Bullet Point Review of Godzilla: The King is Dead, Long Live the King

On May 22, 2014May 22, 2014 By James CastroIn Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

As a lifelong fan it was necessary to share my thoughts on the new Godzilla movie. It’s been ten years since the last REAL Godzilla movie. There’s a lot to cover!

Updates to the Franchise:

Appearance: Godzilla looks different but he’s still recognizable. He has the same low-center girth, thick body, long arms, spikey back, and upright posture. He looks more crocodilian now and more “naturalistic” since he didn’t have to be designed to contain an actor.
Symbolism: Through most of the Toho series Godzilla was Frankenstein’s monster, created by the arrogance of mankind’s science and now out of control. He now represents the power of nature, a force mankind has no hope to control and that can destroy us at will.
CGI: Ok…I give… CGI allowed Godzilla to have a different presence than the rubber suit Big G. The odds that we’ll ever see a guy in a costume playing him are low, but for CGI he did look and act like Godzilla and added some movement and dynamism impossible in Suitmation.

Plot/Characters:

New primordial monsters awaken and threaten the world in a fresh new way (the EMP field). Big G wakes up; I think just to defend his territory. Good update on Godzilla’s origin too. And how he relates to the “bomb tests” in the 50s.
James Rolfe at Cinemassacre declared he watches Godzilla movies to see monsters fighting and people talking. This film follows that mold. The people do plotting, explaining, and interacting. Sometimes they try to fight the monsters, which is typically laughable. The fighting is done by the monsters and is relatively spectacular.
How is Godzilla best used? If a Godzilla movie was Titanic Big G works best as either the ship or the iceberg. He is what drives the plot or he is what the plot crashed into. Try to make him a leading man and you get the goofball comedy Godzilla we had in the 70s. He can be fun in that role but it’s not the “King of the Monsters.” Here Godzilla is a little bit the ship and a little bit the iceberg. He’s used sparingly enough to retain his mystique, but often enough to keep the action up.
The human characters are good for what they are. Ford is driven from place to place for his family, running into monsters along the way. His wife and child are in the middle of monster central. Ford’s obsessed father is actually effective as exposition. And Dr Serizawa (nice nod to the 1954 film) is a good voice for Godzilla, explaining his motives (as he sees them). For people in a Godzilla movie they do quite well. I’ve definitely seen MUCH worse…

Monsters/Brawling:

The new Mutos are good, creepy monsters. They look a lot like other modern monsters, but the fact that Godzilla had two enemies evened the odds since he’s the “alpha predator.” Interesting tie in to both the consequences of nuclear power and humanity’s reliance on technology.
The monster fights are terrific, however brief. The older movies could be a lot of slow monster fighting in wide shots, but in this one the monsters tend to fight from the people’s perspective, which gives it a new element. Of course no one would complain for MORE monster fighting, but it was done well. it also kept the movie fairly short by modern blockbuster standards.
Godzilla’s demeanor and ferocity are well-displayed. His roar sounds like “Voice of God Radio” that’s been tuned to high distortion and his Atomic Breath is like a neon supernova of death and both have enough elements of Toho G to retain continuity. Big approvals for both.
Best alliteration moment: Multiple Memorable Mothra Mentions!
Godzilla now wins the “Best Fatality Move Ever” competition.

Final thoughts:

Is it a perfect movie? No. The people sequences do go on and I would’ve traded about 15 minutes of human drama for 15 minutes of monster combat, but that is a tricky balance. Monsters fighting too much can become silly and cartoony, people talking too much becomes boring. This film did a pretty good job with the balance. This was Monster Movies Level 1010: Introduction to Godzilla. It did everything that made the Toho Godzilla movies great, and added some new film features, while always treating their source material with reverence and respect. The only real complaint I had was the lack of the Toho Godzilla theme, which isn’t always a constant but it would’ve been nice to have the Big Guy arrive to the recognizable strains of earlier times. Godzilla has changed, probably forever. Barring an unlikely Toho-produced Suitmation movie, Gareth Edwards’ film represents the future of the Godzilla, and though I’d welcome a return to Suit-zilla, if this has to be the future the future is bright. All other sci-fi/monster movies should really sit up to take notice and notes. To paraphrase Nas, the king is back; time to return the crown.

