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So I just got out from seeing the newest Godzilla movie with some friends. In preparation for my birthday, I selected some movies from some local libraries I really wanted to see (yes, I still use my local libraries, it's great resource). I found myself leaning a bit into various segments of nostalgia. It was sort of a Halloween/Birthday movie night at my place, with many options to satiate certain cinematic cravings. Lately, I've been inspired by Red Letter Media, picking movies based on the spin of wheel. Usually, these choices aren't quite as schlocky (usually).
Among these choices, I picked Godzilla movies. These were Invasion of the Astro-Monster and Godzilla vs Hedorah. Seeing Godzilla: Minus Zero with my friends, Justin and Nathaniel, ended up being sort of a part two to the movie night. This part two was combined with our tradition over the years of having a "Nerd Noodle Day". This involved, as is implied, eating noodles while discussing various nerdy topics.
Much like the movie I may review in this little blog, this piece probably seems like it's already a little scattered. It is, but I am getting to a point.
Neither Godzilla movie was picked. It ended up being a martial arts sort of night. This trajectory was determined by Mortal Kombat (1995), which led me to making my friends endure Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest followed by the Steven Seagal feature, Out for a Kill.
Even though we didn't watch any Godzilla movies, I found it interesting that both movies were apparently connected to the most recent one. Astro-Monster is perhaps the more obvious of the two. This being due to the fact, that (apparently) everyone in the world but me knew that the title of the movie was a reference to Monster Zero, aka King Ghidorah's name given to him by the alien antagonists in Astro-Monster. Honestly, it didn't really come to me, as I thought it was just a numerically close title to the previous. Plus, it sounded coooool man.
The connection to Hedorah I literally discovered while looking for an image to put atop this blog. It seems that there were some theories about Hedorah being the villain in Minus Zero. This isn't true, but I found the idea compelling from the few articles I saw about it. Perhaps I'll go back and read them. Hmm.
Anyway, there are two things I want to point out here. Or maybe just one and half. The first is that I've made it goal over the past few years to really avoid trailers or any spoilers for movies (or anything else really). I've always posited trying to keep my experience with a new piece of art as pure as I can. I want to have that direct connection with the work, without any outside influence. Then maybe I'll compare. Since going out to the movies is rare for me these days, I've leaned even more into this, just to make it special. Overall, I think this helped me be surprised by the movie. Ironically, I've decided to just put Ghidorah's picture up there. So either I'm making a statement against the futility of this philosophy in our age of spoilers everywhere, or I'm a bit of a hypocrite. Or (and here's the truth), this was honestly the best image I found in my brief Google image search. Plus Ghidorah's my favorite thing about the movie.
Secondly, I'm not sure if there is some deeper meaning here or I'm just seeing patterns where I want to. I mean, it's pretty interesting that the two random Showa Godzilla films I picked were connected in some way to this newest one. If nothing else, maybe it just shows how these films exist in a flowing continuum, as any long running franchise does. Godzilla shifts and changes but the central elements remain consistent. That's why we keep coming back.
So, for a brief review:
The movie was pretty good.
Okay, I won't be that brief. I feel like there's a great deal that's probably been covered at this point in more depth by other people online. They movie has been about for about a week at this point. Plus, I'll be putting up a video review the three of us did after seeing the movie which I think covers it pretty well.
The main takeaway from it, which we all pretty much agreed on, is that this movie isn't quite as good as Minus One. I wrote a review that movie three years ago (has it really been three years?) and I feel like watching it again before seeing this one would serve a viewer well. If you liked that one, you'll probably like this one. This big issue with Minus Zero is just about what to focus on in the story.
The film has many cool ideas it throws in there that provide enough content for several different movies. It also tries and (mostly) succeeds in doing service to the emotional weight of the character drama and the historical-political commentary of post-war Japan. I like how this movie is one of the most direct in expressing Japan's very mixed feelings towards the United States, using Godzilla as an allegory for these complex perspectives. Still, much like many of the themes and plot points in the story, it never fully commits to exploring that idea. It felt to me like the script writers were honestly not sure how they felt. Maybe that's okay, sometimes you don't know how you fully feel and writing is a way to go through the process of figuring it out (like in this blog *insert drum effect). It does make for a story that just doesn't have the emotional punch of the previous movie.
While Minus One was a bleak war drama with Godzilla looming over everything, with a our protagonists drive for vengeance shifting to heroic bravery, this kind of pushes those two elements to the side to try to balance everything out.
It's still good though, but the lack of focus makes the movie's runtime drag a bit in the middle. I kind of wish we had just a little bit more monster action. Not much more, but just a little bit. Ghidorah and the scientists clever use of 1940'sish tech to try to defeat him and ultimately draw the monsters to fight were easily the most interesting and fun aspects of the movie. I'm not sure if Ghidorah has ever been scarier. He also has an anti-gravity tractor beam thing, which was different.
I liked many of the characters. The head scientist, Dr Noda, has a great moment of sacrifice towards the final battle. The meteorologist and the professor on his quest for revenge both also come to mind. Of course, our family at the heart of it continued to be a lovable group, though once again this felt a little stronger in the first movie.
Personally, I liked the idea of Godzilla's DNA mixing with the radiation effects on people. I think this could have led to many interesting ideas which obviously could lead to different movies. Maybe they'll explore them in the sequel. I'm not sure. We could get Mecha-Ghidora next time.
Like I said, it's pretty good. It's no Godzilla vs the Sea-Monster though.
-Joe
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