Before we get rolling here, I need to talk a bit about my
history with the character of Godzilla; if you don’t believe Godzilla is in
fact a character, just click that little ‘x’ in the upper corner and go away,
because you don’t need this review.
Godzilla is iconic and indeed a character in his eponymous series of
films. Some of those films, both
Japanese and American, have spanned the spectrum from greatness to garbage.
I first discovered Godzilla watching either late night or
Sunday afternoon creature features on network television. (Sorry youngsters,
back when I was a kid we had three networks, PBS, and radio. No web video, no interwebz, and not even
videotape.) This was primarily the sixties and seventies
film version that was more than a little tongue in cheek, but treated Godzilla
with a certain respect and reverence.
The characters treated Godzilla not as a monster, but as a protective
force as if he was a manifestation of the Japanese spirit itself. I didn’t understand.
Then, in the late 70s we got the Godzilla cartoon. I watched it religiously (along with ‘Battle
of the Planets’) and despite Godzuky, added it to my repertoire of appreciating
giant monsters. C’mon, I still sing the
theme song, as horrible as the whole thing was.
Then, in the mid 80s I was Saved. I want to thank my old and dear friend Will
Schwartz who was far more familiar with Japanese pop culture than I was. When “Godzilla 1985” came out he was sad they
had to put Raymond Burr into it. I
mentioned that the 1954 Godzilla had the former Perry Mason as well. And then he showed me the truth.
Will had a bootleg of the original 1954 “Gojira” from
Japan. No Raymond Burr, just a
masterpiece of mid-twentieth century cinema.
I certainly didn’t know that the scenes featuring Burr were edited in to
make the movie “palatable” for an American audience, and was not a melodramatic
farce about a ridiculous monster. I
learned though that “Gojira” was a solemn examination of mankind’s effects on
the world around us, and how nature fights back. The 1954 “Gojira” was then a parable for
nuclear largess (mind you, actually intercut with documentary footage of
Hiroshima) and now still stands as an allegory for mankind’s false assumption
that we run nature. Later Will showed me
the unedited Japanese version of “Godzilla 1984” (released a year earlier in
Japan) and though I will always have a nostalgia for the 60s-70s films, they
reflected camp like the 70s’s Bond films as they strayed from “Doctor No” and
“From Russian With Love.”
“Godzilla 1984” started what is known as the “Heisei”
series. For the first time there was a
continuity to the series, and the serious feel of 1954 was back. Indeed, 1984 was set as a direct sequel to
1954 erasing the folly of the rest.
Heisei carries through seven films into 1995 truly creating a mythology
and reverence around Godzilla, as if he were a Shinto God of nature
indifference to the suffering of man because he—and Japan—would prevail. In ’95 we get “Godzilla Vs. Destroyah” and
ostensibly an end to Godzilla in Japan as Toho sold the rights to Sony Tristar
to begin an American series.
Along came Matthew Broderick and Roland Emmerich. The less said the better.
Toho reclaimed the character with the “Millennium” series
but each of these were single stories, adherent only to 1954, but mostly worth
a look. They do get goofier as they go,
and it seemed my beloved Gojira was lost again.
And now we have Gareth Edwards.
I saw his low budget movie “Monsters” and was actually
pretty impressed. He made the phenomenon
of giant monsters real to the world he created, and showed how some humans
would adapt and others try to force the issue, and I will look you in the eye
right now and tell you, I believe “Monsters” with its half-million dollar
budget is at least 20 times the movie the $190 million “Pacific Rim” was. It earned Edwards the right to again try to
bring Godzilla to American screens. It
got me in a theater the first week the movie was out.
And damn am I glad I was.
The short form, spoiler-fee version here is that the 2014 American
“Godzilla” is a really good film, and honors its source material better than
many of the Japanese films. It isn’t
perfect but it does some truly great things and I think it proves Gareth
Edwards is remarkably talented. I can’t
wait to see more from him. Not perfect,
but truly TRULY Godzilla and the King of the Monsters.
From here on out, spoilers will flutter about like Mothra
after the Luminous Fairies have sung Mosura
no uta.
I won’t go into story specifics but I will talk about the
things that really impressed me with this film.
