Remember how we hoped that this time a Western (not the film, the geography) director would get Godzilla right this time? That we could bypass the stain placed on the franchise by Roland Emmerich?
(Director Gareth) Edwards then made a brief appearance on stage, in order to describe the thinking behind his take on the famous movie monster. “There’s nothing sci-fi,” he says about the film’s approach. “It’s very grounded and realistic. What would it be like if this all really happened?”
So many reactions, ranging from “facepalm” to “headdesk”.
That was Edwards speaking at Comic-Con (whose trailer has somehow STILL not hit the internet to my knowledge), as reported by website Total Film. I didn’t hear about this until recently when someone on Twitter linked to this posting at Coming Soon. There are reasons this won’t work.
image source: NOT National Geograpic.
The first is that there isn’t going to be anything “sci-fi” about the approach. Godzilla IS a science fiction concept. A giant monster born of atomic bomb tests that breathes nuclear fire. What isn’t “sci-fi” about this? You can’t stay true to the origin WITHOUT being “sci-fi”. “What would it be like if it really happened?”, you ask. I think the original movie did that, which leads to the “grounded and realistic” part. The original Godzilla, which you know I am a fan of, is an excellent movie. It showed the realism of a giant monster destroying as much of Japan as it can. Or maybe Edwards thinks the Oxygen Destroyer is “too sci-fi”.
Look, I love the first film. I immediately ordered the Criterion Collection version as soon as I saw it listed. However, I think maybe people are TOO in love with the movie. I know, many directors like to put out a “message” movie to boost their studio cred (it’s like “street cred” for elitist Hollywood snobs) and “no nukes” is popular in that culture, from weapons to power plants. What they don’t realize is that we watch these movies for the monster battles. Whether Godzilla is battling some new superweapon Japan created or another monster, the “sci-fi” is what made the Godzilla movies a franchise. This is one of the many, many, many, many, many things Emmerich forgot with GINO/Zilla. That and trying to make Matthew Broderick into an action hero is a lame idea.
I’m available to write this, IDW. That or “Team Godzilla”. Heck, I’ll write “Godzilla and the Guardian Monsters” if you really want it.
With the exception of Godzilla 1985, every G-Film in last two “eras” of Godzilla movies have recognized this. The “Heisei” era, which started with 1985, went right into creating original monsters before bringing back the classic monsters. The “Millennium” era was almost all reboots (with one exception, forming a two-part MechaGodzilla tale). Each of them ignored all previous G-Movies except for the original. The Heisei movies also ignored every classic/”Showa” film past the original. More proof of an obsession with the original and a distaste for the “kid-friendly” movies that followed. After Ghidorah’s first appearance Godzilla became a protector of Earth, if only because he lived there. These are occasionally campy and if the assault on Adam West/Burt Ward’s version of Batman and Robin are any indication, “campy” is sadly hated. I think I proved in my “Team Godzilla” concept that you can update the “guardian monster” idea.
(In case you missed it, part one, part two, and part three. IDW, I have a tab up top for my contact form when you realize how awesome it would be.)
Folks, the original film is great and deserves at least most of the praise its given. Still, the franchise really is about smashing cities and monsters, not the message of the original, or some environmental theme handled by the Japanese equivalent of an “art house” director or the sins of Japan or anything else that’s been tried to stuff into a Godzilla movie. I’ll probably still see this version, and I may well enjoy it. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to be happy that the Big G isn’t battling aliens, robots, or other giant monsters. This is what made Godzilla as popular as it is, and if this does spawn a US-produced franchise they would do well to remember that.
Just don’t break out Ghidorah until you break out a few other monsters first.
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Dude, if you’ve kept updated since 2010 you would know a bit more details: 😉
1. Edwards and Legendary Pictures said that they aren’t going to make the same mistakes as the 1998 film. That they were going to be faithful to the Japanese iconic character.
2. They said that they were returning Godzilla back to his “gritty, dark nuclear roots”, meaning they are going back to the original (Gojira), and from the teaser alone, and the “Now I am become death, the Destoryer of Worlds.” about the Atomic Bomb, Legendary Pictures are taking Godzilla very seriously.
3. Brian Rogers said that in this movie, Godzilla will have a opponent to face, or multiple opponents back in 2010. This was further supported during the teaser shown at this year’s comic con which had a slain corpse of a bug like monster within a completely obliterated city, both causes at the hands of Godzilla. This tells that they know what fans and people want. They aren’t making the same mistake.
4. The “grounded and realistic” part was talked about earlier this year. Its not in the context of making Godzilla a realistic monster. But in the context of “What if we turned on CNN, and see such a thing actually happening in the real world. How would the world react to Godzilla if he was real”. Its simply a take similar to Cloverfield or District 9.
5. “Nothing sci-fi” this is most likely in the regard of selling this film as if it really happened in the real world, the lives affected, the chaos, everything. Beyond that, its also probably a sign that they aren’t handling any heavy hitters like Mothra or Ghidorah since that would be waaay out there for a first movie to handle. Yes, Godzilla is Sci-fi, but since they are returning Godzilla back to the original, the symbolism of nuclear warfare, and the embodiment of the Atomic bomb. Then the message itself isn’t going to be Sci-fi, and we’ll experience that throughout the film from the point of view of the characters.
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1. I’m glad they are looking at the actual movie rather than a brief summary. The concept art I’ve seen of the Big G looks…actually like Godzilla.
2. But they’re still going back to the original. I remember when Godzilla became fun to watch, even the Heisei era. (Check my review of Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah. Ignorant of time travel, but still fun to watch.) I have nothing but respect and praise for the original movie but that’s not what made the franchise.
3. I wish they’d release that teaser already. Admittedly I haven’t heard about an opponent and hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be like the lice in Godzilla 1985. I’m still hopeful about the movie; I’m just tired of the “dark and gritty” being the thing everyone thinks is essential.
4. You’re not going to win me over with Cloverfield or District 9 The former was a nice idea that went wrong and the latter is just not my taste.
5. I don’t want to see any of the “heavy hitters” too early, either. When Toho restarted the franchise the last two times. you had original monsters followed by slowly bringing back the classics, and that worked. At least in concept, Biolante is a cool monster. (I need to watch that again.) Orga kind of grew on me. But I would be remiss not to bring up concerns that I have, if only because Hollywood has screwed up licenses so much in the past. (Transformers, anyone? Also how the last American Godzilla movie makers kept swearing they were going to be fair to the source material. I actually like that movie, but Reptar from the Rugrats cartoon was more accurate.)
I WANT to be proven wrong. I want this to be awesome. I just have a history of being disappointed by licenses of shows and movies I grew up loving. I’ll be sitting in the theater ready to go when it comes out, hopes up and ready to enjoy it, but I want to keep my expectations low enough that if it’s bad I can either find something good about it or not be too disappointed and still enjoy myself. This is what Hollywood has done to me.
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