Rating: 4.5 Haruo Nakajimas out of 5

For those who don’t know it, this is the classic Godzilla theme. He burst from the water and trudged toward some doomed city for 50+ years, often accompanied by this music.

Story of the Month: Godzilla and the First Movie in a Lifelong Library

On May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 By James CastroIn Movies, Story of the MonthLeave a comment

I once heard that the sense of smell is the sense most tied to memory. Strangely one of the smells that I found to be universal no matter where I went was the smell of a video rental store. Though the concept of movie rentals died out in the last decade, my family visited them frequently in the 80s and 90s in Louisiana, Nevada, and Tennessee and they always had the same scent. It’s an acrid, vinegary smell of plastic and commercial electronics cleanser. It’s the bitter, stale smell of recycled air and electric servo motors slightly burned from overuse. It‘s tied completely to my childhood so, despite its seemingly negative description, it’s one of the sense memories I find the most comforting.

Being born in the early eighties, home video technology wasn’t exactly new but it also was still a luxury. I remember our first massive silver Pioneer VHS player. My mom bought a VHS copy of Ghostbusters as our first movie and for perhaps a year or more it was the only movie we owned. A military family, I remember distinctly the video rental store near base in Louisiana. It was tiny, even to a three-year old, and had model airplanes hanging from the ceiling. And it had that smell… We rented a ton of movies, and especially cartoons, for my sister and I so it was a place we visited frequently.

When I was five we moved to Las Vegas and soon my mom added Crocodile Dundee to our video library expanding it to two tapes. For my birthday that year I received two dinosaur tapes, both less than 30 minutes long but I still have them and still love them.

SONY DSC — Two of the first tapes that were ever mine. I got them for my birthday around 1987.

It was in Las Vegas that my mom let me pick out the first movie I ever chose to add to the video library and I got it from a video rental place. I remember how wide open and bright it seemed compared to the one in Louisiana. We’d been there plenty of times and it housed one of my first disappointments in media, discovering the My Pet Monster video I was dying to rent was only available in BETA… I never got to see that episode! But this day my mom let me pick a movie to buy; one that I could add permanently to our collection VHS tapes and we could keep and watch over and over. As a huge dinosaur fan, and having just been introduced to the Crestwood Monster books series I picked one. The first movie I ever bought: Godzilla versus Megalon, the 1986 Video Treasures public domain release.

Crestwood Monster Series books. These were in the Gragson Elementary School Library and I checked them out frequently. They were largely inaccurate but a good intro to monster movies.

It was after seeing this movie that my love affair with Godzilla began. It is without a doubt one of the strangest of the Godzilla movies; and the version I saw was a heavily edited cut. It features a weird robot (Jet Jaguar), underground civilizations, two big monster villains, and some of the zaniest Godzilla moments ever. I remember the beginning with the kid in the paddle boat and the moment where Godzilla slides across his tail to drop kick Megalon being held by Jet Jaguar like they’re a pro-wrestling tag team and the ref is scolding Megalon’s partner (Megalon actually DID have a partner, another great monster, Gigan). Watching it now it is one of the most ridiculous of the Godzilla movies. It was when Big G was aiming for the kid market, and luckily I was a kid. I loved it. I still do. And I couldn’t be prouder that my first movie was this one, as ridiculous as the movie itself is. It takes me back to that place and those feelings of joy and wonder I had watching it as a kid. I can almost hear the industrial tape rewinders and smell that video store smell.

With The King of the Monsters arriving in a genuine updated form in theaters this past weekend it got me thinking about that movie. The first movie a lifelong film fan ever bought, and a memory of simpler times when all we needed was a VHS player and a fun movie to be at our happiest.

