Godzilla Resurgence (2016)

[Gojira07]

That black n white head shot is gorgeous.

[daikaijusaurus]

Source:

[Godzilla4ev]

[klen7]

[Gentleman]

A full-sized Godzilla footprint sounds oddly cool.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Over at TK, Jim Ballard basically said that there were indeed reshoots for the characters and that he found the script, which he read, pretty boring and not to expect too much.

He's also said the promotion for the film has been, in his experience, non-existent so far. Ah well.

[TerranigmaFreak]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

You have to sift through the speculation thread to find his comments.

Hybrid summed it up.

[Legion]

Jim's comments start on page 334 of the speculation thread, and on 335 he mentions having read the script.

What's really funny is the way hell broke loose after his comments, especially one member demanding he be banned from the forum. Or that "This movie will be perfect, because I believe in Godzilla" comment. Hilarious.

I tell ya, crap is going to hit the fan the way it never has before when this thing is released. Mark my words. It's going to be worse than GFW. There's been 12 years of festering anticipation for a new Toho Godzilla film since the last disaster came out. People are going to NEED to love this thing, even if it turns out to be terrible. Personally, I'm not expecting much out of it.

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

I can't blame people for screaming "Ban him" especially if they don't know who he is. People are a little worn from the "hey I just read the script" drama that has been the past 2 months. He did sort of drop a bomb and then walked away without explaining much. That move was to stir drama.

However it doesn't change the fact that he probably read it because him saying "lots of meetings" for some reason made me very nervous because it sounds like something this movie might be cursed with.

Gamera save us please. We're your friends.

[MekaGojira3k]

Eh, I'll be okay. I was alright with the 2014 film, so I'll survive this.

[Mac]

There's zero reason to doubt Ballard's word. The conventional nature of the script is disappointing, but I don't think it's silly to doubt that Anno's keen visual style could elevate the film.

[TerranigmaFreak]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

[TerranigmaFreak]

[lhb412]

Not that I don't mind a good conference scene. Them! has some great ones.

Hot, conference action!

[MouthForWar]

Here are Jim's exact posts:

"Yes, I was talking about the marketing in Japan. I've lived here about 10 years. Sorry if I came off as snarky, but my point is that all of these things condensed into a few posts online may look great, but in reality none of this is actually reaching the attention of the general public in Japan, which is what really matters. It's easy to see a photo on Twitter of a Godzilla poster somewhere and assume they're all over Japan, but that's not really the case.

They're still not running any TV spots, there are no billboards or posters in the trains to speak of, no features yet on any of the variety shows etc. This late in the game, it feels like there is a rather significant lack of marketing compared to most other major films. From what I am personally observing, anyway. For context, "Finding Dory" comes out in Japan less than two weeks before "Shin Godzilla", yet I feel like I've been inundated with promos for months now. I haven't even seen that Godzilla x Parco commercial on TV yet.

And no, I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the script. I'm not sharing spoilers, but I'll say on the whole I found it to have really poor structure, too many uncompelling characters, very confused political commentary, and a looooooot of meetings. Maybe it will work for some people. I like "Godzilla's Revenge", so what do I know? Also I heard they had to reshoot some of it, so perhaps it's better now.

I'm not claiming to be an expert of anything. Everyone is going to have their own opinion and feel different about it, and that's totally fine. Reading through the forums though, I do think some people might be expecting a lot more than they are actually going to get.

Just my opinion and you're totally free to ignore it. That's all I have to say until I see the movie.

JIM replies: In fairness, I heard the reshoots were specifically to deal with this. Not that I have a problem with a dialogue-heavy Godzilla film anyway, but I found none of the characters interesting and the political message garbled and inconsistent, so it all just felt pointless."


So here we have Jim saying the same stuff that was earlier said by Bob and Norman, the same stuff everyone seemed to ignore or dismiss when I brought it up here. He's the third trusted "insider" that has brought this to light. I feel like Anno COULD have made an insane, bonkers awesome movie with a bigger budget and less BTS issues.

But the signs are on the wall. I'm hoping to love the movie but when there's smoke, there's usually fire (see Godzilla Final Wars) And I trust Jim's opinion more than most. And honestly the lack of awareness and marketing for what is Toho's big franchise movie of the summer makes me feel like they probably know they have a bomb on their hands and don't want to sink too much into the marketing budget. It's definitely a sign that they aren't very confident in it since it opens in only a month and Jim (who lives in Japan) has barely heard a peep about it.

[jellydonut25]

The promotional news is the really sad/concerning part. I mean, I'm fully already expecting the movie to be a meandering slog, but to hear they're not even promoting it, straight from someone who's in Japan, is sad. I'm still sitting here wondering WHY Toho even did this movie if they were gonna hamstring the production schedule, budget, and marketing and just throw it out there for nobody to see. If you're not going to make a SERIOUS effort, then why not just sit back and let the money roll in from the American productions?

[lhb412]

Bring in Mike S. to tighten the pacing, beef up the sound effects, and add some comic relief!

[Hybrid Gojira]

I'd be utterly surprised if this movie is anything but disappointing. I've heard literally nothing positive so far from anyone on the inside, and nothing we've seen (the two boring trailers, merchandise, promos, Eva tie-ins) give me hope that this will be anything special. Even the toy releases are, so far, comically bad. Bandai Creation reissues? Pssssh. SHMA Godzilla EVA repaints? X Plus has two cool Kiryu repaints, but I'm not picking those up. I'm just not feeling the excitement for this film.

If indeed this movie somehow turns out to be good, then I'll be incredibly happy. I so want this to do well. I never want a bad Godzilla film, and even the weird Godzilla design, which I'm not quite sold on, has the potential to bring with it a really great story if they handle it well.

So yeah. I'm just kinda....sad.

[lhb412]

^ Don't be sad. This is Toho we're talking about: we should be inured against this kind of thing, and no one's even seen the finished product yet, so who knows? Maybe reshoots clarrified the plot. Maybe Higuchi has some really neat stuff in store. Maybe Guillermo del Toro shows up to fight Godzilla (he's Kaiju A).

- and if history has taught us anything, it's that when Toho slouches with Godzilla the karmic balance of the universe gives us an awesome Gamera film.

[Hybrid Gojira]