GODZILLA: One Year Later

It's amazing when you stop and think about how things come together over the years. I remember when the first announcement came that Legendary Pictures had acquired the rights to Godzilla to produce a new American film. After the 1998 disaster, many were rightfully skeptical. Four years later it arrived and put to rest any worries. Despite personal preferences, most agreed it was a well-made film.

The Godzilla fanbase is passionate. It's much like Star Wars when if you engage someone whom has years of knowledge, prepare yourself for an extensive conversation. Unlike Star Wars however, prior to the new film Godzilla was more of a niche in the States. Many associated G with being cheesy, a joke, and nothing to be taken seriously. That's why fans such as myself were looking forward to this movie, because with a new, serious adaption, the monster could finally have much needed respect in America. That, and the fact it would be the first G film since Final Wars back in 2004.

I was a bit skeptical when it was confirmed that Gareth Edwards would be directing. He had previously directed the independent film MONSTERS. That movie upon first watching was disappointing because the marketing portrayed it as a big monster flick. The alien creatures have very little screen time. It's essentially a drama with a monster backdrop. In retrospect it's a quality film, but at the time it was easy to see why many were skeptical. The Japanese Godzilla films pride themselves for its monster destruction, so there was some fear that Edwards would do the something like he did with MONSTERS. Thankfully, by the time the end credits had rolled, most viewers were convinced that the big G was in good hands.

The first ever look we got of G, back in 2012

I remember when the first teaser came out, and only a select few were able to view it since it was Comic Con exclusive. Eventually it was leaked online and everyone in the world quickly absorbed it. It was quite ominous, presenting G as a rather horrific figure against the Oppenheimer "Destroyer of Worlds" audio. This is perhaps the most infamous thing about the movie. Almost all of the marketing portrayed G as a terrifying, relentless monster of destruction, much like the original 1954 film. The movie shocked me and many others when Godzilla emerged as a hero, with even the words, "King of the Monsters - savior of our city?" displayed near the ending. Many were disappointed that G wouldn't be returning to his horror roots, while others like myself enjoyed the portrayal. Personally, I find Godzilla's heroic days in the 60's/70's to be the most entertaining era of the Japanese films. Legendary's portrayal in my opinion was a perfect blend of the heroic Godzilla from that era and the destructive force seen in films like Return of Godzilla and GODZILLA 2000.

The design for G was kept under wraps for a very long time. Arguably, it was the most hyped aspect. When fully unveiled, no major complaints were had. Still, some didn't like the elephant-like feet, and how little his eyes were. Any complaints I personally had were rendered moot when he was in motion. Right when he entered the airport to battle the Muto the design quickly became one of my favorites.

Speaking of Muto, one of the most intriguing parts of marketing was its reluctance to showcase the antagonist monster. When the film finally arrived, viewers were treated to very unique and awesome creatures for G to do battle with. The fights in this movie to me were a bit more on the mixed side. When G first arrives to battle Muto, it looks like a grand battle was about to take place but instead it's reduced to being on the news for a few seconds. This was funny the first time around in the theater, but in subsequent viewings it's a disappointment. The second fight is also a tease. The climax is very exciting, but suffers a little from the fact that it cuts away to the soldiers too often. Still, it's hard to deny the greatness of such scenes like G using his tail to slap the male Muto into a building and the first time he uses his atomic blast. (Both scenes garnered great cheer from the audience in the theater.) While the climax could have been better, it nonetheless was one of the more thematic battles of 2014 and showed what a modern Godzilla brawl can look like.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many Godzilla movies with top notch acting performances. Films like MONSTER ZERO and Gojira have Oscar worthy portrayals. While the new film doesn't have any award winners, the cast is nonetheless solid. Many were dismayed when the film killed off Bryan Cranston's character Joe Brody early on, whom according to many was easily the best character. His son Ford took center stage from then on. Many said he was too dull, with little emotion. While I can agree, I think it's important to remember that could be his character as part of being military. Either way, I think if he comes back for the sequel he'll be better.

It's already been confirmed that we'll getting two sequels, one of which is coming in 2018. The awesome part is that Legendary has the rights to classic TOHO monsters Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah for use. It's an exciting time for G fans, and will continue to be so as other companies capitalize. (TOHO themselves will be releasing a brand new film in the Japanese series next year!)

