"Man is more frightening than Gojira."
When the monster is on the screen, the action scenes and special effects are very good, and certainly entertaining. Those atomic rays being shot out of Gojira's back are fantastic. The film also has interesting commentary about the United States and its penchant for unilateral demands and a rash decision to drop a nuclear weapon on the beast (and Tokyo in the process). The overtones to Hiroshima and Nagasaki couldn't be clearer, but the film throws in some heavy-handed references in case we didn't get it, though I can forgive it for those because like the original film, it's making a points about the horrors of the nuclear age. One of the characters states that Japan must start acting for itself and that the war ended long ago, and it was refreshing to hear that perspective voiced.
Unfortunately, the film bogs itself down in far too many scenes in conference rooms. At first I liked the commentary that made on politics and bureaucracy, e.g. when the Prime Minister assures the creature can't go on land and then while he's speaking, doh! Gojira is on land. As it plays out it gets tedious though, and there were times when I was hoping I'd be seeing Gojira again. I liked the attempt to show people faced with the dilemma of this improbable creature and how to stop it and the dynamics of power within Japan and the world, but the discussions didn't seem real, like they had a veneer of inauthenticity about them. At one point, a guy unfurls a map on a table and we get fast edits cut together to make it seem like it's some kind of dramatic event. The conversations people have all seem stilted, and nowhere is that more obvious than the character of the envoy from the United States.
After a lot of red tape and fumbling around, the film shifts into Hollywood blockbuster mode, with a phased assault on the creature. I like the positive message for Japan, but it just felt too produced, and I wished it had either been grittier and stuck to dark commentary about mankind, or that it had had more action sequences. As it is, it's in the middle and ends up being just OK.
When the monster is on the screen, the action scenes and special effects are very good, and certainly entertaining. Those atomic rays being shot out of Gojira's back are fantastic. The film also has interesting commentary about the United States and its penchant for unilateral demands and a rash decision to drop a nuclear weapon on the beast (and Tokyo in the process). The overtones to Hiroshima and Nagasaki couldn't be clearer, but the film throws in some heavy-handed references in case we didn't get it, though I can forgive it for those because like the original film, it's making a points about the horrors of the nuclear age. One of the characters states that Japan must start acting for itself and that the war ended long ago, and it was refreshing to hear that perspective voiced.
Unfortunately, the film bogs itself down in far too many scenes in conference rooms. At first I liked the commentary that made on politics and bureaucracy, e.g. when the Prime Minister assures the creature can't go on land and then while he's speaking, doh! Gojira is on land. As it plays out it gets tedious though, and there were times when I was hoping I'd be seeing Gojira again. I liked the attempt to show people faced with the dilemma of this improbable creature and how to stop it and the dynamics of power within Japan and the world, but the discussions didn't seem real, like they had a veneer of inauthenticity about them. At one point, a guy unfurls a map on a table and we get fast edits cut together to make it seem like it's some kind of dramatic event. The conversations people have all seem stilted, and nowhere is that more obvious than the character of the envoy from the United States.
After a lot of red tape and fumbling around, the film shifts into Hollywood blockbuster mode, with a phased assault on the creature. I like the positive message for Japan, but it just felt too produced, and I wished it had either been grittier and stuck to dark commentary about mankind, or that it had had more action sequences. As it is, it's in the middle and ends up being just OK.