Shin Godzilla

The film takes a somber, serious tone as to what would happen if Japan were attacked -- in this case, by a seemingly unstoppable foe.

At present in Japan, there is an ongoing debate as to whether or not Japan should amend it's constitution to allow for an offensive military and this Godzilla film plays to exactly how powerless Japan would be in making it's own decisions during an attack of any kind. The reality is that the Japanese Prime Minister would have to ask for permission from the United States President before making an offensive move against a foreign threat and this film plays to that hard reality.

This new Godzilla starts out as an homage to its former man in a monster suit so that when you first see Godzilla, you'll disbelieve what you're seeing, but this Godzilla evolves into something majestic and utterly awe inspiring in its power.

What's more, this film makes it clear people die. In the Japanese release there's a lot of word play about how the government officials up high (on the fifth floor) make decisions that get passed down to people on lower floors that eventually hurt the people. I'm not sure how much will be translated, but the film is deliberately showing the disconnect between the political and day to day realities.

Overall, the performances are good. There is one character who they, for whatever reason, decided to make speak English in odd an inappropriate times.

This isn't a film for US audiences. The aesthetics will turn off a lot of non-Japanese young people accustomed to CG reality. But if you're open to learning about another culture, this is an excellent film, one of the best kaiju-films you'll ever see.

New version based on Japanese classic monster with excessive and modern computer generator FX . An unknown accident occurs in Tokyo Bay's Aqua Line, which causes an emergency cabinet to assemble , but only to say that the creature is so huge it's weight would crush it if it came on land . Nuclear waste and carlessness of man mutate a gilled creature in the Tokyo Bay. As an underwater prehistoric reptile emerges from the depths after he has been awakened from slumber by atomic energy and destroying buildings and people . With social media capturing the footage and with newly acquired appetite for atomic testing , the emergency cabinet meets to find out what the creature is and if it will be a real threat , then Godzilla's destructive power outbursts . They are proven wrong as the creature comes on land horrifying the people of Tokyo and knocking over buildings . Meanwhile , the monster appearance precipites an international incident .The monster scaring towners , terrorizing Tokyo and its streets , breaking buildings and everything to get in its ways. Later it comes back in its next form and is now taller , impressive and indestructable . The cabinet gives it the name "Godzilla". Along the way Godzilla clumsily destroys Tokyo office buildings, skyline , skyscraper and knock commuter trains of their elevated tracks . A god incarnate. A city doomed. Nippon tai Gojira. Reality versus fiction.

This is a roller-coaster ride plenty of destruction , wreak havoc , action-packed , thrills , chills and breathtaking scenes . Fun moments and frightening entertainment when happens appearance Godzilla carrying out an extreme mayhem , confusion and destruction . As Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster, then the cabinet sends a defence force to eliminate the monster but it evolves and starts inadvertently overheating with radiation and this causes the monster to run back to the bay, leaving a risk of returning to the cabinet . Based on the original Godzilla , any other bigger-than-life tale that span almost 60 years would have to answer some serious question about plot repetition . Fantastic design creature , being well and brilliantly made by means of state-of-art digital efects .The motion picture was competently directed by Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi . Finale leaves door open for an inevitable follow-up but still no realized.

Other movies about the Japanese monster, always produced by Toho productions and with rubber suits, miniature sets, are the following ones : the classic ¨Gojira¨ (1955) or ¨Godzilla King of the monsters¨ by Inoshora Honda ,commercially hit in the US , being one of the first post-WWII Japanese film to break American boxoffice including ridiculously primitive FX even in its own day ; ¨Godzilla king of the monsters¨(1956); ¨Godzilla raid again¨(1959); ¨Godzilla vs the sea monster¨(1966) Jun Fukuda; ¨Godzilla on mosnter island¨ (1972) , ¨Godzilla vs Smog monster(¨72) , ¨Godzilla vs Biollante¨ , ¨Godzilla vs King Ghidora¨, ¨Godzilla Vs Monster Zero¨ , ¨ Godzilla vs Megalon¨(1976); ¨Godzilla¨ (1985) , ¨Godzilla vs Megagodzilla¨(1993); ¨Godzilla revenge¨, ¨Godzilla 2000¨....

First of all, if you are expecting the stereotypical monster movie where the point of it is just watching a monster destroy stuff and watch people running around, you WILL be disappointed. The majority of this film takes place in offices and meeting rooms.

