Hideaki
Anno's Shin
Godzilla stomped
through my city on the 11th,
and I was lucky enough to be off work that night. Though technically
not the first time I'd seen Godzilla on the big screen if you count
the 2014 one (I rarely do), this experience was on a whole new level.
The movie itself is very flawed, but I had myself a hell of a good
time.
The
biggest flaw in my opinion is the incredibly slow pace. Most kaiju
films barely show the monster, focusing instead on the humans
involved in the disaster; even the massively-budgeted Godzilla
2014
followed this rule, and Shin
Godzilla has
roughly the same amount of monster footage. We follow a handful of
government officials as they deal with an increasingly unmanageable
situation, with all the board meetings that implies. I definitely
got tired of seeing conference rooms. Every single official's name
and position was labeled in big Japanese subtitles, Legend
of the Galactic Heroes-style,
adding to the onscreen clutter when those needed English
subtitles in addition to subtitles for the spoken dialogue. I'm
usually against dubs, but for films that ramble on about politics on
philosophy like Ghost
in the Shell,
I do appreciate hearing the ideas in my native language, and Shin
Godzilla
fits the bill. An argument could be made that none of the characters
were particularly memorable, but I think they served their purposes
well enough, even if I mixed a few of them up every so often. I felt
more for the main character here than for Mr.
Generic-Wanna-Save-My-family from the 2014 version.
On
that note, I felt this movie handled its themes well. Godzilla
2014
mashed a handful of ideas together without really saying anything in
the end, I felt, but Shin
Godzilla
remains focused throughout. It's a criticism of a government not
built to handle an emergency on this scale, and proposes a system
that's more inclined to taking decisive action than to asking
permission and holding people accountable. You feel the main
character's frustration as things spiral out of control because even
we can tell steps could have been taken earlier to prevent this.
Bold ideas that I've seen handled poorly in the past, but they served
this film just fine.
The
music fits well enough, but is honestly nothing special if you're
familiar with composer Shiro Sagisu's work. Mostly he recycles his
stuff from Evangelion although his obligatory “ominous
chanting choir” rears its head once or twice, just enough to not
feel like overkill. I'd be amiss if I didn't mention here how the
rare action scenes do deliver. My God, do they deliver. All of them
are well done at the very least, taking advantage of several (!)
Godzilla designs that are among the best we've ever seen. Godzilla's
assault on Tokyo at the halfway-ish point is a must-see, worth the
price of admission alone, overshadowing even the great final attack
on the monster. It all ends on one of the most original, haunting
“or is it?” images Godzilla fans have seen in decades.
The
movie is reqiured viewing for anyone with a soft spot for giant
monsters. It has dozens of unique ideas while still feeling like a
Godzilla movie; it never goes off track like the 1998 movie.
Its strong concern with modern Japanese politics makes it one of the
more intelligent films of its kind, but are likely to put off casual
moviegoers. I'm unsure how many people would agree that the action
is worth the sit, but convinced that a good English dub will improve
the experience. If you're at all curious about this movie, I'd
recommend at least one viewing before purchase. As for me, my
overall impression was simple.
Well
done, Anno. Well done.
