sophie-314-353926

Completely straightforward drama, hero vs monster, hero needing to atone for previous mistakes. The monster is an authentic Godzilla, with the usual appetite for crunchy trains, ability to breathe infernal fire, and impulse to tread on skyscrapers. There is a sweet (and slightly unexpected) romance and a loyal band of buddies out to investigate and deal with the monster from their brave little boat. The engineers are heroes which I specially liked! Being English and not Japanese speakers, we watched this in Japanese with subtitles which worked really well, though there is a dubbed-in-English version too.

Marvellous to watch a monster movie that just loves its topic. There are no knowing wise-cracks, tedious references to other Hollywood movies, or stupidly expensive long sequences driven by special effects. There is good monster action but it's motivated by the story and felt genuinely scary/thrilling/sad.

I've given this a high score reflecting my devotion to this genre. It is one for monster-movie fans but if you are new to Godzilla, also a great place to start.

Wonderful storytelling, enjoyed every single moment. Fantastical hotel with baddies, eccentrics, evil schemes to thwart and a twisty plot. But also, framed with real pathos and nostalgia, and connected emotionally with true history and love and sadness. Watch this.

One of my favorite movies about AI and robots. And I've seen a lot of them. Love the exploration of identity, slavery, the physical shapes of the robots, and all that this implies. Beautifully informed by biological forms. The story is quite pessimistic about future humans... but there is some courage and goodness in there too. Not to mention the always brilliant Antonio Banderas.