First and foremost, it is the utter adoration, worship, and respect
Edwards gives Godzilla. Like the
Millennium films this movie hints that it is in fact a sequel to the 1954
“Gojira” and that awakened by our use of nuclear power, Godzilla has roamed the
seas. The reason is natural
balance. Godzilla exists as the alpha
predator left over from a world ruled by radioactive monsters. When they absorbed the deadliest of said
radiation, the kaiju were forced into the bowels of the Earth to feed from the
core’s radiation. Life as we know it
could then evolve and think we were the top of the food chain. When we re-introduce nuclear power and
radiation in such intense forms, nature responds, putting the apex predator in
place for the inevitable return to the surface of kaiju who will feed on that
radiation. Godzilla is not a monster, he
is a force of nature, an instrument of the universe keeping the planet from
being overrun by creatures that would again strip and destroy the surface
environment. He is the coyote to the
rabbit, the owl to the mouse. As Blue
Oyster Cult would say, man’s folly has allowed creatures that should be
contained to potentially flourish; the control system is Godzilla. This indifferent reptilian deity inexorably
marching toward his foe does not care if a few human die; they are just another
small part of the ecosystem, they will replenish their numbers. The system must be saved. This Godzilla is the manifestation of natural
balance, and in that something of a nature deity. There’s the reverence inherent to the
original character, and it is here in spades.
Secondly, I love the fact this movie never stops the story
so we can then cut away to cutscenes of disaster porn. The battles between Godzilla and the Mutos
(Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) are rendered beautifully and epic,
but they are never separate from the human perception thereof. We see it only through those characters who
are there and who must survive as nature burns and roils around them. The last few summers have made me pretty
weary of cities getting destroyed (looking at YOU Man of Steel!), yet I never
felt fatigue here because the human element was not lost.
I hear complaints about the humans being flat. Eh, to a degree, but it is not that the
humans are flat as characters, it is that they are ineffectual. The human characters do virtually nothing to
affect the outcome of the monsters’ brawling.
That is not an accident of bad writing, it’s the point of the film. When nature, as a tsunami, climate change, a
tornado, or a 400 foot tall kaiju unleashes its energy we are spectators, and our resistance is futile. The allegory of
what we have unleashed and our inability to re-cork that bottle are in full
force here, and for me to great effect.
Ford Brody is a cliché because he is every man, he is the best of us; he
is completely useless and humbled before nature.
The fourth thing I truly love about this film is the fact
this CGI Godzilla is motion capture.
That gives this model weight and flow the iguana-like ‘Zilla from ’98
never had. It is stunning on film and
manages to completely show us Godzilla in a realistic fashion while somehow
conveying the natural motion of a man in a suit without making us watch a man stomp through model buildings. Nicely done.
So, what keeps this film from being the best thing I have
seen in decades? Well, it is the
humans. Not the portrayal per se, but
the contrivance that our everyman happens to be at every major event, he
happens to find his wife and son at the most dramatic moments, and the three of
them happen to live all the way through.
It’s the same gripe I had about the end of Steven Spielberg’s “War of
the Worlds” when Tom Cruise makes it to his wife’s house, and the older son
made it too. It’s the Spielberg ending,
when the passing of any member of this family (aside from the gone too soon
Bryan Cranston) would have better delivered on the message. It’s not a deal breaker for me, and I did
enjoy and do recommend the film, but more personal consequence would have sat
better with me.
I mention Spielberg, and his influence on Edwards is
apparent. Aside form the double wammy
nod of the lead character’s name, we get some famous scenes replayed here: The
helicopter in the jungle from “Jurassic Park;” the boat from “Jaws” heading out
into the bay; the quarantine zone from “Close Encounters” used to cover up
what’s REALLY going on, right down to Bryan Cranston pulling a Richard Dreyfuss
and removing his mask to prove the government is lying. Those moments play well though, to better
effect than the same homages paid by JJ Abrams in “Super 8,” a movie I did
enjoy.
“Godzilla” is a victory for the character of Godzilla
though, who gets his props here. It is
also a victory for Edwards. Going from
no-budget to huge budget did not stagger him the way it did Neill Blomkamp who
followed the amazing “District 9” with the amazingly dull “Elysium.” I don’t know that “Godzilla” is a better
movie than “Monsters” but it certainly is not a sophomore slump, and I am
really looking forward to what else Edwards will bring to us.
Once you’ve delivered a God, where do you go from there?
And now, for your viewing pleasure, Shyporn tells us everything you need to know about Godzilla and his friends. (Safe for work)
And now, for your viewing pleasure, Shyporn tells us everything you need to know about Godzilla and his friends. (Safe for work)
