Thought it would be a cool new take on kaiju movies. It had Bryan Cranston, a cool new Godzilla design, the marketing implied it’d be paying homage to the early tokusatsu Godzilla films, etc.
They kill off Bryan Cranston in the first few minutes, and then the rest of the movie follows his character’s generic action movie protagonist son. It barely shows Godzilla until the end, which wouldn’t be a problem as long as there is a compelling human narrative (Godzilla 1954 and Godzilla -1 are good examples). But the narrative effectively turns into US military propaganda. Behold, as the brave servicemen of the US military rise to any challenge, driven by an unshakeable sense of duty and patriotism. Not even a kaiju will sway them. The military saves Godzilla, who then defeats the monsters, and all is well. Roll credits. Hope some teenagers are convinced to enlist.
I was not surprised to learn after the fact that the US military had a hand in writing the script. They even purged a few unsympathetic portrayals of military history from early drafts as well, such as Ken Watanabe’s character’s familial connection to the bombing of Hiroshima. They did not want anyone to imply that nuking Japan was wrong.
All that is to say, the movie misses the point completely, when Godzilla (at least in its original incarnation) is supposed to be a direct allegory to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—disaster that begets greater disaster. The cold war arms race.
Godzilla (2014).
Thought it would be a cool new take on kaiju movies. It had Bryan Cranston, a cool new Godzilla design, the marketing implied it’d be paying homage to the early tokusatsu Godzilla films, etc.
They kill off Bryan Cranston in the first few minutes, and then the rest of the movie follows his character’s generic action movie protagonist son. It barely shows Godzilla until the end, which wouldn’t be a problem as long as there is a compelling human narrative (Godzilla 1954 and Godzilla -1 are good examples). But the narrative effectively turns into US military propaganda. Behold, as the brave servicemen of the US military rise to any challenge, driven by an unshakeable sense of duty and patriotism. Not even a kaiju will sway them. The military saves Godzilla, who then defeats the monsters, and all is well. Roll credits. Hope some teenagers are convinced to enlist.
I was not surprised to learn after the fact that the US military had a hand in writing the script. They even purged a few unsympathetic portrayals of military history from early drafts as well, such as Ken Watanabe’s character’s familial connection to the bombing of Hiroshima. They did not want anyone to imply that nuking Japan was wrong.
All that is to say, the movie misses the point completely, when Godzilla (at least in its original incarnation) is supposed to be a direct allegory to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—disaster that begets greater disaster. The cold war arms race.
I loved the trailer for that movie so much. It was so dark and eerie and SCARY. The actual movies turned out to be your standard popcorn action movie