We were discussing this in other threads but it deserves it’s own. It’s getting a limited release overhere October 11-18. This one has been a commercial and critical sucess in the Asian market. In Japan did 73M as of mid september (which was something like 7 or 8 weeks after opening).
Early reviews from the west have been positive.
The US trailer opts to show less of the big guy up front. And also fewer board room meetings. It also uses the classic music.
Looks intense and really promising. Hits LA on 10/3 and NY 10/5. Japanese with English subtitles.
http://www.funimation.com/blog/2016/09/02/shin-godzilla-stomps-across-north-america-this-october
Edit: Oh, and the trailer above isn’t spoilery at all so far as I can tell.
I’m seeing this in 45 minutes.
Stupid Fantastic Fest. It’s so unfair that some people get to live in Austin. :(
-Tom
Hey, I’m Finnish. :)
You just have the money, vacation time, and lack of familial obligations and you could be here too!
FTFM.
-Tom
P.S. OMG, I see now that you’ve started a whole thread to gloat about it!
Anyone wanna go see this in LA and drink sake?
Initial post-screening thoughts: I like how weird this Godzilla (the creature, that is). I think builds really well to a mid-movie rampage that’s a ton of fun, but it deflates pretty badly towards the end.
Lengthier review required when you recover from the festival (nice write up, btw)
Here’s the slightly longer take:
One of the reactions I saw to the trailers was that there was just a bunch of identikit Japanese people in conference rooms. And that’s very much true, and purposeful. This is a Godzilla procedural, a fairly satirical take on what it would mean if a giant monster made landfall in Tokyo. This means a lot of scenes of people shuffling from conference room to conference room, trying to cover their asses and defer responsibilities. Eventually you do get some characters exasperatedly trying to get shit done (including a US liaison that’s a fairly ludicrous construct), but no-one’s going on a journey here.
It worked for me though, up to a point. The final act felt like it could’ve used some trimming, and the way it’s structured, and the means to dispatch him drained the climax of any tension for me.
As for Godzilla himself, well if people thought the lizard looked goofy in the trailers, I wonder what they will make of him when they see his initial appearance – not to go into it too much, but baby Godzilla looks very different to what you’d expect. There’s also probably a lot less of him than you’d expect. Again, it’s a Godzilla-reaction procedural, not an orgy of destruction porn.
Saw this on my JAL flight out of Narita. It’s filled to the brim with jump cuts to conferences rooms where a ton of Japanese people in suits/uniforms are talking really fast. They introduce a new character about every 5 seconds replete with name and title. The one thing that was definitely Japanese was the absurd adherence to all rules/laws regardless: “We can’t do that, section blab blab prohibits us from taking any military action!” Meanwhile Shinagawa gets destroyed
The ending was really silly.
So… just like the others?
It’s actually very different from the others. For one thing, at least until the ending, it’s played very straight and seriously - there aren’t little tin tanks rolling up to fight Godzilla - the government has the weapons that the current japanese military actually has at its disposal.
As Soren stated, it’s largely a Godzilla procedural – what would a modern government do, faced with a natural disaster like Godzilla, and what could they actually legally do: what steps would they have to take to authorize force? what effect would the Japanese constitution’s restrictions on the use of force have? which government bodies have jurisdiction? How can the Japanese invoke its security treaty with the US? At what point does Japan need to get assistance from the UN and/or even hand over responsibility for the response - by getting the support of the world by letting the UN act, is Japan better off because they will help Japan rebuild afterwards in sympathy, or is Japan better off acting alone?
So it’s completely different from prior Godzilla movies, and the only attempt to “realistically” deal with the obstacles and process/procedure of a modern, heavily bureaucratic system of government. And while that, at times, is used for satire/humor, it’s largely played straight – one of the other refreshing, if not unique, aspects of this Godzilla movie is that there are no human villains. Even though some government officials are tedious in their adherence to procedure, they are always clearly trying their best to act for the public good. Same with the military responders. And even the international community is largely played fairly, although there is a little bit of US-bashing (and a completely ridiculous US “representative” character). But there’s no idiotic mayor saying “the beaches must stay open” or evil business man, or reckless military hawks who won’t listen to the scientists, etc.
Also completely different; Godzilla itself. And I say “itself” because Godzilla is really not humanized in any way, or even made into a recognizable type of animal life – it is far more of a seemingly mindless “force of nature” - something that’s been suggested in other movies, but it’s never been as accurate a description as it is in this movie. A lot of what Godzilla does very much resembles recent Japanese disasters - the tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown - in the same way that Cloverfield’s tearing down of buildings in NYC evoked 9/11 imagery. It’s not just a giant, flame-breathing, T-Rex: Godzilla’s creation and backstory (and the implications of what its appearance means) is actually interesting and has some thematic depth.
In the end the story is wrapped up in a less realistic way, but it also pays homage to the original Godzilla movie.
So yeah, this Godzilla move is very much not like the others. It’s slow-paced and largely involves people in meetings, which will bore many people and likely makes it the least kid-friendly Godzilla movie ever. But it’s also one of the most adult and serious movies - in fact, maybe the only movie to take the subject matter seriously since the 1954 Godzilla. As a result, it’s also easily one of the best Godzilla movies, and one of the very few that is legitimately a decent movie, and not just something goofy and perhaps worth a few laughs.
7.4/10
It actually sounds like something that I’d be very interested in.
Hey… Did I just get a personal Desslock movie review? Cool.
I agree, not really a big dumb monster movie like several of the previous Godzilla films. This one is all about boardroom meetings encompassing seemly every branch of the Japanese government and more in response to Gojira-sama. They talk fast but act slow due to all the red tape and the buck passing is intense.
I just rented this.
Running count: Number of different conference rooms a bunch of guys in suits are talking in: 27
(New conference rooms are coming at a rapid pace… I may have missed some)
Number of women in these rooms: 1
“Godzilla” sightings: 3
What the hell is this silly flopping worm? This better not be the Big G.
Ok, he’s back.and big now. Still kinda floppy looking.
Up from the depths
Thirty stories high
Breathing fire
His head in the sky
Googly Eyed Godzilla!
Googly Eyed Godzilla!
Googly Eyed Godzilla!
The American Godzilla (Gareth Edward’s version) blew this away. For years the American Godzilla with Ferris Bueller was the laughingstock of the world. Now we have the best one again!
I mean the scenes of the army attacking him were pretty sweet, but man, this one dragged like hell. So many discussions and introductions of minor bureaucrats. And not even the fun of giant monsters leaping on each other!
Shin Godzilla was the best Godzilla movie in years. The 2014 American one is decent, but needlessly imported some of the goofiness “magic” of the genre instead of just making it a giant monster movie. And it was strangely paced, and wasted a good starting cast. The fat-necked eel-slug look of godzilla was a dumb change too.
Shin Godzilla is definitely slow, but an interesting and surprisingly grounded Godzilla “procedural” - somewhat of a satire on government bureaucracy, but with no needless human villains - everyone trying to do the right thing - and likely a pretty accurate interpretation of how the modern world and governmental organizations would respond. Plus Godzilla was actually strange and somewhat scary, for the first time in decades.
Whereas the original was very inspired by the atomic bombings, this one draws a lot of inspiration from the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/powerplant meltdown and the failure of bureaucracy when faced with nation wide disaster.