Godzilla has had a long and fascinating history.

But of course I live in the west where my first experience was the Mathew Broderick version. Well to my childhood brain, that movie ruled. Much later we got some fantastic Godzilla movies, but I kept hearing about the Japanese ones being superior.

Well it was time to finally check one out!

Godzilla Minus One takes us to Japan at the end of World War II.

Shikishima is a kamikaze pilot who chickened out and lands on a little island. He says he couldn’t due to an equipment malfunction, but the military on the island seems to find no fault with the plane. That night they hear suspicious sounds, and are attacked by a pretty damn big monster. Here we are introduced to a much smaller, but still massive and agile, Godzilla. He stomps around killing almost everyone.

Our man Shikishima has the chance to shoot Godzilla with the guns in his plane, but chickens out again. He returns home to find his family embarrassed by a living kamikaze pilot. He goes through a fun journey where he winds up essentially adopting a young girl who has lost her family. Alongside all of this is the threat that is Godzilla.

The issue is, every time he is attacked, he heals stronger. Soon this fast agile monster is turned into the much bigger, much more powerful Godzilla. He absolutely decimates a city before returning to the water, where the humans hatch a plan and take the fight to him.

The biggest issue the movie has, is the period between first and second encounter with Godzilla we have a really long period of human storylines. It’s the same issue the newer western Godzilla movies had, the difference being this one is actually better and doesn’t drag as long, but still a little longer than I would have liked.

The biggest strength the movie has is, well, everything else. Godzilla looks amazing, and getting to see him in different stages is really fun. The human’s story and redemption arc that is a little predictable, is still excellent. There are genuinely tense moments, and some really solid acting, that makes this silly fun kaiju action flick not just fun, but engaging. And the action and fight sequences are absolutely top notch! This alone makes it well worth watching on 4K to really enjoy the exceptional CGI and action in the best possible ways.

If you want to start checking out some Japanese Godzilla films, then 2023’s Godzilla Minus One is a damn fine place to start.  It acts as a reboot in the best possible ways, and is just everything I want in a Godzilla movie.

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The epic battle continues!

Legendary Pictures’ cinematic Monsterverse follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new adventure that pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence, and our own.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire delves further into the histories of these Titans and their origins, as well as the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.

Once again at the helm is director Adam Wingard.  The film stars Rebecca Hall (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” The Night House”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Bullet Train”), Dan Stevens (“Gaslit,” “Legion,” “Beauty and the Beast”), Kaylee Hottle (“Godzilla vs. Kong”), Alex Ferns (“The Batman,” “Wrath of Man,” “Chernobyl”) and Fala Chen (“Irma Vep,” “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”).

The screenplay is by Terry Rossio (“Godzilla vs. Kong” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series) and Simon Barrett (“You’re Next”) and Jeremy Slater (“Moon Knight”), from a story by Rossio & Wingard & Barrett, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO Co., Ltd..  The film is produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric Mcleod, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Brian Rogers.  The executive producers are Wingard, Jen Conroy, Jay Ashenfelter, Yoshimitsu Banno, Kenji Okuhira.

Once again, Wingard is collaborating with director of photography Ben Seresin (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “World War Z”), production designer Tom Hammock (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “X,” “The Guest”), editor Josh Schaeffer (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Molly’s Game”), costume designer Emily Seresin (“The Invisible Man,” “Top of the Lake”).  The composers are Tom Holkenborg (“Godzilla vs. Kong,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) and Antonio Di Iorio (additional music on “Godzilla vs. Kong,” the “Sonic the Hedgehog” films).

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present a Legendary Pictures Production, A Film By Adam Wingard, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”  It is slated for release nationwide only in theaters and IMAX on April 12, 2024 and beginning 10 April 2024 internationally, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures except in Japan, where the film will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd and in mainland China, where it will be distributed by Legendary East.

Witness the rise of a new empire. Coming to cinemas 2024.

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For years Godzilla had left mankind in peace.

A nervous truce where he wouldn’t cause destruction and humans would leave him alone. That was until now.

Provoked by Walter Simmons the head of Apex (a super tech company that is trying to solve Earth’s titan phenomenon), he summons Godzilla from the watery depths of Earth’s oceans with the intent of placing man back at the top of the food chain.

Meanwhile Kong is living an idyllic but bored existence in surreal captivity.

Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted deaf daughter Jia closely monitor and care for Kong. But Kong needs his freedom.

Throw in to this the hollow Earth theory and the birthplace of where the titans came from. This brings in three other characters; a neurotic conspiracy theorists who works for Apex; Bernie Hayes and two teenager friends who conspire with Bernie, Madison and Josh – as the plucky relief.

It’s not too long in to the film that we see what we came for – Godzilla destroying cities and beyond epic fights between Kong and Godzilla.

Then step in Apex’s new titan competitor – stronger than either Godzilla or Kong.

The film will take you from tropical islands to the Antarctic and right down in to the center of the Earth.

A visual feast of over-the-top CGI, a marginal story weakened by some of the acting ability we see on-screen.

Overall Godzilla vs. Kong is a monster fight film – and that’s what you’d likely watch it for. And if you do then you’re in for a treat.

The post Godzilla vs. Kong (Warner Bros. – 2021) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Titans have risen.

Godzilla II: King of Monsters is a semi-direct follow on from the previous ‘Godzilla’ in 2014 we are taken in to a changed world as we know it. A world with destruction, monsters and differing factions who want to harness the Titan beasts for their own objectives.

A broken family sees a young teenage girl, Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) living with her mother Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), who is a paleobiologist studying the monster species with the intention of working out a way for humans and Titans can co-exist.

However Dr. Emma Russell and her daughter are kidnapped by a military group wanting the Titans and Emma’s tech that she developed which enables her to communicate with the mega sized behemoths.

Meanwhile Emma’s husband who she had separated from Dr. Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler) is more inclined to have the Titans wiped out, seeing them as a threat to all mankind.

Godzilla and the other Titans are awoken, but what no one had predicted (or knew existed) was a three headed Dragon called Ghidorah.

What is also discovered is that the titans purpose on this planet is to retain a natural order. They will awaken if Earth is in trouble. And it is.

However Ghidorah is not a part of this balance, the seemingly indestructible dragon is something else entirely.

Godzilla II: King of Monsters did a few things right however failed to get a coherent story across. Trying to relate to the lead characters and the family dynamic was also difficult.

The film’s path is erratic and easily the audience can get lost in what is going on and why.

As a film hungry civilisation, we have become sanitised to CGI effects in films – we infact expect it and glaze over it. the modelling and animation of Ghidorah was a stand-out. You will take notice of the three headed beast – but not for a good reason.

While I have much love for the Godzilla franchise and really enjoyed the 2014 offering aswell as the late 90s Matthew Broderick films, I could only recommend Godzilla II: King of the Monsters to the real serious die-hard fans out there.

The post Godzilla II: King of Monsters (Warner Bros. Pictures – 2019) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Following the global success of 2014’s Godzilla and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, and in the lead-up to the 2019 release of the highly anticipated Godzilla: King of the Monsters, comes the next chapter in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Entertainment’s cinematic Monsterverse: Godzilla vs. Kong. Beginning production today, the epic action adventure will pit two of the greatest icons in motion picture history against one another – the fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong – with humanity caught in the balance.

Godzilla vs. Kong is being directed by Adam Wingard (“The Guest,” “You’re Next”). The film stars Alexander Skarsgård (“Big Little Lies,” The Little Drummer Girl”), Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”), Rebecca Hall (“Christine,” “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta,” “Widows”), Shun Oguri (“Gintama”), Eiza González (“Baby Driver”), Jessica Henwick (“Iron Fist”), Julian Dennison (“Deadpool 2”), with Kyle Chandler (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Manchester by the Sea”) and Demián Bichir (“The Nun,” “The Hateful Eight”).

Kong: Skull Island

In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages. As Monarch embarks on a perilous mission into uncharted terrain and unearths clues to the Titans’ origins, a human conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever.

Wingard directs from a script written by Terry Rossio (“Pirates of the Caribbean”). The film is being produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, and Brian Rogers, with Kenji Okuhira, Yoshimitsu Banno, Jon Jashni and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers. Jay Ashenfelter, Jen Conroy and Tamara Kent are co-producers.

Kong: Skull Island

Behind the scenes, Wingard’s creative team includes director of photography Ben Seresin (“World War Z,” “Unstoppable”), production designers Owen Patterson (“Godzilla,” “The Matrix” Trilogy and “Captain America: Civil War”) and Tom Hammock (“The Guest,” “Blindspotting”), editor Josh Schaeffer (“Molly’s Game,” “Kong: Skull Island”), costume designer Ann Foley (“Altered Carbon”), and VFX supervisor John “DJ” DesJardin (“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Watchmen”).

