Shin Godzilla (2016) Review

Starring: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Ohsugi, Akira Emoto, Kengo Kôra

Directed by: Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi

Written by: Hideaki Anno

Running time: 120 minutes

Rated: None (Contains mild monster violence)

Reviewed by Michael Juvinall – Horror Society

SHIN GODZILLA Tramples North American theaters on October 11, 2016!

Toho Studio’s Godzilla aka Gojira character is one of the most enduring movie monsters in the history of cinema. Godzilla has been in existence for more than 62 years and with the addition of Shin Godzilla, has appeared in 29 movies produced by Toho (not counting the American Godzilla from 1998 or 2014’s Gareth Edwards Godzilla). The Godzilla franchise is recognized by the Guinness World Records to be the longest continuously running movie franchise in cinema history. It has been 12 years since the last film in the Godzilla cycle – Godzilla: Final Wars.

Now Big G is back and the demand is higher than ever for a new film. Shin Godzilla debuted on July 29^th in its native Japan to record audiences and now he’s traversed the oceans to debut in America on October 11^th from Funimation Films.

The film’s writer and co-director Hideaki Anno has opted to create an entirely new origin story for Godzilla – one that renders every previous “G” film as non-existent. The film begins with a problem in Japan’s Aqua Line in Tokyo Bay as it begins to spring leaks that warrant an immediate evacuation of the underwater highway. It is soon determined the cause of the underwater disturbance to Tokyo’s Aqua Line is an unknown giant creature. The creature soon makes landfall in Japan and begins its path of destruction by heading straight for Tokyo.

The creature is named Godzilla based on old writings of a dead scientist that seemed to foretell Godzilla’s arrival.

A great deal of the picture is spent poking fun at the Japanese government’s inability to handle an emergency the size of Godzilla. It shows a government in chaos where confusion and a lack of anyone to step up and take control of the situation reign supreme. It begins with the Japanese Prime Minister and trickles down to all the ministers, cabinet members, aides, and government officials. It’s actually very confusing who everyone is due to the English subtitles for the film. Whenever anyone is introduced on-screen, there are two sets of subtitles – one that identifies the character with both name and title above the picture and the other subtitles below the picture detailing what is being said. It is very difficult trying to navigate the movie while trying to read two sets of subtitles at the same time.

Shin Godzilla is the first film to use CGI to render Godzilla 100% of the time and I’m a little disappointed, and maybe it’s because I’m old school, there is no suit actor at all in this film. The CGI is exceptional most of the time, but there is a few instances where the look of the creature was downright laughable. Unfortunately, I can’t go into great detail because I want to provide as much of a spoiler-free review as possible, but you will know it when you see it. The look of Godzilla in this film is a bit different than in previous incarnations but that mostly has to do with his origins which again, I won’t spoil for you here. Luckily, we do still have the classic Godzilla roar we all know and love, which I have as a ring tone on my cell phone.

The destruction Godzilla causes is mind-blowingly cool and fairly realistic looking. We’ve all seen some of the leaked pics of Godzilla’s atomic breath not only emanating from his mouth, but also his back and tail – and I have to say this new laser firepower is devastating. Gone are the toy tanks and military vehicles which are replaced by the real thing in taking on a giant monster ravaging the city. You won’t find any Maser Cannon’s here, only realistic military weapons that dole out a great deal of devastation upon Godzilla.

Godzilla’s screen time is not as much as I would’ve hoped for but it’s definitely more than the American reboot from 2014. As I alluded to earlier, a large amount of plot involves the Japanese government racing to figure out how to destroy Godzilla.

There is even a scenario where the US wants to nuke Godzilla and the Japanese government has a hard time accepting that as an option which in a way links this film to the original 1954 film Gojira by identifying the monster as an allegory against nuclear weapons. So if you read a little deeper into the storyline here, there’s more going on than just a creature appearing and rampaging the city.

The acting in the film is great. The main leads of Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, and Ren Ohsugi as Prime Minister all do admirable jobs in their roles.

Fans of previous Godzilla films will notice a nice homage to legendary Japanese composer Akira Ifukube with many of his best remembered marches from past films. Composer Shiro Sagisu does a wonderful job in creating new music that is infused with melodies that we all remember and love.

I thoroughly enjoyed Shin Godzilla. Is it a perfect film…no, but it does have a lot going for it. I was a little put off by the origin story the writers chose, mainly because I was used to the old Godzilla story and 62 years of previous films. But after I thought about it, I applaud Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi for wanting to take a different route and giving us something we haven’t seen before. Shin Godzilla fits nicely in the pantheon of Toho’s Godzilla films and earns a spot as an original entry in the franchise that looks poised to continue on for another 62 years.