Review: SHIN GODZILLA

We will eschew all the alternate titles for this film—NEW GODZILLA, NEW GOJIRA, SHIN GOJIRA, GODZILLA RESURGENCE—and go with the one that was blazing atop the marquee this past weekend when I got to at long last see the latest in ToHo’s Studios’ Godzilla series, SHIN GODZILLA. Was it worth the wait? Worth the build up? Yes—and then some.

It would be safe to say that after Gareth Edwards reimagined the big green/gray juggernaut in the excellent 2014 Legendary Pictures production GODZILLA, ToHo felt they had to step things up a notch with their own version—and boy did they. This is the biggest, meanest, scariest Godzilla to ever grace the silver screen. The most powerful, too. Adding to big G’s list of powers and abilities was a bit risky, but they pulled it off. And that radioactive purple breath, one burst of which leveled seemingly half the city! Wow! They really shouldn’a pissed Godzilla off!

The only complaints I’ve heard with SHIN GODZILLA are the same ones I heard over the 2014 American film, namely that there wasn’t/isn’t enough Godzilla on the screen. Filmmakers understand, though, that to show your monster TOO much risks it losing its awe-inspiring-ness. Those Godzilla movies where Big G is onscreen throughout most of the picture are the silly ones, which are wonderful in their own way but not what ToHo was going for this time around. They wanted scary and they achieved it. That isn’t to say that there aren’t some laughs in this movie; there are. But it’s a dry humor, subtle. A perfect example is when the Prime Minister is holding a press conference, assuring the citizenry that the newly identified monster could not POSSIBLY come up on land—and then a flunky runs up on the stage to inform him that Godzilla has just done exactly that. The theater erupted in joyous laughter over that one, but it’s a needed laugh. All the laughs are needed, as this is otherwise a particularly grim film.

Hardcore Godzilla fans like me might enjoy 2 hours of nothing but Godzilla knocking down skyscrapers and stepping on buses, but the average moviegoer requires a little more. They need human interaction, human characters to relate to and empathize with. Balancing out Godzilla’s time onscreen—where he knocks down a lot of skyscrapers and steps on a lot of buses—with an inside view of the functioning of the Japanese government during a crisis event, complete with the unavoidable bureaucracy inherent therein, is sheer brilliance. Seeing the mundane-ness of real life juxtaposed with the over-the-top action of a giant radioactive dinosaur (or sea creature, as it was stated in this film) wrecking an entire city provides the anchor audiences need to keep perspective. The balance is achieved perfectly.

There were some who said that ToHo was bringing Godzilla back out of retirement too soon. Those “some” were proven wrong. SHIN GODZILLA was a monster hit in Japan, and now that it’s stomped its way into American theaters, even if for a limited run, I can give firsthand attestation that the success was well deserved.

By TheCheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of Evil Cheez Productions (www.evilcheezproductions.com - www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com - www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions) specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. And he really likes vampires and werewolves. Like, a LOT.

Leave a Reply