{jatabs type="content" position="top" height="auto" skipAnim="true" mouseType="click" animType="animFade"}
[tab title="Movie Review"]
It will go down as the movie in which Godzilla becomes truly terrifying (and a bit satirical). There’s no fist pumping moments in this one, folks. Godzilla is pissed the fuck off and all of Hell itself is unleashed to punish us, the transgressors.
Shin Godzilla gets the kaiju canon of films right and goes full throttle on what behaviors – no matter how bizarre – are associated with the Tokyo destroying adventures of this beast from the bottom of the ocean. This is certainly not kids stuff and, as the movie gives new life to the old creature with solid effects and a good story, deserves to soldier on with even more callbacks to the original score.
Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno goes big and bold with the latest Godzilla flick by showcasing a progression of the monster’s many faces and moods as the people down below – led by Hiroki Hasegawa as a cabinet secretary and actress Satomi Ishihara – struggle to come up with a comparable weapon with which to stop the creature’s destructive advance.
Hero? I don’t think so. Here, the monster opens its SPLIT mouth and blows smoke into the earth before blasting the city with its deadly atomic breath. Atomic breath, folks, and millions perish; this is the level of destruction here. And the scene – as the fire rips through the city from the streets on up to the buildings– is only one frightening step (of many) in the evolution of Godzilla that this film includes.
According to the movie, Godzilla is THE perfect organism, surviving every attack with improvements made over time. Drop a missile on him once, but never again. It’ll merely bounce off. The creature evolves to match wits and strength with all opponents and, as the monster originally washed ashore in 1954, you can imagine that there have been many, many different models. We get three different versions in this movie alone, which is pretty fantastic if you ask fans of the monster.
The first design – complete with unmoving bug eyes is definitely a throwback to some of the other Toho productions. The second one gives us glimpses of what we know to be true about the monster – except it is bloody red. But it is the third version in its evolution that bears the most weight as its destruction – including tail and back lasers – extends far past the end of the movie. It clocks in at over 400 feet tall…
We know the formula of the ongoing series; we have a long line of Toho releases to thank for that, but in Shin Godzilla we add some new wrinkles to that familiarity. We realize that we are in a race against time with the monster and must, for lack of a better word, out perform and out maneuver this monster in every single way if we are to survive. And, as its ending suggests, we have just under three years to get better…
All of this is learned through the progression of the movie as teams of scientists and military personnel are faced with the impossible task of finding a way to stop this rampaging beast and send it back out to sea. Now, 1954’s Godzilla is all over Shin Godzilla; Anno and his composer reference it throughout the movie and draw parallels with it smoothly, thrusting Japan into the modern world due to its inspiration from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
The King of Monsters reclaims his throne with the blu-ray release of Shin Godzilla.
[/tab]
[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: TV-MA.
Runtime: 120 mins
Director: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi
Writer: Hideaki Anno, Sean Whitley
Cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Reality versus fiction.
Memorable Movie Quote: "I won't see a third bomb dropped on the country of my grandmother, who lived through it."
Theatrical Distributor: FUNimation Entertainment
Official Site:
Release Date: October 11, 2016
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 1, 2017
Synopsis: Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster.
[/tab]
[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: FUNimation Entertainment
Available on Blu-ray - August 1, 2017
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 3.1; English: Dolby TrueHD 3.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set; UV digital copy; Digital copy; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Region A
Shin Godzilla is presented on blu-ray thanks to Funiamtion’s 1080p release. The 2K master delivers an entertaining – if slightly yellowed – transfer that is both detailed and carries a strong fidelity to the digital creature at its center. Japan’s skylines are golden and crisp and, thanks to a saturation that allows for strong colors to permeate, even the night sequences don’t drown out the action. Black levels are consistent and bold. The sound – presented here in a bold and front-loaded TrueHD 3.1 – is never weak and has a surprising life to its … ehem… roar.
Supplements:
Commentary:
-
None
Special Features:
Funimation chimes in on the legend as three of its employees chime in on a video podcast. Godzilla vs the Nerds is the lone extra aside from trailers. A DVD copy and Digital Download is included with the release.
Godzilla vs the Nerds (33 min)
Trailers
[/tab]
[tab title="Trailer"]
[/tab]
[tab title="Art"]
[/tab]
{/jatabs}
