Tag: godzilla

Film Review: The Titans Get Ready To Rumble Once Again

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has awesome visual effects, great monster fight scenes, and almost impressive mediocrity in any other basic elements of filmmaking. This is the ultimate in a mind-numbing popcorn flick.

It took three screenwriters for this one to underwhelm me. Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater concocted this exercise in screenwriting shallowness. Adam Wingard directed this latest addition to the Monarch storyline. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, and Kaylee Hottle are the human leads. Kaylee Hottle, the teen-ager who has a unique friendship with King Kong, is probably the most interesting character, Jia. Jia is the last survivor of a tribe that resided on Skull Island and is deaf, as is the actress herself.

While Godzilla is either sleeping in some ruins in Rome or wandering the globe protecting humanity from less agreeable Titans, Kong has set up camp in Hollow Earth where he looks for any survivors from his species. Kong discovers an unknown region of Hollow Earth where he starts a new exploration. In the meantime, the scientists studying these Titans notice that Godzilla is seemingly powering himself up to face a threat that he has suddenly sensed. They have also encountered a signal that has been traced to Hollow Earth. A new threat is rising to the surface, and Kong and Godzilla have to join forces to protect humans from a very big, very ancient enemy.

The film is not terrible, but I hard time caring about the characters. Somehow, Godzilla and Kong seem to have picked up some moves from WWE and Jackie Chan films. I know these films are going to have some natural absurdity and should be shown some grace considering the genre, however the overall lack of originality in the human characters makes it hard to pull that off. The CGI was quite stunning, and big giant creatures smashing buildings is almost always a fun treat, but there was little else that worked with any consistency.

The cast is talented enough and did the best they could, but the material was no real help to them or the audience.

Film Review: Old School Godzilla

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Godzilla Minus One is the latest film to feature the most popular giant lizard stomping his way through Japan. The fact that it is made with Japanese cast and crew sort of gives it a sense of authenticity. It’s like the big, mean lizard goers back to his roots. Takashi Yamazaki is the writer and director of this one. The cast includes Ryonesuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, and Yuki Yamada. 

The film starts off toward the end of World War II where the audience meets a kamikaze pilot who basically chickened out. Kamiki plays the lead role quite convincingly. His wartime experiences and an unexpected with a giant lizard that killed nearly everyone on a Japanese base where the young pilot had landed to avoid his duty under the pretense of having a malfunction repaired. He returns home to find that his parents perished in an air raid. As he starts to rebuild what is left of his family’s property, he is joined by a young woman who rescued an orphaned baby. When he starts to find hope and a desire to live in spite of his acute survivor’s guilt, Godzilla returns to smash his way through his country and remind him of some unfinished business.

I was pleasantly surprised that most of this works pretty well. There was actually a pretty compelling human drama in the midst of the chaotic rampage perpetrated by Godzilla. The cast was quite good, and I was drawn into the emotional plight of the characters as well as the visual spectacle of Godzilla’s carnage. The film does feel a little too long at times, and my attention did wander sometimes. The special effects were pretty good, but some of them were reminiscent of the 1950’s films. This iteration of Godzilla had some of the familiar lumbering moments of those early films. Some of the more recent versions had a sleeker and more agile appearance.

Yamazaki created a new story but displayed an affection for the original concept. He also did well with presenting characters that were believable in spite of the fantastical root. I actually didn’t mind the gaps in which Godzilla wasn’t onscreen because the lead characters were compelling.

Yamazaki was also smart to not tie his film to the recent productions started in 2014 by Legendary Pictures. I am by means a dedicated follower of Godzilla, but it felt right to have a strictly Japanese setting and cast. It also gave some interesting insight as to the consequences of World War II from the Japanese perspective.

It feels like a long time since I was enthusiastic about recommending a film to anyone who reads this blog, and I have no regret about taking the time for this one. I will predict that few would disagree.