Shin Godzilla Review: Awesome

Godzilla is a film icon – having starred in over 20 films, there are few places on this planet you can go where the name does not induce memories of the Kaiju destroying cities and fighting monsters.

With Toho and Funimation’s latest, “Shin Godzilla,” they have captured the essence of what has made Godzilla an enduring film monster on par with King Kong.

A reboot that deals with Japan’s first encounter with Godzilla, “Shin Godzilla” is both action-packed and filled with drama – that drama told in the conference rooms of Japanese government officials as they scramble for ways to deal with this unprecedented natural disaster.

Godzilla is a force of nature, god’s wraith, god is even in the name and “Shin Godzilla” portrayal of the creature represents that. When Godzilla touches down in Japan in his first form, he is mindlessly crawling through the city, leveling building after building – there is no reason given for its arrival, no bigger badder kaiju for it to fight, Godzilla is that kaiju. This approach greatly increases the horror of its destructive path, echoing the nature of actual natural disasters.

One of the failings of 2014’s American “Godzilla” reboot was the fact that the human characters, were not that human. The characters were just conduits for the action that was happening in the dark and in the background – with “Shin Godzilla” the human characters are who keep you engaged.

With a Godzilla film, destruction and mayhem come cheap, it is not that hard to destroy a city, if you do not believe that just look at how many Godzilla films have been made – what makes “Shin Godzilla” a return to form for the franchise is how the human characters cope with that destruction, with great performances across the board, some of the most thrilling moments in the film occur on the bureaucracy side of dealing with a Godzilla attack.

Godzilla is secondary to the real story of a people coming together to get through a crisis – pressure from the rest of the world and mounting death tolls push them to the brink. It raises the stakes emotionally and grounds the film in an emotional reality that harkens back to the original film.

“Shin Godzilla’s” only weakness is in the defeat of Godzilla, the film’s reality is tainted when the rinse-repeat method of defeating Godzilla is used – it can’t help but feel like a poorly put together video game boss battle where you just repeat the same thing over and over again until there’s that cut-scene that indicates victory.

Outside of that final boss battle, which ironically is against a Godzilla who has several different forms, the film is pure Godzilla. There is something for everyone in that it is not one-dimensional, it has great visuals, the drama feels real, there is humor and it has the Godzilla.

“Shin Godzilla” is exactly what reboots should strive for – stay true to the heart of what makes a franchise popular while giving fans a new lens into the world. As a sequel to Legendary’s “Godzilla” film is in the works, we can only hope that they watch “Shin Godzilla” with a notepad.