Warhammer Rescues: Blood Angels Land Raider

On May 14, 2014May 13, 2014 By James CastroIn Art, Games, Random FunLeave a comment

Warhammer Rescue Projects

No one would ever think Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, or any miniatures game is cheap. In fact a lot of board/table top games are pretty pricey (take a look at Fantasy Flight, Steve Jackson, or Fireside Games…they’re pretty high for what’s in the box…) but they usually don’t require maintenance or additions or new pieces. It basically comes down to how you want to spend your hobby money. Do you want to spend $500 on a new video game console, plus $60-$70 for new games to support it, or $500 on a playable starter army and $60-$70 on new units? I’ve preferred the latter recently. But it’s not always easy to shell out $69 plus shipping and taxes for a new unit. Especially when, with a little work, you can get a similar or identical unit for far less! You find them on eBay. They usually consist of damaged, incomplete, or poorly painted models. With the copious bits provided by GW with their sets (Deathwing set for example, it makes Deathwing Terminators, Deathwing Knights, or Deathwing Command squad, so you get a lot of extras) you can take a damaged model or one missing parts, add the extras, and make some nice custom pieces. I’ve found all it takes is some patience, a hobby blade, a toothbrush, and some LAs Totally Awesome cleanser and just about any model can be recovered.

Blood Angels Land Raider

This lander raider was sold as a “needs love” project. Boy was that an understatement. It was originally a chaos land raider and I considered using it as one, however the idea of deep striking one of these things with my lil Blood Angels army was too tempting.

Original Condition:

It was a situation where you wonder who originally bought a $75 model and then didn’t seem to look at the instructions. The top hull was glued on top of the side hulls leaving awful gap clearly visible on the top. Also the side sponsons were glued on upside down.

The entire piece was so heavily glued it took over an hour with a very sharp hobby knife to get it all apart and, yes, some of it was damaged so badly it was impossible to make it look “as good as new.”

It got an overnight bath in LA’s Totally Awesome cleaner (seriously, it’s about $3 for a big bottle, soak overnight, it strips ANY paint off of metal, plastic, resin, without damaging the model. Just warm water and a toothbrush.) then reglued correctly.

After Reassembly and Priming:

I made my retail land raider in the “Crusader” variant due to its high-troop transport capacity, so I had all the “Redeemer” variant bits available. I moved the sponsons up, added some pieces of off a Baal Predator I had left over, and some various other parts from additional Space Marine vehicles. Upon reassembly I had to take some liberties and change the basics of the model. For example the sponson optics were broken and gone so I replaced them with spotlights. I wanted assault cannons rather than heavy bolters so I clipped the barrels off of two extras from my Ravenwin upgrade sprues and glued them to the heavy bolters it came with. There was a gap over the frag launchers I filled with standard poles from a Gors unit. I also had to glued the front door closed as the original hinge was glued to the hull and had to be broken to disassemble it.

Work in Progress:

As I said it was impossible to hide the damage to the model so I “hung a lantern on it” as it were. I wrote it into the story of the model, as though it’s a chapter relic and has been through serious wars, has received awful damage, but the might of the vehicle keeps it going. This was especially true on the left side of the model where the awful over-gluing left major plastic damage to the unit. You can see where I used some corrosion to make it appear as though it is battle damaged.

I used copious amounts of Typhus corrosion and some Forge World weathering powder to show the wear on the sides and the front door.

Nearly Finished Rescue Model:

There are some other little touches I’d like to add but I think it’s pretty table ready now. There are still some gaps that need filling and additional details I’d like to include but it’s worlds from where it started.

Is it the best Land Raider out there? Not by far… but for less than half price of the retail version and made with other additional parts I consider it a salvation of this vehicle’s machine spirit. It may not be perfect…but I think the priests of Mars would approve…

Check out my previous painting posts for more!

