Shin Godzilla [Godzilla Resurgence] (2016): 7/10
I'm hardly a Godzilla expert (excluding the Hollywood films and the original, I've probably only seen a half dozen Godzilla films in their entirety, and it's probably been over a decade since I've seen the original), but to my mind this is easily the best Godzilla film since the original. The 1954 film was famously a response to the atomic bombings of Japan toward the end of World War II, a theme that is honored again in this film, but the obvious points of reference here are the 2011 Japanese earthquake/tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear incident. Interestingly, the film also seems to be an almost direct reaction to 2014's Godzilla--in many ways, Shin Godzilla takes a World War Z (the book, not the film) approach to Godzilla by treating an inherently unrealistic, ridiculous situation with as much political/strategic/tactical realism as possible (without weighing down the proceedings needlessly), and the bulk of the movie is concerned with behind-the-scenes political/military maneuvering, which takes on a strongly satirical tone as sub-committees within sub-committees within sub-committees shuffle between different meeting rooms on different floors of a government building and debate what to do and how much to tell the general public. It's clever film-making (if a bit long-winded), and genuinely quite funny--I particularly like how the main protagonist's official title grows as the film goes on. However, this heavy focus on politics (and lack of strong characterization) does limit the film's international appeal--while many of its jabs at needlessly complicated bureaucracy are something I think everyone can get behind, Japan's unique political structure and position on the world stage does lend itself to a few moments that might go over some heads. Additionally, some questionable casting choices make it clear that the filmmakers did not take into account the fact that eventually native English speakers would watch the film--one character in particular is severely miscast. She's supposed to be an American politician with designs on the American presidency, but of all the Japanese cast who also speak English, her English is easily the worst, leading to some unintentional comedy.
So that's all well and good, but what about Godzilla itself? The filmmakers opted to mix the old with the new by motion-capturing the traditional man-in-a-monster-suit performance and enhancing it with CGI, and I personally found the results to be spectacular... eventually. Part of the redesign of Godzilla here is that it goes through several stages of evolution before reaching its final form, and the early stages, while charmingly designed, are poorly integrated, and the bad CGI really sticks out. Godzilla proper, however, is fantastic, and again appears to be a direct reaction to 2014's Godzilla, whose titular monster I believe I described here as 'portly and soulful.' This Godzilla, on the other hand, while properly portly, completely lacks soul. It's stiff, moves mechanically, and seems hardly to be alive--it's less a giant monster and more an unknowable force of alien power, and is in some ways reminiscent of the angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion (which makes perfect sense, given this film's creative pedigree). It's also genuinely terrifying--while undeniably old-school in design, its behavior and nature are unpredictable and exciting, and its novel use of the famous 'atomic breath' partway through the film results in a sequence of stunning destruction that far exceeds in elemental beauty and power anything that we saw in 2014. Unfortunately, shortly after this scene the film begins to fall apart somewhat--the scenes of political satire are largely replaced with long scenes of pseudo-scientific babble, the solution for stopping Godzilla is lazily integrated, and the film lacks a proper climax, opting instead for what is essentially a pause in the story and a tease of more to come in the future. Nonetheless, auteur Hideaki Anno's dynamic directing is captivating throughout, and those who love his work will find much to appreciate here, even as the film winds towards its dry climax. Had the film's back-half been stronger this would have been a solid 8, but as is it's still quite good (for my money the best giant-monster movie in years), so long as you approach it with an open mind. I'm curious to see where Toho takes Godzilla in the future--the thought of sequels to this one done in a similar style is an exciting one. Hopefully they can pull it off.
