SPOILER ALERT: KING OF THE MONSTERS is good not great

Setting an example I hope will be followed in years to come, a formal motif is made of a series of stomp sounds followed by Godzilla's roar. SHIN GODZILLA had this, and before that only GODZILLA VS DESTOROYAH and the 1954 film had this. For all tense and purpose, it should be the formal beginning of a Godzilla film, like the James Bond openings or the first five Friday the 13ths. This is definitely a Godzilla movie. No one can deny that the same spirit inhabiting the Japanese film's Godzilla is in this film as well. These are the legitimate Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah. But we're in for mixed waters of polarizing extremes.

What's disparaging about the final film this time around is that, considering what the film is possibly introducing a lot of audiences to for the first time, it wasn't THE DARK KNIGHT to 2014 Godzilla's BATMAN BEGINS, though all the signs were there.

The first Legendary film and Toho's Shin Godzilla were a one two punch that did great good in breaking Godzilla back into the mainstream, both abroad and at home. The 2014 film boldly went the JAWS/ALIEN approach, figuring Fukushima Daiichi iconography into it's own narrative. SHIN GODZILLA is a political cartoon more awesome than comedic, and helped (particularly art direction wise) bring Godzilla up to speed in a post AKIRA/H.R. Geiger world. GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS has cool moments and ideas but comes off typical at times, cheapening the overall film.

Possibly the problem is the filmmakers choosing a story without shades of thematically relevant threats mirroring reality to add intrigue to the premise. Iran, North Korea, and considering Stranger Thing's NEW COKE ad played before Godzilla King of the Monsters (as did a Rambo and Terminator trailer), Russia and America. Godzilla King of the Monsters has come out in a time preluding a second Cold War. But none of that is dealt with directly. Here there are no resonating observations for the audience's sense of relevance.

The film's primary focus is seemingly on fleshing out the universal themes and aspects of Godzilla himself. Godzilla as a force of nature, tied to the bomb for his emergence bit nuclear disaster being only one of many threats to planetary ecology henresponds to. 

The film also focuses on comedy of a lame quality. "Oh my God-zilla", asking if a character said gonorea when she mentioned Ghidorah. Even disrespectful and not needed since nothing about the action in the film needed that comic relief. The sophomore-bore humor feels too forced.

How the film could have ironically used such to create practical human illlustrations for the pop-social science exposition and situation. Considering the film was written carying on the bioacoustics motif from the Gareth Edwards Godzilla, and obviously makes deliberate parallels (when Vera Farmiga calls out the full name, in a different tone to boot, of Madison before freeing Ghidorah, a human alpha predator bioacoustics display; parents calling out for children; Maddison screaming at Ghidorah), it would seem logical. The father character is made out to be the Jim Bridger type, but the typicalities of his comments undermine what parallel to the kaiju drama they could have. But yet this is the character that stared into Godzilla's eyes and realized Godzilla's awareness and role in nature as to forgive. He doesn't seem like the scientist his co stars keep him in the esteem of.

What human action that is there after that is cliched to begin with, though at moments captured well. Vera Farmiga and Charles Dance's character should have been one character, we should have seen what the fathers downfall after losing his son was like. Instead, we get the "helicopter lands in remote back yard of a home of a guy the military needs for a special mission" trope.

What the film ambitiously tried to accomplish, and did a decent job of establishing it without doing anything much with it, and that is a sincere attempt at coexistence with Godzilla and showing what that means thematically. This means the human story and the monster stories not being mutually exclusive. They have to intertwine.

To fulfill this, the bioacoustics mentioned in the first film rear their head in a new extension of the idea: the Orca, a device which gives humans the upper hand by enabling basic communication between human and monster. The possibilities of this device in future movies is exciting potential.

This turn has an indirect relevancy to the real world. Given that hopes of the crew of the 1954 film were unrealistic, for we still live in a world with nukes, the thesis proposed is responsible existence with nukes. If we can't get rid of them, lets be mindful and dutiful with them.

King of the Monsters's best feature is the treatment of King Ghidorah. To have a Cg American Ghidorah was hard to imagine. Complete with personality quarks and more than competent photography giving Ghidorah a daunting presence, this might be one of the best if not the best Ghidorah film made to date.

Particularly interesting is the fleshing out of Ghidorah's niche in the intergalactic solar system. Of all, this is the film's most worthy achievement. Godzilla being King of the Monsters isn't just an inherent title resulting from a track record. Unlike the Showa films where Ghidorah schitzophrenically destroyed for no reason, and possibly under control of an alien race starting from his 1964 debut, this is one of the only times where Ghidorah is autonomous. His own will is all that informs him. Ghidorahs purpose is to be the top alpha predator in an ecosystem. A creature that can only live if he is at the top, a parasitic species. This was a great development.

No longer is the King of the Monsters title an inherent title due to the slew of monsters fought, here we have for the first time a formal fighting for the title. Some might be saddened that the human characterization from 1964's GHIDORAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER with Mothra negotiating for Rodan and Godzilla to team up to fight Ghidorah isn't here. While not to a Shinichi Sekizawa extreme, KOTM gets the monsters as animals in an ecosystem and characters with personalities at the same time. The personification doesn't undermine the monsters role in a reality based ecosystem and vice versa. A good balancing act. Get ready to crumble.

Ghidorah's physical realization is also well done. He has never seemed more massive than he does here. Nor more focused, allowing for more character to come out. Ghidorah's roar is great, usually sounding like Cretaceous Ghidorah from MOTHRA 3: KING GHIDORAH ATTACKS. Layering and filling the soundscape with the triage of voices that sound of all encompacing threat. The first full roar Ghidorah gives Godzilla sounds like a dangerous machine about to break and do damage to anyone around. Though not kept in the higher pitch, this Ghidorah does have that ring in the roar, as if Ghidorah doesn't just rolls his r's, he rolls everything.

The added benefit of being so massive as to cause tornadoes, floods, and hurricane rain is a feature all too undelved into. Its a great continuation theoretically to Del Toro's directing of PACIFIC RIM, where elements like water were used particularly to compliment the kaiju as an image, if only a good suspense sequence a la DAY AFTER TOMORROW showing an oncoming storm, lightning and a cluster of tornadoes, and then the reveal of a Ghidorah silhouette. Definitely want to see this aspect revisited in a future instalment. Ghidorah also translates well for Western iconography. Ghidorah, loosely a hydra, is given an ability awarded the most famous hydra of all - the regenerative powers of the hydra that fought Hercules. A scene also realising some of the body horror elements now introduced to Godzilla in recent years, going back to the likes of AKIRA and EVANGELION at least is displayed by Ghidorah growing back a head. The more gruesome body horror stuff is saved for the antagonist Ghidorah. The cool stuff is saved for Godzilla, the protagonist.

Godzilla himself has never looked better in an American film. His larger Shodai Goji dorsals look appropriate to the rest of Godzilla's mass. As now almost as tradition Godzilla (along with the other monsters) is bioluminecent (and a piece of the Lowe's concept stage I was happy they decided to save until the second film). More close ups, and a great spin on Burning Godzilla and his nuclear pulse attack (ironically though a moment given to Mothra to build the symbiotic relationship, it is a call back to a moment afforded none other than Rodan). Never thought such an ability would be showcased in an American instalment, or for that matter Ghidorah shooting beams through his wing tips.

Rodan is another creature full of personality. His roar is a really throttled version of what fans know and love, but that design is something else. Though Rodan does come off as a pteranadon-esque creature, recent discoveries of feathers on dinosaurs have lent an odd feathered motif achieved through Rodan's burning lava body. Never thought features, or volcanic scales who, along with the ash, give the pression of feathers.

Considering again Pacific Rim and Shin Godzilla, this is the most art directed the monsters looks have been ever.

