So I recently watched Godzilla for the first time with a couple friends of mine. I watched the original Japanese version of the first film from 1954. I'd been meaning to do that for a long time, now, but I guess the stress of my life recently pushed me towards planning a movie night with some friends where we watched Godzilla. We were quiet in a way we normally weren't when we watched movies, but I think that's because we all multitasked. That and Godzilla, as a film, isn't as engaging as I thought it would. Perhaps it's due to the fact I was expecting something more from a film about a giant monster attacking Japan, but I was at least hoping for something more engaging, I guess.
The characters were nothing to write home about, and the plot felt very predictable and paint-by-numbers. There was very little charm to it, at least in the way I associate with Showa-era tokusatsu. There also wasn't the degree of horror or emotional resonance I might have expected from a later tokusatsu that seemed to be along the lines of what Godzilla was aiming to offer. Perhaps I'd enjoy the later films more, those with a better plot or characters. After all, it was the first of its kind, thus it is bound to be rougher around the edges compared to what would come afterwards.
The effects were nice enough, but it seemed like they always cut away when it was going to get interesting, with some notable exceptions. But even then, the extended action scenes weren't horrifying, interesting, or exciting. I wanted to stop watching the movie and instead return to Ultraman Mebius, but I continued to watch anyways, because I was watching with some friends of mine.
I suppose the greatest tragedy was that I just was disappointed. Perhaps I'll watch a couple more Godzilla films, either from James Rolfe's recommendation list, from my personal preferences (Godzilla 2000 sounds cool from the title alone), or in terms of the chronological order (which would have me watching at least two more films), I'm not sure which would be for the best. I suppose that's the best thing about Godzilla: it makes me want to see where later films would develop what that first film established. I would recommend the movie to anyone wanting to see the roots of tokusatsu or the kaiju genre, but aside from that, I cannot really recommend this film to much of anyone. Maybe the American cut is better, or perhaps one of the other films will be more my speed, but the original film itself simply leaves me wanting more than it has to offer.
Until I'm able to figure all of that out, this is Cosmos, signing out.