Filming is taking place in Hawaii and Australia. A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Entertainment, Godzilla vs. Kong is currently scheduled for release on May 22nd, 2020. The film will be distributed in 3D and 2D and in select IMAX theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd.

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I love the idea of a big giant lizard with awesome powers destroying everything and the thought really makes me smile. Unfortunately, even with such a cool idea at their disposal Natsume’s game Godzilla, on the PlayStation 4,did not make me smile one bit.

Godzilla is a third person action/fighting game.

You are Godzilla, a giant lizard with immense strength and the ability to breathe blue energy rays. You get a quick tutorial how to fight before the game starts. I found the mechanics both bizarre and harrowing. To turn you needed to press either L1 or R1 for the associated direction. The analogue stick was used solely to move forward. I feel they could have just used the analogue for all directional movement and it would have been fine.

There is of course your heavy, regular and energy beam attacks. There is also a grab move that I never found truly usable. Understandably Godzilla also moves painfully slow. While it makes sense due his size it just made playing the game a little bit more detestable.

Once you’ve sort of got a handle of the fighting mechanics it’s time to choose a mode, of which there are several. The main and more attractive of the lot was ‘God of Destruction’ mode.

This had you play as Godzilla through a bunch of poorly created sets. The main goal never changed. You had the very repetitive aim of destroying a certain number of generators on each Level. It seems that’s what Godzilla is all about these days.

There are random buildings and other infrastructure to destroy but they can generally be ignored.

This mode had human dialogue running through it with calls for attacks and general dismay at how much destruction Godzilla is causing to the human race.

It was a bit weird. There were generally two participants in the voice over dialogue. The Prime Minister, of which ever country I was rampaging destruction in, and a special task force operator who would pretty much spell out your current movement.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to make of it as I was the one causing all the mayhem and death to the species. The highlight of the conversations was when a Prime Minster said something about ‘try our goshdarnest out there’. I’m sorry but what?

Making it through odd dialogue and dodgy game mechanics, Godzilla slowly grows in size and becomes more powerful as you progress through Levels. Now this I feel was only in the numbers.

The little bar that said I was now 70m tall was, to me, the only indication of my size. Considering I’d started at 50m I really couldn’t tell within the game if Godzilla had actually increased in size. It all looked very much the same. Only the number changing told me so.

This was the same with the ‘Power Increase’. Honestly I don’t know if there was but the game told me so, so heck I decided to be nice and believe them.

It didn’t help that I didn’t feel like a big monster rampaging through a city, there simply wasn’t much sense of scale. All the buildings had cardboard box qualities which made the whole scenario less believable.

Even if I managed to find this enjoyable the game really doesn’t have much to offer. The Story mode, if I can really call it that, barely lasted a couple of hours. There are other paths to take but it’s very much all the same.

Apart from destroying the constructs that supposedly pass for a city, other Kaiju, that is other giant monsters, come out of the water works to fight you for no particular reason. So you beat them up and get right back to destroying generators. These monster fights were slightly more engaging than the rest of it but it was still a frustrating experience. You either smashed them or got caught up in some combo of theirs, to which the game, annoyingly didn’t allocate a dodge button.

This made the whole experience just that much more trying.

The other modes include an Online vs mode, which I couldn’t play as thankfully, there was no one else online to play with. You can also vs. other Kaiju, but only the oversized critters that you have already fought in the ‘Story mode’.

There is also an Evolution mode in which you can play as any of the unlocked Kaiju including 4 types of Godzilla and just power them up which realistically does nothing. The last playable mode is Diorama mode where you just set up a little, well, diorama. The menu was rubbish and I didn’t quite see a reason to explore this mode any further as the actual point was beyond me.

Regardless of mode the layout of each Level was dull and rather unimaginative.

Each area had a bright orange line around the space in which Godzilla was able to move around in and cause destruction. I don’t quite know what is worse, an invisible wall or such a blatantly spelled out one. It didn’t help that graphically the game looks early PlayStation 2 era, if that.

I really wanted to like this game. Godzilla is a big destruction causing lizard that has captured most of our imaginations but alas this game has managed to suck the fun out of the whole idea and gave us a poor arcade game at best.

