Review Time! - Shin Gojira (2016)

It´s review time!  

This will be the first real review that I do to a film, an actual film review. I did a "review" of Zootopia on my old account, but that does not count as an actual film review. This review is just my opinion about one of the best films of 2016, and one of the best kaiju films, and if you agree or not with it, that´s fine. Post a comment to hear what do you think of the review!

With all said and done, it is review time!

WARNING- SPOILERS, SO GET TF OUT OF HERE 

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION

Shin Gojira is a monster film directed by one of the best Anime directors of all time, Hideaki Anno; Anno is famous for his Anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, which made him famous worldwide. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a deconstruction of the Mecha genere, and it has some of the best character exploration that I´ve seen in any series. 

Hideaki Anno is a fan of kaiju films, or giant monster movies, and Evangelion in general has many references to kaiju movies, like the Godzilla movie series, as well as Ultraman and other mecha shows. Evangelion is one of the best and most controversial anime series of all time, thanks to having two last episodes that left many fans disappointed, and the film that served as an actual conclusion to the original series was more controversial, by not being the happy ending fans expected. 

Shin Gojira was a film that Anno initially didn´t wanted to do, as he was focused at the time(2013) on the next Rebuild of Evangelion film. He only decided to make the film when his friend, Special Effects artists Shinji Higuchi joined the production. Shinji Higuchi is one of Japan´s best special effects artists, known for his work on the Heisei Gamera Trilogy, as well as making storyboards for movies and series like The End of Evangelion and Kill la Kill. 

After the released of the 2014 American Godzilla film, production got finally started on late 2015. The production team decided to make Godzilla the most terrifying ever, using different special effects techniques. Originally, a puppet was supposed to be used to bring Godzilla to life, but that plan fell through after it was deemed unusable, which is a shame, since the puppet looked very good.

Mahiro Maeda designed the new Godzilla, and he did make a good job on making Godzilla look scary. Despite this new version of Godzilla not being the most mobile, he was was played by a man, using the motion capture technique. Mansai Nomura was the man chosen to play this new version of Godzilla. 

The plot is a little different this time, and instead of focusing on the typical kaiju movie plot starring a family or a reporter(not all kaiju films are like that, but that is kind of a common thing to see on this movies), it focuses mostly on the goverment and what would it do if something like Godzilla appeared in real life.

There were plans to feature a romantic subplot and a subplot with a family, but those were scrapped. The film, unlike Evangelion, which influenced the film a lot, certainly feels like a live-action version of it, just with Godzilla in place of an Angel, though he seems to have been influenced by Ramiel. 

The visual effects team decided to make Godzilla full CGI very late on the production process, which does explain why some of the effects shots look unpolished. I´ve heard that the DVD and Blu-ray might have the effects completed, so it is just a matter of time to confirm this.

Shin is a word that has many meanings, each one being wildly different. Anno and the production team said that "god", "true", and "new" are the meanings for the word on the context of the film, and they are right. This new Godzilla is seen by the characters as an evil god of some sort.

The film gives an actual meaning to Godzilla, and that meaning is "incarnation of God". These small references to religion are pretty much straight out of Evangelion. 

PART II - THE PLOT

The film begins with theJapanese coast guard investigating an abandoned yacht in Tokyo Bay; soon the water erupts with a strange red liquid erupting from the bay. Soon afterward, the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line is mysteriously flooded and collapses. After seeing a viral video showing a large entity moving in the area, Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi is certain that the incident was caused by a large marine creature swimming in the bay. His theory is initially dismissed but later confirmed when news reports show a massive tail coming out of the ocean. Later, a massive aquatic creature appears and moves inland via rivers. 

The Japanese Prime Minister assures the public that the creature is unable to come onto land due to its weight, only to be informed that the creature has made landfall. The creature moves through the city, leaving a massive wake of destruction and civilian casualties, before evolving into a significantly larger, red-skinned creature that can stand upright on its hind legs. The creature then returns to the ocean.

The top government officials focus on military strategy and civilian safety, while Yaguchi placed in charge of a small task force to research the creature. Due to high radiation readings, the creature is theorized to take its energy through nuclear fission. The U.S. sends a special envoy, Kayoko Ann Patterson, who reveals that a disgraced, vehemently anti-nuclear zoology professor, Goro Maki, had been studying mutations due to radioactive contamination and theorized the appearance of the creature but the U.S. covered it up. 

