Shin Godzilla *SPOILER* Thread

[C.Miller719]

I'm not sure either. I assumed Goro Maki had something to do with the creepy Man-zilla things at the end.

[Benjamin Haines]

Goro Maki worked for the US government (or a company contracted by the US government) and he discovered a giant creature living at the bottom of Tokyo Bay. He prepared a report for his bosses hypothesizing that this creature, which he called Godzilla, had been feeding on nuclear waste that was dumped to the bottom of Tokyo Bay 60 years ago. They didn't believe him. He's similar to Dr. Mafune from Terror of Mechagodzilla in that sense.

Maki's wife died from radiation poisoning. (I don't recall exactly how she became poisoned, maybe the Fukushima disaster?) This drove him to hate nuclear power and the people who work with it.

At film's open, Japanese investigators find Maki's boat adrift in Tokyo Bay with no sign of the man, just a notebook containing his final message: "I did what I wanted. Do as you like." It's implied that he killed himself before the start of the movie. Shortly after the boat is found, a massive underwater explosion occurs and Godzilla subsequently rises to the surface. Yaguchi and Kayoco wonder if Maki somehow unleashed Godzilla on Japan to test humanity, to see if people would respond with nuclear weapons or find a better way.

My guess is that Maki obtained a depth charge and dropped it into Tokyo Bay to drive Godzilla to the surface. Maybe he handcuffed himself to the depth charge before dropping it into the water.

[lhb412]

^I was wondering how he would go about stirring Godzilla up. You explanation certainly makes sense... and gets extra points for tying in his apparent suicide!

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Gentleman]

His disappearance on the same day Godzilla appears shows that the two events are definitely related.

Further supposition: we're assuming that Godzilla's salamander form was his first, but in all likelihood it wasn't. His early stages mutated very fast, so it stands to reason the one that first crawled out of the bay wasn't his first actual form. I think the first time we see the tunnel crack and the red fluid seep down, following by the pool of it being visible in the bay, is the effect of his earlier mutations happening, the first time he got big enough to affect his environment in such a dramatic way. (Incidentally, the bloodlike fluid seems to happen only in transitory stages, as the salamander-shape gushes red fluid from its gills before changing into the more T-rex shape. The fully upright Godzilla doesn't leak any fluids, leading me to think it is indeed his final form, but the vast amounts that flood the bay tell me Godzilla was rapidly mutating down on the sea floor until his weight caused the tunnel to collapse).

I think Maki was harboring a very, very small creature that he knew fed on radioactive materials and, knowing its potential for mutation, released it into a prime feeding ground, then committed suicide when it was done.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[lhb412]

^I wonder if this first form actually has an official design, or at least concepts in the 'Art of' book? Considering how popular the different forms have been with fans it's certainly another merch opportunity.

Last day is tomorrow and I'm gonna try to see it again. I'll try to pay a bit more attention to some of these plot points.

[Benjamin Haines]

[O.Supreme]

[GiganGoji]

[Moonlight SY-3]

[Baltan II]

For what it's worth there's one piece of official merchandise depicting Godzilla's first form, from that card game that had a Godzilla expansion and some promo cards. That first form is depicted similar to what we first see in the movie, fully underwater with only the tail extending in the air and a cloud of red liquid around it. I don't think it's the same creature that Maki first encountered though but could still be considered Godzilla's first form if it was distinct enough from whatever species Godzilla is evolved from.

[lhb412]

Wasn't the actor who played the replacement Prime Minister one of the bosses of XIG (the one who was always on the bridge with the commander) in Ultraman Gaia?

One of three Ultraman actors I recognized.

[O.Supreme]

[Benjamin Haines]

Although we only see his tail sticking out of the water, I think Godzilla's first form probably looked just like his second form but without any legs, like a tadpole. He came onto land when he grew legs, then he grew arms in his third form.

I definitely don't think Godzilla's first form was just a disembodied tail and nothing else, if that's the implication that the fandom is extrapolating.

[Moonlight SY-3]

[MekaGojira3k]

I hope the art book has an official concept of what the submerged portion of the body looked like.

[GFan]

[H-Man]

[lhb412]

You know, the only CGI shot that actually looked unfinished to me was that obvious moment right before Godzilla went into hibernation. There were a couple of weaker moments here and there, like the POV of the trains coming towards him at the beginning of the final attack, but overall I thought the CGI was remarkably consistent and semi-frequently really good. The line I've been using is that that baseline quality of the CGI in this movie might not be current Hollywood quality, but wouldn't be out of place in a Hollywood film in the '00s. My sister saw the movie with me one of the three times I went and I asked her about it; she said she thought it looked great and was less critical than I was (she also thought the mid-movie Godzilla rampage was the coolest thing ever in a Godzilla movie and worth the price of admission alone). Truth is, we nerds are probably much more critical about this kind of thing than normal people.

The best CGI was the tanks! I was fooled. If you told me those were real tanks I would've believed it.

[canofhumdingers]

There's a number of shots in the final battle that look very unfinished. Like when Godzilla's head/neck falls (more like glides) through that building roof. And several shots of the buildings falling on Godzilla. Also, the demolition explosions that drop the buildings look pretty awful.

But there are some very good shots too. And yeah, the tanks were very convincing.

Ultimately the effects are just very uneven. Some look fantastic, some look terrible. But that's nothing new for kaiju fans... the difference to me is that my personal prejudice for practical effects makes me far more forgiving of lousy puppets or miniatures. I'm a much harsher critic of bad cgi. But I kinda had that revelation as I was watching it that I have that prejudice and I became far more accepting of the effects in this film. I think my love of Godzilla (and the fact that this was a pretty darn good Godzilla movie) helped move me to that position.

That being said, I'll still judge Hollywood cgi very harshly if it's not up to snuff
Godzilla gets a lot more leeway

[Benjamin Haines]

I thought some of the most impressive CGI in the movie was when the buildings were falling on Godzilla. None of that looked bad to me and I was even paying closer attention the second time I saw it after reading criticism about it. Those aerial shots were top-notch.

[Rodanex]

[Moonlight SY-3]

[lhb412]