62) Shin Godzilla (2016) - aka Godzilla Resurgence

There is no precedent

Directors

Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi

Cast

Hiroki Hasegawa - Rando Yaguchi

Ren Osugi - Prime Minister Seiji Okochi

Ken Mitsuishi - Governor of Tokyo

Satomi Ishihara - Kayoko Ann Patterson

Yutaka Takenouchi - Hideki Akasaka

There's a lot to say about Shin Godzilla. 

Its place in the Godzilla franchise is the reason I'm commenting about it on this blog. 

It's the first Godzilla movie from Toho Studios in 12 years - the last film being Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). The U.S. movie Godzilla was released in 2014, but that was from Warner Bros. I'm referring to films directly from Toho. 

It's also the first movie to exclusively feature Godzilla without any other monsters since Godzilla: 1985. 

And while Godzilla: 1985 was a direct sequel to the first movie that started it all, Gojira (1954), Shin Godzilla is a straight-up reboot of the franchise with a different origin story for the "King of the Monsters." 

When it comes to Godzilla movies in general, there's a lot of them. There's more than 20 Godzilla movies out there, including the Hollywood films. It's overwhelming. 

The Showa era of Godzilla flicks (1954 - 1975) starts with the original movie Gojira and ends with an epic monster showdown in the movie Terror of Mechagodzilla. After that, there wasn't a Godzilla movie until about ten years later. 

Incidentally, Gojira was released in the U.S. in 1956 under the title Godzilla: King of the Monsters. This version has some heavy re-edits, English dubbing of course, and stars Raymond Burr (Perry Mason). 

The Heisei era (1984-1995) kicks off with The Return of Godzilla (aka Godzilla 1984) which as I said is a direct sequel to the original 1954 movie. All other movies from the Showa era are pretty much ignored. Incidentally, don't you love it when movie studios just flush their work down the toilet and start over? 

Next is the Millennium era (1999 -2004). This is Toho's second franchise reboot, starting with Godzilla: 2000. The infamous American-made movie Godzilla with Matthew Brodrick (I call it the "Simpson's Godzilla" because of the number of cast-members from the Simpson's appearing in this movie) from 1998 falls into the Hollywood Godzilla movies which are carrying on to this day - the final one being 2019's Godzilla, King of the Monsters. 

Finally, Shin Godzilla starts the Reiwa era which is still wreaking havoc on us all!

Horror and Sci-Fi movies play a large role when it comes to audiences facing their fears. I think Godzilla is a perfect example.

While 1954's Gojira is a commentary on nuclear war and nuclear fallout which the Japan was all too familiar with after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Shin Godzilla pulls inspiration from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 as well as the Tohoko earthquake and tsunami. 

The movie starts with the Japanese Coast Guard investigating an abandoned yacht out in the Tokyo Bay. During the investigation, the Coast Guard ship is destroyed and the Trans-Toyko Bay Expressway floods. 

Japanese officials look to viral videos online to see for themselves what transpired. 

While trying to determine the cause of all this turmoil, a Cabinet Member, Rando Yaguchi (thankfully, the names of officials are displayed along with the English subtitles) determines a living creature was the cause of it all after seeing a large tail come out of the water in one of the videos. 

It isn't long before a giant lizard with goofy looking eyes emerges from the waters and crawls through the streets of the city, tearing down buildings and destroying the infrastructure. 

The creature begins to turn into a bi-pedal red-skinned monster.  

When it returns to the waters to cool off from overheating thanks to its internal radiation levels, the government and military officials have a little time to strategize plans for public safety and defense. 

When the giant lizard returns, it begins to grow twice its size, and transforms into Godzilla. 

It's given the name "Godzilla" by anti-nuclear zoology professor, Goro Maki, who has been studying this creature for sometime. The name stems from Maki comparing the creature to God. 

It turns out the abandoned yacht actually belongs to Maki, and he left a lot of his research aboard the boat. 

Meanwhile, Godzilla ends up in Kamakura, where he remains stationary while his energy diminishes. But he returns stronger than ever. 

Both Japanese and American forces throw all they can at Godzilla to take him down. 

But as Godzilla grows more and more destructive (unlike any other Godzilla movie I've seen so far), armed forces do what they can, as fast as they can, to defeat him. They finally come up with an extraordinary plan to defeat Godzilla.

Shin Godzilla strives to be engaging with the chaos and turmoil, and "what are they gonna do?" depictions. It works at times. But too much of a good thing isn't always a good thing. It's slow and dragging the rest of the time, with all the talking officials and important heads in suits. Then again, it's basically a war movie - plan and attack, plan and attack. A small handful of surprises are thrown in to build intrigue and suspense. 

To the movie's credit, it does try to break this monotony with believable humor and random camera angles which make the actors stare directly into the camera as they stare at their computer screens or T.V.s. There's a lot of these angles, and I would love to find out why directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi chose to use them so much. 

One scene in particular shows a room full of government officials and science nerds trying to figure out how to stop the monster. There's a lot of scenes like this in the movie, too, by the way. Anyways, while the camera is focused on two officials in the front of the frame, one random assistant bursts into shouts of shock as he evidently figured out something crucial. He runs around the room in the background to show supervisors his discovery, and then scampers to our main officials in the front of the frame to tell them what he found. It definitely breaks the monotony, and made me laugh.   

The dialogue gives the story a more realistic tone. In one department scene, the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary asks Rando "when was the last time you changed your shirt?" Others in the office comment that his shirt is pretty rank, so they leave a clean shirt on his desk. It's a subtle way of expressing just what these officials are going through as this unbelievable catastrophe is happening right before their eyes. This type of dialogue is peppered throughout the movie. 

But what really makes the movie are the special effects. Godzilla really goes to town on Tokyo - pun intended. There's plenty of destruction. There's bombs upon bombs, each being stronger than before. And Godzilla doesn't just trample on buildings and tear down high rises. Beams of radiation emanate from him, literally slicing through buildings like a hot knife through soft butter. And his atomic breath seems much more destructive than before. The King definitely doesn't hold back. You want to see Tokyo crumble and burn like paper? This movie doesn't short change the audience in that regard!

There's a lot of scientists, heads of state, and other leaders and geeks. But there's destruction, too. Lots and lots of destruction. And the effects are generally great, though many times the CGI Godzilla looks fake with movements clearly computerized.

I appreciate the use of the original soundtrack in this movie - the same that was used in the 1954 film. It helped give this movie the feeling and atmosphere of a Godzilla flick. And hearing it in a new film just hit the fandom spot for me! It's used in the trailer as well.

It's so evident the actors want to make a serious and believable movie. They really put their utmost emotion and spirited effort to make a great movie.

Shin Godzilla is a fun movie; a great Godzilla experience when all is said and done. Toho Studios still has what it takes!