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First Impressions: Let's Discuss Godzilla: Minus One! (Spoilers)
166 Plays1 year ago
In another first for the show, join Satsunami and Martin MacAlistair as the duo take to the mean kanji filled streets of Glasgow to review the latest monster movie Godzilla: Minus One. With portable mics in hand, the duo share their first impressions of the film in the most unlikely of places.
But what did you think of this film? Was it everything you hoped to see in a Godzilla film or did you hope for more? Don't hesitate to reach out and let us know!
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Transcript
Introduction & Spoiler Warning
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to this very special episode of Chad Tsunami. In this episode, I'm joined by none other than the one and only Martin McAllister to discuss our thoughts on the recent Kaiju blockbuster, Godzilla Minus One. Please note that this episode will contain spoilers. Without any further ado, hope you enjoy. Welcome to Chad Tsunami.
Recording Setting & Initial Impressions
00:00:36
Speaker
Yeah, so we're here today and we have just seen Godzilla minus one because it was very cold in the cinema and I think that's what they wanted to reflect in the title. I don't have a following on that. How much do you want to pull back the curtain a bit where we are right now? Because this is all so funny. Yeah, no, you go ahead. Okay, well you're currently in my car. I'm chatting about Godzilla minus one. Some guy just walked past. He's in the middle of Glasgow. It's a sort of view on a last convention.
00:01:03
Speaker
We're just so good to undermine this one. Satsu, what did you think of the film? It was a film. No, it was actually, it was pretty good, I will say. It was a pretty good film. What I will say, I've seen a lot of people, you know, universally please this film. All I hear is either, oh, it was great or oh, you have to see this. Why is nobody talking about the flaws of this? I like the opposite of like, you have to see this. No, quite the opposite, but like, you know what, see if you don't see this. Fine.
00:01:33
Speaker
Should we dive into spoilers for this? Yeah, let's go for it. Yeah, so anybody listening, if you want to see Godzilla minus one, I would recommend it still. Spoilers, but I would recommend it, but yeah, probably go in with caution because yeah, we're gonna go into
Character Dynamics & Plot Elements
00:01:48
Speaker
it. Yeah, it is a really good film and I feel as if the characters in it with human characters, excellent. It's great at times, but here's my issue. I feel as if there may be two
00:02:00
Speaker
OK. So it's so good that you kind of forget Godzilla's there. But then it's a bit like, and this is an analogy you made to me when we were talking about this film, but it's almost like, you know those videos in TikTok with the subway surfers and the family guy clubs? It's almost like that where they have these really deep character moments and then all of a sudden they're like, oh, yeah, this is a Godzilla film.
00:02:27
Speaker
Oh yeah, quick, short of him getting blown up by a hydrogen bomb. And you're like, I'm sorry, what? That was sort of unusual because the rest of the film is mainly centred on a main character or his other half as partner. And it's like, they're the only two characters that are, it's always from their point of view. They're always in the room for virtually every scene, apart from maybe the final battle at the end where the main characters
00:02:53
Speaker
ship's crew who are also all really interesting, they get a bit of spotlight. So it's a very grounded film in terms of like the amount of characters that you know are really limited and it's always, you're only getting to see a very limited amount of information. So all of a sudden in the middle of this, this must have been put in at the end I think, because in the middle of the film, what Chatsu's alluding to is just in the middle of all this drama of like post-war Japan they go, by the way they've deadened it to Haejimbom and it woke up Godzilla. And I was like,
00:03:18
Speaker
They show you this completely apropos of nothing. None of the characters have any knowledge of this and it's just like, oh, by the way, this is a Godzilla film. And it was so funny, and it was so weird. Yeah, because it goes from this really well-acted character, this poor potential kamikaze.
Visuals & CGI Discussion
00:03:35
Speaker
Ironically enough, he's the worst kamikaze pilot, but that is a good thing, let's say so.
