Ignoring all the continuity from any of the last two Godzilla films from this era; a few decades after the events from Godzilla's attack on Tokyo in 1954, and existing in the same universe as the infamous 98 film; Godzilla has returned to attack Japan once again after being defeated in 1954, by coming back to life from the souls of the people who were killed by the Japanese in World War 2 and want revenge for Japan's attempt to forget Japanese wartime atrocities. Sci-Fi news reporter Yuri (Chiharu Niiyama) and daughter of Admiral Taizo Tachibana (Ryūdō Uzaki) who's had a horrible experience with Godzilla's destruction in 1954, finds a mysterious old man (Hideyo Amamoto) that knows the reasons for Godzilla's awakening, and informs her that three ancient guardian monsters known as Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah must be awaken to fight off Godzilla and protect Japan. The monsters are eventually awoken leading to an epic battle that almost every Godzilla fan claims to be one of the best brawls of all time. Going into this film I was excited and interested to see a match with three monsters against the "King of all monsters", but judging by the two previous films, I didn't want to get too excited since they reached from average to boring. Not to mention that even if the battle is awesome, I still have to sit through many scenes with the human characters, and for all I know they could as boring as the characters in the last film. So after seeing the Godzilla that many would argue is the best of the "Millennium Era", what do I think?
In the previous two films, I found Godzilla to be pretty dull in terms of character. His character felt very lacking in "2000", and he had no character when he fought against Megaguirus. But here, he's back to his old savage and nasty routes showing no remorse over killing people, or appearing to be lost and confused in a modern day environment that he's trying to adapt too. He's pure evil with a capital E, feeling nothing but anger, hate, and even a bit of enjoyment for the people he's burned to a crisp and the buildings he's demolished. For example, we get a POV of shot him looking at the people running away from him for a couple seconds before he blasts them all to kingdom come that obviously shows that he knows exactly what he's doing, and doesn't seem to care whether they're attacking him or not. Another example of his sadistic behavior is when he fights against other monsters, rather than just straight-out killing them with his atomic breath, he decides to give them a good beating to cripple them and toy-around with them before giving the final blow, since he's Godzilla and is convinced that he can't be defeated by a giant monster no matter how big, strong, or old they are, and will have a little fun for how confident he is that he's going to destroy them. And adding to his cold and ruthless nature is the design of his suit that takes away the color that the previous two suits had to make him appear as dark and emotionless as his personality is with the dark skin, and lifeless cold dead eyes that don't have pupils. If I had any problems with Godzilla, I'd say that I don't completely buy his origins of returning since its talked about so little, and just overall feels there as an excuse for it to tie in with the mystical aspects given to the other monsters. I respect them for trying something new with him in terms of origins, but it doesn't seem to be given that much attention, which comes off as a little too far-fetched. I also found it pretty disappointing that Godzilla's confused animal-like qualities are absent since he is supposed to be the same Godzilla from 1954. But I suppose that's why we have the excuse of angered souls bringing him back since that's why he's so heartless and not close to looking innocent. I don't know, if the film was going to go with that another Godzilla has reemerged and wants vengeance like in "Godzilla Raids Again" and "The Return of Godzilla", and still kept all the qualities that are presently given to this monster, I'd be fine with it despite it being a lazy re-trend of an origin that's been done so many times in the past.
What I do think that the writers did fine if not a perfect job with in tying the monsters to ancient and spiritual myths is our trio of monsters that come to challenge Godzilla as the ancient protectors of Japan. I thought that was a cool new way of bringing these monsters back to the series, than giving us the same origins all over again. That is not to say that the changes given to the monsters haven’t always divided Godzilla fans, as some would accept them, while many wouldn't but still enjoy the fight scenes (if not hate the movie or the changes fully). The changes brought to Mothra are that she doesn't have her twin fairies; her hurricane wind attacks and deadly pollen are absent and replaced with her firing stingers at her opponent; and she deliberately murders a group of people on one occasion that many find to be out of character. Personally, none of those changes bothered me. Though I miss her singing twin fairies, I don't see how they would've fit into the story given that there's more than one mystical monster. They could be the ones telling the origins of the monsters to the characters, but we've seen that many times before, and quite frankly I'd be sick of it, especially if they represented more than just one monster. In terms of most of her powers being absent, I'm not going to act like that it wouldn't have been nice if she could use them to fight Godzilla because it would've been amazing. But she still puts up a great fight with Godzilla, who not only is given a cool new power (even though I wish that it was used more) but is much faster than she's ever been before. While the majority of Mothra effects were fine for their times, this is the most realistic that she's ever gotten. I didn't feel like that I was watching a puppet or a fluffy toy on a string, I felt like she was there living and fighting all the way through the movie. As for her killing a group of people, despite the scene being a "JAWS" rip-off, I thought it was fine given that these are a bunch of nasty teenage thugs that steal and are about to drown a puppy for no reason. If they were a bunch of innocents I'd be upset, but given that Mothra is a protector of Japan, I don't see why she wouldn't take out a bunch of thugs to protect an innocent puppy as she goes out to destroy Godzilla.