The mechanics and general game are very much a letdown with very little to keep your attention.

I remember playing a Rugrats game on PlayStation 1 where at the end you played as a giant Godzilla like reptile named Reptar and stomped around a city breaking things and breathing fire.

THAT was more fun and entertaining than this. It was Rugrats: Search for Reptar if anyone is interested.

When a small section from a PS1 game can outshine your PS4 Godzilla game, maybe you’ve missed the point. This is one colossal monstrosity of a game that not even Godzilla can save.

The post Godzilla Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe today announced that GODZILLA has emerged from his long slumber to once again deliver massive destruction to cities and vanquish classic enemies on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 (digital only).

Developed by Japanese videogame studio NATSUME ATARI INC., GODZILLA gives players control of one of the most famous and destructive Kaiju (special effects monsters) in entertainment history.

As Godzilla, players will have the power to trample and lay waste to cities. Players will also have to collect G-Energy which can be used to power-up Godzilla, increasing his physical size as well as his offensive and defensive skills. Exclusively on the PlayStation 4, users can play as ANY Kaiju in the game, in any mode in the game!

Collect G-Energy to max out your favorite Kaiju’s stats, and destroy opponents online with your Kaiju, in your battle style. Choose from over 20 Kaiju, from classics like Anguirus and Rodan, as well as more recent kaiju like Type-3 Kiryu. There are many different Godzilla in the game as well, from Godzilla (1964) (as seen in “Mothra vs. Godzilla”) and Heisei Godzilla, to Godzilla (2014) (“Hollywood Godzilla”).

GODZILLA will also allow players to recreate the thrill of watching the classic and modern films by utilizing a dynamic movie-style camera angle system. This system delivers the most epic camera angles, giving players the best view from which to destroy both a multitude of locations as well as classic enemies such as Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla.

“For over 60 years Godzilla has sparked the imaginations of millions of fans and has been one of Japan’s most famous and favorite pop culture exports to the West. With the GODZILLA videogame we’re allowing his fans to play as their favorite monster and truly feel his incredible strength and destructive power.” said Hervé Hoerdt, Vice President of Marketing & Digital at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe.

GODZILLA features multiple game modes including; Destruction Mode where players can deal massive amounts of mayhem and lay waste to more than 20 different stages.

Diorama Mode allows players to place models of Godzilla and the other kaiju in different settings to capture epic photos (uses SHARE function on the PlayStation 4).

Players can also enjoy the King of Kaiju Mode where Godzilla fights his way through a gauntlet of the franchise’s most famous monster enemies to reach the top of the Kaiju hierarchy and reign supreme on the throne as the true King of theMonsters.

PlayStation 4 players can use any kaiju in any mode, including an Online Multiplayer Mode that allows for up to 3 players at once fighting in all-out mayhem.

The post The King of Monsters Has Returned! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Developed by Japanese videogame studio NATSUME ATARI INC., GODZILLA places players in control of one of the most famous and destructive monsters in entertainment history.

As Godzilla players will trample and lay waste to cities and environments with the goal of taking out each area’s Energy Generator while collecting as much G-Energy as possible.

The G-Energy can then be used to power-up Godzilla, increasing both his physical size as well as his offensive and defensive skills. The game will also allow players to utilize a dynamic Movie-Style Camera Angle System, delivering the most epic camera angles from which to destroy both a multitude of locations as well as classic enemies such as Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla.

“Godzilla has had a long history and is one of Japan’s most famous and massive pop culture exports that have entertained millions of people for generations in the West! We’re happy to continue this great history by bringing the GODZILLA videogame for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 to fans in our territories. Let the countdown to rampage and larger-than-life battles begin!” Herve Hoerdt, Vice President of IP Strategy at BANDAI NAMCO Games Europe.

GODZILLA will feature multiple game modes including; Mission Mode where players will wreak mayhem through more than 20 different stages of play; a Diorama Mode that allows players to design their own dioramas of Godzilla’s destruction; and King of Monsters Mode where Godzilla must fight his way through the franchises most famous enemies to reach the top of the monster hierarchy and claim the throne as the true King of Monsters

GODZILLA will be available in Europe, Middle-East and Australasia for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 system in (U.S.) summer 2015.

The post It’s… GODZILLA!!! – News appeared first on Shane the Gamer.