Takashi Yamasaki’s turn at rebooting Toho’s most famous radioactive lizard son takes the new tack of having Godzilla menace a Japan that’s freshly on the mend after its catastrophic loss in World War II. As I was just telling my dad, there’s something of all the early ’80s movies American filmmakers made that were about going back and winning Vietnam to it, only this movie is actually good; Godzilla in this film is so blatantly an avatar of nuclear annihilation that a Japanese populous who JUST had to deal with that in the actual historical record can now, with a can-do attitude and a bit of science (and what little military power the American occupiers will allow), actually swing back ’round and take down. I love that it gives you a monster attack right off the bat, in the prologue that introduces you to our protagonist: kamikaze deserter Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), whose self-loathing only grows when he finds himself one of two survivors of an attack by a pre-nuclear testing version of the big G. I also still love this ongoing trend of finding new, slightly different ways of doing the along-the-spines buildup towards Godzilla firing his atomic breath, and how what had become just another tool in his arsenal has become an EVENT. Interesting that the two theatrical Godzilla flicks Toho’s made since the Legendary/Warner Bros. series began have both been very different takes on the original “Japan Vs. Godzilla” formula as opposed to the later “Godzilla, protector of Japan, versus whatever new nonsense monster we have going on this week” model; I’m here for either one, but I do think it’s a lot easier to care about the story going on around all the devastation set pieces — here, Shikishima’s all-encompassing case of survivor’s guilt, driving every action he makes through the whole of the movie — in the earlier mode, where Godzilla is the disaster instead of the solution. A superb monster flick with engrossing drama and top flight effects; I was stunned it’s playing here in town, and would encourage anyone with a soft spot for movies where monsters flatten Tokyo get out there and give it a watch.
