Shin Godzilla (2016) does a great job showing the realism of disasters and what would actually happen if Godzilla were real. Godzilla is also the scariest he’s been since the original.
Shin Godzilla (2016) had so much hype going into it. It was the first Japanese Godzilla movie made since Godzilla: Final Wars, which came out in 2004. I remember watching Godzilla: Final Wars as a kid, and it really felt like the true finale to all the Godzilla movies.
It seemed like we were really done with Godzilla, as that film did a great job of rounding up all the characters. But eventually, we got Shin Godzilla (2016) and now Minus One. Shin Godzilla (2016) was in part created by Hideaki Anno, who is responsible for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
This is one of my favorite anime, and it’s definitely regarded as one of the more popular anime of the 90s. He seemed to make this film between making the rebuild Evangelion movies, which finished in 2021. Having him make a Godzilla movie is a match made in heaven. He even used some of the music from Neon Genesis Evangelion in the movie.
I think a lot of people were excited to hear it, and seeing reviews online, it seemed like people loved that part of Shin Godzilla (2016). I remember watching this movie when it came out 10 years ago, but I hadn’t really seen it since. I got to watch it with a good sound system, and it was definitely a lot better than what I remembered. Maybe some of it was when I watched it 10 years ago.
I was a lot younger, so the political nature of it definitely went over my head. But watching it now, I can definitely see that side of the movie a lot better. I also remember when this movie came out in theaters in America.
It felt like a big deal because, growing up, we didn’t have many Godzilla movies playing in theaters in America, at least near me. You’d be pretty lucky to be able to find a Godzilla movie on DVD. Usually, there were a handful of the more popular films you could find, but besides that, you had to get walking and catch it on TV or something.
This movie follows all the political leaders in Japan as they deal with Godzilla and plan to stop him.
The film goes into ultra-realism, showing how they would deal with it in real life. That sort of realism does give it a little bit more of a scare factor as you get super invested in the film. Obviously, Godzilla is not real, and we aren’t going to ever see him in our lifetime. But just about everything else in the film was pretty realistic, besides Godzilla.
It feels like a strange thing to say, but they definitely do a good job of the realism and natural disasters like this that occur. Even if you take Godzilla out of the equation, it’s a lot like a nuclear bomb or a city that is in the heart of a world war.
We see all the evacuations and underground spots that citizens and politicians have to go to in Shin Godzilla (2016) to stay safe. Those scenes are awesome to see. Because we see more of the political characters, we don’t necessarily get super in-depth characterization, which is never really common in Godzilla films, but we sometimes get that, like in Godzilla Minus One.
There definitely aren’t a ton of Godzilla films where I really like the human characters, but this one at least has some interesting political figures to see. Seeing some of the higher-ups in the Japanese political sphere was kind of cool, and then seeing the American representative they spent a lot of time talking to was cool as well. I thought she was a really cool character.
I think a great point of contention for this movie is how well the sound design, music, and look are. Something that is a lot like Neon Genesis Evangelion. We get some pretty incredible sound design, which Godzilla is definitely known for. Of course, you get the classic Godzilla screams and howls, but this time, we get some new sound effects that sound pretty awesome in Shin Godzilla (2016).
Along with that, we get some great music in Shin Godzilla (2016).
There’s music in just about every scene, it feels like, and every single time it’s awesome. It elevates and heightens every scene that it’s in. The music feels like a character in and of itself because of how important it is for this movie.
Godzilla was always a man in a rubber suit, but nowadays, Godzilla is CGI, of course.
Shin Godzilla (2016) does well with its CGI. There are a lot of ways to deal with CGI when you’re creating something otherworldly. There are certain ways to frame it on the camera to make it look more realistic and certain ways to cut around it so the audience thinks it looks more real.
They definitely did a great job on this, and they didn’t need anAvengers-level budget to do it. Just like the next film in the series, Godzilla Minus One, they didn’t necessarily need a big budget to make Godzilla look as real as any other CGI monster.
In fact, he looks better than most CGI monsters in films today, ten years later. Shin Godzilla (2016) might be overlooked nowadays because Minus One has had so much success. But I think it’s still worth going back and watching, and it seems like eventually we might get a sequel.
It’s hard to say because Minus One is doing so well, and they already are making a sequel for that, so it would seem weird to jump back to Shin Godzilla (2016). But it definitely has its own fan base and will do well if it returns. Shin Godzilla (2016) is a different kind of Godzilla, and it definitely works.
They have released Shin Godzilla (2016) multiple times and recently released a 4K version in theaters. They might be testing whether this movie is worth making a sequel out of by how much it sells on physical release and in theaters. So if you like Shin Godzilla (2016), I’d go see it when it pops up in theaters or pick up the 4K copy. This and Minus One are a great double feature.
