With all that this film had going for it, it was amazing to see how badly it fell flat on its face. Toho gave its director more freedom than any other in the last 25 years, much more money, a little more time, and all the latest resources...and the result was a classic example of bad film making. I can appreciate that they wanted to take the series in a new direction (although such a decision for the 50th anniversary is debatable). That is not the problem. The main problem is that the director did what he did very badly.
This is the kind of film which is no fun to review, because there is so little good about it that writing feels like a chore. But in summary:
The direction is nearly incomprehensible, the style seeming to change from day to day on the set. The film is like a poser's paradise--rather than drawing performances from the cast, Kitamura seems to concentrate on having everyone pose in a cool way. Never mind that it adds nothing to the story. When faced with a problem in the story, rather than tackle it and resolve in a clever or interesting manner, Kitamura takes the cheap way out time after time. Suspension of disbelief is strained well beyond the already generous bounds that this kind of film receives from the audience with endlessly stupid situations. The cinematography is miserable--the color palette is drained to the level of annoyance, camera movement pretentiously calls attention to itself yet never does anything for the story, endless human fight scenes are unimaginatively staged. Overused martial arts scenes stop the climax dead in its tracks time after time. The direction, as the film itself, is so endlessly derivative, unoriginal, sloppy, and so on...if the director's name had been replaced with a non-Japanese (Roland Emmerich for example), it would likely be savaged by all comers.
The score is unforgettable...because it so ill-fitting. It just drones on without complementing the screen image at all.
What about the monsters, which are what we are here for? Godzilla is all but absent from the first hour, a rather strange move. Effects are several steps below the caliber shown in recent years, and the monsters are almost all constructed so as to emphasize a human shape rather than creating the illusion of a giant beast. Monsters are often lit so that they appear to be just battling silhouettes, and the battles are devoid of much drama as opponents are defeated in a quick and casual manner--where's the fun in that? Much of the effects footage has a distracting grain to it. CG work alternates between passable and the abysmal.
The are some good moments for sure, but they are buried by an endless assault of bad film-making. Nevertheless, the film seems to have some entertainment value as many have enjoyed it, especially among those who like the cheesy aspects of the series. That's OK, as everyone enjoys different things. Some have said that it was intentionally made badly or funny, and that to not accept that is to miss the point. I find it hard to complement bad film-making for any reason--excusing it by saying it was made that way purposely is just the ultimate cop-out for the director to make up for lack of craftsmanship. The films of the 70s were badly made, but mostly because the studio system had been stripped of all its cash and resources, and they were given a directive to imitate kids TV, so it is no surprise that some bad films resulted. But when given sufficient resources, there is no excuse for producing the equivalent of bad 70s film-making.
This is the kind of film which is no fun to review, because there is so little good about it that writing feels like a chore. But in summary:
The direction is nearly incomprehensible, the style seeming to change from day to day on the set. The film is like a poser's paradise--rather than drawing performances from the cast, Kitamura seems to concentrate on having everyone pose in a cool way. Never mind that it adds nothing to the story. When faced with a problem in the story, rather than tackle it and resolve in a clever or interesting manner, Kitamura takes the cheap way out time after time. Suspension of disbelief is strained well beyond the already generous bounds that this kind of film receives from the audience with endlessly stupid situations. The cinematography is miserable--the color palette is drained to the level of annoyance, camera movement pretentiously calls attention to itself yet never does anything for the story, endless human fight scenes are unimaginatively staged. Overused martial arts scenes stop the climax dead in its tracks time after time. The direction, as the film itself, is so endlessly derivative, unoriginal, sloppy, and so on...if the director's name had been replaced with a non-Japanese (Roland Emmerich for example), it would likely be savaged by all comers.
The score is unforgettable...because it so ill-fitting. It just drones on without complementing the screen image at all.
What about the monsters, which are what we are here for? Godzilla is all but absent from the first hour, a rather strange move. Effects are several steps below the caliber shown in recent years, and the monsters are almost all constructed so as to emphasize a human shape rather than creating the illusion of a giant beast. Monsters are often lit so that they appear to be just battling silhouettes, and the battles are devoid of much drama as opponents are defeated in a quick and casual manner--where's the fun in that? Much of the effects footage has a distracting grain to it. CG work alternates between passable and the abysmal.
The are some good moments for sure, but they are buried by an endless assault of bad film-making. Nevertheless, the film seems to have some entertainment value as many have enjoyed it, especially among those who like the cheesy aspects of the series. That's OK, as everyone enjoys different things. Some have said that it was intentionally made badly or funny, and that to not accept that is to miss the point. I find it hard to complement bad film-making for any reason--excusing it by saying it was made that way purposely is just the ultimate cop-out for the director to make up for lack of craftsmanship. The films of the 70s were badly made, but mostly because the studio system had been stripped of all its cash and resources, and they were given a directive to imitate kids TV, so it is no surprise that some bad films resulted. But when given sufficient resources, there is no excuse for producing the equivalent of bad 70s film-making.