00:03:40
Speaker
If you want to be a bad kamikaze pilot, but he ends up going to this island where, I have to say, this is, I don't know very much in this part of history to be honest, but that is like a horrific thing to be stationed on an island where your only job is to fix up the kamikaze planes and then slap them and go, there you go, and when you go, oh my god, but then, yeah, the film early on blows in, you know, heat ray, let's say, by saying,
00:04:07
Speaker
Oh yeah, remember Godzilla, he just absolutely merked all of these kamikaze engineers and things and you're like, oh my. It's actually quite unusual to see Godzilla straight up fighting people as well. What, Fisticus? Fisticus, but like, you don't see Godzilla bite people very often.
00:04:22
Speaker
And obviously he's a lot smaller at the start of the film so he can do that human-sized bitin' but it's just quite unusual to see that and I actually thought this film, especially they won't have seen but like a few, there's a few things in the film that are actually quite violent which is quite unusual for Godzilla. Godzilla is usually a bit like out-hide stuff and it wasn't like glory that wasn't anything like that but more just like actually seeing and hearing Godzilla kill people is quite unusual.
00:04:43
Speaker
That was a weird thing. I mean, I thought the action was great and everything, but in terms of the actual violence, he does pick people up the same way my dog picks up. Honestly, there were some moments where he was picking up like the train and all I could keep thinking was of my dog and yelling at her going, no, put that down. Put that down, please. No, no.
00:05:04
Speaker
Something that's kind of like in my head because the gods are the design for this film. I have so many mixed emotions about and one of the things is his face is actually quite cute. It's too small for his body. Because he's like, he's biting the tree and he's like yum. He's padding along and doggy padding from his face to the bottom. It's a bit cute, it's weird. What you're saying is he wasn't kawaii back then. He wasn't. Also then he's got like these gigantic thighs.
00:05:32
Speaker
We need to talk about, like, we stole his entire physique. So, thunderflies, small head. You can take thunderflies, small head. And for some reason, massive pecs, but tiny arms. I don't understand his, dinosaurs weren't jacked. I don't understand.
00:05:50
Speaker
But I don't understand why he's got an absolutely ace up a half that Arnie would have been jealous of. This is now my thing, I was going to do physique reviews on every film, but specifically this Godzilla film. We were just chatting about this, but like you were going on about the 50 million pound budget, 50 million dollar story, and sometimes you couldn't tell and Gus hoped amazing, and other times it was
00:06:09
Speaker
like he got stuck in the world on like Gary's Mod and he was walking about like a Gary's Mod thing so it was like simultaneously some of the scenes I thought were incredible and some to every so often I was like oh that was a bit that was a bit rough
00:06:20
Speaker
What I will say is the action was absolutely incredible. And they did the, as it's Act Snyder that does all the zoom ins and things like that. He's infamous for that. Yeah, they did all of those kinds of things. Don't get me wrong, those were absolutely executed fantastically. I thought, wow, this is really cool. And you know, you got the destroyers trying to kill them and unsuccessfully, of course, they're like, wow, it's the big ship.
00:06:42
Speaker
Oh no, the picture! But in terms of, yeah, Godzilla himself, there were some moments, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this, to be honest, but I was just so surprised when sometimes you saw him, he looked incredible, he looked terrifying, when he's tearing up one of the cities, you're like, oh wow, this is really well done, and one of the greatest jurisdictions of his destructive abilities.
Action & Pacing
00:07:05
Speaker
But then there's other times where you look at him and you're like, is this just a plushie?
00:07:10
Speaker
That honestly feels sometimes like they said, alright Dave, that's great, you know the screen test has gone great, we're gonna send it off to the producer and he's like, what do you mean? I thought I was the final copy. They're like, why? What are you doing to me? You're like, oh no.
00:07:25
Speaker
One of the most famous things for Godzilla in all the films that the fans chat about a lot is the atomic breath, either movement or different scenes. I know you haven't seen Shin Godzilla yet but that's got a really famous one. I thought the atomic breath made your scene in this one. Massive spoilers now. So he's destroying part of Tokyo and he does the atomic breath and you get this whole sequence from the tail lighting up blue.
00:07:45
Speaker
And I think it's supposed to look like the cylinder's being dropped into the atom bomb because his docile fins pull out and it'll all walk in in a row and then the breath actually cuts through the city and it explodes and makes the mushroom cloud and it's just one of the most angst. That was the highlight of the film by Miles for me. Then it starts with the destruction raining down from the sky and he's just standing there rowing. The two main cats get caught up in that.