The biggest criticisms that many people complain about in terms of changing the monsters origins and characters mostly revolve around King Ghidorah's updates. I can't tell you the many complaints I've heard from fans and critics about him being a hero who is smaller than Godzilla instead of being a gigantic powerful ruthless monster whose only purpose is to destroy all humans and monsters. The reason for it was because his role was originally intended for Varan, but was replaced by Ghidorah since he was a much larger and marketable monster, which is why he is out of character. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't find it a little weird to see a once vicious monster in the franchise now become the hero at first, and I know many die-hard fans of the series are going to seriously disagree with me here, but I really don't mind what they did to him. There I said it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that either. I know that this is the only film where he's ever been portrayed as a hero, which in the long run in the franchise makes it as out of character as say if they were going to make Mothra a villain, and I completely understand and respect that to those who are offended by this change. But I really don't mind seeing King Ghidorah being a hero for a change, if anything I find it awesome! I like that I'm now routing for him, rather than routing against him; and seeing him kick Godzilla's ass to save the world is incredible to watch. I know that he goes down more than once, which makes him appear to be weak, but lets be honest, Ghidorah in his debut film and especially "Destroy All Monsters" was a bit of a weakling as well. I suppose the primary reason why Ghidorah's changes don't faze me as much as other fans do is because...well, some of the monsters, especially Godzilla have been through many changes in their films in terms of their character. Anguirus who was once an enemy to Godzilla for no reason, has later become a close friend and Allie to him in some of the other films. MechaGodzilla went from being a robot made by Aliens to conquer the world, to then being made by humans to protect the world. And Godzilla has always been changing back and fourth to a confused violent monster, to a bully, to a neutral hero, to a stern but loving father figure, to a cold and bitter monster, and many people seem to be quite fine with all these changes, so I don't see why Ghidorah should be an exception. I mean after all, the film doesn't connect to any of the previous Godzilla films, so it's not like we're seeing the character depicted in the film literally change from evil to good. The criticisms are not unwarranted, but I didn't find it as bad or distracting as many others feel about it. And incase you're wondering what I think of Ghidorah's updated designs (since he later morphs into Thousand-Year Old Ghidorah) and the effects provided for him, they look just as great as Mothra's design and effects. Even the video-game like CGI effect for when he transforms into final form looks cool.
To my surprise (and probably many other people's surprise) I was not expecting a third monster to fight against Godzilla (and yes, I did not see the poster before reviewing it). And he wasn't a new monster created for the film. He's already appeared in two films prior to this one which are "Frankenstein Conquers the World", and made a cameo in "Destroy All Monsters". I haven't seen "Frankenstein Conquers the World", and my memory of him in "Destroy All Monsters" is very fuzzy so I won't be comparing to how powerful he was in the previous films he's been in, or the differences between effects. But I will say that out of all the three monsters that challenge Godzilla, he is the weakest of the bunch. Much like how Anguirus got creamed horribly when he fought against MechaGodzilla as we knew that he wouldn't stand a chance (at least not without Godzilla), the same can be said about Baragon here. The effects for him look grand and highly expressive, he puts up a decent fight, and he does have some cool moments; but that doesn't prevent him from being the less successful one, since we never see him fight with the other monsters and aid them when one seems to have fallen, and he doesn't have a heat-ray (which according to my research he does in the original) or some kind of ability that seems powerful enough to destroy Godzilla.
