Godzilla. Cool. New Godzilla? Cool. New Godzilla made by America?
No use mumbling. ’54 Godzilla‘s a film about post-atomic destruction. From Japan; the country that had atomic bombs dropped on two major cities and countless individual humans less than nine years prior. America dropped the bombs. Do the United States have a culture with anything to say about Godzilla? Except, like, “sorry”. Gareth Edwards, director, talks to Ryan Turek at Shock Til You Drop about his Godzilla as “definitely a representation of the wrath of nature […] Nature’s always going to win and that’s what the subtext of our movie is about. He’s the punishment we deserve.” I’m too young and too English to understand Godzilla from the inside, but that seems wonky to me. Godzilla as Nature? What about your classic what-have-we-wrought Godzilla as Science? What about the prickly personality and sulky intelligence that the name has gathered over the past half-century?
(What about Mothra?)
None of us can tell what’s really going on until the film hits the screens, but to get an audience in front of said screens, it needs to seem like it’s worth it. Does it? Are you into it? Is Bryan Cranston acting his ass off, great monster suit work and giant-size spectacle enough? Are you curious about how the American and Japanese casting and stories will be integrated? How many of you youngins and newbies are just gonna pretend you’re watching Pacific Rim 2?
Speak your minds, daikaiju fans.
