Book Review: Godzilla's 70th Anniversary by various artists

Godzilla's 70th Anniversary by various artists

This anthology pulls together thirteen different stories featuring the most famous kaiju of all time, Godzilla. The book was published in 2024, being the seventieth anniversary of the first Godzilla movie in 1954. The years have seen a lot of different depictions and interpretations of Godzilla. This book presents the same--a lot of different depictions and interpretations (though the stories were produced in the last decade).

As in most anthologies, the selection is hit-and-miss. In the miss category: one story tells of Godzilla in the American Old West; another of a daredevil mountain climber who takes fifteen hours (!) to scale Godzilla's back and take samples. On the hit side, a charming story shows a boy's vision of Godzilla and his enemies. And a serious story is told by a scientist who grew up a victim of Godzilla's wrath, inspiring him to study the "megafauna" in order to defeat it. His struggle to understand the monster is as much an intellectual challenge as a physical one. 

Overall, there's a lot more nonsense and brutal action than good entertainment here. I don't regret reading this but definitely won't be picking it up again.

Mildly recommended--this is really for Godzilla fans only.

Movie Review: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) directed by Adam Wingard

Kong is searching for other great apes in the Hollow Earth, a realm below the Earth's surface where a lot of primitive and prehistoric things live. His melancholy wanderings yield little more than an infected tooth. He returns to the surface where Trapper (Dan Stephens) gets him a replacement tooth courtesy of Monarch, an agency monitoring Kong's activities along with those of all the Titans on the Earth's surface. The main Titan is Godzilla, who wanders around fighting other Titans, typically stopping them from hurting humans (though there is plenty of destruction in his battles). Kong and Godzilla have been living peaceably thanks to living in separate parts of the world. Kong returns below the surface after his dental care and resumes his search for other apes. He becomes successful when he discovers an even deeper layer called the Subterranean World. The apes there live under the oppression of Scar King, a red ape with a bone whip and an enslaved Titan whose breath freezes things. Scar King wants to return to the surface of the Earth but has been kept in check by the Iwi people, a civilization whose only surface members used to live on Skull Island (where Kong was discovered back in the 1960s). The only survivor from Skull Island is Jia (Kaylee Hottle) who has been adopted by Monarch mid-level manager Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Their investigation into Kong's activities leads them to the Iwi civilization, creating some dramatic tensions for the humans. The conflicts between the monsters ramps up too.

The plot is quite outlandish. As if the Hollow Earth was not enough, there's an even deeper level! And a deeper mythology to go with it! The monsters behave more or less intelligently depending on the needs of advancing the story. The whole situation is a bit hard to take seriously, though probably no one expects to take it seriously. Some of the fight scenes are entertaining, though my pet peeve of the "obviously meant to be seen in 3D" bits of action are a little annoying when I am not watching it in 3D. The special effects are good if not always convincing. The ending was fairly standard without much surprise or satisfaction.

Mildly recommended--this is more of a special effects extravaganza with some good fight scenes between the monsters. I was entertained but not wowed. The story needs a lot of work.

Movie Review: Shin Godzilla

Shin Godzilla (2016) co-written and directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi

A mysterious sea creature rises up from the ocean and attacks ships. It works its way into Tokyo harbor, where it destroys another ship and causes a breach in a transit tunnel under the floor of Tokyo Bay. The government becomes quite active but is slow to respond. A lot of theories are floated by various departments with only one maverick suggesting an enormous sea creature. The prime minister and his main advisors are reluctant to accept such an outlandish theory. The theory soon proves right as a great sea creature starts belly-crawling its way up one of the bay's tributaries. Destruction and mayhem ensue.

The movie focuses more on the government's disaster response, or lack thereof. They poke some fun at bureaucratic inefficiency and infighting as the situation develops. As the incident (set in modern day) spirals out of control, different plans are tried to stop the monster. Most don't do much, forcing Japan to make deals with other countries. Some local scientists have a scheme to stop Godzilla through a chemical process that should shut his body down, but will they get enough time to implement it before the Americans insist on using a nuke to get rid of Godzilla? The drama is okay, with some better moments and some lesser ones. It's interesting as a look at how difficult and sometimes inept a democratic bureaucracy can be. Certainly, it looks like a comment on the Fukushima disaster.

The depiction of Godzilla is very creative, though not in the best way. The creature evolves several times. The initial form is almost unrecognizable (the only hint is the distinctive dorsal fins and the title of the movie). Godzilla goes dormant several times during the movie, letting the human plot have time to react and move forward. Godzilla has some weird biological changes and random powers. Some powers seemed like they were convenient just to keep the plot going. The final resolution is a bit abrupt and unconvincing. I was not quite satisfied with the main character, which is a big problem in any movie, let alone a monster movie.

Only recommended for Godzilla fans/completionists. 

