Shin Godzilla (Godzilla Resurgence) Review

I cannot remember a movie with two official names, but the latest Godzilla movie has just that: Godzilla Resurgence and Shin Godzilla. It is from Toho, creators of the kaiju franchise, and is playing in select theaters this week. Is it a good film, worthy of the twelve year hiatus (not counting the American one)? Well, if you are excited about seeing the cultural phenomenon on the big screen, then you have nothing to fear; if you are not excited, you will not be excited during any minute of the two hour long creature feature.

Playing as a precursor to the franchise, we watch the Japanese government, army, and public, try to deal with the sudden appearance of the building-busting behemoth. Only it is not quite the Godzilla we all know and love, and in the interest of keeping things spoiler free, shows that even decades later, Toho keeps pumping out new little tricks and twists to the dorsal finned beast.

But here, like Gareth Edwards' 2014 film, directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi focus quite a bit on the human characters, unfortunate, considering the English release is subtitled and not dubbed. This leaves your eyes scattering from reading the sometimes, whether intentional or not, awkward dialogue to observing in glee as tall towers crumble to the titular man in a rubber suit. It does not help that these long sequences of conversations are constantly introducing characters and changing locations. The quick zapping from set piece to set piece should keep keeping kiddies from becoming bored during the otherwise drawn-out pieces of dull dialogue. But all this while exploring interesting camera angles and almost humorous quick-cuts, it becomes a disorientating experience, particularly while quickly scanning the screen trying to read what the next new politician is saying, only to find our growing group of actors are in a completely different location.

Illusions to current Japanese and world events, the film is smarter than what you would expect from a giant monster movie, but like real-world politics, there are simply too many people to keep track of to truly feel any connection with them, rendering Godzilla's fairly sparse screen time a minor disappointment. He at least looks fantastic, a good mixture of CGI, animatronics, and good old fashioned rubber suits, all with a refreshingly retro and rather menacing look. But his movement is robotic, and he exploits none of the moxie of earlier films; he seems almost pleased to just be walking in an almost straight line, and destroys a building only on occasion. He is on screen much more than the aforementioned America movie, but most of the time, he is just standing still.

Its unique cuts and camera movements give this film a very modern and a superficially fast paced feel, but audiences have already seen, many many times, men in suits discussing how to eliminate the threat. There is a scene when the current "way to kill Godzilla" is to use a blood coagulant, and we witness canister after canister of the stuff; why did we need to see this? I would have rather the budget for all those canisters go towards another building for Godzilla to destroy.

Sully Review

Tom Hanks convicts so much power and steals each scene he is in, in the new Clint Eastwood film, Sully, a film made nearly all by his presence. Playing Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a pilot who miraculously lands a plane on the Hudson when both engines were blown just after take off when the plane hit a flock of birds. As if Alfred Hitchcock did not already give us enough reasons to hate birds.

He learns that the National Transportation Safety Board have launched an investigation, calling out that their tests prove he could have landed the plane safely on the runway he initially took off. There is more stuff here, more with the investigation, however their motive is generic movie "villain," where slimy businessmen, including a surprisingly effective Mike O'Malley as Charles Porter, do slimy things to our protagonist. I realize this is based on a real story, and not the "Blair Witch Project" kind of real story, and that this disagreement did actually happen. But the film gives the antagonists little to do except point the finger and learn their at the end of the ninety six minute long film. The highlight is Tom Hanks, a man disturbed by what could have happened instead of what did, as well as the realistic plane crash scenes. Those alone are enough to make you never want to fly again.

The other performances, including Aaron Eckhart as first officer Jeff Skiles and Laura Linney as Sully's wife Lorraine, are all fine, but their dramatic weight is light compared to Hanks. It is particularly obvious when Sully and his wife speak over the phone (which is their only means of communicating throughout the film), that Tom Hanks is in control of each scene, and Laura can only do her best not to forget her lines.

When the plane crashes, which we see various bits of and various variations of, there is technical jargon spat out by the pilot and first officer as the aircraft comes burning down, and honest panic by the passengers; the film should have spent more time here. We believe everything that happens, and when the ship went down, I felt as if I was one of the passengers with their tray table up and their seat in the full upright position.

There was this group of kids, rowdy teenage boys who heckled throughout the film, however, when Tom Hanks spoke, they quieted down. His performance is that good. And aside from some thrilling crash scenes, he is the best thing in an otherwise run-of-the-mill film.