The King Of The Monsters Goes In For A Close-Up In A New 'Shin Godzilla' Image

It's been almost a week since I saw Shin Godzilla at Fantastic Fest 2016 and I haven't stopped thinking about it. As I explained in my review, Toho's 29th Godzilla film is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure, deliberately sidestepping what everyone expects from a kaiju movie so it can deliver something truly unique. Those hoping for a traditional monster movie may be disappointed by Shin Godzilla, but anyone looking for a Godzilla movie that that is weird and dense enough to inspire actual conversations will be delighted.

And that brings me to today's piece of news: I'm proud to debut a new still from the film, offering an up close and personal look at the king of the monsters himself.

Although his basic shape remains familiar, the Godzilla of Shin Godzilla has undergone a significant makeover. This is not surprisingly cute and kitschy dinosaur of so many Toho productions and this is not the intricately detailed and realistically rendered creation of the 2014 Hollywood remake. This version is very much a monster, actually looking like the nightmarish result of ocean life and nuclear waste. Sure, everyone has a soft spot for the cool Godzilla who stomps Tokyo in order to save it from aliens or what-not, but there's something to be said for a Godzilla who looks like a legitimate monstrosity and stomps Tokyo just because it's there.

Truthfully, there isn't a whole bunch of Godzilla in Shin Godzilla. The film treats the big guy like a disaster, an unknowable and devastating occurrence that causes massive damage before slipping away and forcing the Japanese government to deal with the fallout. Much of the film's focus is on the human characters scrambling to cut through bureaucracy and save lives. Whether this tone works for you or not will be a personal preference thing (I quite enjoyed it), but the handful of scenes where Godzilla does run amuck are impressively made and bring the whole "destroying Tokyo with atomic breath" thing to new levels of nuts.

Shin Godzilla will screen again at the New York City Comic-Con on October 5, 2016 before entering limited release from October 11 through October 18, playing in 480 theaters in North America courtesy of Funimation Films. I highly recommend checking it out, because like it or not, it will almost certainly inspire a strong opinion.

Here's the official synopsis:

In Shin Godzilla, Tokyo's worst nightmare ignites with vigor when a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep waters of the bay and begins tearing through the city, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. As the government scrambles to save its citizens, a rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower.