ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The Couchpotatoes 6.7 ratings for this abomination. This is the movie that makes me question on the quality of a site such as IMDb. I saw movies before that were overrated in my humble opinion but then I thought that not everyone has the same taste. But for this one it's utterly ridiculous. Maybe if this movie came out in 1950 I could understand people liking it then. But we are in 2018 now, a period were a sixteen year old child could make better cgi's than the ones in this movie. It's by far the worst Godzilla movie I ever saw. The special effects are done by incompetent people. The monster itself, well I have no words to describe how bad that was. It actually made me laugh on how bad it was. Certainly when you see the eye of the monster. That must be one of the worst costume moments in the history of filming. But enough said about the amateurism of the costume designers and the special effects crew. The story itself is incredibly boring. You wonder who came up with this script and how the hell he managed to convince people to give him a budget. I don't know if it is because it's Japanese or so, with their strict rules acting as servants all the time, and with their talking like they are always extremely mad at something, but the acting was painful to watch. You get a close-up from an actor saying his phrase like he's reading it from a paper, and then you get the next close-up from the next actor saying another absurdity in an of course mad way. And it goes on and on until you had every single person in that room saying his bit in the most amateur way. The whole movie is about debating what to do and who is in charge and who is to blame. And this while the fakeist monster ever made continues to crawl through the city. And you would expect that this movie would be over after one hour, but no they had it to make it a two hour movie. So if you're a bit tired I can assure you that you won't make it till the end. I didn't, I fell asleep half an hour before the end and I could not care less.

JLRVancouver A sign of the times, there is no longer a man in a rubber suit . This iteration of everyone's favorite kaiju is all CGI. In the past, Godzilla has been a metaphor American militarism, environmental catastrophism, GM-Oblivion, Japanese war-guilt, etc., and now, in a very political "Shin Godzilla", he appears to have been recruited as an endlessly adapting existential threat designed to deride a stultified, stratified, inefficient, and timid bureaucracy. The movie is long on governmental procrastinating, hand-wringing, and buck-passing, and short on monster mayhem, but all-in-all, it's an interesting addition to the canon. Briefly, a somewhat embryonic (but still immense) bug-eyed, proto-Godzilla drags itself out of the water and levels part of Tokyo before metamorphosing into a bipedal form that flattens more of the city before returning to the bay. Eventually a colossal 'mature' morph emerges from the bay and returns to continue obliterating Tokyo. Not-surprisingly, man-kind's puny weapons have little effect on the monster, who has now 'evolved' highly efficient defense mechanisms that make short work of the sacrificial planes and tanks sent to torment it. After much pseudo-scientific discussion, freezing him with anti-coagulants (?!) is proposed and the race against the clock begins: if the locals can't stop the monster, the Americans intend, for a third time, to rain nuclear fire down upon Japan. The movie pays homage to the original: - the CGI monster still 'could' have a man inside (unlike Emmerich's much maligned 1998 version), the classic roar is heard, and effective use is made of Akira Ifukube's iconic score from the 1954 original. Not a film for everyone - probably not even for all Godzilla fans - but (IMO) a worthy addition to the long running and constantly evolving series (this is film number 31 not counting Merv Newland's 1969 "Bambi Meets Godzilla"). note: watched in Japanese with English sub-titles

jacobjohntaylor1 This a good movie. It is reboot. I would not say it is the best Godzilla movie. The best Godzilla movie is the reboot of Godzilla from 1998. You do not have to agree with that. But if you get mad about it you are a pooh pooh head. This is a great movie. It one of the scariest movies from 2016. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S which is part twenty seven to the original Godzilla series is better. Godzilla final wars which is part twenty 28 to the original Godzilla series is also better. The Godzilla reboot from 2014 is also better. Still this is a great movie. I give it 7 out of 10. See it.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN SHIN GODZILLA / GODZILLA RESURGENCE (SHIN GOJIRA). Viewed on DVD. Cinematography = eight (8) stars; special effects (excluding Godzilla) = eight (8) stars; sound field = eight (8) stars; score = seven (7) stars; subtitles/translations (Japanese version) = five (5) stars; Godzilla visualization = three (3) stars. Not again already! Directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi provide yet another iteration of Tokyo's least favorite (but arguably most famous) part-time resident by reaching back almost 70 years to successfully re-image what has made the first film an enduring cult favorite. Just about everything you may recall (or wish to forget) seems to be here. A multitude of actors shouting expository one-line dialog at the camera, public address systems doing the same, quick shots of the monster beating up Tokyo, the same shots of military equipment/models being reused Ad Nauseam, etc. This time the mayhem ends with the Japanese using a biological countermeasure (instead of nuking it and what remains of the city) to immobilize the critter on tip toes in the middle of Tokyo to provide city-viewing completion for Sky Tree (?) and a lead-in for a sequel. The Directors jam pack their movie with convincing scenes (but not for Godzilla--see below) of physical and virtual model destruction that fully fill the wide screen. Unfortunately, the film is also jam packed (beyond the tipping point?) with actors (and a few stray actresses) who mostly direct their bureaucratic speak to the camera rather to each other. The objective is to amusingly underscore the decision-making paralysis of Japan's current governing style (a new law needs to be passed by the Diet before the monster can be dealt with!), but it ends up paralyzing the audience's comprehension of parallel unfolding events. Acting is fine when directed away from the camera. Stunning actress Satomi Ishihara provides a beauty-and-the-beast juxtaposition. Cinematography (2.35 : 1, color) and lighting are very good. Score provides a unique blend of music from earlier films, some re-scored riffs on the same, and an imaginative original score. Subtitles for the Japanese version suffer big time from overkill. The top of the screen contains 3-5 lines that identify bureaucrats and their titles plus the locations of every-changing conference rooms (who really cares?). The screen bottom provides overly-generous line-reading translations that flash by at light speed (serious adult grammatical editing is called for). Signs/text are not translated. Godzilla's visualization is often cheesy or just plain lame. The monster is depicted as a cuddly, plush kiddie toy with puppy-dog eyes in early scenes, and as a highly-accurate multi-laser military machine later on (perhaps a weapon from an unfriendly nation state?). Great fun despite Godzilla's rendering! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.