Michael Daughtery does a good spectacle job with King of the Monsters. In a mix of what Kong: Skull Island and Gareth Edwards film did: action filmed from real locations and not just a chosen God's eye point of view. While by the end we do see the action is shot as if the camera is being used by a kaiju sized panaglide technitian, the switch is sealmess, with grounding shots keeping up the illusion. There's even something which the 2014 had which none other had (effectively for this viewer) - a good Godzilla jump scare.  Michael even offers some nice shots in reference to 2014. When Godzilla was another invading force, he drowned masses in tidal waves. Now, coming to save Millie Bobbie Brown from Ghidorah, the tide is receeding but with navy ships sailing beside him. There's even good repurposing of some unused shots from the 2014 film's early trailers. There's an interesting parallel to Gamera 2 where this Godzilla 2 also concerns with fighting the enemy monster as a Godzilla-human joint operation.

The human characters are frustrating, because before seeing the execution the ground work works, and acts thematically as a sequel to the Brody family. Godzilla 2014 created grief for the family that they stay safe from after the first 15 minutes. KING OF THE MONSTERS is the stages of grieving with fantastical possibilities given the careers of the characters in that world.

Thinking of the themes at play, one couldn't help but be reminded of War of the Worlds, where Ghidorah is the obvious alien and Godzilla is the bacteria that caused their downfall. Where as say the last relevant film adaptation from Speilberg had the theme mirrored by little Dakota Fanning waxing poetic about stuck thorns, King of the Monsters shakes those themes up.

While the good news is that the human drama and the monster drama does depend on one another to work, many comparisons could be made to the Heisei Gamera films. Similar comparisons were made of the 2014 film, and its interesting it has continued. Is there a subconscious tie to the storytelling by Kaneko and Higuchi or are Americans generally ignorant of those films and our logic behind monster movies is only now catching up? Michael Doughtery even sounds like Shinji Higuchi in not kidding himself that with a sequels logic: monsters have already been established. Too much suspense doesn't work because the element of surprise has diminished.

The film starts with a flashback contain my newly filmed scenes, a parallel to GAMERA 3. Redemption is a theme of the film, anothernparallel to the dramatic material from Gamera 3. Madison's father has to be there for his daughter and lot let grief and vengeance wear his spirit down. Madison's mother has to content with her faulty ideologies and the danger she had put everyone including her daughter. If only there was a scene showing Serizawa creating the Oxygen Destroyer as a trade to get the government off Monarch's back.

Serizawa is a mixed note, and only time can tell if it will be seen as a nice twist on the 1954's Serizawa death scene serving the "living with nukes" theme. Or is it a perversion of the 1954 film's climax? Should Serizawa die saving Godzilla, therefore humanity, by bringing us in accordance with the larger forces of nature or should Serizawa die knowing the weapon being used to kill Godzilla has to be a secret he takes with him to the grave lest World War III breaks out. The Oxygen Destroyer isn't given the respect expected given the weapon and its usual implications on the subtexual reality of a film. Its definitely a dramatic scene that works well, driving home a somber tone of sacrifice. But at what cost? We should remember, even Serizawa said, "time to get a new watch". In general, Ken Wantanabe does his best work here emotively since his Oscar nodded turn in THE LAST SAMURAI (which came out before a film showcasing Wantanabe and KOTM co-star Zhang Ziyi as lovers, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA). His dedication is remarkable and though dramatically satisfying, should have been there for the showdown with Kong.

Millie Bobbie Brown's Madison is a nice center for the film. She expresses childish wonder and teen-angst-for-emotional-independence, but again feels typical. Brown does a knock out job though giving a performance that feels complete and free of the roles functions in the script. Only question is if she is just a girl filling a boy role? Androgyny of youth being used to help the film fulffill the Bachdel test? Why didn't this character click?

Charles Dance as Alan Jonah is a frustrating character. Dance exudes presence and gives a good performance. Considering build up though, his limited function in the story as just someone helping Vera Farmiga out seems like a shortcoming. His character plays a good philosophical counter point to Farmiga, who not only was wrong with her plan but also is going to risk it all once granddaughter's safety is not guaranteed. He is in an odd way pure, recognizing even with monsters informing the situation, when its man and when its nature being expressed in the individual. Farmiga could have been another shot in the back Monarch scientist, but her agenda matched Alan's. She hired him. She lost nerve when motherly instinct kicked in, and she wants to stop a larger natural force of her own. She put her daughter in danger and leads to a repeat of San Francisco - the two parents again traversing debris for their daughter while the monsters fighting all around them.

Dance doesn't stop her, and that's telling of the character. Its not his place to stop her, its natures jurisdiction, as she meets her end as a martyr of the situation she caused (there is no death or dead shots of Farmiga, but safe to say Godzilla's pulses should have killed her).

Farmiga's character of Emma and her relation to her husband make an interesting contrast. Not between themselves, but as a foil couple to the Brody family of 2014. 2014's family drama was just getting the family together. Here, the family drama is reliant on daughter Madison to break away from her mother's teachings and show that a good relationship with her father is possible. Because Emma by Farmiga has skewed views and skewed facts to prove it.

Upon watching the 2014 film after KING OF THE MONSTERS, its odd that Emma would choose a clip of post 1999 attack Janjira (where a mother character dies, let remember) to illustrate that MUTO/Titan radiation acts like a primordial ooze when Bryan Cranston discovered there was no radiation. While we get new footage of post 2014 Las Vegas showing vegetation and a news paper article talking over the rebirth of coral reefs, what is shown doesn't look like regular modern day flora. Looking into vegetation post Chernobyl does reveal plants with radiation resistant or metabolic features. Possibly reverting the world back in time not just by the re-emergence of the last remaining Titans, but the plants and animals too. Not quite what the character shells out quite though, no?

That's because Emma is nuts. Where as the family of 2014 were innocent victims, Emma and her family are people in the closest thing to the human seat of power in these matters, even creating a humans-as-an-alpha-predator roar voice box.

Emma is just like Alan Jonah - an eco-terrorist who did good to rid of holo sapiens centrism in viewing the order of nature, but takes it to a far extreme. Alan Jonah is a person who knows to let nature take its course. He lets it be her show and even let her have her way when hernprimal instincts make her turn one her ideologies.

Eco terrorism seemingly would be a good archetype to mess with considering franchise themes. This is a little developed theme within the Godzilla franchise. The closest to it would be Biollante, whose terrorism isn't for ecological reasons necessarily but money in turning desert into viable farm land. Therefore I am reminded again of GAMERA 3, a film made to conclude an edgy retelling right at the possible end times of the new millennium. Gamera 3 showed off ecoterrorism disguised how it was in Japan at the time - cultembers of groups like Aum Shinryko making their way into goverment to progress agendas with action. Where as He's ecoterrorists are good at being legal about this but come off as singular asexual nihilism spouting characters, we have renegade who poetically find themselves in the end scene (last 20 minutes is a big fight scene) doing the same thing they were doing at the beginning, looking for a child while the monsters run amok. Mother has to pay for sins and father gets back a child instead of losing both. If anything, King of the Monsters is structured well. 

Other aspects of the film do not manage so well.

The G-Team, Monarch's own Seal Team 6, isn't a well built group. No G-Graspers or G-Force here. Instead, the rest of typical racial casting. Godzilla King of the Monsters isn't a racist film like Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but its typical. O'Shea Jackson, Ice Cuba's son, is in a supporting role spouting ignorance (Mothra and Godzilla, they have like a thing going?) and typical statements (that's messed up) are what he is given save for him being given the saving grace line of criticizing Farmiga and Kyle Cooper's parenting but inspiring the idea of where Madison is. Other characters are given this treatment (You're damn right is another line). This matters. I was driven by a neighbor to my first seeing of Kong of the Monsters. They were going to see Aladdin. Their choice was informed by a review that Aladdin was better than Black Panther. It seems like an apples vs oranges comparison, until we remember Will Smith is in Aladdin. The race card is in play. These are the skewed views on political topics that's informing studio and audience choices it seems.

