Godzilla: Resurgence (Shinji Higuchi, Hideaki Anno, 2016)

[HungFist]

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/japan ... 201373457/

Planned for 2016 release.

I think the chances of this turning out anything good are pretty slim, but let's see.

[Tenchu1998]

The thing about this Monster movie, is that it spawned from the times, like the beginning of the nuclear age. The whole thing about monsters and catastrophes had a charm to it back then, with those miniature special effects and Godzilla being this weird animal that just destroys things effortlessly. It was an entertaining take on combining the whole mythology of giant monsters with a modern age of nuclear technology.

Now, Godzilla goes to America, and it's boring... In that latest Godzilla movie, they had Ken Watanabe wear the watch that stopped on the day of the Hiroshima bomb, or something - referencing to the nuclear thing that spawned Godzilla in the olden days. Guy should have been like 70 years old and dying of cancer from the radiation of wearing that thing. That movie was still boring and pointless, in my opinion.

Now... I don't even care, personally...

[HungFist]

Holy shit! Hideaki Anno will direct!!!
- http://twitchfilm.com/2015/03/the-first ... ement.html

This just got about 27 times more interesting!

Love & Pop is one of my favourite movies of all time, and Ritual is nearly as good. And he also directed that little know TV series called Evangelion...

[Guro Taku]

I expect this will be closer to the crowdpleasing mainstream qualities of CUTIE HONEY and less epic theological END OF EVANGELION mindfuck. Which is fine with me as I like both flavors.

[HungFist]

Teaser (that shows nothing):
https://youtu.be/1bzsFjf7paI

The English title is Godzilla: Resurgence. In Japanese シン・ゴジラ (Shin Gojira = New Godzilla). Opens July 29, 2016.

Oh, and the film is actually co-directed by Shinji Higuchi (not a good sign) and Hideaki Anno (a good sign).



The poster says "Japan vs. Godzilla".

[HungFist]

Trailer:
https://youtu.be/ysRIwlEBjuw

Love the special effects, but the storyline and characters look uninteresting, very un-Anno like. That's just based on the trailer of course. Will certainly see this in cinema and find out for myself. I have pretty mixed expectations for it having two directors, Anno being just about the best thing that could have happened to Godzilla, and Higuchi being, well, not the best thing at all that could have happened to Godzilla.

[HungFist]

Second Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M89VLZgo1Vg

[HungFist]

Saw this earlier today:

Godzilla: Resurgence (Japan, 2016) [DCP] - 2/5
A rather disappointing film by director/writer Hideaki Anno, whose track record as a brilliant analyst of troubled and alienated characters (Ritual), and as a strong social critic (Love & Pop) with antipathies for adults and the government (Evangelion), had us expect something special. Unfortunately this is as far from the Anno we know as possible. It's 25 minutes of action and 95 minutes of talking heads in a government conference room. Oddly enough the heads belong to legions of uninteresting politicians and researchers, leaving the film without a main character other than collective "Japan". There are some semi-interesting themes concerning Japanese politics, and references to recent natural disasters are effective, but the character depth is zero and the pro-government approach very unexpected from Anno. Special effects are good whenever old school effects dominate, but there are some poor CGI segments as well.

[HungFist]

Forgot to mention Shinya Tsukamoto's acting role is one of the film's biggest. Also bonus from Mikako Ichikawa's screen time. On the minus side, we have the incredibly frustrating Satomi Ishihara in an even bigger role.

Atsuko Maeda was supposed to be somewhere in the film, but I missed her. Post-viewing guess: in one of the collapsing buildings?

Here's a pretty good review of the film:
http://kotaku.com/godzilla-resurgence-t ... 1784509330

Some positive comments here:
https://skreeonk.com/2016/07/28/shin-go ... iler-free/

[Guro Taku]

I've heard rumors that Godzilla's tail is being made up of fused-together human victims and that those victims are shown to mutate into Godzilla spawn. If true that sounds almost as if Nishimura had directed this. Can you comment on/verfiy/deny this?

[HungFist]

Let's put it this way: if you were a bit sleepy while watching the movie, you probably wouldn't notice at all. In other words, if you're expecting Nishimura mutation stuff, forget about it.

[HungFist]

No.1 at the box office:
http://www.kogyotsushin.com/archives/we ... 000000.php

And an average user rating of 4.16/5 at yahoo:
http://movies.yahoo.co.jp/movie/%E3%82% ... 83%A9/360/

Here's also a review by someone who really loved the movie:
http://www.otakuusamagazine.com/JPop/Ne ... -8058.aspx

I don't understand at all some the things said in the review... for me this was the exact opposite from what you'd expect from Anno. No character depth, no individual vs society aspect, no consistently innovative camerawork, no quiet moody/philosophical moments...

And no mention of Satomi Ishihara. She's the worst Japanese actress of the century... and that's saying a lot. I hated most of the cast, but she's is a league of her own.

I do admit though, that subtitles wouldn't have hurt and I may have missed some of content. Like the reviewer says, the film is a translator's nightmare for the sheer volume of dialogue and constant on screen text (unless he/she get paid by character count. I that case he/she is going to be a millionaire).

This genius trailer for The End of Evangelion is what Anno is to me, and everything Godzilla Resurgence is not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4fP_QRCIYg

[HungFist]

Japan Times review:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/201 ... 6L8-KJ-Bnt

[HungFist]

It's seems like everyone else is loving the film. Quite a few of my friends have seen it recently in the US, Sitges, Japan etc. seem to be enjoying it.

And calling it Anno-like

[HungFist]

I ended up seeing this for the second time, and enjoyed it more with adjusted expectations. I admit there’s some pretty biting satire on Japanese government, and it’s generally pretty well made with a good pace considering the amount of talk, and some moody scenes. But I still feel this is not the Anno I love. To put it in a way most people can understand: there are people who love Evangelion because of the mecha stuff, and then there are people who like Evangelion (*) despite the mecha stuff. I’m in the latter camp. This film was aimed more for the first group. But yeah, I think I was a bit too hard on it after the first viewing.

* of course, for me Anno equals to Love & Pop and Ritual, not Evangelion. Evangelion is good with moments of greatness while Love & Pop and Ritual show what Anno is really capable of.