Japan just went through a nation-wide Earthquake that took more than 15,000 lives, and triggered the second worst nuclear meltdown in history, both just five years ago. And this is a clear satire on the sociopolitical events since.

The film takes us through what goes on in the government when a unprecedented crisis hits the nation. It's a bunch of long meetings, finger-pointing, paperwork, and slow decision-making. It is the epitome of dysfunctional bureaucracy.

On top of all that, you start to see the US government and other UN nations start to poke their heads into the matter, treating the hometown of 15 million Japanese people like just another battleground for just another war.

There are no clear-cut heroes; Just a group of normal people who are experts in their own fields, doing their best to contribute and put this disaster to an end. They have to fight the politics more than the actual monster.

The reality of all of this is astonishing, and completely believable. It starts to feel like a crisis simulation film.

But of course, the center of it all is Godzilla:

Godzilla himself is truly awe-inspiring in this film. What they have done with the monster is totally new, different from any of the Godzillas in the past (be careful of spoilers out there on the web if you want to experience the amazement). It's personally my favorite by far. Throughout the film, Godzilla is dubbed as "The truly perfect organism", "The most evolved being on the planet", and "A god". So that is the level which you should expect. His crazy power is far beyond belief, so you can safely immerse yourself into this fictional monster.

The tag-line for "Godzilla Resurgence" in Japan reads: "Reality(Japan) V.S. Fiction(Godzilla)". So you are witnessing the fault line between reality and fiction.

When Godzilla is turning the city of Tokyo into rubble, the Japanese don't see fiction. They see the events of 2011/03/11. The director clearly took measures to parallel the tsunamis, the rubble, and the fear of radiation to the events in real life.

Put that together with the bureaucratic mess, the international politics, and terror/awesomeness of the devastating monster Godzilla; The result is this masterpiece. It's a movie clearly wouldn't have come out from the Hollywood scene.

It does have it's faults (like Satomi Ishihara's cartoonish character), but the impact and significance of the film far surpasses its faults.

A must-watch.

'Shin Godzilla' isn't Toho's vainglorious attempt at re-capturing the success of recent Hollywood adaptations of its iconic Japanese monster. Quite the contrary, co-directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi know better than try to outdo their Western counterparts in terms of spectacle, and instead have made the astute decision to make a distinctly Japanese 'Godzilla' that will most certainly resonate with their home audience, even at the expense of alienating some non-Japanese viewers without the same cultural or historical context. In fact, we dare say that their film has the unique distinction of being both political allegory as well as real-world horror, and is surprisingly effective on either count.

No other recent event has been so seared in the Japanese consciousness as that of the 2011 Tohoko earthquake and tsunami as well as the consequent Fukushima nuclear disaster, not just because of the hundreds of thousands of people affected but also because it exposed how terribly unprepared the Japanese government was with handling a crisis of such proportions. The parallels here are unmistakable – from an indecisive Prime Minister (Ren Ôsugi) to the frustratingly bureaucratic attitude of his Cabinet ministers to the embarrassing revelation of his poor judgment (such as during a live press conference where Godzilla makes landfall right after he specifically tells the people that the creature will not) – and indeed meant no less than a searing indictment of just how inept the Naoto Kan's administration was during 3/11.

Yet it isn't hard to imagine how a movie based solely on such criticism would quickly turn monotonous, not least because the lead characters here are all political/ Government figures – among them, Hiroki Hasegawa's outspoken and gutsy Deputy Chief of Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi, Yutaka Takenouchi's opportunistic Aide to the Prime Minister Hideki Akasaka, and Satomi Ishihara's Special Envoy for the United States Kayoko Ann Patterson – and each is defined only in terms of his or her role and ambition in relation to the ongoing calamity. None too subtle is the point, emphatically and unequivocally made, that while politicians wield the ingenuity and authority it takes to manage an unprecedented catastrophe, each is also simultaneously weighting the cost or opportunity of every decision or maneuver to his or her political futures.

Just as illuminating, especially to the Japanese, is the strengths or limits of its military might post-WWII, seeing as how it has never yet seen the need to invoke the use of its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) or call in the help of the US military under the US-Japan Security Treaty. Under the pretense of exterminating Godzilla, Anno's screenplay imagines what it would take not just for the SDF to be activated but also how US intervention would likely come with some strings attached. How and if at all it is meant to play into the current Shinzo Abe's push for an expansion of the SDF role is quite perceptively left up to the audience's interpretation, but there is no doubting that the introduction of the United Nations late into the film is meant to demonstrate how powerless nations not on its Security Council may be to resolutions passed by its five members on non-member countries.