The exception is the Chens, played by Zhang Ziyi. Interestingly acted as a dual role, the secondary role being a cameo to fulfill in a hinted way a shobijin parallel, there is a secondary side to her character. Serizawa dying feels better than Sally Hawkins, whose death feels cheap and not in a Janet Jason Leigh/Psycho or Drew Barry more/Scream way. But there can only be one person waxing philosophical about the monster, and Ziyi taking up the Serizawa mantle reminds me of Kanji Fukunaga's step down from Warner Brothers and Thomas Hill's stepping down from Legendary after Legendary was bought by Chinese conglomerate the Wanda group. Not as hilarious of a parallel as PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (which effectively replaced Rinko Kikuchi with the president of Zhao Industries), but interesting none the less.

Poetically, KING OF THE MONSTERS ends with monsters bowing to Godzilla in a lion king esque sequence. It will be interesting to see Kong vs Godzilla shape up, for King of the Monsters (not a better film than Gamera 3) plays with the same themes as Gamera 3, and how will those be developed in the sequel could be a new achievement. Though plagued with Holywood typicalities, GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS is a good Godzilla film with possibilities for the future. Better than Kong: Skull Island and Pacific Rim: Uprising, not as good as Godzilla 2014 or Shin Godzilla.

But it gets Godzilla right, puts him in an interestingly developed world where man and monster did co exist. Unlike 2014, I knew off the bat this would become a favorite.

7/10

How you can effectively help KING OF THE MONSTERS

This is our Kickstarter, our GoFundMe, our Patreon. This time we will definitely join the fight. And we got free tools in the article you could use. 

Like this video you could share on facebook! Take into account the time zones and when your friends are mostly on facebook. Show non-fans that non-fans enjoy KOTM!

Godzilla King of the Monsters's box office performance has definitely cast some darkness on the bright future that Legendary's sparse Monsterverse had going. We the fans are going to help.

Right before May 31, talks were of Warners definitely wanting to continue Godzilla after Kong vs Godzilla. Toho dumped a lot of money in an American division. Five years ago, I was told by a source that Godzilla was Warner's answer to the post Harry Potter-void. A great string of films - Pacific Rim, Godzilla, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Shin Godzilla, and Kong: Skull Island have been undone by by the failures of Pacific Rim: Uprising, The Cloverfield Paradox, and to some extent Godzilla King of the Monsters.

Videos like this watch mojo video can get people to think about seeing the film again if they missed something.

Even Japan was full ahead go, with KOTM earning 133% on its opening weekend in comparison to Shin's opening weekend.

Recouping some losses is the realistic  name of the game. Warner Brothers is now retooling Kong vs Godzilla to present to audiences an "A+" film. Whether that means going 180 from their Pacific Rim beginnings and make Isben, or something leftfield is any ones guess. Good luck, hopefully if there is work to be done, their work is cut out for them. We can be sure that we are not rewarding what some have seen as slack filmmaking.

Our battle is a financial one, earning the Godzilla license money for Toho, Legendary, and Warner Brothers. Money is nothing to me. I live alone and only make $1000 in a house i own out right. They say vote with your dollar, and since the capitalist game is a an easy logic to follow, lets use economic force to our advantage.

I have seen KOTM six times as of this writing.

What can we the fans do to help? Well, for starters, let's assume you've already seen the film multiple times. If not, lets admit that though not the best Godzilla film or film ever, an entertaining and true Godzilla film has been produced. Lets enjoy it! And lets experience it once with rocking chairs on a huge screen, another time with 3D glasses, and a couple of times with the regular crowd.

Heck, find reasons to make Godzilla a group activity. Express a want to share this movie with friends, they may be open minded. The key is to be casual about it. Not a know-it-all fanboy. That's coming on too strong. 

Or you could do what one South Korean fan did and saw the film 22 times atleast!

Getting others to participate is easier than if someone started a grass roots campaign before June 6th. With the film being out, you a living breathing person, can be the voice that people listen to. Not some distant, cold, number on a computer screen or cell phone screen with a ripe red or splattered green tomato behind it. 

Now that we have seen the film, we know what kind of film we are dealing with. We can now give the film a context lacking in the $100 million marketing campaign. We can prepare people not for the film they, the studio, or we expected to see, but the film we know they will be seeing. Maybe they preferred 1998 or were burned by 2014 or both - King of the Monsters will be of interest to this film.

For people my age and older, the last 10 years meant begging a parent or finding the will and time off work to drive to densely populated parts of the country with special art/import theaters for screenings of Godzilla films. Now its a part of the zeitgeist, this cherished icon matters again. And the Americans finally got it right! 

Being a fan for now doesn't  mean experiencing fandom behind a computer screen at home waiting for the mail man to bring the next figure or special edition blu ray. I can walk out, see a nice diaplay, and as a public act buy Godzilla. For newer fans, enjoy the luxury while you can. Anytime in the future can you see a special screening of anything. This is initial run!

My local Godzilla Store. Had two atomic blast Shin Gojis. I have one. Someone bought the other!

Have you bought any merch? Though only 8 endcap sized pop-up Godzilla stores were in the US, chances are if you are close to an FYE, you saw something similar but way more cost effective to general consumer economics. There is, like the Titans, way more. Hats, blankets, shirts, music, and toys. Something for everyone!

FYE, Target, Books-A-Million, and apparently Gamestop are selling in store NECA Godzilla figures, including Mothra. The only thing that's better than buying straight from the producer is the non-secondary markets/stores that procure these items. Faster they sell the faster they restock. Say you order a figure straight from NECA, its just one more figure. Say you buy from your local Target, and they sell out, they may very well get a second shipment in of multiple figures as if to fill a aisle shelf. Though different dimensions and mass, the Bandai Creation figures, if memory serves from my time working at TRU, came 6-8 per a box. This means that sub licensors like NECA and Trends International will definitely be voicing their want of a sequel for more merchandise sales. If the newest shipment doesn't sell, any saturation of the market achieved will give less wealthy fans a way to get say a decent NECA figure, when years ago a decent scull for a single mold character with five swivel joints cost just as much as a NECA sculpted-using-the-digital-file-from-the-film figure.

Never thought I would see the day. Don't know if we will be seeing this again. 

Wal-Mart signed an agreement to sell exclusively the Jakks Pacific figures. For context, Wal-Mart was bitten by this logic once with possibly the best American kaiju film this far - Pacific Rim, which was a deal signed by NECA. Pacific Rim under performed, and NECA's participation in merchandising the del Toro tent pole could be best described as ''holding out for as long as they could". But this marketing, with less collectors market ambitions, is being given a second chance. And the Jakks Pacific figures rock. The 12" Godzilla fulfills anything lacking from their previous large scale Godzilla, including a dorsal fin size true to the film's depiction. Comparable to Bandai's 10" figure. Even better than the Bandai figure and larger than the upcoming NECA is the Jakk Pacific Rodan. While we wait for the super articulated figure, this one looks like a present day successor to the legendary Shogun Warrior relic of old.

And when you are going to the theater, when shopping Wal Mart for Pine Sol, two pounds of ground chuck, and a Jakks Pacific Rodan, if you have any, wear a Godzilla shirt! Your clothes are good spaces for advertising real estate. Look at this mallrat now:

If you don't have any, Hot Topic, Spencers, Journeys, and FYE got your back covered - literally. And long after, you'll have an outward piece of Godzilla that you can bring with you on your day to day travels and tribulations.

Its really that simple, its really that easy. If you need, take an extra shift at work, donate some plasma - I did. I work night shift earning $1000 a month. 

I have done all of this, because I believe. I believe Godzilla King of the Monsters to be a good, entertaining film with faults already acknowledged by the studio. I believe Godzilla is a character who, if only to break new ground in ways the Japanese wouldn't due to cultural sensibilities and financial resources, deserves whatever visions into what could only be produced by a line of Legendary Godzilla films. Because I believe that in a world that cannot give up its nukes and finds itself in an Iran-North Korean second Cold War complete with 80's nostalgia thanks to the likes of Stranger Things and Ready Player One, Godzilla will remind us of how to be. Whether its the terror of nuclear power's possible uses to the possibility to even attaining an existence where we can live peacefully in a world where those bombs exist, these films will point the way and possibly give us answers in a time repeating itself.