One year later has gone by, and every Godzilla fan remembers it like it was yesterday. It is unfortunate that the film only made $528 million worldwide. That may sound like a lot, but Transformers: Age of Extinction from that same year and the new Fast and the Furious both have made over $1 billion. GODZILLA doesn't rely on mindless explosions, sexual appeal, or sarcastic wit to tell a story. But, modern American audiences want the three things just listed rather than a serious adventure, which is disappointing. This doesn't change the fact that G was still a hit and will remain engraved in film culture. Now a fan can go around asking others, "hey have you seen Godzilla?"and get into good conversations, even though they might not have seen the Japanese films.

It was all thanks to this day, May 16th, last year that Godzilla has a resurgence of popularity worldwide. I look forward to seeing what Edwards and Legendary bring to the table in three years.

On the Recent GODZILLA News and Manga

I will admit that Legendary's GODZILLA is my moat anticipated movie ever. (The record holder use to Spider-Man 3.) Last year was a pretty good year for updates, at the San Diego Comic Con they showed a teaser (which still hasn't been released for the general public) a poster, and a release date of May 16th, 2014. (Can you believe this film was originally meant to come out last year?) 2014 technically makes sense for marketing, it is the big G's 60th anniversary after all. Since then updates have been scarce, but this past week was full of them. Warner Bros. is committed to a March start date, which is just in two months. Casting has begun, no one has been picked yet, but the shortlist includes Henry Cavill (hey maybe Superman will come and try to save the day) and it looks like Aaron Johnson is being sought after now. (Believe it or not Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in discussions but he declined sadly.) All that is minor to these pieces of news...

Frank Darabont of THE WALKING DEAD has been hired to do a 'final re-write.' It's really quite scary seeing how many re-writes this thing has gotten, it definitely shows that TOHO isn't fooling around. It makes perfect sense, they've learned they can't fully put all their trust in us Americans when it comes to the big G. (And we all know why right? 1998 was an interesting year...) With Darabont re-writing, you can tell this film is going to put an emphasis on the gritty part. Now, we already know that Godzilla will fight another monster, but it looks like they'll be a second monster. And the key word here is 'new,' there will be two 'new' monsters. One of the age old questions for this movie was whether or not G would battle another monster from the TOHO universe. Well, it looks like we'll be getting two new monster creations. While I am disappointed that we won't see the likes of Rodan or Anguirus, it'll still be cool to get some new guys. I can't wait to see their official designs and names. 

The other piece of news and arguably biggest is the story will be about a soldier and that the film will be 'really different' than the TOHO movies. When I heard about the soldier part, Half Century War instantly came to mind. That mini-series follows a soldier as he narrates Godzilla's destruction over the years. This soldier will most likely narrate Godzilla's destruction too I would imagine. Now the second part, where it says it'll be 'really different' than the TOHO films is interesting. It might not have been the greatest thing to say, but I understand it. I do think this film should be its own unique thing, I'm not sure if it should be too different than the Japanese films, because we longtime fans still want to see the true Godzilla on the big screen. When they say TOHO they're most likely referring to the late 60s and 70s movies. They really want people knowing that this will be a very serious movie. With Gareth Edwards directing, I have a feeling we'll also have a strong human character. Unlike MONSTERS however, GODZILLA has to be about the title character, not just a plot device or an obstacle, but a character. I hope we'll see that.

While all that could be considered as good news, the bad news is that two producers have left the project, Dan Lin and Roy Lee. Now here comes the interesting part...they're actually attempting to stop the film from going forward. I've read the complaint and it doesn't look like they're going to win, but still a pretty intense thought. As you can see it's really all about the money, forget about the fans whom have been waiting since this was first announced four years ago. The case hasn't exactly happened yet, so it'll be interesting to see how much this sets back production.

Remember the Godzilla manga I talked about not too long ago? The one where it's set five years after Terror of Mechagodzilla? Well it turns out that it's actually a fan manga. It's a little un-surprising, since TOHO would probably never want to revisit the Showa timeline. Still, it's pretty impressive for a fan manga and shows there are still dedicated fans out there.