Shin Godzilla (2016)

Shin Godzilla (シン・ゴジラ Shin Gojira), also known as Godzilla Resurgence, is a 2016 Japanese science-fiction kaiju film that is also the 31st film in the Godzilla franchise, directed by Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame and Shinji Higuchi, with a script written by Anno.

The production of the film was prompted by the success of Legendary Pictures' own Godzilla film from 2014. The film was followed by an animated film trilogy distributed by Toho in Japan and Netflix internationally, but the trilogy recieved mixed to negative reviews from fans.

Plot
A pleasure yacht is found abandoned. It then explodes, flooding the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line. A large creature emerges from the ocean, and makes landfall on Tokyo, slowly evolving in the process. The Japanese government soon faces a difficult situation as they attempt to deal with the creature...

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Brings Godzilla back to his sci-fi horror roots and his 1954 film debut.
 * 2) Great special effects and CGI effects, despite having a much lower budget than the 2014 film.
 * 3) The CGI animation for the Godzilla character.
 * 4) Decent acting.
 * 5) Unlike the other Japanese Godzilla films, this one is not a sequel to the original 1954 movie. In fact, it is a complete reboot, asking the question of "What would happen if Godzilla appeared in the present day?".
 * 6) Excellent soundtrack by frequent Anno collaborator Shiro Sagisu, who not only reused his own musical cues from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Bleach, but also came up with lots of great original music, most notably "Persecution of the Masses" and "Who Will Know (Tragedy)".
 * 7) A great story that deals with tragedy and its consequences. While trying to be faithful to the original Godzilla movies.
 * 8) Makes nice throwbacks to the older films from the 50s to 70s, particularly by reusing sound effects and even some of Akira Ikufube's tracks.
 * 9) A sudden ending that is incredibly disturbing.
 * 10) Godzilla goes through various metamorphosis throughout the film, which is an interesting idea.
 * 11) Godzilla's main form is both cool and scary looking. The scars and red coloration really make him look like something mutated by nuclear energy.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Godzilla's roars are completely reused from the previous films, which is slightly underwhelming.
 * 2) Lazy exposition; the film uses way too much text to tell the audience the names of the characters, locations and even military weapons.
 * 3) The animatronic of Godzilla was not used in the final film.
 * 4) Human characters are as usual bland and lack development.
 * 5) This film's incarnation of Godzilla is shown to be weaker than all the other incarnations, with exception of Zilla. (as he was easily crippled by bunker bombs)

Reception
The film was a commercial success; on its opening weekend, it was number one at the box office, surpassing Finding Dory and One Piece Film: Gold; it would go on to gross over $78 million worldwide against a $15 million budget.

The film has also received positive critical reception both in Japan (where it was met with near-universal acclaim) and internationally (albeit slightly more mixed), with an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also won multiple awards in the 40th Japan Academy Prize such as Picture of the Year, Director of the Year, Best Cinematography for Kousuke Yamada, Best Art Direction for Yuji Hayashida and Eri Sakushima, Best Lighting Direction for Takayuki Kawabe, Best Sound Recording for Jun Nakamura and Haru Yamada, and Best Film Editing for Anno and Atsuki Sato.

Trivia

 * 1) It was supposed to have a sequel, but Toho scrapped it in favor of a new shared kaiju movie universe.
 * 2) According to Know Your Meme, the second form of Godzilla garnered a cult following for his bizarre and cute appearance, and has been given the unofficial nickname of "Kamata-kun". Kamata-kun would later reappear in select episodes of the Japan-only web series, Gojiban, although he is far smaller and is named "Kamatte-kun".
 * 3) As mentioned above, the film was preceeded by an anime trilogy: Godzilla: Planet of the monsters (2017), and the two sequels, Godzilla:City on the Edge of Battle and Godzilla: The Plant eater, which were both released in 2018. The films were distributed by Toho in Japan and Netflix internationally. The first film, Godzilla: Planet of the monsters was released theatrically in Japan on November 17, 2017 and worldwide via Netflix on January 17, 2018. The second film, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle was released theatrically in Japan on May 18, 2018 and worldwide via Netflix on July 18, 2018. The final film, Godzilla: The Plant eater was released theatrically in Japan on November 9, 2018 and worldwide via Netflix on January 9, 2019. The trilogy continues the story of humans fighting to reclaim the Earth from Godzilla, this time with the help of a weapon known as Mechagodzilla. However, the trilogy recieved mixed to negative reviews from the fans of the franchise.

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