Okay so- Shin Godzilla…pretty alright. Not bad but not great. Let me preface that while the 1954 Godzilla is still one of the best movies and is definitely the best Godzilla movie, I prefer my Big G a bit more fun than serious. Godzilla: Final Wars is my personal favorite and it’s by no means a great movie. Shin Godzilla is very serious. It takes a step back and reboots Godzilla to how he was in the beginning. But I can roll with that. It’s still Godzilla after all isn’t it? Unfortunately it misses a few steps. First of all any changes they made to the character of Godzilla can be ignored unless they affect the film’s story in a negative or positive outcome and those are talked about in the paragraph below but there will be spoilers. While I may not like the zombified look of Shin Goji, with his googly eyes and needle teeth and god the STUPID TINY ARMS…sorry…but while I may not like the design that much it is quite effective at being intimidating and scary at times. When Godzilla stomps through town in the middle of the second act, that’s when the movie shines the brightest. That’s so enjoyable to see. I don’t care that they changed his mouth or his atomic breath or even the dorsal fin thing, it works and it feels like the Big G is back in town. The majority of the film is just super slow though. In the original 1954 Godzilla, it was a politically charged story- this colossal force of nature standing as a parallel for the atomic bomb. It was poignant and incredibly well done. The best kind of film has something to say about the world but Godzilla films never really are able to match the original in terms of message, see Hedorah for crying out loud. Shin Godzilla probably does the best in terms of trying to have a message, it’s just that it’s message is incredibly boring. “Red tape costs more lives than it saves. Sometimes it is best to do what is right than what is proper.” However that overall theme takes the form of men and women in suits talking in cabinet meetings. That’s the majority of the movie. I understand monster movies need a human element but for crying out loud make it interesting. Give us some inner conflict or tension. It was just dull. Like I said, the scenes where they let Godzilla be Godzilla are great, with some magnificent camera work to boot that really showcases the monster’s size.
SPOILERS HERE
Now, there are a few changes that need to be talked about because it was poorly executed. First of all, modeling Godzilla off of a salamander is fine. It’s different. Having him change forms as the movie progresses? Sure. Also new and could bring up some interesting story elements. HOWEVER the execution of the first form just did NOT read well. It was a salamander with two HUGE Jim Henson Muppet eyes that made it look goofy. This was offset by its motion and energy which was masterfully animated. They really got the point across that this was an animal, a giant animal in a new environment. But then Godzilla changed forms and became more menacing and the eyes fit the head more, but he lost all that energy. He didn’t as much destroy the buildings as he did just sort of amble through them. That’s boring. I don’t want to see that. No one does. We get that he’s supposed to be a force of nature now, but that doesn’t mean you need to suck all the personality out of him. Now, about those eyes…my wife and I talked about them on the way home and god this would have been so much better. When he’s in his salamander form- give him white, cloudy eyes with no pupils. That would give him an eerie, alien, and unnatural feel while driving the point home that he’s under-evolved even more than the giant Muppet eyes. As he changes forms, have the pupils show up. First pinhole tiny pupils and in his final form he finally has actual eyes. The metaphor here writes itself and fits in to how the movie talks about Godzilla so much better than what they have. Like I said, I actually like the first form. It portrays him as a mindless animal and as he evolves he becomes less feral and more like an angry god. But those eyes just take away any sense of terror, dread, or even mystery. They are laughably bad and simply detract from the overall theme of Godzilla’s evolution.
Lastly (MAJOR SPOILERS) if the hook of the movie’s end is the possibility Godzilla evolving into smaller, fiercer, more perfect creatures then that possibility needs to be more than briefly mentioned. Story elements like these can’t just be tossed aside. If you want that final shot to have an impact, we need to know it’s a legitimate threat before hand.
Which reminds me, if you’re going to have several aspects of the story dealing with the dangers of radiation, you need to show us some of the dangers. Show, don’t tell. There are several lines of characters saying “Oh god there’s lots of radiation” or “the radiation made the houses uninhabitable” or “oh geez the radiation levels are off the charts we’re in danger”! But nothing comes of it. Even just some geiger counters thrown in or birds falling from the sky and onto the pavement due to toxic exposure. The audience needs to see the danger you’re telling us about or otherwise it’s just words.
Don’t get me wrong- I didn’t dislike the movie. I was a bit disappointed because I’m such a fan of Toho’s Millennium series especially, but this film still had some great merits: beautiful camera work, wonderful framing, clear motivations and actions from the characters, clear overall conflict- but there was just too much that fell short for me to rave about it. I like that it’s a return to form, I like some of the new changes it worked in, I just don’t think it was entirely successful. That’s just my opinion though. And in my opinion I’d give it maybe a 3.5/5- better than good but not enough to be great.
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