00:08:07
Speaker
and we think she dies and I just thought that bit was like, that was the highlight of the film. That was obviously the bit where the budget went because that was like unbelievable and I think that'll probably go down as like one of the single greatest Godzilla moments like this will be the thing that people remember from that film I think. That was the highlight of it and this is probably the moment that I think people are going to
00:08:28
Speaker
but there was a particular scene, there is a particular acing issue in this film, and don't get me wrong, I never really felt overt at any moment. As I said, the action was great, the actors themselves, they were absolutely fantastic.
00:08:45
Speaker
Putting them together though, I think it felt as if there was two different kinds of films. And I was saying this to you when we came out, it reminded me of when I was at yours and watching like a really bad film at the time. And it was like, that's really bad. I don't know if it's pirated or what it was. Not for you. I mean, like they took a random film, the movie makers, and they spliced it in with their own story of ninjas fighting one another versus this slice of life thing.
00:09:15
Speaker
And honestly, I feel as if, see, without Godzilla, this genuinely would make a really compelling film. And that is not something
Character Development & Plot Believability
00:09:23
Speaker
I wanted to expect from a Godzilla film. And don't get me wrong, I did say, oh, where's Godzilla? Where's Godzilla? But I still enjoyed the characters. You know, I still thought they were great. But when the 3D soap puppet Godzilla popped up, I was like, why? Why, critical?
00:09:42
Speaker
I like use it in the cinema like Milhouse like where are they going to get to the Godzilla factory? That's honestly how I feel sometimes. As I said the film starts with the kamikaze pilot going down getting refueled and I'm using air quotes here for this visual podcast.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, ultra visual. And then, yeah, as I said, Godzilla attacks, then he goes home. That's his white whale. Pilot goes home, not Godzilla. We don't know where Godzilla lives. Under the sea. Well, obviously under the sea, but... Fix the SpongeBob. I mean, he was under the... Where was it? The North Bikini Bay. It's all I can think of, man.
00:10:20
Speaker
Yeah, and then they test that and they're like, oh yeah, remember Godzilla's here in between him forming a relationship with his not-life. Again, here we mean the main character not Godzilla forming a relationship. Prune is a real difficult one. So Godzilla ends up finding a child, no I'm kidding. So yeah, they end up raising this child. He doesn't want to be tied into this life because, and I quote, but I'm not going to quote the Japanese.
00:10:46
Speaker
Oh, I was waiting for that there. He says, like, his war's not over. And again, like, really compelling character stuff. And I have to admit, there were so many kick-off guns in that level. It was unbelievable. It was things like, oh, yeah, I'm going to work in this city. And then as soon as you heard the news report, it was like, breaking news.
00:11:06
Speaker
This city is going down, and I repeat, this city is going down, and you're like, oh. It wasn't really, because every scene, I get a sort of viewer irony, but every scene, you can see him getting closer to his confrontation with Godzilla, which is really cool, because it was like, oh, and then he starts working the water, and we've all seen the trailer, so Godzilla, in fact, doesn't really know what's going to happen.
00:11:24
Speaker
and then it was like the bit that got me at the end and it was like so the main character is the fighter pilot and the only other person that survives on this island is one of the technicians. At the end of the film he's like we're gonna distract the Godzilla in the big final fight with a fighter pilot and he's got this one-of-a-kind plane and we need a mechanic to fix it up and it's like oh come on it's not gonna be that one failure and they actually seek him out. I actually thought it was gonna be coincidence that I happened to be the same guy but they wouldn't talk about it. It's like no it has to be this one guy and I was like it didn't.
00:11:48
Speaker
It really didn't think any mechanic could have fixed that. He was like, no, it has to be my man that I let his regiment die because I was too scared to fight gods all the first time. Yeah, and then he peaced the shit out of him. And I was like, can you imagine if he bit him with an event of his life and you gave him a brain concussion? You can't kill gods of it anymore!
