by Psycho Soldier » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:23 am
I guess I'll get into my opinions a little more. These are random observations, not a coherent review, but at least I can say what I liked and disliked.
Outside of the rickety character animation, the animation and art design are pretty well done. I have to give the movie credit: colour-wise, even when the skies are perpetually grey during the Earth scenes, the movie's easy on the eyes.
I did like the scenes of people admiring the view of Earth, and Haruo getting emotional over the flowers growing. Imagine if such human sensitivity had worked its way into the rest of the film.
I appreciated seeing some old favourites on screen during the intro exposition, even if only in still shots. We're supposed to assume the humans and aliens wiped them all out, though, right? The characters focus on Godzilla as if he is the last kaiju standing. I read that there's a reference during the introduction to Hedorah being killed, but I think I missed it. Anyway, the first 10 minutes could've made for a more captivating film than the one we've been given. Imagine the horror and drama of throwing everything under the sun at Godzilla, even with assistance from aliens, but failing so miserably that humankind has to flee the planet. That's a friggin' trilogy, bleak as it would be.
I was eager to enjoy Hattori's score for the film, but other than the ominous choir near the start and end (which is excellent), it wasn't as great as it could have been. It might still work as a standalone experience, but it's not on par with the scores for SpaceGodzilla or G2K.
The characters were just as dull as I'd feared. Haruo is a flatter Eren Jaeger without the supporting cast to prop him up. The alien priest seems interesting, but no one is developed to any great extent. They really just exist for exposition and to drive the action scenes forward; it never feels like they have lives beyond the story. (Not that you'd have much of a life in a space shuttle, but still...) I guess the sole woman in the scouting regiment had a grandpa who died. Nice of her to tell us that in the middle of an action scene, where it could make an impact and not at all be overshadowed by Hoverbikes and Mecha vs. Servum and Godzilla.
Speaking of Godzilla, POTM makes even him boring. I get it, the one we primarily see is a juvenile, but he's still just a 50-meter-tall obstacle whose abilities are over-explained in advance of the action (and thus robbed of their dramatic potential).
The jargon was mind-numbing and poorly explained. Whenever the Central Council came up, I had flashbacks to the worthless nuclear power subplot in Megaguirus. I expect that story thread to prove just as superfluous in Parts 2 and 3.
My complaint here sort of ties into a larger point: POTM wastes far too much time talking about calculations, battle plans, new tech and organizations, etc., and spends too little of that time getting us emotionally invested in them.
One final thought: if POTM had been as good as its last 5 minutes, it could've easily been a 7 or 8 out of 10. That sequence has tough competition between G'14 and Shin, but it's one of the best Godzilla scenes of this generation.
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