Godzilla is back, in this first reboot of the series, after the fantastic - but ultimately an economic failure - The Terror of MechaGodzilla (also the last movie directed by master Ishiro Honda) and this time every form of cheese and family fun is deleted. Conceived partly on a treatment by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka as a direct sequel to the 1954 classic, more or less ignoring all the strangeness between then. In the tradition of the original movie an American edit was made of this one also, once again starring Raymond Burr inserted into the story. Bizarre. I haven’t seen that version, but considering how bad the first movie became with inserts… ah, fuck that. The big G is back and it’s a great, great time he’s giving us.
It even begins in a similar way, a fishing vessel (or something…) gets in trouble at the sea when something attacks them. Later Goro (Ken Tanaka) finds the ship and gets attacked by a giant louse! Of course something is on the loose and its of course Godzilla! One survivor from the ship swears to take revenge on our favorite giant monster! From the beginning everything is kept under-cover, but when a Russian sub is destroyed the whole suddenly understands that Godzilla is back and the cold war is put on hold until this problem can be resolved...but is that even possible?
Like the first movie this one is very serious, gone is the camp and goofiness. This is a low-key (except the giant louse) monster movie with the same kind of anti-war and anti-nuclear message like it was in the beginning. It’s also a lot more subtle when it comes to the action. Godzilla of course stomps cities, but it’s a bit more slow-moving, he’s working his way forward through each city in a similarity to the 1976 King Kong, a bit laid back, more classic, seventies quality cinema. This is also the first G-movie since the first where Godzilla is alone, he doesn’t fight another monster - which also makes it less action-oriented and more into a monster-thriller.
Godzilla herself is also more streamlined in the face and body, standing sometimes like a big Golem, looking out over the destruction. She's back to the primitive, animalistic level - less anthropomorphic.
One thing which connects it to the Ishiro Honda’s original classic i the darkness. Much of the action is set in the evening/night, and interiors is often filled with shadows and well, more contrast. This helps a lot in the detailed miniature scenes, which becomes more haunting and doomed. The miniatures yeah, always one of the reasons why you watch a kaiju movie, they’re excellent here, they feel heavy, but is far as detailed as the ones from the early sixties, which are pure insanity in the form of details (there’s a scene where Rodan lands in something that looks like a big train station, which is is stunning!). I also notice with adding a small monitor inside the window of the miniature skyscraper to make it look in real time that our heroes are inside, looking out. I think James Used something like that in either Aliens or The Abyss. Clever.
Godzilla (1984) began as a thought from producer Tomoyuki Tanaka. Godzilla had a few years earlier become hip and cool again, probably from a mix of nostalgia and irony, generating money for Toho. His original plan was to bring back both director Ishiro Honda and composer Akira Ifukube, but both decline. According to legend Ifukube opposed making Godzilla bigger - from 50 meters to 80 - and said “I don’t make music for 80 meter monsters” as a response. Not sure about that, it’s even not that witty or funny. And this Godzilla feels very modern. There’s nothing ironic or kitsch with it, it’s just what I imagine the new movie, the one directed by Gareth Edwards, will be: humourless, serious and spectacular in that mighty, mammoth way we love seeing buildings be torn apart. I love how the city landscape gets more and more post-apocalyptic for each battle scene, echoing of old-school disaster films and Japanese melodrama.
An underrated - more should see it - monster movie which deserves a lot more praise than it has gotten over the years. There's a scene towards the end, a dozen men stands watching a giant screen. In front of them a monster is dying. The men are in their 40-50's, and they're almost crying. I think this scene is a reference to the audience who Toho want to make nostalgic, those who saw the first movies as young men and now they their own kids to see them. It's like the audience is watching itself, drenched in positive nostalgia. It's almost poetic.
Godzilla, 60 years and counting, will never die. Believe me.
"(also the last movie directed by master Ishiro Honda)"
Honda made a lot of great flicks.
"In the tradition of the original movie an American edit was made of this one also, once again starring Raymond Burr inserted into the story."
Burr of all people....
"This is a low-key (except the giant louse) monster movie with the same kind of anti-war and anti-nuclear message like it was in the beginning."
Yeah, and made during the 80´s as well.....good timing.
"it’s just what I imagine the new movie, the one directed by Gareth Edwards, will be: humourless, serious and spectacular in that mighty, mammoth way we love seeing buildings be torn apart"
Edwards is good choice for this type of film....I really liked Monsters (2010).
"Godzilla, 60 years and counting, will never die. Believe me."
Like Kong, vampires, werewolfs, and ehhhhh......and other stuff we love to see on film.
Good review and thanks Fred, never seen this one.
Posted by: Megatron | March 01, 2014 at 02:18