I am reminded of the 80s, when Tomoyuki Tanaka compiled the ideas behind the then notion of an American Godzilla film and came up with THE RETURN OF GODZILLA, which came to America as GODZILLA 1985. At that time, the only significance achieved was a Easter egg in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and a larger relaunch for Raymond Burr's golden age career (he almost bought the American rights before passing). Now the 80's, the Cold War, Nuclear Tension, New Coke, and Godzilla is are back. Time to stand up for what we are.

So as I finish writing the first draft, I am buying a ticket for my 7th viewing of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, complete with some Dr. Pepper and possibly a Snickers. Movie studios want you to be a consumer and buy into their product and the produced licensed from that. So I call that we do that. We will be your profit making market, with a vengeance. Long live the King.

"No matter what happens, Godzilla will live."

-Steve Martin, GODZILLA 1985

Gamera 3 Showa Video Bootleg Alt Cover

1999-2019

Guardian of the Universe

Incomplete Struggle for Eternity

D-WAR 2: Mysteries of the Dragon - Production Report and Commentary

"D-War 2: Mysteries of the Dragon" has a new tentative release year of 2020. First it was 2009, then 2016. In a production showing China's blossoming film industry joining forces with the man who tried to make the first Korean made special effects blockcbuster, Shim Hyung Rae.

Irony is the story behind D-WAR 2's production history. Though CJ Entertainment in Korea is back to support the project, its China's H&R Global Pictures acting as the main production company.

This is because Shim Hyung Rae, for reverent readers, lost Younggu Art when tales of gambling addiction and threatening of producers with flare guns hit the headlines. This, coinciding with reasons why D-WAR wasn't critically appraised moreso or more lucrative in 2007 has lead recent reports from September in Korean news outlets proclaiming that control is out of Shim's hands in a way. The script is being finished in English, has unspecified American talent giving input. Particular comment was that the script "is being refined like a sculpture." For the record, an odd uncredited credit to a Nick Alvers has popped up as a co writer of the first D-WAR (claim can be found on Wikipedia). Shim is also advising the director of D-War 2, not directing himself quite.

To remind readers, the most recent synopsis details of a fictionalized version of the space race in 1969 between America and Russia, and this space race factoring in with (a more recently released detail) war between Oriental Dragons and Occidental dragons.

Originally the plot was supposed to be Ethan finding an old lady with an Imoogi in her possession. Sadly, though fond particularly of Buraki as a character or using Imoogis as a race of creatures, connections to D-WAR might be limited. "Its connected to D-WAR, but its a different story. The tale of the dragon is what's after ascension to heaven."

If I was Korean, I might feel like Shim is getting foreign half help for his dream. Instead of a Chinese/Korean co production deal, its Shim taking his concept and letting the Chinese build on it. Bong Joo Ho mighty have succeeded more with SNOWPIERCER. While Shim may not be able to direct humans, his SFX shots and scenes just keep getting better. D-WAR's final battle is, away from the rest, fantastic directing.

What of the Chinese press? What's happening on the Chinese side of things? While new Chinese blockbusters are lighting the box office, co-American productions like PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING and THE GREAT WALL are finding it hard to produce non-sensibility-offending cross cultural productions, given these elements are calculated whenever a studio or producer is evaluating a film as product. Though finding help in directors like Denny Harlin teaching China's new crop of filmmakers tools of the trade, big productions like the Bruce Willis-leading AIRSTRIKE have been canceled out of theatrical distribution from fear surrounding tax scandals, like one Willie's co-star Fan Bingbing seems to be in the middle of.

Seems like China and Shim were made for each other. In fact, part of D-WAR's production hell is from China's awkward puberty stage blockbuster abilities.  "We are talking specifically with the Chinese theater chain and four large investors, including funding, distribution and character businesses, with Chinese investment companies... The investment has been delayed due to the Sad issue in China, but I have been in contact with China first to get together, and the story is going well and the contract will be announced later."

Along with Keanu Reeves and Kevin Costner starring, China's Tang Guo Qiang is headlining. Qiang can be found playing upper caliber Chinese political figures and legends, old and contemporary, including Mao Zedong. With the exception, Keanu and Costner's involvement in all press conferences and such has been ink on paper that is a single D-WAR 2 poster.

Digital effects will be done by Chinese VFX houses. Particularly Naked Eye 3D graphics (mostly used for smartphones and lightshows) will be used in filming D-WAR 2.

Li Xin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Pictures of China, said: "Dragon War 2" is China 's first science fiction blockbuster. The total investment of 500 million yuan is indeed not small for Chinese film projects, but it is more than the sci-fi blockbusters currently produced in Hollywood. It is not too big, and the film is also the first film in China to be released simultaneously in the world. "Dragon War 2" has a very strong creative team."

Quote from link:
media.weibo.cn/article?id=2309351000144017394174548048&jumpfrom=weibocom

China's film climate has changed since D-WAR came in in 2008 in China to gross only $4.4 million dollars. Besides Japan, China seems to be gaining some taste for the giant monster film. For example, Legendary's PACIFIC RIM franchise has been saved more than once by China at the box office, the second film being a Chinese co-production. Two films by the name MONSTER HUNT (1 & 2) have come out since 2016. Though with some scenes outsourced overseas, these Pixar-inspired films have been making healthy $300 million grosses.



Dragons haven't been missing from Chinese screens either, though not common. A 2011 Australian/Chinese co-production including the like of Sam Neil, THE DRAGON PEARL features two kids who find a dragon under a temple and try to help it look for its Yuh-yei-joo-esque pearl. Its animation isn't the hottest. Much easier on the eyes is a trilogy of Monkey King films, mostly starring wuxia legend Donnie Yen as the legend from Chinese myth. Of particular note is the second film which features a fight with a dragon! Likewise, The Monkey King films were produced with American SFX, VFX, and make up artists hired in an advisory capacity.



Hopefully stalling on D-War 2 will cease soon now that things are coming to a head. At the same time, the last irony, may China - way more notorious of having their films and television seemingly by a very large margin consist of historical tales, legends, and political hyperbolies for the state, not fall into the same nationalist pit falls that Shim took the odds with, much more revealing unsavory business deals for these products we call art.

The world will never know.

Links to sources:
http://www.newsfarm.co.kr/news/articleViewAmp.html?idxno=42215
http://mnews.imaeil.com/Culture/2018101011223902355#cb
http://huaren.haiwainet.cn/n/2017/0407/c3541758-30845655.html?fbclid=IwAR1wGLDR7kyEXVBXy2jRSO3L3twRbmp1lhfC69zgCYGUZlAoBpo-GZfPSaY
https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1004937585
http://www.koreatimes.com/article/20180411/1172552

DRAGON WARS: 10 Year Retrospective

D-WARS 10^th Anniversary Retrospective

After Criterion and Ridley Scott changed the way that we saw the home video market, special editions of multiple monikers flood the shelves. It is only ironic that in America, the seemingly successful notion of D-WARS getting another home video release is an irony. It’s the 10^th anniversary of the film, but there is no hint of awareness regarding this on the packaging. It seems Mill Creek Entertainment licensed the American home video rights for D-WAR from Sony. The DVD case looks cool, though. on closer inspection seems to be a rushed digital job using sub-par looking elements like logos. The image quality of the disc itself resembles more a vcd, and there are none of the special features that the normal American release from nine years ago came with. The usual is a slew of new special features, whether the film deserves them or not. D-WARS is not shown that love anyway.

Does D-WARS deserve some love? From the get go, the film has been met with scorn. (At one time) Famously a young black American with a youtube channel posted a bad review video of D-WARS. The video made news in Korea, citing a nick name of “bad kid”. Korean critics and audiences were split up in their evaluations while the world saw this want-to-be-flavor of the month come and go like many a blockbuster spectable.

