Editorials
Netflix’s “Godzilla: Singular Point” Makes for a Bloated, Disappointing Experience [Anime Horrors]
Welcome back to Anime Horrors – a column dedicated to exploring new and classic works of anime and manga.
Godzilla adapted into an anime – animated by studio Bones nonetheless- sounds like an excellent idea. Given the release of Godzilla vs. Kong earlier this year, Godzilla: Singular Point comes at a perfect time to satiate the need for those wanting more Kaiju action. And yet, Godzilla: Singular Point is brutally disappointing.
As far as positives go, the show has stunning visuals. From the environments to the characters and monster designs, everything looks great. The monsters in particular look rad – with the most interesting being that of the titular Kaiju himself. The style of this titan pulls inspiration from the likes of Shin, King of the Monsters, and even a little bit of the 1998 Godzilla. There is even some interesting mystery and action within the narrative. That said, all the intrigue and thrills are short lived.
The show follows Yun Arikawa and Mei Kamino – a handyman and a graduate student respectively – and the events that take place around them. Not too long after each comes across a mysterious song, monsters begin invading their world. At face value, this is a neat premise to set up the overall story of a monster invasion. Instead though, that monster invasion gets bogged down by horrendous pacing, vapid characters, and a bloated, monotonous story.
From the start, Singular Point leans in hard with sci-fi exposition dumps. Within an episode there will be at least one mention of a scientific concept; once this comes up, characters go off on monologues that overstay their welcome. Exposition – in careful use – can help further connect an audience to a story and characters; yet Singular Point puts a lot of emphasis on explaining high-concepts, providing little attention to its characters. Because while the characters have their moments of charm, Singular Point also suffers from the same dilemma that many of the MonsterVerse projects have – no one is that interesting and lacks any sort of emotional depth.
As one continues their way through the show, it becomes clear that the main cast are only present to discuss sci-fi/philosophical ideas and wait for things to happen. It’s so bizarre, because Singular Point spends so much time with its human characters, yet makes them as interesting as a plain piece of paper. It reminds me a lot of 2014’s Godzilla, which – when compared to this anime – comes across superior. While some of the MonsterVerse movies are noted for their weak character writing, Singular Point has it worse due to its runtime. You can almost forgive weak characters within a two-hour movie that has awesome monster fights – but in a five-plus hour anime, especially where epic moments are hindered by a sluggish pace – that’s a hard loss.
Over the course of the show, several different kinds of monsters make an appearance. As the monster invasion ramps up with the story’s progression, the latter portion of the 13 episodes is the more exciting when it comes to action. The moments with Godzilla towards the end are cool, they are just a significantly small part of the overall story. But to get to any action sequences, the audience must be willing to endure the slog of dialogue that makes for the core presentation of the show.
Singular Point’s greater focus is that of the mystery element behind the monster invasion. The mystery starts out intriguing, some of that philosophical banter even serviceable in stirring the audience’s curiosity. It’s just that the show gets up its own ass in that banter, that one may feel like they’re in a college lecture instead of experiencing a riveting thriller. The dialogue doesn’t help move the narrative forward that much, so in a way, the audience just lingers among the conversations until a monster attacks a city.
It is sad how rough Godzilla: Singular Point turned out. Even if its first couple episodes set up a lot of intrigue, that momentum comes crumbling down – the narrative bogged down by exposition, dull characters, and pacing issues. These elements work together to chip away at the narrative mystery and moments of intense action, resulting in a show that has more of a means to burn out a viewer than excite. Even if you’re a diehard Godzilla fan, this is a show you can comfortably skip.
Godzilla: Singular Point is now streaming on Netflix.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
You must be logged in to post a comment.