Godzilla 2014 Eval

Okay, this is going to be very, very short because I don't want to give anything away.

I saw the new Godzilla movie.  I thought it was okay.

I loved Alexander Desplat's score, and I loved the special effects—there were plenty of moments where I jumped in my seat, or was in awe of how freaking amazing Godzilla was.  I liked the fact that a good portion of the movie was set in Japan and I liked Ken Watanabe's character a lot—I even liked his assistant.  They felt more real than typical hollywood scientists.

But I also liked Bryan Cranston's character a LOT, and I really wish he'd gotten more screen time.  Just as I wish Godzilla had gotten more screen time.  Like, seriously, I needed more Godzilla.  I feel like the movie started the kaiju hunt and never stopped to let me really wallow in how bad the situation was.  I also disliked the ending.  I will only forgive the ending if they make a sequel and have Godzilla lay waste to EVERYTHING.

Godzilla Pre-Movie Excitement

Godzilla is coming out soon—tomorrow, to be exact—so I figure I better roll this out quick!

Personally, I'm excited about it.  At first glance I thought this was just going to be another CGI-fest (seriously, just because you CAN show the whole monster doesn't mean you should) but since I saw the official trailer I've been a lot more optimistic.  This new Godzilla looks like it's going to be true to the original vision, both in form (check out that new design!!!) and in spirit.

One thing I love is Bryan Cranston's voice in the background:  "You are not fooling anyone when you say that what happened was a natural disaster!  You're lying!  It was not an earthquake, it wasn't a typhoon . . . because what's really happening, is you're hiding something out there!  And it's gonna send us back to the stone age!!!"  See, that is how people should sound when they're talking about Godzilla.  I don't care how educated or levelheaded they are.  If a skyscraping radiation-breathing behemoth surfaced on my planet, I'd be sweating buckets just thinking about it.

Also, it has Ken Watanabe.  Ken Watanabe makes everything better.

Seriously, this is all it takes and I'm sold.

—

I'm actually not all that familiar with Godzilla lore.  I mean, I watched a kaiju marathon on tv when I was, like, ten, but I don't remember anything worth mentioning.  My primary exposure to Godzilla (or at least to anything bearing the name of Godzilla) comes from the original film and from the 1998 Emerich movie.  The latter got a bad rap, which I'm beginning to understand, but hey, I enjoyed it.  (Well, at least I enjoyed it more than Emerich's other films.)  Here's my take:

The problem with the 1998 Godzilla was that its creators deconstructed the original story and used all of its face-value concepts to create a comparatively soulless film.  The original Godzilla was a result of atomic radiation, and so the 1998 Godzilla is a result of atomic radiation; the original Godzilla was amphibious, and so the 1998 Godzilla is amphibious; the original Godzilla did damage to a major city, and so the 1998 Godzilla does damage to a major city; and so on and so forth.

In the interest of making this modern Godzilla more realistic, though, the film centers on the lizard's disinterested, amoral, even vulnerable animal nature.  The movie uses the concept of the atomic bomb to illustrate man's capacity for destruction, and Godzilla is actually a foil for this:  A simple-minded animal pursuing the natural, innocent business of eating, nesting, and reproducing while the military attempts to destroy him, causing an absurd amount of damage along the way.  Which I guess isn't a bad idea in and of itself—it's just not Godzilla.

"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

The original message wasn't about man's destructive capacity, it was about realizing man's helplessness.    (So . . . essentially the opposite.)  The japanese military in the story demonstrates innovation and resourcefulness in its quest to end Godzilla's reign, but to no avail:  Man, in all his technological might, is no match for him.  The people of Japan are all but doomed.

