The proof of concept for the new Gamera production dropped earlier today at NYCC. Let it be known, first and foremost, but I absolutely did not expect this to ever really happen. I was fairly certain that Gamera was essentially considered a dead property, and that Kadokawa had no interest in competing with both Warner Brothers and Toho in what is by now probably considered a sufficiently cornered market. But surprise me they did, and with a fairly impressive and pretty damn cool "pilot film" (which is a fancy way of saying that this is not actually a trailer, but a concept piece not unlike the "destroyer of worlds" Godzilla trailer from a few years ago). Yes, it's a fairly impressive "trailer" and it is even more impressive that they showed the thing off at New York Comic Con. I like the basic concept too: giant monsters are a fact of life in this version of Japan, and a young man grows up amongst the chaos. Fascinatingly, it appears as though his father put him on some sort of "Monster Watchers" path, where he treated life-or-death struggles with a kind of flippancy that involved getting extra video game time if his son could outrun the murderous hell-bat behind him. The boy seems to have inherited his father's fearlessness, and apparently decided that Gamera is the monster worth observing (as implied by the narration and the imagery of the binoculars). The Gyaos are appropriately gruesome and bizarre, and the new monster (which may not even be in the final film) is pretty strange and cool - appropriate for a "Super Monster." And Gamera himself is thickly built, inelegant, and ferocious, although a hint of character can be seen in his resolve to destroy the Gyaos. The big ticket item is, of course, the choice to use all CGI in this trailer, and presumably in the actual production. It raises more than a few eyebrows, especially with many filmmakers in Japan pushing hard for a return to classic tokusatsu effects. It's interesting to consider that this new Gamera may have been produced with a mind to directly compete with Legendary's Godzilla rather than Toho's SHIN GOJIRA, which, according to Higuchi, will be "hybrid effects" ala his work with ATTACK ON TITAN. The point that I personally want to emphasize is, according to the reaction online, people do seem to be wowed by the trailer, and appropriately so: it's very energetic and pretty to look at. But it could hardly be called "realistic." If you were to ask the average moviegoer why they'd prefer CG to classic tokusatsu, they would probably say "because it's more realistic." This is a fallacy, of course. If films like AGE OF ULTRON and JURASSIC WORLD, TRANSFORMERS, and THE HOBBIT prove anything, it's that the notion of audiences wanting "realism" is laughably untrue. What they want is for the film to look EXPENSIVE. Big crazy shots that would be almost impossible with totally practical effects, as well as outrageously fast-moving action and a screen that is crammed with as many digital effects as possible can be very cool visually, but they're hardly ever realistic. The majority of AGE OF ULTRON is cartoonishly over-the-top, and the titular character, while entertaining and expressive, is just a really shiny cartoon with no weight or presence in the world around him. "Realistic" he is not. Now let me make something absolutely clear: I LIKE CGI. I LIKE IT A LOT. I think some really impressive things can be done with CGI, and even then, it doesn't HAVE to look "realistic" if that's what you're going for. GODZILLA 2014 has some of the best CGI and rendering in recent memory, because Edwards knows how to composite a shot and integrate CG into it. And FURY ROAD uses CGI that I don't think most people are even aware of. What I'm not crazy about is this race-to-the-bottom, fast-food, dissolution-of-pre-production, fix-it-all-in-post mentality that is gripping the film industry. And I don't want to see the Japanese film industry, which prides itself on tokusatsu, fall victim to this just so it's movies can look more expensive. But if it's what the masses want, I guess they're no fighting it. Nifty turtle, though. More kaiju is ALWAYS good.
