Shin Godzilla

I haven't realized that it's almost been 10 years since I reviewed a Godzilla film. And I think that's been a long enough amount of time for me to cover Toho's first Godzilla film since Final Wars (2004).

Released on July 25, 2016, Shin Godzilla marks the first installment in Toho's fourth and current era of Godzilla films known as the Reiwa Era. The film's premise is simple: Godzilla wreaks havoc in Japan, prompting the government to figure out what to do about the monster. There are more layers to its storytelling, which I'll get into later, but that's the general setup. There's no monster for Godzilla to fight, or aliens planning to invade Earth; it is treated as a dark and gritty monster-on-the-loose movie with political themes, just like the original 1954 film. This movie is not connected to the film that started the franchise, which is refreshing and offers a completely different take on Godzilla's origins.

When I first saw the film, aside from knowing Godzilla is the only monster in it, I had very little idea of the premise or what the title monster looked like. Godzilla has always had hit-and-miss designs throughout the films, and since I loved his design in Final Wars, I started wondering how this film would top it. The build-up the film provided had me excited while also making me dread Godzilla's appearance. People hear his roar as they try to evacuate the city. His tail pops out of the ocean, giving us our first glimpse of the monster in his first form. We barely get a good glimpse, but we can still make out Godzilla plowing through the water as boats fly around and his spikes stick out. And get a neat shot of his eye. As all this goes on, the cast delivers intense performances that keep the build-up on edge. The only scene that looked incredibly cheap was the fake blood flooding a tunnel; otherwise, I was really invested during these scenes, and anxious to see how Godzilla would appear.

As soon as we get our first full reveal of Godzilla, I laughed in disbelief, and watching it again, I still chuckled as hard. At first, I thought it was a surprise foe for Godzilla to fight, until I realized later in the film that the horrendous thing was Godzilla in an earlier form, which made it even funnier. I'm not against the idea of Godzilla having a friendlier-looking design before turning into a savage monster. It would be neat to see Godzilla looking as cute as his son at first, or at least a tamer creature like in Godzilla VS. King Ghidorah (1991). And I don't mind the concept of him resembling a sea creature like a moray eel, having a lighter color, and seeing a weaker version of the monster with his body still underdeveloped since he's supposed to be part sea animal. I find it refreshing that Godzilla isn't created by nuclear bombings either. This time, he's a prehistoric marine animal mutated into the monster we know as Godzilla by feeding on radioactive waste dumped by the United States in Tokyo Bay from the late 50s to the present. And we get more than a mutated creature destroying cities; in his early form, he suffers as blood spews out of him. I want to feel bad for Godzilla at this stage. But the hideous CGI, combined with giant googly eyes and a jaw hanging open, kills me every time. I don't want to laugh at Godzilla, but I can't help it, no matter how hard I try to look at him in a more sympathetic angle.

After seeing the most comical design I have ever seen in a Godzilla film, Godzilla takes a couple of other forms that look a little more traditional. His third form looks more like how I would expect Godzilla to appear in his early stages, as he can now stand and looks less aquatic. The CGI effects for him start to get better as well. And his suffering looks more brutal than the fake digital blood coming out of him, as he has severe burns all over his body. He still has those large, lifeless googly eyes that look dumb, but his overall design and effects aren't as laughable as before. It's Godzilla's final design that makes him look intimidating. He's taller, his body parts are fully developed, and his face is meaner, with nuclear burns around his body, making him resemble the dying Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995). The only downside to his design is those dopey little fish, which aren't as laugh-out-loud silly as before, but still humorous nonetheless. At the very least, I can buy Godzilla as a suffering creature, even if that aspect is not nearly as strong as in the first film or when he fought Destoroyah, because of how little personality he has.

Thankfully, no matter what Godzilla looks like, or how much personality he has, we get some incredible scenes of destruction that make up for it. Cars pile up and fly around, buildings get destroyed (including one that falls on Godzilla), and the army fights him and, at one point, uses bombs attached to trains to weaken him. The CGI effects are hit and miss, with some of the explosions and buildings looking too digital. Although the makers built an animatronic of Godzilla, they scrapped it and decided to make Godzilla fully CGI rather than using a rubber suit, which isn’t always persuasive, especially earlier in the film. But to be fair, the rubber suit and models weren't always convincing in previous films either, so the variation in quality isn't surprising. And considering how bad the CGI looked in Godzilla films from the last era, these effects are indeed a massive improvement, even if it doesn't seem so at first. The best destruction scene, and the best effect in the movie, is seeing Godzilla fire up his atomic breath. That seems like a given, since Godzilla’s laser effects usually look cool in most of the movies. And putting aside the updated effects, we get to see more than fire coming from his mouth, but from his tail as well. And if that’s not awesome enough, he can change his atomic breath from a laser that cuts through buildings to giant fireballs as his spikes change colors.