Maybe then Shin Hyung Rae accomplished what he had set out to do: make a film that was a product of South Korean creative talent on an art direction/visual effects point that blends in and acts like a film out of Hollywood on the market (even if the point of reference that comes to mind is something like 2013’s SEASON OF THE WITCH). Depending on how you feel about those goals being the reason for a film to exist probably goes hand in hand with whether or not you like the film.

Popping the Sony blu-ray in, it really puts things into a certain perspective. Though general audiences have been jaded with CGI effects, growth in photo realism in CGI is observable only in retrospect. D-WARS’ novelty, its special effects, do look like a product of their time, with more than a handful of shots truly looking good by (As of this writing) contemporary standards. Though it took more than a decade, D-WARS maybe achieved a little bit. Comparable is the remarkable SHIN GODZILLA. D-WAR's CG blows SHIN GODZILLA's out of the water. There's no one years between films.

What of the fates of the creative talent though? Looking over the Younggu-Art production output, a narrative rises. You notice Shin’s intentions of getting South Korea’s film industry to be able to complete internationally, so his methods change. No longer practical effect, he decides to entrepreneur CGI in Korea. To help sell the films hires on American cast and crew as to fulfill a certain standard that Koreans just cannot – and at the time did not. YONGGARY infamously bombed at the box office and did not receive the international distribution that Shin Hyung Rae was hoping for. D-WARS took a couple more years, and hired on more Americans to fulfill more spaces. D-WARS was definitely more successful than YONGGARY. THE LAST GODFATHER showed that Shim should stick to science fiction if he is to appeal to an international audience. D-WARS 2: MYSTERIES OF THE DRAGON has the VFX supervisor from 2014’s GODZILLA onboard in the same capacity. Practically, did Shim atleast do good in giving Korea Koreans who could create effects for movies? Though questionably a comprehensive resource in looking at the repitoirs of ex-Younggu Art employees, a look through IMDb’s pages for the staff of D-WARS says a lot. These people only have one credit to their names on IMDb. Some of these people could have worked on Bong Joo Ho’s SNOWPIERCER. Maybe in an alternate universe.

The American crew’s additions are worthy of praise in areas. The sound design for the monsters is great, and even like an American production, uses sound effects like the Willhem scream as a metacinema flourish. Steve Jablonsky’s soundtrack is depressingly good for D-WARS. Its initially cheesy listening, but it turns out great. The reason its cheesy listening at first is the same reason it is great – the musical bars that make up the soundtracks to films like THE SHINNING and FRIDAY THE THIRTIENTH PART SIX: JASON LIVES now have an entire score solely dedicated to it, and its heavy on action and paramount drama. Should have known something was up though in the end when you have the composer for Platinum Dunes composing your film.

Personally, as a viewer, does D-WARS offer me anything particular? Though the film hits you over the head with it repeatedly, which really speaks to the insecurities of the Korean talent, you have the only accessible (internationally speaking) piece of media which uses Korean folkloric creatures like Imoogi. Dissapointing that a creature like the cockatrice wasn't used here and apparently not in any ideas for D-WAR 2. 

You have particularly well directed battle scenes. Though his sensibilities are questionable as far as story and the kind of angle you want to tell a story through are questionable, Shin Hyung Rae learned a lot from his film previous, YONGGARY. YONGGARY’s camera is fixed, but not studied. YONGGARY’s camera was fixed because it helped the post production process out with the special effects shots. A lot less intergrating of multiple plate shots (real life, models, and cgi are three plates right there, and the cgi can be many different layers onto itself), a more fluid camera. The LA fight scene does go through stages, and the music, visuals, it all does a great job with getting the audience to feel the ups and downs of one dramatic beat coming and going into another in battle scenes.

Though overly short, the final battle between the Good Imoogi and Buraki is a great display of directing something that is hard to direct – two snakes fighting. You have a square, a rectangle to compose your image in as a filmmaker, and you practically have to fill the screen and make look good while serving the dramatic ups and downs on varying scales with two squiggly lines. Shin Hyung Rae’s directing of the dragon sequences are immersive, even if the actors are obviously in completely CG environments and maybe not the best of attention was paid to the angle of the l.a. plate to the C.G. plate, ect. Its an entertaining watch if you need to kill about thrity minutes and you have a bowl packed.

These scenes put to Jablonsky's music does create a couple of truly cinematic moments, something YONGGARY lacked.

The talent was there. If more time was spent on that which Shim Hyung Rae famously responded, "I don't make art, I make movies for kids", and less gambling and threatening of government sources of film finance, Shim's dreams could have come true. 

If only he realized that D-WAR has an existential delima tragically not a fleshed out theme. At SDCC 2007, a producer claimed the title D-WAR is an entendre. D-WAR could mean Dragon War. Maybe its digital war, Korea trying to throw their hat in a seemingly monopolized market. Most important is that D-WAR could mean Destiny War. 

From the opening narration to all expository dialogue by a character actor, destiny is at play. Time is symbolically repeating itself, an ancient army now duking it out with the US military because two people were more concerned about their lives together instead of the well being of all. Even worse, neither Ethan or Sarah are well equipped for their destiny. They even start making the same mistakes as their previous selves made. Ethan never takes Sarah to the grand cave. Instead Buraki takes them to his hide out. But the quick end to the Atrox army which saves Ethan and Sarah is a literal Deus ex machina. One to expect. Buraki and his followers have been fucking up celestial movement for at least 1000 years now. Buraki himself is one to try to manipulate and change destiny, instead of compromising what individualism an imoogi can have with what their niche in nature and the holy are concerned. D-WARS isn't a Steinbeck or Dickens-esque exploration of destiny and pragmatism, but it is a light undercurrent which helps make sense of the proceedings. 

How else has history remembered D-WARS? D-WARS hitting the big screen in America via 3,000 plus screens was a surprise to some people. D-WAR isn’t that good, any distributor would take a look and seriously question the practical entertainment value of the film, despite the surface level details that the film has dragons, a little magic, and other genre tropes. Before Syfy Channel became reknown for their lackluster self-produced titles, there was D-WARS leading the way, being spammed on Syfy wherever they could find a slot. Now, Mill Creek is packaging the film with its Syfy ilk in box sets before getting a standalone release from said distributor. When news came of D-WARS 2 going into production, as a Chinese production no less, ScreenAnarchy’s headline read, “For Our Sins, D-WAR 2 is Going Into Production”. Gizmodo’s sense of humor was, “They’re Finally Making a Sequel to the Greatest Movie of All Time: D-WAR”.

People remember the film though. I proudly hang my Dutch poster for D-WARS in my home. Sometimes a friend will stroll through and pay a little more attention than usual to the poster and ask about it. Their assumptions were right, its my rare Dutch poster for the film. Fond childhood nostalgia memories, the kind that make you cringe more than want to relive with happy remembrance and added significance. RiffTrax has riffed the film. The film will always be there, and some people with a taste for THE ROOM and TROLL 2 will take the film in and give it a home, but to most people, its going to be a familiar cover in the bargain bin at your local neighborhood Walmart. In the meantime, lets get swept away in Shim Hyung Rae’s ambitions, and the immersive marketing campaigns of old, thinking of the dream and not necessarily the movie that was ultimately delivered. For me, its no better or worse than fare like MAN OF STEEL. 

6.5/10 

For the record I would like to think a better cut of D-WAR exists out there. The AFM cut of the film ran 20 minutes longer and that's not factoring scenes cut out before that. Maybe Shout Factory could get the rights.

Reviewing Mothra's Rebirths

The Mothra trilogy seems like a series of productions just to keep money flowing from the occasional kaiju lifeblood Toho uniquely knows how to milk. Like THE RETURN OF GODZILLA, Mothra's return was a brainchild idea of Tomoyuki Tanaka, who probably had good intentions of a quality film respecting the original Motha iterations. In the end however, what we got was a trilogy of films spawned from the much fabled unproduced MOTHRA VS. BAGAN script
.

