El retorno de Godzilla

After nearly a decade of silence, the Godzilla series makes a return with a film that sought to resurrect the thematic potential seen at it's inception. While Terror of Mechagodzilla was never intended to end the series, it would serve as a send off as the series succumbed to a struggling film industry. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka sought to revive the series in the modern era with a more thoughtful and politically driven film that attempts to harken back to the original. With this film I'd say that Toho was overall successful.

The moody tone is were the strength of the film lies as it attempts to bring back the horror element of Godzilla. Th slower pace gives the monster a more grandiose entrance and makes his rampage feel like an actual disaster. The characters express disbelief that Godzilla has returned, showing that despite all the economic prosperity Japan has achieve, the shadow of Godzilla and what the monster represents still looms. This is emphasized by the first half of the film with a strong focus on the response of the Japanese government as well as the involvement of the United States and Soviet Union. It's very much a tactical film that allows for build up. The side-effect however is that this takes away some of the development for our main characters. There are some interesting ideas given to them, but they aren't full explored as deep as they should be. Still, there are some stand out performance such as Keiju Kobayashi as the Prime Minster. Despite his limited role, he gives the film some much needed pathos. Some of the foreign actors aren't that good but I don't hold it against film aimed first and foremost to a Japanese audience.

Special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano is finally given a budget to showcase his talents. The towering landscape of the Tokyo skyline is recreated in wonderful miniaturized detail. There are so many small details to appreciate like signs, billboards and the lights inside windows. Another thing to note is the scale as the modern skyscrapers of Tokyo manage to tower over Godzilla in size. The design is also quite nice, with Godzilla having large expressive eyes and sharp dragone-sque fangs. There are a few hiccups such as the use the giant animatronic that doesn't match the suit, as well as the giant life-size Godzilla foot. Sill it doesn't detract from all the effort and hard work shown on screen. Another issue is that there are moments where Godzilla feels rather aimless. Still, he does have a great presence and the musical score from Reijiro Koroku really helps accentuate the tone the film is going for. It is menacing as well as tragic.

While it is often cited as the birth of the Heisei era, it just as easily could be viewed as a final hurrah for the Showa era. It was technically made in the Showa era, and much of the crew were holdovers from the prior films. It really serves as a transitional point caught between two eras as the Godzilla series would be taken on by a new generation of filmmakers. While it may be slow at times, for anyone who enjoys the tone and artistry of these films, they will find plenty to appreciate here.

Almost after a decade of no Godzilla films comes a legacy sequel/reboot to the original with all the seriousness that was missing all those years between this and the original. Starts off as an 80s horror movie and then gets into the political landscape of the Cold War. The original was about the fear and the public consciousness surrounding the nuclear threat that was something the people witnessed. This is the next generation for whom nuclear threats are more of accidents or the egos of America and Russia in the Cold War. The various political conferences between experts and representatives of different countries are deliberately included to remind the threat is real and to highlight the policies and principles that should be upheld during such times. Of course, more ground-level characters to relate to are also there and those characters represent fear, hope and tenacity of the people to overcome this by relying and believing in each other. The last shot of Godzilla with just the music speaks a lot more than what could've been said. This is definitely the best one since the original one.

Was very excited today to realise that there was a Japanese Godzilla film I TECHNICALLY hadn't seen.

When I was churning my way through the franchise in 2017-2020, I came across Godzilla 1985, and I guess I thought it was just a dubbed version of The Return of Godzilla. At the time it was the only version I could find, and so I thought it was good enough (even though I much prefer subtitles over dubs) and watched it, ultimately finding it decent but definitely not great.

Recently I learnt Godzilla 1985 and The Return of Godzilla were actually quite different, and today when I realised they were both listed separately on IMDB and had quite different runtimes, I figured I needed to watch Return ASAP.

Long story short, it's definitely not the best Japanese Godzilla film, but it's also far from the worst. I liked the political focus for the most part (though this approach was ultimately handled better - and in a more satisfying/satirical way - in 2016's highly acclaimed Shin Godzilla) and a lot of the monster action is highly satisfying, despite some inconsistencies in the special effects.

Pacing isn't always great, and the human characters are typically thin (it's a Godzilla movie; the human characters are like that 80-90% of the time) but I still enjoyed it a lot.

I've missed watching the adventures of my scaly boi, and I think I will rewatch the entire series soon. Picked up that glorious Criterion set on Bluray a couple of months ago, so am looking forward to seeing those older ones in better than DVD quality.

This and the 89(Biollante) film are the best in the series. They actually had a budget and you can see what happens when you invest in the film the product is amazing

This reboot of the Godzilla franchise is not outstanding, but it's solid enough. The Cold War fears of nuclear proliferation are played out by the Americans and Soviets both advocating the use of nuclear weapons to destroy Godzilla and promising that it would be "contained to a small area," while the Japanese prime minister expresses grave concerns about that, and his forces focus on more controlled, scientific methods. Privately, they express worry that the superpowers are only offering to do it because they want to test and practice with their nuclear arsenal, and wonder if they would use them on their own soil, which were nice bits of cynicism. Both sides also have nuclear space weapons, the control of which becomes as big a threat as Godzilla itself. The only thing I rolled my eyes over was how poor the actor who played the American envoy was, though mercifully it's a small part.

As for Godzilla's foot-stomping, tail-swinging, atomic energy-breathing mayhem, the special effects are hit and miss even accounting for the film being 40 years old, but there are some cool moments, like when he lifts up a train and looks inside. Otherwise it's as if he's walking through Tokyo like a drunken sailor, wreaking havoc. I always think he should be tilted forward, like modern representations of theropods, but this is of course the original kaiju. The film has him representing nuclear weaponry, forever loose in the world after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, immortal and always a threat to destroy blindly, which certainly resonates, as does the view one character expresses that the monsters are an indication of imbalance in the world and a sign of the "end times for humanity."