Shin Godzilla *SPOILER* Thread

[lhb412]

It occurrs to me that I have several times heard Minya described as a 'Godzilla tadpole.' Seems ironic that a movie would actually take that concept and run with it!

[tbeasley]

[mr.negativity]

ANN:

Every Godzilla movie should leave you wanting more, and Shin Godzilla gets the job done with aplomb.

[lhb412]

One aspect I don't like about some reviews for Shin Godzilla: reviewers using it as an excuse to put down the '14 version, usually coupled with an explainer on what the 'true' Godzilla is/represents. I can only assume these people must hate the series overall, with the original film being a notable exception.

Seriously, Godzilla's transforming with the times is as intrinsic to his character as the atomic bomb is at this point. Even Shin Godzilla's frame of reference, the Earthquake and Fukushima disaster instead of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and the firebombings, is actually quite different. They rhyme, but they're not the same.

[lhb412]

In the leadup to the film there was much talk about how ugly, possibly unmerchandisable the Shin Godzilla design was. Ironic that the Japanese fans would be turning out mountains of cutesy fan art of all three forms!

[Mexigojira]

[gyaos]

The disconnect between Godzilla uber-fans like Norman Englund, who think the film is a total piece of crap and mainstream critics, who are giving it mainly positive reviews, is really interesting.

[lhb412]

[Moonlight SY-3]

Just went and saw it for the fourth time last Friday, liking it more each time. The shock of all the Anno weirdness has worn off! Damn good movie.

Watching again closely for what happens to ol' TailFace at the end, this time I'm not so sure it's not there...previously, I was certain TailFace had pulled free, leaving the wacky pack of Alien/ProtoG guys frozen in the 'sploded tip. This time, I thought I saw the "teeth" of ol' Tailface still there, deep within the splayed bits of tail and Alien/ProtoG guys. I could be wrong, though. It'll take a nice Blu-ray freeze-frame to confirm that one!

[lhb412]

Apparently the LA premier is happening right now! From Funi's twitter:

[angilas]

This is kind of a big deal so I was debating posting it in the spoiler or non spoiler thread. I somehow managed to post this while avoiding reading anything but the second headline on one of my favorite sites for the past 20 years and the biggest video game site (among other things) in the world, is their review of Shin Godzilla:
http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/10/03/sh ... lla-review
Didn't read it, only scrolled down to the ratings so I don't know if there are but assume there are spoilers. Will check it out after seeing the film in a week.

Edit: read it, yep plenty of spoilers.enjoyed the film immensely though it started as more of a comedy. Shocked by the amount of EVA battle theme remixes in it. I love the theme and was almost disappointed when I was midway through the first of the trilogy and had yet to hear it the way it was in the 90s anime (though that was quickly corrected). Just didn't expect it here even with the same composer. Not s bad thing just different. While the US envoys English was unnatural I'm not shocked since I'm rarely used to Japanese actors doing believable English dialect. As a character otherwise she was fine and perhaps for the official release they can dub over her English lines but even my fluent friends born in Japan don't speak English like that. It's a difficult transition and I'm sure my Japanese is horrible, but a valid criticism they made. The first use of the beam has to be one of the ultimate showings of power in Japanese cinema if not world cinema history. Nuclear fission like the sun. The brightness reminded me a bit of legions eruption in gamera 2, but I have no idea what could survive that. Even Ghidorahs reflective scales might not. The nuclear pulse 3.0 was also pretty neat as is tokyos new skyline. I think all the dialogue would make it a harder rewatch but others have said the opposite is true. I'll find out 'soon.

[GFan]

So glad I stayed away from spoilers until I saw the film tonight!

I remember how excited I was when Godzilla 2014 first uses his atomic breath... well, Shin Godzilla turned that sh*t up to 11.

I didn't mind the new atomic-laser-beams... to me it wasn't that different than Godzilla's nuclear-pulse from the Heisei films.