According to the notes, Maki had named one of the creatures he discovered "Gojira", meaning "incarnation of God." The yacht abandoned in Tokyo Bay had belonged to Maki, and he had left his investigative notes, encrypted into a mysterious code to prevent its use, there before disappearing.

The creature, now named "Godzilla" after Maki's research, reappears, now twice his previous size, and makes landfall near Kamakura en route for Tokyo. The Japanese Self Defense Forces respond, but their tank, air and artillery strikes have no effect on Godzilla, and they suffer significant casualties, while Godzilla enters Tokyo. The military attack against Godzilla in this film has to be one of the best action scene on the series, having great photography, an amazing score, and tension that makes it look like an Evangelion scene.

The Japanese government, in desperation, appeal for and receive American support. U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers attack Godzilla and successfully wound him with Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bombs, but this inadvertently forces Godzilla to respond with highly destructive atomic rays fired from his mouth and dorsal fins. The battle destroys large swathes of Tokyo, all of the stealth bombers, and kills most of the top government leaders, including the Prime Minister. After depleting his energy, Godzilla enters a dormant state and becomes immobile. This scene is perphaps the best one in the film, having one of the best scores on the series, Who Will Know. The scene has amazing visual effects, and it makes Godzilla look like he came out of a nightmare.

The characters that survived the attack reach their lowest hour, as they now have not enough resorces and lacking the man power they had. Yaguchi gets angry about the fact that most of the government´s most important members are dead, and just after his friend Izumi calm him down does he get his compusture back.

The team gets back on action, now having more pressure to find a way to defeat Godzilla. The JSDF investigates the areas that Godzilla destroyed, and to their surprise, they find a dorsal plate.

Yaguchi's team, with he aid of American scientists,  discovers that Godzilla's dorsal plates and blood work as a cooling system, and theorize that through the use of a coagulating agent, they could trigger a reactor scram and cause Godzilla to freeze over entirely to stay alive. Furthermore, after analyzing tissue samples, they find that Godzilla could survive as long as air and water are available and that the monster is able to reproduce asexually. The U.N., unaware of this crucial development, informs Japan that the use of thermonuclear weapons against Godzilla is inevitable, and gives it a short deadline when, should the Japanese be unable to put down Godzilla on their own, an American-led multinational task force will be authorized to use nuclear weapons against the monster. 

Unwilling to see nuclear weapons detonated in Japan for a third time, Patterson decides to use her political connections to buy Yaguchi's team as much time as possible to finish the plan, even if it puts her career at stake. Her efforts are rewarded when she is able to convince France to have the U.N. extend the deadline. In the meantime, Yaguchi's team is finally able to decode Maki's research, which contains comprehensive data on Godzilla that can be used to increase the coagulant's potency and give it a better chance of success.

Against international pressure and the lack of faith from the interim government, the team manages to procure enough coagulant and enacts their plan, named Operation Yashiori, after a mythical drink. They awaken Godzilla using explosives-laden trains and hundreds of American drone aircraft, provoking him into using his atomic breath until his energy stores are once again depleted. 

The team then detonates explosives in the nearby buildings, knocking Godzilla down onto the train station and giving the first platoon of modified tankers full of coagulant an opportunity to inject into Godzilla's mouth. However, the monster unexpectedly recovers and uses his beam, annihilating the unit. More of the explosive trains hit Godzilla and detonate, knocking Godzilla down once more and giving them another chance to inject the coagulant. After emptying the coagulant stores, Godzilla awakens again and prepares to unleash his beam, but suddenly freezes completely.

In the aftermath, as recovery and rebuilding efforts begin, the international community agrees to call off the nuclear strike but have the new Japanese government agree that, in the event of Godzilla's reawakening, a thermonuclear bomb will be launched at him, forcing the Japanese people to have to co-exist with the beast. Meanwhile, dozens of frozen humanoid skeletons resembling Godzilla are seen splitting off from the tip of his tail...

The film, while still being not as dark as compared to some of Anno´s work, is still scary thanks to the creatures that are on Godzilla´s tail. If a sequel is comfirmed, chances are high that it would focus on the humanoid creatures. While the plot is not really complex, and character development is barely touched upon, the plot still is engaing, thanks to making it more about a large group of people. 

Still, I think that the movie needed to explore the characters. I liked Evangelion thanks to that, by showing us that the characters are more than they appear to be. Still, I liked how well acted the characters were, specially Hiroki Hasegawa as Rando Yaguchi.

We barely know something about him, yet he is quite an engaing character, wanting to do the best that he can in a disaster. 