The first film in the trilogy is not a bad film. Its a decent enough children's film with enough development of the human characters to qualify in the most minimal of ways layered. Episodic gags with the childen and the Elias (the trilogy's version of the Shobijin) keep everything before the monster action lively and well structured. The monster action comes off the heels of the comedy, which really doesn't continue, but we have the monster action which also really reaps a great value of a Mothra film's ability to be a musical, the songs as dramatic scenes unto themselves. Of the trilogy, it combines these three qualities well - a total entertainment film.

Not that there isn't some drama in the film. Its a film with an envionmentally-fiendly message. We have parents who cannot reconcile the percieved needs and their order of priority. Director Yoneda was an assistant director with Kurosawa on his films RAN onward, pobably even learned a lesson or two from Ishiro Honda. He shows he is aware of stoy telling flourishes with the camera like slow-motion photography, but the more dramatic moments fall half flat. For example, particularly, is the scene of the father character riding the bull dozer which releases Death Ghidorah. He communicates enough visually to let audiences see what kind of scene he is intending, but the interplay of images isn't there. The more dramatic scenes only fall half-flat though, some credit is given. A Japanese HOME ALONE or BEETHOVEN would be more up his alley. Anything in the first film that would be considered cringe-worthy really are just uses of older cinematic conventions.

Similar, but not quite the same can be said about REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 2. A new director for the human drama was chosen, and it shows. MOTHRA 2 is more of the Indiana Jones-esque kind of action that drove GODZILLA VS. MOTHA (1992), which really calls to question if this wasn't the kind of atmosphere Tomoyuki Tanaka was trying to procure with the MOTHRA VS. BAGAN project. What the humans may be lacking in any development in the script, the cast makes up fo with their energetic caricatue-esque acting. Missing is the extensive musical numbers, breaking down part of the mythology that the first film in the trilogy set up - Mothra's evolutions and life stages are sung by the Elias as to be a catalyst for Mothra.

MOTHRA 2's detractors come from questionable influences from the concurrently running Gamera trilogy. You can switch out Nelai Kenai with Atlantis, Degarlah with the Gyaos, and Gamera with Mothra. Luckily, as far as the monster himself, Degarlah is a unique creation. His Barrems remind one of the Shokiurus from THE RETURN OF GODZILLA, a sign of his character arc (Descibed further below).

The third film saw the return of the first film's director, with a completely serious tone unlike the first two films, tearing at a certain cohesiveness of the trilogy. Then again, the third film is a boring rehash of the first film's ideas, just mixed in a way that the filmmakers thought were beneficial. Instead of having Ghidorah attain his energy from floura, he gets it from young human fauna. Ghidorah resembles himself and not a four legged cross with Bagan. It seems to be a failed attempt at tying to tie the kaiju stories and the human stories togeather (a possibly good move if done right, layered in with the Shobijin angle). Atleast the kaiju scenes, dramatically, work better as dramatic set pieces than the other two films.

That's the simple look at the human drama of the Mothra films. The human drama is simple enough in these films, with loose thematic connections to the original Mothra films. Crony capitalism is only really looked at in the fist two films, and both of them tie it back in with pro-envionmental themes. By this point in the franchise, a new variety of stock characters have been instituted for these themes: paper company executives and treasure hunters.

The important thing is these films made sure that Toho's SFX crew kept having work, and that Toho kept investing in newer technologies as to keep competitive. Until 2005, the first two MOTHRA films wee Koichi Kawakita's swang song. Afte winning the Japanese Academy Award for GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH and becoming the lagest share holder in Toho, Kawakita definitely had a legacy to protect, to end well. At first, it seems promising.

Kawakita was born to make these Mothra films. His visual style - manipulation of the camera and what's in front of the camea - is on full blast here. Lots of beams, transfoming monsters, use of glitter - it all fits with his fetishes. The sequences are a little more focused than usual, though it can seem at times that Kawakita's scenes consist of loosely visually or narratively connected shots. Again, the inclusion of musical numbers which have to be mixed in with the tokusatsu footage help this out alot. Meanwhile, he is having a blast at making a better Mothra prop with Mothra Leo, the best use of an actual flame thrower is part of the suit, and further use of CG.

The aged CG is forgivable, and the reusing of a four year old Mothra prop with limited mobility is forgivable. What isn't quite forgivable is a lack of some care with MOTHRA 2. The film's ambition of mostly underwater warfare between the kaiju is respectable, but there is a lack of quality. Five years previously, Kawakita filmed an underwater scene between Godzilla and Battra in GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA. Missing from MOTHRA 2 which was in GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA were the composited-in air bubbles, the processing of the sound effects to make the kaiju sound like they are underwater, details like this. Maybe too many CG shots took up the budget. Digital matteing would be another sucker of budget, and though more experimental in execution, the matte shots showcase issues with scale and lighting differences between the main plate and the composite materials of the shots at times.

MOTHRA 3's tokusatsu was filmed by Kenji Suzuki, who relies too much on digital compositing in this film (almost as bad as GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS three years latter). This ruins good props and suits, particulaly King Ghidoah. Luckily, just like the first film in the trilogy, set pieces are ceated via the intecutting of musical numbers and the monster action.

The best quality of the films is the handling of the kaiju's own personal drama. From the best handling of the death of a Mothra until GODZILLA: TOKYO SOS, to the tagic slaying of a samurai gone mad with Degarla, and the ambitious time traveling aspect of MOTHRA 3, the monster drama may not be as well mixed in and tied with the humans, but they have their own stories that while simple, do offer a little bit of poetry in their own right.

The other great quality to the trilogy is the new songs written for the Shobijin characters. In the first film, the compositions help give the film a light, Studio Ghibli sense of atmosphere at times. In the third film, it helps add a sense of levity to the action between Mothra and Ghidorah. The regular orchestrational pieces of the score are unrememberable, but the songs are memorable and might even lend themselves well when paired with the operatic stylings of a composer like Shiro Sagisu.

In the end, the Mothra trilogy are some nice occasional watches of made-for-the-money movie making. Its very simple fare.
Mothra - 5/10
Mothra 2 - 4/10
Mothra 3 - 4/10

Review: COZZILLA (1977)

This was written on a library computer in less than an hour. Here’s to waiting for SHIN GODZILLA.

The context when reviewing 1977’s COZZILLA is this: one of the many signs of an internationally successful cultural icon is the reiteration of that story by different cultures. There are a couple to note for sure, such as the German dub for GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS and the American cut itself. To add to that list is an Indian Bollywood film, GOGOLA (which might be grasping at straws) and the lost Phillipino film TOKYO 1960. Italy’s iteration of the mythos does have a couple of things to offer the original narrative, mostly in the realm of the modus operandi and not necessarily the substance. That is not to detract from COZZILLA.

The oddest quality of COZZILLA is that it is a re-editing of a film that lacks cinemtatographic expressionism. Ishiro Honda’s style of filmmaking is closer to impressionism – a style on the rise in post-war Italy. The use of real war-time B-Roll footage (footage as new as shots from the Vietnam War and possibly as old as World War One) doesn’t cut into the film easier because of this quality. Over the whole film is the infamous coloring technique used on the film. Though reported to have been applied frame by frame, noticing patterns in the colors and the duration of these patterns say otherwise.

Director Luigi Cozzi was at a disadvantage when he was creating his professional fan edit of GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS when Toho only supplied him with the American edit. It might not have been totally advantageous for this grand aesthetic experiment. Many of the nuclear references in the film come from a purely Japanese source, there was a chance that the added footage would have aided this original theme in being sympathized with audiences who didn’t sympathize with the themes of the original film (people who don’t see the bomb more positively than a “necessary evil” and/or sadly put more emphasis on the “necessary” part of that phrase).

The color could have been something which was more interesting. Cozzi must have known the limitations of his Spectorama 70 technique. Not being able to be as intricate with the color gels as others would become a scant five years later with KING KONG, this would release the filmmaker from a responsibility to be realistic with the use of color. More expressionistic, as if the CABINET OF DR. CALAGARI was able to first be filmed in color. The aesthetic could have been taken past the Hollywood gems of old or films like 1946’s STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN.