Black Reach

Dredtrukk

Warboss with Attack Squig

Boss Zagstruk

Stormboy Nob on Flying Base

Bad Moons Nazdreg

Dark Angels Dreadnought

Dark Angels Standard Bearer

Dark Angels Librarian

Warhammer 40k Scenery

And for more 40k my Kharn illustration posts! Part 1 and Part 2. And my fond farewell to the World of Battle.

Off the Page: Illustrations as Gifts

On May 7, 2014May 5, 2014 By James CastroIn ArtLeave a comment

As an illustrator I’m in the unique position of occasionally being able to give friends some very personal gifts for birthdays and holidays.

While “I made it with my own two widdle hands” might seem a bit juvenile, there really isn’t a better gift I can give than a drawing and all of my closest friends have something I’ve drawn for their walls or offices.

My RevPub co-chair has countless pictures decorating her space, my buddy Mike used to have several originals of characters he’d carry in his massive wallet!

I’m not a portrait artist as such. I did some portraits for money in high school and college but I hate the work. It really stifles my creativity and while my artwork does usually lean on the realistic side, doing an exact copy of something, even of a person, kind of takes the fun imagination out of everything.

Instead I do “insinuations” or “approximations” of people I draw for. Not true portraits, just illustrated versions capturing some essence of their character.

I did this piece a few years ago for my friend Misty’s birthday. Not only did I get to have loads of fun torturing her by not letting her know what I was doing for her, I got to get very creative with the drawing. She loves library work and some of the pictures I saw of her working in the field were of her doing a puppet show for kids. She’s wearing some rain boots (she never gets to wear when it’s raining…) and has a nice stack of books behind her.

This is the most recent one I’ve done for my friend Jessica. Her passion is teaching yoga and she is a superlative Hot Yoga instructor. I started doing little pics (starting with my Turbo Snail) and thought this would be a nice birthday present for her. After some minor Facebook stalking so I could approximate her face (my memory is good but not so good I can draw details from it…I’m not Hannibal Lector…) I came up with this.

I’ve never had someone dislike or respond with anything other than excitement upon receiving one of these as a present. Not everyone can draw, or paint, or write, but everyone has something they can do to let their friends know they’re thinking about them. Be creative for your next presents; modern gifts don’t have to begin and end with the gift card!

Cellphone Game: Bluetooth or Crazy

On April 29, 2014April 28, 2014 By James CastroIn Games, Random FunLeave a comment

In conjunction with the Cell Phone Annoyances post from Sunday I thought I’d share a game I came up with a few years ago.

Allow me to set the stage: When I worked in downtown Nashville my RevPub partner and I used to have lunch two or three times a week on the phone. We called them “car” lunches, though usually I sat on the steps of the state capitol or on a hill overlooking the bicentennial mall.

One time while waiting for her to call I was sitting watching the myriad of people stroll by when I observed something: there is a very thin line between a ponce talking vociferously on his/her ridiculous Bluetooth in public and slightly disturbed street people who mutter loudly to themselves about the voices in their heads.

That experience prompted me to create a slightly non-PC time-waster game for people in urban environments, Wal-Marts, Krogers, all kinds of places all over the world.

I called it “Bluetooth or Crazy” and surprisingly after a quick review of the internet I found I wasn’t the only one to think of this! It’s very simple and played like this:

You can play alone or with friends. It’s kind of a betting game. You can bet change, or snacks, or something similarly silly. When someone walks by chattering inanely to themselves you weigh their appearance and the substance of their over-loud droning. You then declare “Bluetooth!” if you think they are talking to some distant, equally irritating person on a wireless headset, or “Crazy!” if you think they are some disturbed individual discussing the value of their tin foil hat in preventing space rays from harvesting their tooth enamel.

The results can surprise you. In my most memorable play-through I randomly encountered a wild hipster douche-lord. He rambled loudly and angrily about something to do with his job. His velvet blue jacket, striped dress shirt, and corduroys clearly marking out his alignment. As he approached I instantly declared “Bluetooth!” and was shocked as he passed that he had NO earpiece or mic of any kind. He was just shouting randomly to Tennessee’s capital city. I would have lost my precious white powder donut six pack if I’d been betting for real! So you never know!

