Godzilla

Shin Godzilla

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Shin Godzilla
  • IMDb: link

Returning to theaters, 2016’s Shin Godzilla, responsible for kicking of the franchise’s reboot into the Reiwa era, is an odd film. A talky film focused more on the politics and bureaucracy of Japan’s response to Godzilla than the monster (who literally just stands around for much of the film), it has notably prolonged lulls before returning to the title character. As for Godzilla, the film makes an interesting choice making the creature mostly unrecognizable (almost laughably so) on his initial emergence from the ocean and having him slowly metamorphize over the course of the film into something that finally more closely resembles classic Godzilla. 

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Godzilla Minus One

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Godzilla Minus One
  • IMDb: link

Going back to basics, 2023’s Godzilla Minus One returns the story of Godzilla to post World War II Japan with themes of post-war trauma, regret, and anti-war and anti- nuclear messages so prevalent in the original film. Our protagonist is Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who encounters Godzilla at the end of WWII while flying as a kamikaze pilot who refused to crash his plane. Two years later, after cobbling together a family of other survivors, and working to remove leftover naval mines, Shikishima encounters Godzilla again. Centered around Shikishima’s guilt and cowardice, the return of Godzilla allows for a chance at redemption by becoming the suicide bomber he failed to be during the war.

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Godzilla, Kong & the Unnecessary Sequel

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
  • IMDb: link

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Somebody sure watched Planet of the Apes. After already hitting the climax of this Monarch film series which gave us Godzilla versus King Kong, the pair are brought back together to mostly ignore each other in separate storylines, battle each other (briefly), and team-up against a threat that is underwhelming to say the least in a crazy ape and his miniature frost-shooting Godzilla. Other than merging the franchises with something like Pacific Rim or Transformers there was really nowhere for the series to go. And that’s where it goes, absolutely nowhere.

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