What expectations are filled and what revelations does COZZILLA make light of aesthetically? The use of color cannot be read into at all. It is a poor attempt to update the film simply for audience quantity sake. It’s unbridled craziness throughout. There is no use really in talking about it any longer.

What is interesting is the added footage. The film is bookended by footage of nuclear bombs going off. The beginning of the film deals with the bombing of Hiroshima. As unfittingly surrealistic the coloring is, the footage does do a good job at creating with documentary footage without any particular aesthetic imposed onto it an expressionistic linear, a dramatic and hyper-real look at the bombing. Subjecting war-time footage to slow motion effects is a great motif. Expressionism which is usually used to help stimulate an audience into believing the current emotion on the screen is happening to them is doubled by the fact that it is documentary footage that we are seeing. There is even a couple of stills that are zoomed out of blended in with the footage. With the colors added, it is hard to tell some of these shots, an effecting tool of blending at this point.

The end of the film is not specific as far as that particular nuclear disaster. In using a cut of the film that omits Dr. Yamane’s theory of more Godzilla awakenings, there is a partial restoration of this theme. The structure is similar how a similar thought ended GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH, with one main difference: Cozzi doesn’t necessarily show that it would be another Godzilla that mankind would be faced with in the advent of further nuclear testing. These events do inform the drama, but do little else to move the story along – it’s just to establish the feeling of the real right before the metaphor is presented. These bookends are the only places within the film that any of the new music composed for this version of the film is used. The cold but rhythmic synth music not only reminds one of Goblin’s music for Gallo horror films from the time (Argento’s TENEBRE comes to mind), but it beneficially separates these sequences from the rest of the film, where the audience should have their attention. The theme’s particular melodies are only played on this second scene.

The version of the film I am reviewing is missing two particular scenes. The first meeting in the diet where we are introduced to Dr. Yamane, and the first half of Yamane’s study of Godzilla’s path on Odo Island being seeing the monster for the first time. This edited down, split into two segments version of the film is what I have, complete with everything except the rest of the end credits.
Of the added footage, all of Godzilla’s attacks are enhanced in some way. The least of these is the Hillside appearance. Lighting, storms, aerial shots is what we have when Shinkichi’s death scene plays. It’s a funny dynamic. These are aerial shots. Being that Godzilla is a large animal, it enhances Honda’s intention of not explicitly showing that it was a living creature causing this destruction in the first place. Really adds suspense if you are into it. Lighting striking across Burr’s face while peering out into the storm from the tent is a good image.

The depth bomb scene’s visual motif of tricking the audience that they were watching a real-time occurrence instead of something on television is enhanced here, though the shots of the boats Cozzi utilizes bear no semblance to the shits Honda had at hand. Cozzi tries to show it as a procedural. These bigger ships shoot off some rounds, then these smaller ships place the depth bombs in the hope of killing Godzilla.

Godzilla’s first couple of appearances in Tokyo Bay and the railroad station is notable. With the use of slow motion, a savoring of terrified faces to out of synch sound is achieved which entices this film goer. Along with that, Cozzi positioned the JSDF to be prepared for an armed resistance of the monster first sight of him in Tokyo Bay. Interesting stuff when it’s not just gratuitous.

Of all these added scenes, Godzilla’s main attack on Tokyo is what really wows. There is the expected re-using of shots which just played less than a minute ago, but Cozzi is a little more careful about this in the main attack scene. The natural and expected lack of sufficient lighting for the monster, along with the colors and the further degradation of the (closest to) original elements, Godzilla is not unlike a surrealist Picaso creation. Sight and sound being out of synch is used effectively, as well as a micro-scene structure of a shot showing a cause being edited into three different shots by effect shots being placed within this cause shot (which is probably slowed down).

It is unclear whether or not, like in every other version of GODZILLA to utilize Honda’s film as a base, the JSDF scares Godzilla away with air missiles or not. If anything, Godzilla comes back onto land. He is aggravated with these missiles. Godzilla’s most threatening like this was GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK. It is during this portion, this questionable Godzilla coming back onto land to finish the job right when he was going to go back to the ocean where the film might be pure metaphor at this juncture. In a strike of operatic grandeur, the Prayer for Peace is played over Godzilla continuing his attack on Tokyo, with intercut footage that – unlike a lot of the other added war-time footage into the film – is too obviously Vietnam. Only footage missing is the infamous shot of the naked girl with napalm burns covering her body. If Godzilla is a physical representation of the bomb, and if the story is supposed to show the horrors of war via man’s interaction with Godzilla, then this is the metaphor used in it’s most abstract in the history of the franchise. Does it work? If it is your cup of tea, yes. The scene beautifully fades from Godzilla attacking admist the Prayer for Peace to the hospital scene. The hospital music/oxygen destroyer music makes for a great non-vocal tail end to the Prayer for Peace.

One of the motifs that show that Luigi did keep in mind a kind of structure when it came to his additions is the lack of any alterations to scene involving the use of the oxygen destroyer, save for it’s actual use against Godzilla (the tragedy of Godzilla’s death is amped up by the over-kill of navy ships shooting at Godzilla while he’s, for lack of a better term, melting). This adding of a relative subtlety to the depiction of the Oxygen Destroyer really makes the weapon come off that much more profound. The oxygen destroyer is a reality still waiting to be unleashed, whereas the bomb via Godzilla has already been let loose into the world.

When watching COZZILLA, it is easy to become bored. The new synth music, the use of color and all of the added war stock footage really makes you think you’re going to see something that is a thrill a minute in the most, maybe artificially aesthetic way. But it is something that if you can get over that you’re watching KING OF THE MONSTERS plain with weird color (As if an old television set had a magnet dragged over it), you may be able to truly appreciate it when these added elements with Honda’s and Tsuburaya’s footage. It’s the most expressionistic Godzilla film, even out doing GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH, and unlike Hedorah, it isn’t trendy pop culture influencing the film.

GODZILLA RESURGENCE: Backlash? Really?

One of the last facebook posts I wrote before loosing internet access was a reply to a post by Japanese filmmaker Shinji Higuchi. One of the rare times that he will actually post about his professional life, he had posted a picture of himself in front of a Godzilla Committee banner with text claiming that he was nervous about this new endeavor. Not that he needs it from me, a person who just befriended him because of his profession, but I wished him luck. A little over a year latter, with my friend's computer at my disposal, I revel news about GODZILLA RESURGENCE, Shinji's Godzilla film (co-directed by Gainax buddy Hideaki Anno). I was surprised to hear that of the leaked photos, two trailers, revealed toys, and other bits of media that personally feed my imagination and has me excited, that there was actually a sizeable portion of the fandom that was totally against the film.

In pure editorial form, I have to ask, what the hell? Is it another case of a Godzilla film, in aesthetic and in substance, being too Japanese for my English speaking compatriots? Is the impression of Godzilla in some older fans minds so solid that additions to the iconography of a certain extreme are seen negatively? Has Legendary's American Godzilla film jaded people? Are fans not used to dueling franchise entries like the James Bond franchise was in the 80's?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXYRYxbw08

I do not get the backlash really. I do however need to make sure that the critical work that I see myself doing (and have done since PACIFIC RIM was released in 2013) continues - putting individual films in a proper context as far as genre aesthetics and their evolution and their social significance is concerned. It is through this lens that I hope that maybe I could sway the opinion of some fans against this new Godzilla film (which, regardless of what Toho says, is the 30th Godzilla film - Legendary's film counts).

When Toho first announced that there was going to be another Godzilla film in the works by their hand, it was an odd moment. I wasn't a fan when the first American Godzilla film was released, I am a GODZILLA 2000 baby. I couldn't compare and contrast Toho's decision to make GODZILLA 2000 with their decision to make GODZILLA RESURGENCE, but the logic was (and I remember fandom luminaries like August Ragone saying this, then again human memory is only 60% accurate and this was two years and a lot of life events for me ago) that Toho was striking while the metal was hot. By time GODZILLA FINAL WARS had come out, people had been talking about how the Japanese marketplace was over-saturated with Godzilla. Legendary's film has made Godzilla popular again, and if Toho is going to make the most money they can, then this was the way to go.

