Shin Godzilla

"There is no precedent." - the Prime Minister

release year: 2016
genre: sci-fi/fantasy/action
viewing setting: home Bluray 12/11/23 and 9/3/18

synopsis: A giant mutated monster emerges from the ocean and wanders through Japan, destroying all that it passes through.

impressions: This is a strange one...apparently it's Toho's latest Godzilla movie, and was only legally able to be made during the lull between American Godzilla movies. It's also yet another reboot of the Toho Godzilla franchise. Having said that, I'll now say this: more than any other movie ever, this one shows what it would actually be like if a giant monster randomly moved through human cities. The destruction was immense: buildings were toppled, trains and cars hurled about like toys, cities puverized...especially when the radiation/flame breath got fired up.

acting: There were a lot of characters here, so many that I couldn't tell them all apart (the captioning helpfully identified each person and their role, every time they appeared on screen, but I still would have needed a couple of pages to write it all down and keep track.) Overall, the acting seemed solid - this was dozens of people generally trying to work together in a time of crisis.

final word: The definitive account of what a giant monster's rampage through civilization would actually look like to the humans experiencing it.

back to the main review page