A Nice Surprise

It's not every day that the director of a Godzilla movie retweets your blog. But when it does happen, it's quite cool.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters at Tsutaya!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters was recently released on home video in Japan, the signage for which was all over my local Tsutaya. Here's what is currently on display.

GKTOM is in great company with Joker (the film of the year). Photo by Brett Homenick.

Another Titan Comes to Tokyo!

A poster recently caught my attention on the way to work. A temporary exhibit called "The Mammoth" is being held at Koto Ward's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation through November 4. On display will be frozen mammoth specimens and other related items.

The timing of "The Mammoth" couldn't have been any better, given that the mammoth-like Behemoth was a featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters as a Titan. I do wonder if the frozen mammoth specimens will come back to life and go to the Godzilla head in Shinjuku in order to bow before it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Godzilla in the Subway!

Signage for Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the subway in Osaka. Photo by Brett Homenick.

When I was in Osaka at the end of May, I saw this great ad for Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the subway. But given how much there was to do after I returned, I completely forgot to post it on the blog. I'm a little late, but here it is.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters Conquers Osaka!

Just part of a huge Godzilla: King of the Monsters ad campaign in Osaka's Umeda Station. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Part of the fun for me in seeing Godzilla: King of the Monsters in Osaka was being surrounded by all the ballyhoo (but no pyro) for the film. There was a mini poster gallery in Umeda Station that featured all the Godzilla movies (minus the anime ones), a statue just outside the Toho Cinemas just across the street from the station that played Bear McCreary's interpretation of Ifukube's Godzilla theme from a speaker, a Wendy's promotional tie-in, and of course signage inside Toho Cinemas itself. All of these can be seen below. Enjoy!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Godzilla: King of the Monsters ballyhoo outside the Toho Cinemas near Osaka Station. Photo by Brett Homenick.

How's this for a headline? Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is the best Godzilla film since Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).

Granted, that in and of itself isn't a major accomplishment, as everything else released after Final Wars with Godzilla's name on it has been terrible. But King of the Monsters is genuinely entertaining, and I'd give it a full-throated recommendation.

The movie just works. I was interested in the story, I laughed in the right spots, and I enjoyed the references. (Not only are there the obvious Godzilla references, but there are more than a couple to John Carpenter's The Thing.) What's more, the scope of the movie is truly outstanding. The filmmakers used the worldwide locations to their fullest potential. What can I say? I'm not sure I enjoyed a summer blockbuster so much since the late '90s. 

That said, the movie isn't perfect. The biggest flaw is that the monsters are, for the most part, just big monsters. You get very little sense of personality (though they certainly tried with Ghidorah's three heads). I wish more would have been done with Mothra and especially Rodan. Also, the CGI battles seemed a bit generic and basically what I would have expected. 

I have to admit that my moviegoing experience was probably helped more than a little by the clever marketing campaign. It's been a lot of fun seeing all the signage and assorted ballyhoo all over Japan. (In contrast, when the 2014 Godzilla came out over here, I remember seeing a few posters in the subway and not much else.) When I walked out of the movie, I was able to buy Godzilla socks in the theater lobby. Who wouldn't want a pair of Godzilla socks?

In summary, Michael Dougherty got it right where Gareth Edwards got it so woefully wrong. The 2014 Godzilla was one of the driest, dullest, and blandest movies I've seen in a while. The most interesting characters (to the extent there were any) were killed off far too soon. The marketing campaign was oddly misleading, making it seem as if it were Godzilla (and not the MUTOs) sending us back to the Stone Age. Suffice it to say, Legendary Pictures and Michael Dougherty took note of the many ways in which the previous film failed and made a winner. 

Oh, and Bear McCreary knocked it out of the park with his versions of Akira Ifukube and Yuji Koseki's music. Again, this team just nailed it.

By the way, there's a nice tribute to Yoshimitsu Banno and Haruo Nakajima at the end of the credits (right before the obligatory post-credits sequence). It's well worth seeing.

My verdict: It's the Godzilla movie we've been waiting for since 2004.