Dual/Duel Review: Gojira/Godzilla, King of the Monsters

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Continuing a little Godzilla series (I certainly can't review every Godzilla movie ever made!), here's a comparison of the original film and its American re-edit starring Raymond Burr. As a child, I saw the Burr version on television many times. Is the original better enough to replace it in my Godzilla-loving heart?

Contender #1 Gojira (1954) co-written and directed by Ishiro Honda

Boats start mysteriously disappearing off the coast of Japan. Most of the disappearances are near Odo Island which is experiencing a huge drop in fishing. The villagers blame a sea creature named "Godzilla." Reporters come to investigate. That night, a storm hits and Godzilla rampages on the island. The islanders head to the mainland to get disaster relief from the Japanese government. The government sends paleontologist Yamane (Takashi Shimura) who discovers radioactive footprints and a trilobite from the dinosaur age. The trilobites died out millions of years ago but this one is alive. He reports his findings, claiming the monster is 160 feet tall and probably arose because of underwater hydrogen bomb testing. The government officials debate about letting the public know and decide to send some frigates to depth-charge Godzilla to death. Yamane does not want Godzilla killed since this is a good opportunity to learn more.

Yamane's daughter Emiko (Momoko Kochi) is engaged to another scientist, Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata). But she is in love with a salvage ship captain named Ogata (Akira Takarada) and wants to break off the engagement. A reporter wants to see Serizawa so Emiko bring him to the isolated scientist's home. He refuses to tell the reporter what he is working on though he shows it offscreen to Emiko who is horrified by his invention. He swears her to secrecy.

Godzilla shows up in Tokyo Bay and causes a lot of destruction before returning to the ocean. The military decides to string up high-voltage electric wires as a fence to block Godzilla's advances. Yamane goes back home to discover Emiko and Ogata. Ogata argues that the damaged caused by Godzilla outweighs any benefit they might get from studying him. Obviously, he does not get permission to marry Yamane's daughter. 

Godzilla return to Tokyo and uses atomic breath to get through the electric fence. He causes more devastation, horrifying Emiko so much that she reveals Serizawa's invention--a machine that destroys oxygen in water leading to the death of any living things in it. Emiko and Ogata go to Serizawa to beg for the invention to fight Godzilla. Serizawa is worried it will turn into a superweapon that all countries will want and initially refuses to cooperate. Then he sees the destruction on television and relents, though he burns all his notes. 

Ogata and Serizawa take a navy ship to deliver the device in the bay. Serizawa goes down to activate the device but cuts off his air tube. He dies with the secret of the oxygen destroyer. The machine works to kill Godzilla, but Yamane warns in the finale that future nuclear testing may bring out other Godzillas in the future.

Contender #2 Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) with additional directing and scenes by Terry O. Morse

The movie opens with a montage of the destruction that Godzilla has wrought in Tokyo. That, and a voiceover by main star Raymond Burr explaining what we are seeing and what is going on. Burr's character is Steve Martin (no joke!), a reporter traveling to Cairo with a four-day stopover in Tokyo. The story jumps back a couple of days before the devastation. Martin wants to visit an old college friend, Doctor Serizawa, who happens to be out of town. Serizawa's assistant takes Martin under his wing and they observe a lot of the press conferences and government meetings about the ships disappearing, i.e. footage from the original film. The assistant provides translations as Martin knowingly nods or asks questions. The plot follows the same course with a lot of editing in of Burr and a lot of editing out to fit a reasonable run time.

The editing out is fairly significant. The whole theme of the dangers of nuclear weapons is sidelined, with only hints that maybe Godzilla was awakened from Jurassic slumber by H-bombs. The slow build up to the reveal of Godzilla isn't there either. The moral posturing and struggling by the characters barely shows up. The love triangle between Ogata, Emiko, and Serizawa is there but handled very briefly. Any tension in the relationships of the characters is gone.

Godzilla's destructive rampages are left in, since he is the star of the show (though getting less screen time than Burr). Burr does an okay job as an actor reacting to the devastation and horror but all the Japanese actors from the original are more convincing, even in the edited down depiction. The voiceover is almost constant and seems at times like narration for the blind. Steve Martin explains practically everything, though he does not end the film with a warning about future Godzillas or the dangers of nuclear weapons. 

Which is better?

Even though I loved the Raymond Burr version as a kid (which was the only one available), it looks so flawed to my adult eyes, even if you haven't seen the original. The voiceover is often unnecessary. The dubbing of the Japanese characters only works occasionally. The voices of the original actors (which sound very different from their American replacements) can be heard when a character is crying or just saying a name. The filmmakers should have redubbed everything. The footage with Raymond Burr has a better quality visually, making it stick out from the Japanese scenes. He was clearly on a sound stage almost all the time, something I probably didn't notice as a kid. Somehow, the version with additional American scenes is 80 minutes long while the original is 96 minutes. The movie lost a lot getting recut for an American audience.

It's hard not to see the original as much better.

Winner:

Gojira 

Loser:

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! 