[Alpha OTS]

I was really surprised to see this getting a small run local to me. Saw it tonight. Really liked it, but the film is in dire need of some editing. There could have easily had been at least 20+ minutes cut out that would not have affected anything and would have helped it keep the tempo from the opening scenes. I get that one of the themes of the film is a critique on the inefficiency of bureaucracy, but once that point was made, brilliantly I might add, the redundancy really took away from the pacing. The last third of the movie felt like it drug on forever compared to the first two thirds.

There's a better movie in there is what I'm saying. As is, it's definitely good, and if you're a G fan, you need to see it in theaters if you can. There was a moment at the beginning when the Toho emblem displayed where people clapped and cheered. Felt good to be a part of that.

[GiganGoji]

Saw it twice in Japan, and am still not convinced that there's a "tail-face". I saw SOMETHING on the tail move (people tried convincing me that it's a mouth that falls open) and yes, a beam does come out of the tail, but beams also come out of the back and nobody has theorized that there are a bunch of back-faces. People have also said that something must have "burst out" of the tail at the end, but I see zero evidence of that beyond it being a neat idea. I'm really hoping that now people are seeing it (in droves) in the states, that someone can put these matters to bed.

[lhb412]

^I saw something like a jaw in the tail, but not necessarily a face. I've seen pics of models or figures of the design that seem to more clearly show a face.

[GiganGoji]

[lhb412]

I loved that the origami swan paid off plot wise. I mean, that opening scene with the coast guard (?) boarding the yacht and inspecting it and you see all these potential clues from what I assume is supposed to be a bodycam and there's that swan.

[Dr Kain]

Processing my thoughts on it. I'll have a review up tomorrow.

[lhb412]

... soggy noodles! There were so many neat little details in this movie, really necessitates a second viewing.

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

I won't be seeing this until Sunday. No way was I driving to Boston on a Tuesday night sitting traffic for a 7:00 PM showing. Sunday a noon sounded like a better idea.

[MekaGojira3k]

I really dug it. Can't wait to see again this weekend.


I think people are really blowing the PROPOGANDA aspect out of proportion. I see the same amount of crap in U.S. films. It's especially strange since Yaguchi OUTRIGHT criticizes the military action that led to Japan's involvement in WW2. If anything the film criticizes the excessive red tape of government but also rash action without consideration. The balance, AS SEEM TO BE PRETTY CLEAR FROM MY FIRST VIEWING, is from Yaguchi's team of experts who don't observe titles or protocol and just use their skills to solve the problem. If anything, it's promoting a middle ground that values action but considers common sense.

[Gojira07]

Really dug it, agree that it could have bee cut down a bit, specifically the whole act between the initial attack and the climax ..Really dragged out. The film had such an excellent pacing up until that point and it just stalled. Some of the effects look great, some look laughably bad - which is unfortunate because the ideas are there, and some of the shots are framed beautifully. Would have loved to see this movie with some more time to flesh out some of it. I think the biggest problem I had with the film is the conflicting tone, it bounces back and forth between political satire and legitimate funny scenes, to "The most nightmarish Godzilla ever", which is only really true of the nighttime attack - which I thought was super effective.

The whole end climax was a ton of fun, and a unique. Overall want to see it again, but enjoyed it initially.

[Reaper G]

I saw it last night. Normally I'm a solo flyer, but with several G-FESTers in town by chance, it turned into a party.

"Shin Godzilla" struck me as "Cloverfield" in reverse. Most kaiju films are about the reporters, scientists, or military that are caught up in the monster's story. "Cloverfield" was the point of view from those poor extras getting trampled underfoot. This one was about how the top levels of government would deal with a kaiju attack (my idea for "Cloverfield 2" actually). Pretty talky, fast-paced in that regard but hard to get a feeling for any characters. The effects were mostly great, and Goji is more freakish, terrifying, and destructive than ever. And my own thought on the last shot...



Fun fact: This is the third Godzilla film to have a character named Goro Maki.

[gyaos]

I can't think of a more inconsistent Godzilla film.

Great pacing up to the middle then a gigantic lag that destroys all the momentum the film had built up.

Some effects are really, really good. There are times during the Godzilla attack scenes when you go "wow!" Then there are times when you see something onscreen that looks like a bad high school AV Club film. I can't understand how those shots were left in the final cut.

[GFan]