Yes, if it isn't yet clear, there is no intent here to highlight the human dimension of such an event; rather, it is domestic politics as well as the global world order that forms the basis of this re- incarnation of Godzilla. As a reboot, 'Shin Godzilla' starts on a clean slate, beginning with an underwater disturbance that briefly makes its way onto shore before going back out to sea, then returning as a much more highly evolved organism that grows and grows ever more fearsome. Fans though will not be disappointed – as with past iterations of Godzilla, this latest version not only has the ability to radiate highly destructive atomic rays from its dorsal fins, it also can set streets of buildings ablaze by spewing fire out of its mouth. It does take time to get used to the new 'ShinGoji' design, but rest assured that this beast is every bit as terrifying as it should be.

In fact, that palpable sense of fear is twofold – first, in tying the origins of Godzilla to Japan's ignominious nuclear history; and second, in showing with utmost realism the wanton destruction of notable landmarks in Tokyo by the monster. The former has to do as much with the United States' alleged dumping of radioactive waste in Tokyo Bay in the 1950s and 1960s as accusations of Japan's own disposal of toxic ash from the burning of Fukushima's nuclear waste into the same waters. The latter, on the other hand, sees entire districts in Tokyo ripped or flattened by Godzilla's rampage, impressively staged by co-director cum VFX supervisor Anno (also known for last summer's 'Attack of Titan') using a mix of old- fashioned puppetry and modern CGI. In particular, the combined US- Japan military assault on Godzilla along the banks of the Kano River and the finale in downtown Shinjuku is stunning, especially in imagining the magnitude of destruction that Godzilla could inflict on modern-day Japan.

Yet if the promotional materials have given the impression that 'Shin Godzilla' is an action-packed blockbuster like its most recent Hollywood predecessors, you'll do best to temper those expectations. Sure, there are beautiful sequences of Godzilla wreaking havoc, but because the focus is on displaying different types of political personalities and their responses towards such a crisis of proportions, there is a lot of talking (as well as 'talking heads') throughout the film and especially in the beginning. By tapping into the paranoia, fear and frustration of their fellow Japanese following their own recent real-life crises, Anno and Higuchi have made a contemporary 'Godzilla' that is sure to roar loud with their home crowd – and by that count, this is as its Japanese title suggests, a new and true incarnation as relevant as it is frightening.

This is an excellent show that differs from the standard hack-and- slash and action-driven natures of other recent films (Independence Day 2 etc.). It is one of the most narrative-driven films that I've watched in the last 2 years.

PROS:

• The acting was great as a whole, comprising of much seriousness and focus, typical of the exigency of a nation-wide disaster, in the top politicians of the diet.

• It is full of political irony, satire of the Japanese government's and bureaucracy's indecision and red-taping. There is great intelligence imbued into movie, and it shows that much research has been done prior to filming. It also shows the way in which foreign and indigenous affairs have been interwoven together in governmental decision-making. I greatly appreciate this as a whole, as the narration is full of meaning and subtlety.

• The special effects of Godzilla were absolutely wonderful, portraying both scale and grandeur in Godzilla's size and style. I greatly enjoyed the four main scenes where Godzilla made its appearance, especially its climax at the latter two.

• The pacing was fast-paced, and little time was wasted. A lot of content had been packaged into a duration of just 120 minutes. While watching, I thought that the film lasted for 4 hours, as there were so many occurrences!

• The style and pace also remains true to the original Godzilla classics. So is the provenance of Godzilla.

CONS

• Ishihara would not have fooled us into thinking that she is a Japanese-American English speaker!

• Overall, it is very dialogue-heavy. This is both a strength and weakness. A strength as there is much character development, but also excessive to the point that it sometimes can be dreary and draggy. This is the greatest setback of the film, and could have been further streamlined. Minus 1 star for this.

CONCLUSION:

• As a whole, I rate it 9 out of 10, and will watch it again.

• Most people who have an appreciation for subtlety and nuance, and also of vivid storytelling will like this film.

• However, those who prefer a CGI roller-coaster like Independence Day 2 or 2012 may be turned off by the extremely heavy dialogue.