Review: SHIN GODZILLA Plays Out Like a Humorous Political Thriller Written By Arron Sorkin
When I first heard that Toho was making another Godzilla movie, I was ecstatic! I grew up watching the old Godzilla movies, and after Legendary Pictures made their Americanized version, I was happy to see Toho, who created the franchise, start development on their 29th Godzilla movie, Shin Godzilla. I was even more excited when I saw the new Godzilla design and the trailers showing the creature destroying Tokyo.
I recently had the opportunity to attend the West Coast premiere of the film and I absolutely loved it, but not in the way I was expecting to love it. I was expecting to see a lot of Godzilla action with the giant monster destroying the cities while the military attacked it, and maybe even see Godzilla battling other monsters — but that wasn’t the case at all. I did see those things, but not as much as I was expecting. Trust me, this isn't a bad thing!
The majority of the film centers on the Japanese government trying to figure out how to take out Godzilla and stop him from completely destroying Tokyo. This movie played out more like a humorous political thriller and as I was watching it, I kept thinking that the film had a very Aaron Sorkin kind of vibe and style to it.
This was a very heavily dialogue-fueled film and it was it was all done in a quick, fast-paced, and witty style. Everything was moving quickly and there were lots of things happening at once. The film was also full of interesting quirky characters, and there was a good amount of political commentary on how governments are run, which was probably the most amusing aspect of the film.
Here you have a giant creature crawl out of the ocean to attack Japan and there is so much red tape to go through in the government, they can’t do anything about. You have a big government committee going to meeting after meeting after meeting, trying to get approval on certain things before they can pull the trigger on taking out this giant creature destroying their city. It’s a comedic yet dramatic take on the ridiculousness of it all. Japan is being wiped out, yet all the rules they have in place don’t allow them to act fast enough to stop it.
Of course, as they attempt to stop Godzilla, there is a lot of trial and error. Once a plan is approved, it doesn't work or play out the way they had hoped. They eventually have to enlist the help of the U.S. to help destroy it, which leads to some scary decisions that have to be made.
Then there’s Godzilla. This was such an incredibly awesome new version of the giant monster. Throughout the course of the film, we get to see him evolve from a strange googly-eyed looking thing to the epic nuclear beast that he becomes. I think this is the most sinister and terrifying-looking Godzilla that we’ve seen yet and it’s probably the most deadly due to its insane upgraded nuclear death ray powers. I also loved that they used practical effects to bring this thing to life! Some people may find it a bit cheesy — especially the early version of the monster — but it's all part of the charm of what makes Godzilla, Godzilla!
There’s so much more that goes into telling this story, but I don’t want to spoil the movie for you because it’s truly an incredibly fun film that needs to be experienced. I’m curious to see what hardcore Godzilla fans will think of it because it’s not your typical Godzilla movie. This one tried to be something different, and that’s what I loved about it!
