Review of Shin Godzilla (2016) by Rafael L — 13 Jan 2017

There are two sides to every Godzilla movie, American or Japanese: the scenes with the humans, and the scenes with Godzilla. Godzilla's design looks pretty amazing, and the buildup to his maturation was a surprise and a great idea.

And the scenes with him rampaging around Japan is always a highlight. The human side, however, is not as compelling. I get that they're treating this as a natural disaster rather than a monster movie, as per the original, but scenes take place in and don't leave a single room.

The characters are bland and unremarkable and only when it feels dramatic do they eventually break their often stoic personalities. Only at the climax do we root for the humans, but until then we except Godzilla to keep blowing up another wave of military forces.

The film does more telling than showing, only cutting to the action every, say, ten minutes or so. The result seems like typical Japanese Godzilla flick, with one that has enthusiasm for its kin yet lacks something to root for other than the titular monster.