Though part of what I have coined to be the Neo-Kaiju genre (a review of 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE is needed on this blog), Legendary's GODZILLA plays into the franchise's longevity. While playing into the tried and true themes of Godzilla, it added to the iconography and substance by providing a proper American take on an anti-nuclear theme. It presented us with a realistic Godzilla that didn't deviate too much from the basic design elements. It was also a well crafted film. It was also a film that came out after Fukushima Daiichi, an important dynamic to remember. It was timely and fleshed out the character in ways that definitely connected to an audience. It also reached audiences who wouldn't see a subtitled man-in-suit Godzilla to save their lives.

GODZILLA RESURGENCE's role is to continue on that work. More of the Godzilla franchise's longevity hinges on GODZILLA RESURGENCE than say the sequel to Legendary's GODZILLA 2 or their end goal, GODZILLA VS. KING KONG. What's the Japanese take on Godzilla after Fukushima Daiichi? Considering the kinds of drama that Hideaki Anno caters to in his narratives, what can he bring to the Godzilla table? How will Japan aesthetically compliment or compete with it's American contemporary? Will tokusatsu SFX come around full circle, surpassing digital images?

If we refer back to the hour and a half long interview Shinji Higuchi participated in on the Heisei Gamera DVDs, we can recall that one of his goals with his films is to produce a distinctly Japanese kaiju film. Because it is one of the only elements that we can talk about at any depth, let's talk about Godzilla's design.



Godzilla's design is very new and very unorthodox. Almost impractical (ironic, considering that tokusatsu is Japanese practical effects). There is a lot in it that harken back to previous designs. The red glowing of Godzilla, most likely a detail of Godzilla's biology that will be newly divulged in this film, reminds a lot of people of Godzilla's design from GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH. The shape of the head from a side profile angle looks like the mushroom cloud head design that was originally scrapped when the original Godzilla film was in pre-production in 1954. Godzilla's feet have a much more interesting arc in them - digitgrade legs not unlike Stan Winston's maqette for the unmade 1994 American Godzilla attempt. Small arms, like Noriyoshi Ohrai's advance poster for THE RETURN OF GODZILLA but also posed not unlike the original Godzilla's. Five rows of dorsal fins, like the Mire-Goji design of GODZILLA 2000. Small teeth, small eyes, all of these should be familiar. The dorsal fins even resemble to one extent or another fossilized plants or even tatebanko. A lot subtleties in detail as well. It's a design that is at once extreme, transposing nicely with Legendary's more realistic design for Godzilla, but also really Japanese in aesthetic. And it is a scary design. Unnerving, unnatural, but if executed well enough will be scary - because this living creature on screen doesn't look natural, doesn't look like its existence comes without inherent pain or suffering. And it will kill you, directly or indirectly.



Execution is going to be key. Except for a scene in GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL OUT ATTACK, Shinji Higuchi has been keeping his SFX work to short films. He's designed special effects for other filmmakers to use (DRAGONHEAD from 2005), but other than that, other directors have taken up directing the special effects shots in his films. When  this comes to light, it puts what Shinji has been saying in NHK's series of tokusatsu-focused documentaries in a different light. It all harkens back to the work done on GIANT GOD AWAKENS IN TOKYO and GEHARHA, THE LONG AND DARK HAIRED MONSTER. It all goes back to GAMERA 3: INCOMPLETE STRUGGLE and the SFX used in that film in particular. Digital matting has progressed a lot. Such looks similar in a couple of films - from DRAGONHEAD to ATTACK ON TITAN: END OF THE WORLD. But the more time consuming digital matting of smaller details, more carefully calculated angles for matte shots, and different focuses have been mixed with CG enhanced suits and (because of all the matting) less model buildings than ever before to produce quite an effect. Let's not forget that these suits are not fully body suits anymore. The Colossal Titan was only from the waist up, as might be Godzilla in GODZILLA RESURGENCE. It allows for a better scale for the sculptors to put more detail into, more chances for individuals to puppeteer the suit, and more room for the last line of functionality - animatronics within the suit.

With the originator of these special effects at the helm, on this project, there is to be seen some truly great stuff to look forward to. If the second teaser trailer - which was great - gives those with a different opinion fuel, look no further, a recent cross promotion TV spot with PARCO that a lot of the shots used are not quite done yet - these shots are still being cleaned up and added to. Whether Higuchi and his team make the deadline is uncertain (I am still convinced that originally ATTACK ON TITAN was going to be one singular film, and that the month between the two films is what helped make END OF THE WORLD's special effects better than the first films), but here's to hoping.

Let's cut away from Shinji for a second. While it's a little disappointing to me that the dream team of the Heisei Gamera trilogy have yet to make a Godzilla film together (left with Shusuke's GMK and Shinji's SHIN GODZILLA), Shinji has someone who is also a fan of the genre and is great with very cerebral/psychological story telling, Hideki Anno. Hideki Anno is a legend. He is the dark side of anime where Hayao Miyazaki was the light side. Hideki Anno has been a colleague of Shinji's for longer than Shusuke, both finding Gainax togeather with a group of individuals who created works like YAMATO NO OROCHI'S COUNTER ATTACK. Hideki is definitely a fan of the genre, seeing his work on Evangelion (which the Rebuild films, though seeming more like another redo of those last few controversial episodes which brought END OF EVANGELION, are still damn good films). He's even gotten close to the closest thing to a scream queen modern kaiju eiga has, Ayako Fujitani, who was the subject of Anno's second film, the biographical SHIKI-JITSU from 2000. Hideki Anno has shown himself to do great work at producing narratives that, without turning the modus operani into metafiction, are deconstructions of the given genre (which is an essential point, from 2005 to 2013 the genre went through it's slasher-like metafiction phase, lets hope it has passed). He is also good at showing the mentality of his characters for the sake of the characters themselves and not the genre that their tale is in. Part of this is because Hideki Anno is a depressed person (there was once a headline in a lot of Japanese media-based publications claiming that Anno's psychiatrist pleaded fans to stop asking Anno to redo Evangelion). The man practically invented the extreme mental breakdown of a main protagonist that has become something to expect, considering its inclusion in works like ATTACK ON TITAN and TOKYO GHOUL.



Based on all of the character photos and the cast we have, and certain some of the more extreme bits of acting/directing in the second teaser trailer (shouting, that last shot of a character running with focus on his furled brow, and the including of the always extreme TETSUO THE BULLET MAN director Shinya Tsukamoto), chances are we are going to be getting depressingly well rounded characters. Godzilla is going to be scary and the characters will be faced with a certain foreboding and sense of dread that should follow a Godzilla attack, a certain foreboding and sense of dread that use to come across to me in films like THE RETURN OF GODZILLA (not anymore though). We don't know if there is room for a sequel, we do not know about the physical limitations of the story - is it simply a militaristic run through of a Godzilla attack?

There are a lot of possibilities here and seeing the source of these ideas, I am almost certain that this is going to be not only one of the best kaiju films since the likes of GAMERA 3: INCOMPLETE STRUGGLE (which had Kazunori Ito of GHOST IN THE SHELL writing for the trilogy it was a part of), but a possible gem stone of the genre as well. I cannot speak as far as an auteur theory reading of the film is concerned in Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno's filmography, but there is a lot here to expect and when the film finally reaches the likes of Kick Ass Torrents (come on, we all know the drill, scouts honor died on the internet), we'll be able to make final assessments. Until then, let's not bash this film (and in return, I won't hype it so much) and instead think about whether or not Toho and their affiliates aren't putting themselves on the fast track to over-saturating the Japanese market with Godzilla yet again right from the get go,considering that EVANGELION and CRAYON SHIN CHAN are doing what HAMTARO did a decade and some change ago.