00:12:08
Speaker
The guy can't even see his feet. He's like, which one of the two Godzilla's do I have? I'm seeing double your four Godzilla's. I was like, he's aiming for the Godzilla who thinks to the left. Did I get him? I feel like we got him. Oh, yeah, some moments were just so
Film Evaluation & Serious Tone
00:12:25
Speaker
goofy. I mean, here's the thing, because I know you're more of a Godzilla fan than I am, but would you say that this is a good Godzilla film?
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. Godzilla films broadly come into one of three categories. So you get like the original film, which is like a serious film, like a horror film, almost. I don't know what you've got, like a monster horror film. Then you have like, we've reviewed Godzilla as a king, but you know, I think a lot of the films fall into that schlock.
00:12:49
Speaker
where Godzilla's the hero and it's funny and that he's like action-y and those films and in the third film is kind of like Shin Godzilla where it's like a bit more modern there's different things going on there's like evolution there's like all sorts of different science concepts and it's a bit more sci-fi but still within the guts of our world so this film was like very much in the first Godzilla category like the original film like it is just he's just a straight up horror monster
00:13:11
Speaker
I think it was really good, a good Godzilla film from that point of view, but like it's hard to say it was a good Godzilla film. I think it was because that's the kind of Godzilla film I like. But if you're one of the people that are out there like, oh, I love the schlock, then you're not getting much schlock in this one. There's no Godzilla fighting other monsters. There's no time travel, none of that.
00:13:27
Speaker
Not a lot of business on this one. I mean, I did hear that it was meant to be more of a serious take, and after that, poodles took them for pulling it off because, as I said, the characters were great, the action was great, but my God, Godzilla, man, what did he do to you?
00:13:44
Speaker
Again, I don't have enough evidence to say, oh, it's not definitively a good Godzilla film, but yeah, this film, as good as it is, I would recommend everyone go see it, but it's two different films, come on.
00:13:59
Speaker
You know, you have a really compelling human element story about Japanese civilians after the, or about eight soldiers and civilians after the Second World War. And then Godzilla's kind of like an afterthought, because as I said, if you cut out Godzilla and then replace it with another antagonist, I know that's the point of Godzilla is the poster child for the atom bomb.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, it did seem as if it was a bit disjointed. I get what you're saying. It could have been any kind of other threat. It came together at the end. I will say that. It did come together at the end. And I did think it was clever the way they dispatched them because I genuinely thought with all of their tanks and things, I thought, what are they going to do?
00:14:42
Speaker
Although, as a pad, when they said, you know, the briefing scene, they're like, we've got a way to stop Godzilla, look out in the courtyard. Were you expecting a giant bomb? I was honestly expecting an atom bomb. And I don't know, just because I've just seen Oppenheimer. I was expecting an atom bomb. I was meant to pull back the curtains and a bomb wasn't going to be there. I was like, did you guys put that there in advance?
00:15:04
Speaker
And when they brought in the dinghies, I was like, oh, OK, all the notation things. Yeah, and somebody, would you recommend
Final Thoughts & Cinema Etiquette
00:15:11
Speaker
this film? I would. I think I would recommend this film. It was a good laugh. Maybe not a laugh, but it was a good time. It was a very easy watch, you know, and I like that in a film. It's not going to blow anyone away. I don't think it's going to win any awards, but I had a good time. And yeah, I'd recommend you sit and watch it. Yeah, if you enjoy, God's help.
00:15:27
Speaker
Yeah, if you enjoy character-driven Godzilla films, yeah, definitely go check it out if you're curious. As I said, it's not the perfect film, but no film is, let's say, so feel free to go watch Godzilla Mind This One, which, by the time this comes out, it'll either still be in the cinema, or it'll be in DVD or Doom. No, there's a very limited run-through. Yeah. If you'd see it in the cinema, though, try not to get annoyed with people in front of you, behind you, that decide to move their straws.
00:16:00
Speaker
I don't mind that you know I don't mind my old noise throughout a film that's fine but they did it and every single sad scene all the moms quote-unquote dead
00:16:13
Speaker
Oh, Godzilla's just emerged in the entire city. It was like Bose Road, the unappreciated clown coming into our theater. Seriously, don't do that, guys. What is wrong with people? I don't think we're going to peak that, so this is on my terms, but I think we're done with this right now. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for eating this, Willem. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me on.