Godzilla Resurgence (2016)

[Mexigojira]

[lhb412]

Huh, I suppose playing on his 'bad breath'?

Toho's strategy so far has been keeping a lid on Resurgence and at the same time ramping up promotion of the Godzilla brand. I wonder if it'll pay off with the new film? Godzilla had been 'uncool' for a while in Japan, but Godzilla '14 had the novelty of being a Japanese property done (and done respectfully) by Hollywood with a huge budget and was a hit, and since then Toho has really been pushing Godzilla as a Japanese icon. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads us.

[Gman2887]

Interesting. Don't entirely agree with it. Attack on Titan is used as the whipping boy here and it gets a little mundane to simply use one example over and over, but the other points are intriguing.



"Japan has been steadily lowering the bar. Japanese cinema used to be the most highly regarded in Asia, but now South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Thailand have been stealing their thunder. The quality of Japanese movies is really low. I’ve come to hate them."

[msweets13]

A very interesting read indeed. I haven't seen Attack on Titan yet, so I can't speak to the quality of those films, but I've heard almost overwhelmingly negative things. I know there are fans here on this site, but its gotten such hate elsewhere that I've even avoided seeing them. A real shame considering most of the talent behind that is working on Resurgence. Here's hoping Resurgence isn't a movie by committee....

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

The AoT movies are great for all the Toku-elements in the movie but are horrible for all the human parts of the movie. Part 2 is definitely junkier compared to Part 1. Fans like us can appreciate the old school monster movie feel it has but AoT fans don't give a rats ass about what we care about. Most of the negative feedback was from AoT fans who were miffed that they took creative liberties from the source material. A good chunk of the source material was changed from the manga's creator himself. Does that let Higuchi completely off the hook? No. For the most part the characters in the movie are mind numbing. Higuchi doesn't seem to know how to handle human characters in his movies. However I thought some of the early reviews were incredibly biased and didn't accurately portray the movie. I think if it was a generic monster movie not based on something popular it wouldn't of been panned so hard.

I love Higuchi to death but he should stick to SFX rather than directing an entire picture. Luckily he is sharing the burden of making creative decisions with another director but that director is a huge gamble in my opinion. While Anno's characters in Evangelion can be annoying at times (teenage angst) at least they have layers to them and he does have a knack for creating interesting back stories and apocalyptic scenarios. I have heard his live action movies are pretty bleh.

At a minimum I am hoping for 90 minutes of Giant Warrior God Appears in Tokyo.

A lot of fan speculation/paranoia claims that the lack of advertising is due to Toho realizing they have a dud on their hands and are holding off as long as they can to recoup their money spent. I don't agree with that but we really haven't heard much from the creators behind the movie and after a while it gnaws away at me.

I'm crossing my fingers I am wrong and get our dream movie for a Japanese Monster flick.

[lhb412]

[msweets13]

Agreed. Here's hoping a trailer does come out soon though. Hopefully by the end of this month. Otherwise, I will start to get a bit worried.

[Gman2887]

Many of the issues I have with that article are beyond the hatred for Attack on Titan. I mean, okay, so apparently Japanese cinema sucks. Care to point out other examples? Then, for some reason, it pins blame on critics for being too easy on their films, but directly cites Attack on Titan as an exception. None of this is a ringing endorsement for Attack on Titan, but the lack of examples is sort of frustrating--As if Attack on Titan is not so much a whipping boy, but a poster boy for how the article wishes us to view Japanese film.

And then it pins blame on the crew for not "working hard enough." I have a hard time believing that a culture known for taking business and craft very, very, very seriously and putting maximum work effort into their occupation isn't "working hard enough" as a whole. Perhaps the scripts aren't very good, which is likely the case, but I can't see directors not doing as much as they can with the little time and resources they have.

And then there's the "quotes" about how Japanese audiences agree their movies stink. Yet their domestic pictures still largely dominate the box office over foreign pictures.

Now while I hope that Resurgence doesn't become another "poster boy" for this kind of writing, like Attack on Titan has, but I wish this article would have gone further and given more sources on what Resurgence needs to avoid being. I'm not saying it's 100% incorrect, but it does feel like its reaching to support one viewpoint.