My favorite image of Godzilla during his rampage is the film's only night scene of chaos, with the city's power off and Godzilla as the only source of light, while a grim choir plays on the soundtrack. That image and soundtrack capture the film’s overall tone: morbid, gritty, and reality-based (for a film with a giant monster), much like Godzilla films from two eras ago, such as the first Showa movie and The Return of Godzilla (1984) in the Heisei era. The color palette usually consists of grey, black, dark blues, and plain white. As neat as the rampage scenes are, in daylight they look polluted because of the amount of smoke that appears, whereas the night scenes are consumed by darkness or the flames Godzilla leaves behind. At times, the film simulates a found-footage film or a news broadcast, as if the events were actually documented and reported. As the original and Return of had political themes involving nuclear war and made Godzilla a metaphor for the atomic bomb during his attack on the city, the film does the same with recent events that happened in Japan in 2011, including the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. These events may not be familiar to Western audiences. However, given the flooding, the shaking as buildings collapse, and the threats of nuclear energy, one can still see Godzilla as a combination of natural and nuclear disasters, especially given how grounded the disaster sequences feel. The only bit that seems lackluster is how the military fights Godzilla the last time, which is slow-moving and hardly exciting given the method they use. Frankly, I was not bothered by it in the slightest. Given the film's down-to-earth edge, I expected a climax less like what we see in most Godzilla films fueled by action and camp. In many ways, it reminds me of the first film's climax: it has a slow pace, does not require an action-packed spectacle, and still was entertaining and emotional, which this film fills all the check marks except for the emotional part.

Shin Godzilla offers what you would expect from The King of All Monsters, and believe it or not, the scenes with the humans are equally interesting. Not really in terms of them as characters. The film is over flooded with so many of them that to keep track of them all and what they do and think is unnecessary homework. Unless you speak Japanese or prefer the English dub, if you're someone like me who would rather watch an international film with subtitles, the subtitles only triple the work! Reading what they're saying is one thing, but to also read almost every character's name, position, where they are located, while also keeping up with the dialogue and seeing what's going on, becomes overwhelming. At a certain point, I had to stop reading this mostly useless information because it distracted me from the really important parts of the movie. And after all that trouble, the film suddenly focuses on three characters as its leads. Rando Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa) is your typical bland protagonist. Kayoco Anne Patterson (Satomi Ishihara) is the Special Envoy for the President of the United States, yet has trouble speaking fluent English (not to say the actress isn't trying hard). And Hideki Akasaka (Yutaka Takenouchi), who serves the Prime Minister of Japan, is the closest to the most interesting character in the picture because he seems antagonistic to Rando's methods but still cares about protecting Japan. I don't find these three characters boring or offensive; they fulfill their purpose and are well-acted (for the most part). However, they're easily the most forgettable part of the movie. Once the film ends, my memory of their personality and actions begins to drift away.

Now, as lacking as the characters are, and as stuffed as the film is with them, the stuff I criticized hardly matters because the focus is largely on them discussing what to do with Godzilla. I was surprisingly rarely bored for a film that is so dialogue-heavy and has so many characters. As much as I enjoy Godzilla films with likable characters and arcs, when they don't work, they can bring the excitement to a standstill. Here, the way they figure out strategies for studying and dealing with Godzilla is highly engaging because the scenes move so fast. It has quick editing, intense music that isn't overbearing, and sharp dialogue that requires the cast to speak faster than people normally would to sound like politicians and bureaucrats. We don't stay in one room long enough for the scenes to drag either; locations change nearly constantly. On top of that, the film barely uses needless subplots that don't connect to the action and make this two-hour movie feel like filler. Everything flows together well, creating tension based on the risks involving the government's plans to stop Godzilla, which could save or destroy Japan by their own hand or their American allies. As dramatic as these scenes are, another element that would fly over Western audiences' heads is its satire on Japanese politics. The satire suggests the government is so complicated that its crisis response doesn't work as swiftly or efficiently as one might think. The constant meetings to ask permission to perform certain tasks while Godzilla destroys the city. The needless relocations for meetings. A montage with music suited to an action film, where the only action the characters do is uneventful administrative work. Even the endless title cards that pop up feel more like they're trolling the audience to make them feel overwhelmed by the situation and the government system. The film isn't exactly anti-government, since it shows positive results in the end and a humanized portrayal of the people in power. What really needs to be done is to build a better, more efficient system that can respond to crises faster without wasting so much time cutting red tape.

Not since the first film have I seen a Godzilla film start an era so strongly. The Return of Godzilla was boring, whereas Godzilla 2000 (1999) was okay. It has its problems regarding Godzilla's designs, an overcrowded cast of forgettable characters, Godzilla's lack of personality, and overreliance on CGI. Still, its strengths do make up for the shortcomings. There are plenty of neat effects, top-notch destruction scenes, a dreary, realistic aesthetic that's still interesting to look at, incredibly engaging dialogue scenes, and clever political commentary that can be both depressing and satirical. It's a film that doesn't lose focus on its monster-on-the-loose structure yet still offers plenty of subtle layers of deeper meaning for film scholars to enjoy, while giving a welcome nod to Godzilla's darker roots.