Board Thread:Movie Discussions/@comment-24868748-20140518055647/@comment-25098873-20140624090305

I never said reboots are about just going back to the original. I said reboots are also about drawing out the essence and reminding us what made the characters so great. It is these latter elements that I was so disappointed that we didn't see in G2014.

What is the essence of Godzilla? Godzilla is a monster that we made. The ultimate case of blowback, Godzilla is a menace that cannot be controlled, and cannot be destroyed without a weapon that is even more destructive than the one that created him. A weapon so powerful that its creator would rather suicide than see it ever used again. G2014 utterly fails to capture the pacifist element of the original conception. G2014 not only deemphasizes the role of atomic weapons in Godzilla's creation, it depicts their casual use and would have us believe a modern nuclear weapon can be safely detonated five minutes out of San Fransisco bay.

"So what if the movie takes some elements from 1998?" The tasks the G2014 creative team had to accomplish (in my mind, at least) was to redeem the 1998 monstrosity and show that Americans can actually do Godzilla movies. And you don't do that by reminding your audience of 1998 at every turn. You might be able to get away with it in a later movie, but not in the premier spot of a new series.

"Serizawa should have had a bigger role, yes, but he is not supposed to be like Daisuke Serizawa, and that's that." My complaint about Serizawa in G2014 is twofold: that he doesn't live up to his namesake (something one should expect from a reboot) and that they totally wasted the talent of a great actor as a result. I'm not saying he should have been the same as Daisuke, But he should have been just as great.

Some of the teasing may have gone to far? Teasing was practically all they did! I am not complaining about not getting action every second of the movie. Far from it. In Godzilla movies, what is happening on the ground is at least as important as what the monster(s) are doing. This is true even with the hokiest plots and the most boring characters. Other people complain about it, but I realize that it is part of the point. What I am complaining about is that when it was time for the action, the creative team did not get out of the way and let the action happen.

I suppose I will have to reconcile myself with the probability that Godzilla will be done completely in CGI from now on. I have a certain fondness for the Millennium series mixture of CGI and rubber suits. Done by creative teams that really get Godzilla, I'm sure I can come to forgive the CGI. :)

I think what Toho can do that Americans, by and large, can't do with Godzilla is to remember what he is. See above where I discussed the essence of Godzilla. Americans so desperately want to try to distance themselves from Godzilla's origin and nature because Godzilla's implied commentary on America is too painful. After all, the United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons offensively. So in 1998 it was France's fault and in 2014 atomic weapons had nothing to do with Godzilla. But for Japan, the use of nuclear weapons and its dangers is personal. Americans don't get that, and perhaps can't get that.