnation of Nova, but nothing else at this time. I’m not going to speculate too much (although I could totally see Rosenbaum as The Watcher) because who knows how Marvel/Disney is going to connect things at this point. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, unless we get another trailer that gives us something more.



Valerian Trailer for Trailer
So, director Luc Besson released a trailer for a trailer for his Valerian and the City of the Thousand Planets on Twitter for his birthday. It doesn’t really tell you anything new at this point. I’ll check out the full trailer on the 29^th and see what happens. I’m not overly interested in this one, the first trailer made me feel like someone had smashed Mass Effect and Guardians of the Galaxy together, but in a cynical way, not a good way. So that’s there, if you want to check it out.

Commander Shepard would like her armor back. With the N7 logo reattached.

More Matrix?
I’ve seen rumors swirling the past few days about a reboot of The Matrix. I am, for the record, absolutely against such a remake. Apparently now it’s not a remake, but another film set in the same universe. That I can deal with. I really liked The Animatrix, so I would be down to see more of that world that wasn’t a prequel or a retread or any of those fancy buzzwords. Because you aren’t going to recapture the greatness of that first film, so I’d much rather see other parts of this world and other stories.


Unleash the Archers
One final note to music and especially heavy metal fans. A favorite of ours, Unleash the Archers, has a new album coming out that you can preorder now! I already did, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it (my preorder said shipping to arrive June 2^nd). Just had to share some love for Canadian metal.


Well, that’s what I’ve got for this week, everyone. What do you think of some of these rumors/stories? Anything exciting, anything make you want to tear your hair out in frustration? Next time I’ll hopefully have some new reviews, Power Rangers is out next weekend, as is Life, or might hit up Beauty and the Beast, depending on how much time we have. See you then!