And Godzilla is a force of destruction inspired by the atomic bomb, yes, but he plays a part in a much different metaphor.  The really eery thing about his 1954 appearance is that he almost seems to be within his rights to terrorize Japan, as though its people somehow deserved his existence.  It's horrific.  But it's not like a typical monster movie where the people are guilty of an obvious indiscretion (like, say, covering up a shark attack before the fourth of july) so you don't spend any screen time hating the guy to blame—be it the director from King Kong or that jerk from Aliens; if anything you just feel incredible sympathy for the masses crushed beneath his feet.

The only crime is the lack of respect for nature.  As Watanabe says in the 2014 trailer, "The arrogance of man is thinking nature is under our control, and not the other way around."  (Another reason to be excited for the movie.)  Godzilla is nature aggravated by the products of war, the embodiment of wrath itself, come to claim respect from the puny humans.  There's no other explanation for him coming ashore—he's just there to make people suffer.

It's sort of like the Tower of Babel.
. . . Y'know, if instead of making the builders speak different
languages God decided to sic a giant reptile on the place instead.

It's possible, even, that Godzilla is meant as a consequence or retribution for Japanese Imperialism.  Not as american post-war propaganda, but because that's the sort of thing that would be in the hearts and minds of the populace at the time the movie came out.  Think about it:  Godzilla is like a blast from the old traditions of Japan, reminding them of natural power after their stint trying to claim world power for themselves.  I don't think american propaganda had a hand in it because I don't think americans at the time would have been able to develop the character of Godzilla: he's too much a product of Japanese culture.

This leads me to a weird little idea I've had about the whole Godzilla legend that ties in with the monster's gradual evolution to monster-movie hero.  It is weird, but maybe someone will find it interesting:

As it's often been said, Godzilla is a destructive force.  But according to traditional Japanese culture and religion, there is a bit of "the divine" in everything, so in his own way Godzilla could be called a god.  A god of wrath.  Now look at how he goes from being the destroyer to the defender.  It's like he does his work to punish the humans, but when other monsters want a piece of the action he's almost like a guardian, as though to mean that having learned their lesson, the humans do not deserve to suffer more.

. . . Yeah, I'm off my nut, aren't I?  . . . I thought so.

—

So, yeah, the 1954 movie was awesome.  It was moving, it was interesting, it was even scary.  I don't know about you, but something about the ol' black-and-white style, cheesy as it was, made everything seem so much creepier.  Monsters are just plain scarier when you can't see them properly.  Even the music was amazing.

So what about this new film?  I have high hopes.  Partly because it gives its own little homage to the original film—"In 1954, we awakened something . . ."—which begs the question, did the bombs used to try to destroy Godzilla just spread radiation and make him grow to the obscene size he is in the trailer?

Also, the CGI.  I get so tired of blockbusters trying to outdo each other with the latest, flashiest, most extravagant effects money can buy when all I want is something realistic.  I want to be convinced, not overwhelmed.  Remember all the crazy HD closeups of the alien mothership from District 9?  No, you don't, because Neil Blomkamp was a smart director and realized it would be more believable if it was treated like a part of the background.

"FINALLY!!!  THANK—oh, wait, it's just CGI, isn't it?"

But from the looks of the new Godzilla, the CGI has not been taken lightly.  From what we do see of him, he looks as real as the buildings around him.  And that makes me very, very happy.  Plus he's just overall designed well, so . . . yeah, I think it's gonna be good.  And I'm really, really looking forward to seeing some atomic breath . . .

"Duuuuck and cover, Duuuuck and cover . . ."

I do have some misgivings, though.  It's seems like there's going to be another kaiju in the film, possibly Rodan, the giant pterodactyl.  How is that going to work?  I don't want Godzilla to have to share the spotlight—he's the King of Monsters, for crying out loud—but I guess it could work.  This isn't a genre I've spent a lot of my creative process on, so what do I know?  I'll tell you what, though, if I were writing this movie and I had to put Rodan in, I'd introduce him first—show the military in the process of trying to work out a reasonable plan of attack against this monster only to have Godzilla appear and show everyone what a REAL threat looks like. . . Then maybe later the two could fight.  You know, for tradition's sake.