Shin Godzilla

I had seen "Shin Godzilla" once before, maybe in 2017, after a blind buy of the disc. I had a rewatch of "Godzilla Minus One" (love it!) recently, so I thought I'd take another look at this one. I remembered liking it a lot back then but couldn't remember many particulars. A monster kid friend of mine had remarked to me some years ago how much he hated it (I think based on how G. looked). A rewatch was in order,

I still liked it! Now, this one is an outlier, for sure. It has an approach I'm not sure I've seen before in these movies. Most of it feels like a documentary, with constant dialog requiring subtitling for this Yank (not to mention almost constant subtitling toward the top of the screen denoting the shot location. I wonder how that was conveyed in the original Japanese release? Maybe those were subtitled at the bottom? Anyway, it's a lot to take in.) As many have said, this is one talky monster movie. And Godzilla does look positively goofy in its first appearance; Toddler G., I guess you would say. Once it's full grown, though, the majesty is back, and it does look damned impressive, if a little dead-eyed. There's probably not quite enough G. in the final act, which is a bit of a shame. The movie is clearly about the human characters and not the monster. Still, I applaud the unique approach and recommend it.