I now work in a suburb with very little foot traffic, but still when I’m out shopping or dining I seize the opportunity to play.

If I could create it as an app for this it would be interesting to play world-wide Bluetooth or Crazy. Hear all the incredibly awful Bluetooth conversations from Bangkok to Brighton and all the random stuff people rant about on street corners from Lima to Lushunkou. I bet douches are douchey and crazies are similarly crazy world wide, we aren’t that different after all.

It would sure make Angry Birds look pretty monotonous! Oh wait… 😉

Distant Worlds: The Music from Final Fantasy

On April 23, 2014April 20, 2014 By James CastroIn Concerts/Shows, Opinions, ReviewsLeave a comment

I’ve been a Final Fantasy fan since the 90s and while my adoration for the games has waned of late, the scores composed by maestro Nobuo Uematsu have never lost their charm or virtuosity.

Distant Worlds is a symphonic or mixed-piece performance series that has been touring for years and when my RevPub partner and I found out it was coming to our town we knew it was a must-see. It just so happens my friend Mike and his fiancee found out about it at the same time and went as well. We all pretty much had the same opinion: it was fantastic.

Several of the pieces were from the “Final Fantasy 2002-0220” performances from over a decade ago and haven’t needed to change a bit. Surprisingly a few of the pieces were VERY new, including one from the latest Lightning Returns, which made conductor Arnie Roth’s statement about short rehearsal times REALLY have impact. The music was synched to a video screen showing clips from the games, re-cut to go with music. It was definitely a nice touch, especially for those not accustomed to seeing an orchestra live.

There is something unique about seeing symphonic music live. The sound of a symphony orchestra fills and surrounds a venue like no other kind of music, and with pieces as well-loved and recognizable as Uematsu’s scores it made for a terrific atmosphere. Most of the time orchestras play classical/romantic music, or music composed just to be music. Uematsu composed his music as a score for a story or capture the personality of a character. Even more impactful than film scores, Uematsu’s scores provide the ambiance for a story YOU help tell. So when you hear them it puts you back in the narrative; recreates the mood and the emotion of events and characters we know so well. Not one that is an hour or two, but maybe one that was 16, 28, or 65 hours or more… That’s a lot of time to spend with characters. A lot of time to get attached to their personalities and motives; Uematsu’s music always masterfully captures the essence of each.

From the jaunty and upbeat “Chocobo Theme,” to the intense strains of “Don’t be Afraid;” and from the profound passion of “Eyes on Me” to the mournful and delicate tone of “Aerith’s Theme,” every piece allows you to re-live that story again, put you back in that “distant world” and relate hours and storytelling magnificently in less than four minutes.

The performance was topped off by a surprise encore (that doesn’t happen much in symphonic music, even though it’s where the term originated!) where Roth asked the audience to sing the choral lyrics to “One-Winged Angel” while the symphony played the music. We were asked only to sing the “SE-PHI-ROTH” portion but in an audience full of fans, many of us sang the rest of the lyrics in Latin. Short of a surprise performance of Koichi Sugiyama’s Dragon Quest title music or Uematsu himself coming out to play the Advent Children version of Sephiroth’s inimical theme with The Black Mages, it was an performance that couldn’t have been improved upon.

Uematsu composed his first Final Fantasy music for 8-bit video games. As the technology progressed he composed for 16-bit cartridges, CD-ROM midis, and later full orchestral scores for Final Fantasy games on DVD and even for films. But the purity and beauty of his music is it works in ALL forms. There is as much heart in “Dear Friends” whether you heard it on a Super Famicom, PS1, or in a symphony hall. There is true beauty to be found in the simplicity of it and it is worth traveling to Distant Worlds to find it for yourself.

Uematsu (on the big Korg keyboard) performing One-Winged Angel with an symphony orchestra, full chorus, and his band The Black Mages.

Revenant Publications

Author: James Castro