Godzilla: Resurgence came out in Japan on Friday (the 2016 U.S. release date has yet to be announced) and early reviews are here. They reveal a surprising new origin for Godzilla, one that won’t be too much of a surprise for fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion , the classic mecha anime both Godzilla: Resurgence directors — Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi — had a hand in.
Some of these details come from rough translations of Japanese reviews (thanks to Skreeonk), so it’s possible some of the plot spoilers got a bit scrambled along the way. Still, the broad strokes are clear: Godzilla: Resurrection is about the Japanese government’s response to a mutating, unpredictable disaster.
The big plot revelation from the Godzilla: Resurgence reviews has to do with Godzilla itself. It doesn’t start Resurgence as Godzilla. Instead, it’s a weird, evolving amalgam of all the biological life on Earth, that starts the movie as a lizard on all fours.
The spoilers just get bigger from there, but let’s not blow it as wide open as this Reddit thread.
Suffice to say that Hideaki Anno’s Godzilla is mutable, its body as tempestuous as our interior lives. Sound familiar? The body mutating in response to rage, trauma, fear or necessity is an essential theme of Evangelion, which makes literal the barrier separating one mind from another (the Absolute Terror Field). Godzilla has gone body horror.
Reviews for Godzilla: Resurgence also reveal a deeply bureaucratic film. Much of the new Godzilla takes place in large committee rooms, as big groups of people try and solve the Godzilla threat. This has been one of the most divisive aspects, with Japanese reviews heralding the realistic take on a Godzilla disaster and the one American review (courtesy of Kotaku) spending most of its word count complaining about all the talking.
It sounds like we can expect a Godzilla movie loaded with some of the most impressive Godzilla action ever put to screen (it definitely indulges Anno’s fascination with big military hardware), with a lot of talking in between.
Godzilla: Resurgence will be out in U.S. theaters in 2016.