The film, like the original 1954 movie that started it all, is inspired by a recent disaster that affected Japan deeply. And that disaster is the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, as well as the ensuing Fukushima nuclear disaster. If you knew about this fact before watching the film, then you will get most of the references relating to how the Japanese government deals with Godzilla. 

The most obscure thing that some people might get is the fact that a certain TV channel keeps airing their schedule at all times, even if something important to the country happens. Another thing that is inspired by the Fukushima disaster are the blue suits that the Prime Minister and other characters wear in the film. Suits like those were wore by the government during the Fukushime disaster to look like if they were helping the people on the disaster zones.

The film, despite being mostly a dramtic film, has some comedy bits on it, which helps the audience to have a break from all the things happening on the plot. 

PART III - THE SCORE

One of the most praised parts of the film is the score composed by Shiro Sagisu. He has already worked with Hideaki Anno, making the music for the Evangelion series and movies. His work on Shin Gojira is amazing, having from operatic pieces to even a Jazz score. The two most famous pieces of music composed for the film are Persecussion of The Masses and Who Will Know, both being certainly apocaliptic. 

Who Will Know seems to be told from the POV of Godzilla, focusing on the pain he suffered after the really first human attack that managed to hurt him. And it is heard on the scene where he uses his atomic breath, by far the best scene on the film.

Sagisu used some themes from Evangelion, Decesive Battle in particular. This theme in particular is heard when Yaguchi´s theme is onscreen most of the time. Sadly, this theme is one of the few musical themes heard after Godzilla destroys half ot Tokyo, which would not have been bad, have it not been repeated and remixed to death.

Another theme from Evangelion is Famously, heard on Evangelion 3.33: You Can(Not) Redo, and its heard a few moments after Godzilla goes to sleep after destroying half of Tokyo.

The film also includes some themes composed by Akira Ifukube, literally straight of the films they were heard in. Anno choose to use the themes made by Ifukube, and wanted to adapt them to a more modern sound system, but those plans fell through, and they were left on their Mono sound.

Kaoru Wada made a new composition of themes from the first movie around the time it was released, so it would have been a good option to use those new versions, I think.

Here are some of the music pieces of the film, if you want to hear them:











PART IV - VISUAL EFFECTS

This is one of the most divisive points among critics and some fans about the film. The one thing that I heard on the cinema that I went to see the movie was how bad the effects were. But most people must realize that the effects were done with a 15 million dollar budget, which is pretty amazing, considering the number of good special effects shots that are featured on the film.

There are some scale model shots used in the film, but with the exception of one scene, those were noticeable, which does show how talented the effects team is. Still, I wished to see more practical effects on the film. One thing that is interesting to note is that most of the tanks seen in the attack against Godzilla on the middle of the film were actually made by CGI.

The decision to use CGI for many of the shots very late in production was a double-edged sword. Yes, they did wanted to use CGI to do something different, but they would have at least kept some of the shots of the puppet.

Since I don´t want to make this review longer, way more longer, in this part I will talk about the photograpy of the film. Kosuke Yamada made an amazing work on it; we get to see some unique shots, like an scene seen from the POV of a laptop´s screen. The photography too feels influenced by Evangelion, thanks to the beautiful shots that the camera makes. 

We get many great shots of military vehicles and hardware, and most of the shots showing Godzilla are from a far distance and from the ground, giving the movie a more convincing look to it. The editing is very fast paced on the film, and you will have to keep a lot of attention to get all the important information.

The movie uses sound effects from older Godzilla movies, most notably the roars that Godzilla makes across the film. Sound effects from missiles and tanks too are out of the classic Godzilla movies. I think that audiences unfamiliar with the Japanese Godzilla films will raise an eyebrow upon hearing those sounds.

ONE MORE FINAL - FINAL THOUGHTS

Shin Gojira is going to be a very weird film for those unfamiliar with the Godzilla franchise and Hideaki Anno. The movie can be said to have been made for the Japanese people and fans. Some American fans saw the movie as nationalistic, but considering the fact that many American films are very nationalistic, it seems to be hypocresy. 

The movie here in Mexico was seen by some as a boring film, but people must realize that not all monster films are the same, but even then, I respect opinions, but if they are not just things like "Dat movie was shitty cos the effects were shit". 

The movie is one of the best in the Godzilla series, and one of my favorites of the 31 movies of the saga.

I will give Shin Gojira a 9/10. I would have gave it a 10/10, but if the movie has character depth...

Either way, I will recommend this movie to anybody wanting to see something different in monster movies.

And this is the end of this review, so hope that you enjoyed it!

See you next time