Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

This is an amazing film.

Godzilla is a terrifying monster in this one. The human drama is palpable. The destruction is massive. Setting the film in 1945-47 postwar Japan is a stroke of genius.

It’s even better than SHIN GODZILLA -- this time it feels real and is not focused so much on Shin’s bureaucratic ineptitude (although there is PLENTY of criticism here of the Japanese government’s response to disaster).

Sound effects are incredible. Even better: the movie’s marshall music hearkens back to Toho monster movies of old.

Try to see this in a real theater with good projection and good sound. It's going to be hard to duplicate this in a home theater. (I was fortunate to see it in a large Imax theater.)

We don't often see human drama reflect the domestic human tragedy of Japanese war experience. This one is going to be hard to beat.

One depressing thing about the movie is that with today's widespread disasters and instant worldwide communication, the death and destruction we see in this film, even though it's visited on humans by a giant lizard in 1947, is all too uncomfortably recognizable. Godzilla is a force of nature and will return, as will all the climate-related and human-caused disasters we are experiencing here on Earth. If only we could work together to address such issues!

Review copyright (c) 2023 by Dennis D. McDonald

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