As you may have already guessed based on my thoughts on the monsters, the film's fight scenes and effects are seriously some of the best in the series! The monsters designs and their suits are stunning and at times so life-like and expressive that they feel real, as opposed to feeling like that you’re watching people in rubber suits. You feel emotionally attached to these three monsters for how badass, heroic, and (aside from Ghidorah) cute they are, where you root for them all the way through. And what makes you feel even more invested to the monsters and the fights they part-take in is that the stakes feel unbelievably high for the monsters chance of succeeding with killing Godzilla, since Godzilla is stronger than the three and can vaporize them into nothing with his atomic breath. And before the climax, we see Baragon getting killed off by Godzilla, resulting with us caring more for these monsters in hopes for their survival of ending Godzilla after knowing how powerful Godzilla is. But as you're emotionally hooked when watching these fight scenes, you still find yourself embracing at how spectacular these fight scenes are from the way they're choreographed and shot that's held together by one of the best scores in the franchise for how energizing, bad-ass, dramatic, intense, hardcore, and triumphant it all sounds! It just sounds so gigantic and fits every single moment just right! And apart from the scenes being shot well to give you a sense of size and scale as you gaze at these incredible suits and puppets that mainly look like actual monsters fighting, there's still plenty of other effects that look just as amazing, such as the matteing, models, green-screen effects, use of explosions and lighting, and some neat CGI. Don't get me wrong there are some faulty effects too, mainly the ones involving CGI like the giant waves, the inside of Godzilla, and the last image that we see in the film; but in the long run, the effects are mostly as top notch as you can get from a Godzilla film
When viewing the film's environment and tone, the humor for the majority of the film seems less over the top and more tongue in cheek. Unlike most Godzilla films where you'd see over the top characters doing cartoony things, the humor here seems more subtle and laid back. For example, when the film opens, they take a jab at the 98 film by simply claiming that Americans seen Godzilla attack New York but some people in Japan have doubts. It's not quite brought up in an unnatural way just for Toho to take a good slug at the American film, it's done subtle enough to fit the tone that the scene is creating, that manages to come off as serious and will more than likely fly over peoples heads for those who aren't familiar with the bad reputation that the 98 film has. And the film has plenty more of these moments that make of fun of the series' tropes, like when someone from the army questions why only Godzilla only attacks Japan, instead of other countries for example. There are some goofy moments too, like a scene or two of a person peeing and missing the toilet when Godzilla comes to the city, as well as some of the over the top reactions from the people that gaze at the monsters and run away. But for the most part the humor and camp in this film is surprisingly tamed.
The part of the film's atmosphere that really shocked me was how dark it can get at times. These deaths are not played out as overblown as you think they are. They feel at times highly realistic given to how much the film's world is supposed to represent the real world. The way Godzilla fries a bunch of people that run away from him is similar to how a nuclear bomb would kill them, since we cut to kids in a classroom seeing a giant mushroom cloud right after the blast. The looks of people being injured and suffering from the chaos that Godzilla is just as disturbing and harsh as wounded people looked in the original film, only here they're wounds are bloodier. And when someone sees Godzilla approach towards a building that they're in, you get a strong feeling of terror and claustrophobia. All these scenes and moments feel more horrific than any another Godzilla film outside the first one (yes, even more horrific than "Godzilla VS. Destororyah"). And we don't see people just die from Godzilla, we see them get killed by the other monsters. Okay big shock, considering how I talked about Mothra killing a bunch of thugs. But it's not just that particular scene. People die, get trapped, or nearly die, when the monsters roam through Japan to search and fight Godzilla. We don't usually see civilian causalities that often during a fight or when one of the hero monsters are roaming around since they're usually out of the way before the fight starts, but here we do which gives this fight even more of an edge since people are shown to be dying too and not just the monsters.
The only huge praise that the film gets that I think is a bit overrated are the characters. Despite being the typical archetypes that we get in the series, such as the struggling News reporter, the Godzilla victim who seeks vengeance, and the comical boss, they're not bad characters at all. The chemistry between the characters is believable. You understand each of their motives. And the acting is quite solid. So why do I find them to be slightly overrated? Well as good as they are, and being one of the better human characters in the franchise to carry you through the movie, I just didn't feel as close to them as say the characters in the 54 film or the characters in “2000”. As good as they work off each other; I hardly found any of them to be all that interesting or fun to be around. Not to say that they are boring, I just didn't feel all that emotionally connected to them since these are characters that we've seen plenty of times before in the series and is getting a bit tiring and repetitive at this point. When I hear them give exposition about themselves and Godzilla, it doesn't feel bland or forced, but I get more of the impression that they're saying all of this because that what the characters are obligated to do in these films. I'm not at all trying to say that these are bad characters in the franchise by any stretch of the imagination. A part of me just feels that I would've liked them better if these characters were in say a Godzilla film from the previous two eras. The only character who I found to be interesting was Hideyo Amamoto as the old man for how mysterious and strange his character is that's supported by a haunting performance. His character isn’t all that new since we've seen that kind of character archetype of characters that know that something bad is going to happen in Showa Godzilla films like "Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster" and "Godzilla VS. MechaGodzilla", and Miki in the Heisei Godzilla films, but I just found myself more fascinated to know more about his past and what his experience with Godzilla and the guardians was like,.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Apart from the standard characters, and changes to the monsters that have divided Godzilla fans for not making sense and feeling out of character, this is one of the best Godzilla films that I've ever seen! You feel emotionally connected to the monsters. The majority of changes made for the monsters fit within the context of the movie. The scenes of the monsters fighting and destroying stuff never stop being awesome. The effects are outstanding! The score is as big as the film is. The film's environment is more subtle with the camp, and becomes disturbing and sad at the right moments. And the characters while not coming off as anything that special to me, are still one of the better ones in the entire franchise. It's by far the best Godzilla film I've seen in the "Millennium Era", that I don't think will be topped by the last three films that follow.
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