cryptid

I watched Shin Godzilla after I watched Godzilla Minus One and I think (as my roommate has repeatedly protested) that this has made it more difficult for me to appreciate Shin Godzilla. Because Shin Godzilla is good, don't get me wrong, but while what it does with the human story is interesting (and apparently sometimes quite politically problematic!) it doesn't blend the human and monster bits together with quite the same skill as Minus One.

Which is a shame, because the Godzilla of Shin is incredible. It's obviously the kind of Godzilla that Hideaki Anno would make; the transformation, mutation, sheer alienness of it has stuck in my mind, it's been a week and I'm still thinking about it, but there should have been more of it! Insufficient Godzilla is frequently an issue with Godzilla movies, but this one falls into it.

One could say that it's doing interesting things thematically to have Godzilla be inert for the entire second half of the movie, but genuinely it just means that the main threat is gone. And having the main threat instead being the UN (?) threatening to nuke Japan just reminds you of how some of the politics are kind of uncomfortable.

But fundamentally I think they're both my favorite godzilla, except for maybe All Out Monsters Attack. But Minus One truly is the perfect movie; I've watched it three times, and the only reason I haven't watched it more is it's no longer in American cinemas. But someday, it will be out on something, and then I will watch it again. I don't know if I feel the same drive to rewatch Shin Godzilla.

Also watch this space for my plans to write fanfic of it, haha.