Godzilla, the big, radioactive lizard with serious mood issues, has been stomping cities flat for over 60 years now, with over 30 titles to his name and a cinematic legacy that’s tough to match; and yet on these shores there’s a feeling that he’s still criminally under appreciated. With America seemingly taking over the reigns of the franchise with Gareth Edwards, there was a feeling that parent studio, Toho (whose last Japanese produced outing was 2004’s overly campy Godzilla: Final Wars) was in danger of being eclipsed, but in the face of a multi-million dollar blockbuster, it seems that most people had forgotten that the Big G’s roots lay in a black and white arthouse allegory for the nuclear bombing of Hirosima. While the towering, reptilian bastard stood in for details too raw for audiences to handle and allowed a nation to work out it’s issues through the medium of fantasy, since then, Godzilla’s been through more changes than Katy Perry’s concert wardrobe, veering wildly from marauding monster, to camp superhero, to unstoppable force of nature and back again. However, in his newest venture, the King of the Monsters tonally goes right back to the beginning – this is a Godzilla movie about hard politics. This is a monster movie about Japan.
While the Japanese coast guard investigate an abandoned yacht bobbing in Tokyo Bay, a huge, undersea disturbance causes significant damage to the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line. Cut to the Japanese government discussing and debating the best way to aporoach this potential disaster, but while the aging Cabinet members go round in circles, youthful Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi determines that a large creature may be involved after viewing a viral video.
His opinion is initially dismissed, but after a huge, writhing creature that looks like a cross between a boneless reptile and a black-eyed lung fish starts crawling through the Kamata district, the government realise this is no ordinary disaster. As they rush to gather Intel on the beast, Yaguchi gets ever more frustrated with the antiquated bureaucracy that slows every decision down to a crawl, but matters get all the more urgent when the creature starts evolving before their very eyes as it manages to become a biped and returns back to the sea to cool down its immense body temperature.
During this unexpected reprieve, Yaguchi is put in charge of a task force in order to find out what the hell this thing actually is and as a result, has to do deals with U.S. special envoy, Kaycoco Anne Patterson who reveals that Japan’s Intel isn’t quite all it should be.
Predictably, the creature, already dubbed Godzilla by the Americans, resurfaces, but now is twice as large and wields terrible destructive power as it stomps back towards Tokyo in the mind to do some real damage.
Simply put, the slow wheels of bureaucracy is no match for the rapidly evolving Godzilla whose defence capabilities make a mockery of everything thrown at it, but as America gives Japan an ultimatum to evacuate the entire city before the drop a nuke on it and Godzilla’s next form could spell disaster for mankind, Yaguchi races to find a solution.
It’s odd to think that a movie series that once had it’s central character tuck his tail between his legs and fly with the power of his atomic breath could ever take such a focused look at the minutiae of how to run a government while a pissed of death-gekko hate fucks your country into ruin. However, with this arrival of a type of Godzilla we’ve never seen before we are treated to a blackly comic and fairly damning movie concerning the flaws of Japanese government as we’re treated to meetings after meetings (and sometimes even meetings about having meetings) as the Japanese Prime Minister wrestles with epic red tape about what he can and can’t do, what he should and shouldn’t do and how to work within the parameters of rules and restrictions placed on them by the UN and the USA as Godzilla nonchalantly wanders through other people’s property. It’s ballsy stuff, although a lot of it may admittedly fly over the head of anyone simply looking for basic monster mash action.
The Kaiju stuff, usually a dependable refuge of anything even approaching plot, are given an uncomfortable edge of realism thanks to the visuals riffing on recent real life disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes and – yes – 9/11. A large scale helicopter attack is called off at the very last second when an elderly couple is spotted loping through a battle zone; dozens of impossible decisions are heaped upon a visibly overwhelmed Prime Minister and it ends up feeling like a revelatory mix of The West Wing meets Cloverfield. Interestingly, all global politics get somewhat of a roasting here, as numerous countries refuse to give out intel and America callously gives Japan an ultimatum to evacuate 3.2 million people from Tokyo in week weeks before they drop a nuke, which forces the country to fend for itself and defy the rest of the world.
It all works beautifully Evangelion director Hideaki Anno gives everything a realistic, even bland feel, while simultaneously making Godzilla more fantastical than ever before. Starting out initially in the form of a giant, dead-eyed, salamander that bleeds from it’s gills and rapidly evolving through multiple forms into a gigantic being who can not only fire purple beams through his mouth but from his spines and tail, he’s a ravaged nightmare version of the basic Godzilla design we know and love. A glowing, 300 foot-plus mass of a radioactive prick, with skin like burnt jerky and skinny skeletal withered arms, he is legitimately intimidating despite his rather dodgy googly eyes and respectfully recaptures the horror-movie feel of Ishiro Honda’s 1954 original.
However, while the rapid rat-ta-tat style of all those meetings keep things moving, the sheer bulk of talk (which surely beats even the Star Wars prequels for political shenanigans) does admittedly slow things down as it overwhelms you with sheer the amount of title cards that flash up to announce who everyone actually is and the third act suffers most where Godzilla decides to have a bit of a kip to aid the plot of the scrambling humans.
Simply put this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s plenty of gold here for those receptive to Anno’s acidic, sardonic approach to the political thriller, especially in the bonkers finale where everyone finally stops the chat and enacts a do or die plan that involves train bombs, falling buildings and an attempt to give Godzilla what amounts to a super roofie.
As a long time Kaiju fan, I’ve pretty much seen it all at this point, but Shin Godzilla brings a new, intelligent, surprisingly engrossing, angle to this long running series which, like its monstrous star, successfully evolves into something stunning.
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