At last, at fucking last. Today, while totally not defying my principals on piracy, I stumbled across a little film called Shin Godzilla, I film I was, as you'd expect, stupidly buzzed for, being perhaps unhealthily in love with the big lizard. Having heard a lot of good things and some bad things, I consider it a privilege that I got the chance to put forward my thoughts on Shin Godzilla.
Let's get down to business, and start with what I found disappointing in the film. In my posts about the trailers for this film, I, at least with the 2nd trailer, was critical of the lack of dialogue, thinking that with that came a lack of character or motivation, the truth is, there's not a lot of character or motivation in the film either. I would pass it off with the language barrier if I wasn't such a fan of Del Toro's Spanish films, a language I also can't speak a word of, but this film has dozens and dozens of characters, and only a few of them ever really exhibit a personality. Rando strives for the best and most efficient solution he can that doesn't result in millions dying, and Patterson is feisty and wants to be President one day, the Prime Minister has a pretty good scene where he goes on about not abandoning his people, but that's all you get, Rando echoes that later on, which is good. Other than that you have a bunch of government and army people who stand around talking, while never really saying anything interesting besides exposition and jargon, but that's only half the time, luckily; the other half of the time they're sitting, in board rooms, and offices, clacking on keyboards and relaying orders through microphones, there's no nice way of saying it, it's boring. There are scenes when this element of the film works, usually when other, bigger shit is also happening, and the film's brilliant score kicks in, but for the first hour or so of the film, and to an extent towards and during the end too, I just wanted Godzilla to show up again, I had to keep telling myself that the film wasn't boring me. Shin Godzilla also has some attempts at humour that came across more weird than funny, but unlike the flat characters, I will chalk that up to the language barrier. So, the film's characters are boring, the film's endless board room scenes are boring, what does work? Fortunately, a surprising amount. There are some pretty obvious allusions to the 2011 earthquake in this film, as the film lingers on the trail of destruction Godzilla is leaving, and the damage not just to infrastructure, but to the lives of people on the ground, that it causes, a lot of it is quite unnervingly reminiscent of images of the damage the quake and tsunami caused. Perhaps more so than any previous film, this film also dwells on the fact that Godzilla is radioactive, and the threat of irradiation his mere existence poses, this, again, can be seen as a commentary on the 2011 quake, and it's really interesting to see, even if in the end it's effectively written off. The film also pokes fun at the UN and America, who, of course, decide that the only course of action is nukes, much to the disgust of some of the characters in the film, which is actually a really nice element the film has, it would actually have been cool to see more of how the Japanese find the idea of nukes deplorable, aside from the frankly lazy flashes of photos from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Unlike the 1954 film, this is not an allegory for an atomic bombing, and while Godzilla serves as a commentary for something more contemporary in this film, that element does take away from the scare factor of the film, it doesn't have the same power. The film's plot isn't hard to work out; giant monster comes out of sea, causes destruction, it's a Godzilla film, you know what to expect. The modern day take on this situation is approached in a sort of interesting way, with a few references to the internet and social media, and an interesting angle on how some people in society view Godzilla, which is something I want Legendary's Godzilla 2 to touch on, so I like it here.
Where the film does really pick up is with the big lizard himself, there's never a dull moment when Godzilla's on the scene, most of what I like and don't like about the design based on promotional material is still relevant, his dinky arms are weak looking, his tail really looks like it's over compensating for something, having seen the film, these nitpicks are less important, but I still have them. The classic roar featured in the trailer was in fact the roar he has in the film, which still seems a bit weird to me, but the use of not just one but two classic roars, including the classic 1954 roar, is more of a nice touch than it is a lack of creativity. The roars aren't alone, a whole host of sound queues from the original Godzilla return, and it's admittedly really nice to hear them again. One thing I do think is unnecessary however is how Godzilla has mandibles now, as opposed to just mandible, and the purple fire breath comes across as just a simple cosmetic change, which isn't really worth arguing for or against. The scenes when Godzilla is flattening things are still awesome, and his destructive ability as received a major upgrade from previous films, now able to shoot lasers from his back and tail, and burp out a nasty looking death cloud that he then lights on fire, resulting in some of the most haunting imagery not just in this film, or even Godzilla films, but most if not all of the films I've seen this year. Godzilla's first appearance in this film is a bit striking, I already knew what it looked like before seeing the film, but if you haven't and you watch this film, prepare your sides, it looks like a cross between Godzilla and a lungfish, before the still abstract but at least more conventional looking Godzilla emerges later on in the film. Admittedly, my library of Japanese films is somewhat small, and very much lacking in diversity, since it's all Godzilla films, so I don't know as much about the Japanese movie business as I probably should. That being said, the effects in this film are pretty damn good, they're obviously not a patch the recent Hollywood effort at Godzilla, and I feel that Gareth Edwards did a better job with those effects in that film than the director of this film did, but the CG is still impressive, considering the limitations. What's surprising is how much CG there is, I was expecting a CG suitmation hybrid, so I wasn't expecting Godzilla to be entirely CG for pretty much all of film, that wouldn't be a bad thing if he moved more convincingly, which is something I was concerned about in the trailers, he gets less rubbery as the film goes on, but when he first appears and begins his march towards Tokyo, he moves like a robot, which is something I personally find very weird. Other effects and what little practical effects this film has look good, but in the usual fashion, some effects are definitely better than others. Something I can't not mention is the music, call it nostalgia, but I've always had a liking for the music used in the older Godzilla films, very much in the same way that I love Barry Gray's music in Gerry Anderson shows. The music in this film is at times an elegant blend of that classic sound and the newer, more Hollywood style, and then other times excellent pieces that, like Who Will Know and Persecution of the Masses, evoke a deep sense of sorrow and threat that works perfectly.
Shin Godzilla gets some things right, when Godzilla is tearing shit up, it's awesome and huge fun to watch, and it can at times be a little goose bump educing, when the soundtrack kicks on and the music rises, it's really good, and for the most part, the effects and design choices of the film work. There's also a lot of subtle things to be taken away from this film, which is something I appreciate. But in some ways, Shin Godzilla really misses the mark for me; its characters are flat and devoid of character, and when Godzilla's not there, you're stuck with them in offices and board rooms, which really drags in my opinion, and while the film touches on things that are interesting, there are times when I think it should have done more, or done it in a less blatant way. It's not the best Godzilla film ever made, I don't even think it's as good as Legendary's 2014 Godzilla, but it's certainly not the worst, and there's too much good in this film to make it a bad film, but there's just not enough good to make it a great film in my opinion. It's still a film I got enjoyment out of, so while I can't say it's definitely worth watching, I can say it's something worth checking out.
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