Auto-imported from derpibooru.org (2207881)

Seriously, though, what an insufferable waste.

Remember how I commented that Megalon went ways away from the tone of the original movie? This brings it back, but in all the wrong ways. I get that they wanted to have a more modern metaphor about government bureaucracy being a more of a hindrance than a help, but the movie wastes practically it’s entire run time in offices.

Granted, the brief moments we get with this new Godzilla are impressive, but they just get cut back to another meeting that drones on forever. If I have to choose, I think I’d rather go back to rubber suit wrestling; at least that was fun.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my calligraphy pen and shove it somewhere Neighsay doesn’t want it to go before he makes me miss the best
part of the movie.

Guys, I think there's something wrong with me. I must be getting really bad at being an artist, or at doing art, or maybe I've become too complacent because I've been liking a lot of my artwork lately. And with a lot I mean more than zero pieces. This year may go down as the year I stopped hating my work the moment that it's posted online, though almost every single piece was giving me nothing but grief the moment that I was working on them. So you can imagine this one was no different! I really had a hard time working on it, but I very much like the end result, so I guess I really have failed as an artist after all! In all seriousness, I am quite pleased with the end result, and drawing Legendary Godzilla looking at his watch with a deep aura of annoyance is perhaps the funniest thing I've drawn this year.

I wonder where he got a watch that big.

It's weird the position I'm in regarding "Shin Gojira". For once I watched it before giving a watch to "Neon Genesis Evangelion", so my first exposure to Hideaki Anno's style was this movie. It was also preceeded by a ton (and I mean hours worth) of people online telling me and warning me about the many flaws this movie's got. And while none of them are wrong for having an opinion, I say these aren't so much flaws as they represent the point the movie's trying to make.

"Shin Gojira" is all about the current monsters of our time, not so much the giant lizard rampaging and destroying everything but our unhealthy reliability in warfare, technology, the futility of it all, the way things get bogged down to a screeching halt due to bureaucracy and paperwork. The guys from RedLetterMedia described it as a procedural drama, and that's exactly what it is. Maybe I'm just weird, but I love those moments where the scientists and politicians are working together to fix the problem, while outside the city is falling apart. Analogy for the 2011 tsunami and subsequent nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima plant? Absolutely. This movie, much like the original, is meant to reflect that. The way we have become our own worst enemies, and how the way things get bogged down has nothing to do with the titular monster.

Sprinkling the set pieces of Godzilla destroying the city throughout the movie was also a struck of genius, as doing so makes every board meeting and action planning all the more suffocating and urgent. In the end I found myself really getting into it, seeing all these genuinely likeable one-dimensional characters trying to figure out a way to stop this force of nature. Yeah, I have quibbles about it, there's no such thing as a perfect movie. As much as the visuals are gorgeous I think the design of Godzilla itself leaves much to be desired. Some people say its starting form is derpy, and I'll argue that all forms are derpy! I took the actions and destruction seriously, but anytime I saw those dopey eyes I just couldn't help but giggle. The giggling did stop though the moment the blood and the sewage and the nuclear fire started flooding the city though.

"Shin Gojira" is one oppressive misery-a-thon with a very strong (if a bit too hammer-y) message about the dangers of red tape and our reliance on outdated systems and methods. Strongly put together with great performances and gorgeous visuals in and out of the action, this movie sets a great precedent for kaiju films.

Upvotes at import: 39 | Stars at import: 26
Posted previously at: 2019-11-28T19:31:25