[GaryT]

Full trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysRIwlEBjuw

[Mac]

So, looks like the reports of an awful CGI Godzilla are true. I spotted a few miniatures during the military assault though. In spite of all that, it's a good trailer in that it's tonally 'epic' without going overboard. There's also some nice, subtle compositions by Anno. I like the shot from the tank's perspective.

[Henry88]

[kiryugoji04]

OH MY GOD IT LOOKS MAGNIFICENT.

[Rody]

I honestly can't tell what's CGI and what's practical, honestly - not unlike when I watch Gamera 3. That's a good thing, I say.

Some of the scenes appear to have that annoying yellow/blue filter like a Hollywood movie, and the way Godzilla holds his hands looks odd - but besides that I am SO FREAKING HYPED RIGHT NOW.

[Henry88]

it looks like he still has some fat in those thighs.

[Jorzilla]

I seriously do think this works. Godzilla might be over the top, but in this case he clearly is representing a metaphor. It's almost a post-modern protrayal, Khafka-esque and disturbing. I'm excited to see more from the human side as well, since they were hyping up the performances of the Japanese actors.

[GFan]

Finally the day has come... all-CG Japanese Godzilla

I want so much to be excited by this movie. I love the design and I LOVE the tone of the trailer, but the CG Godzilla himself is jarring for me.

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

Okay I know this might be annoying but I am refusing to look at trailers to make the movie more of a surprise.

Could someone maybe have a little quick run down of the trailer, how it looks etc? I will read descriptions but I want to save the visual parts until I see the actual movie.

[Kailem]

Looks awesome!! This Godzilla really does look like a sort of nightmare cross between the regular Heisei incarnations and a touch of Burning; with a damn huge tail!

Love that shot near the beginning there where it sweeps over the top of the buildings as the camera follows. Really gives you an idea of just how damn massive he is here. There are some very nice shots in that trailer in general, especially during those tank and chopper parts. And it looked like there was a nice mix of practical Godzilla stuff with some CG in there too, which has certainly helped allay my fears about this being an almost entirely CG movie, as those rumours from a couple of months ago suggested (or if that Godzilla was entirely CG, as some people are saying, then I certainly couldn't tell).

So yeah, me likey. More, please!

[tbeasley]

[Hybrid Gojira]

I'm trying to remain optimistic here, but right now there are some things I like about the design and some things I really don't. The spikes are awesome. The fact that Godzilla looks like he lost a fight to a meat grinder? Not so much. His tiny arms? His massively, exaggerated tail? His (apparent) inability to move, like, at all? Nope. Look, it's a trailer. A trailer doesn't define a movie. There were some cool shots in this, but most of it consisted of questionable CGI and Godzilla standing still. I'm not overly impressed.

And I'm also wondering how people who were so harsh when it came to G14 can be accepting of this. Call me crazy, but that's just odd in my book (and that's not aimed at anyone here, just social media). Now maybe this movie will be awesome. Maybe the rumors about multiple forms will prove true. Maybe the story and characters will make this film a sheer masterpiece, but most of what is being reported so far has been that this production has had multiple issues and that usually doesn't bode well for the finished film.

But I love a lot Higuchi's previous work and HOPE he proves all my negative thinking wrong. I want this movie to succeed. Color me very indifferent and even slightly confused right now. I don't know how I feel about it.

[jellydonut25]

[aphvend]

wow! Happy! The tail is huge!

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Dr Kain]

My reaction to the new trailer:

[Gwangi]

The older gentlemen you were referring to but could not quite remember, is most likely Akira Nakao, who played Commander Takaki Aso in the Heisei series and was featured in several Millennium features as well, most prominently as the Prime Minister in the two Mechagodzilla films.

Don't know what to make of this trailer (or is this a teaser?). Some good f/x scenes, but I''m just not a fan of a HUGE Godzilla. I was not fond of how big G'14 was, but in the end, they made it work. I just don't want any stiff Godzilla like we saw in the Heisei series.