Criterion has both films packaged together but my library had the Sony Wonder set. Try them out for yourself!

Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Godzilla Minus One (2023) co-written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki

Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a kamikaze pilot at the end of World War II who lands on a small island. He claims something is wrong with his plane but the mechanic crew can't find any problems. A problem does show up when the islanders' boogie man appears--a two-story tall, lizard-like creature called Godzilla. Godzilla rampages over the makeshift airstrip. When the mechanics beg Shikishima to use his plane's guns to kill the monster, he freezes up. Almost everyone else dies. The war ends and Shikishima returns to his home in Tokyo. His parents have died. His home is mostly rubble. His neighbors are dismissive if not hostile to a kamikaze pilot who is still alive. When he's in the market, a woman being chased by the police gives him a package as she races by. The package is a baby girl. Shikishima hems and haws about what to do. He decides to abandon the child in the market but relents. As he walks out of the market, the woman comes out of hiding. She follows him home and they start an awkward family life--the baby isn't even hers. Life slowly improves in post-war Japan. Shikishima takes a well-paying job. It's on a boat that disarms mines in the ocean. The risk is high and only gets higher when an atomic-irradiated (and much larger) Godzilla shows up to terrorize the ocean ships. Also, Godzilla's travels point him straight to landing in Tokyo harbor.

The movie does a great job depicting the menace of Godzilla. The island fight (well, more of a massacre) is tense. It also shows Shakishima's character, how he's dodged death by being inactive or cowardly. He knows his flaws and feels a lot of guilty, especially over all the mechanics who died. His life becomes a path to redemption as he grows bit by bit. The human drama is just as good and interesting as the monster drama. Godzilla is less of a character than a plot device that creates conflict for Shakishima. The movie is similar to Mad Max: Fury Road, where the title character is more of a supporting character and the main person is someone else. The actors do a great job in their roles and the CGI effects (except for bits with the airplane at the beginning) are excellent. 

Recommended, highly for Godzilla fans. This is as good as the original.

Movie Review: Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) directed by Adam Wingard

Kong is kept safely contained on Skull Island while Godzilla, who turned out to be a hero in the last film of the franchise, is left to roam free as humanity's defender against other titanic monsters. That trust in Godzilla is broken when he attacks a high tech facility in Pensacola, Florida. The company is Apex Cybernetics. Weirdly enough, the company has been working on a failsafe in case Godzilla turns bad. Maybe their work turned Godzilla bad? To find a power source great enough to counter the giant, Apex needs Kong to travel to the center of the Earth. The legends of the Hollow Earth give the scientists hope that they can harness the power in the middle of the planet, if only they can get there. The only entrance they know is in the Antarctic and as they take Kong there, Godzilla shows up to fight against the other alpha titan, a rivalry that goes back to prehistoric times.

The movie has enough plot to string together the various massive fight scenes. Many elements in the story are a bit ridiculous, but the tale is about a giant ape fighting an oversized dinosaur with atomic breath, so viewers need to be generous with their suspension of disbelief. The movie is a lot of fun and does not take itself too serious (a problem with said last film of the franchise). Big monsters tear up the town and each other in entertaining and epic ways.

Recommended--I hope they continue the monster movies in this tone.

Movie Review: Godzilla (1998)

Godzilla (1998) co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich

The king of all monsters was given a reboot in the late 1990s by Roland Emmerich, the director of summer popcorn blockbusters like Independence Day and 2012. This movie follows the over-the-top entertainment of Emmerich's other films.

The story introduces Dr. Tatopolous (Matthew Broderick) investigating the impact of Chernobyl radiation on earth worms (it makes them 17% bigger!). He's pulled out by the military to investigate another large, apparently radioactive monster. The army has only found footprints, but the incidents of the big monster lead from French Polynesia through Panama and onto New York City. Another female scientist (Vicki Lewis) is both threatened and attracted to Tatopolous. They move quickly from Central America to New York, where most of the movie takes place. Godzilla shows up in the city and wanders around, with the army destroying stuff around the amazingly nimble giant lizard. The monster vanishes as the city is evacuated. Mayor Ebert (Michael Lerner) panics about his reelection as he deals with the army's destructive campaign against Godzilla (who uncharacteristically inflicts minimal damage on the buildings, unlike the army). Plucky junior reporter Audrey (Maria Patilo) is Tatopolous's college ex and the whipping girl of TV anchor Charles Caiman (Harry Shearer). Caiman is the typical sleazy top dog in the TV studio, hitting on Audrey while using her research as his own. Also, a Frenchman (Jean Reno) follows Godzilla around, though the reason is a bit mysterious at the beginning.

The movie has lots of flaw. First of all, too many characters are introduced, leading to one-dimensional performances and cliched plot lines. The French character seems especially shoehorned in to crack jokes about Americans and (maybe?) to appeal to French cinema goers. Godzilla, though the title character, is relegated to tertiary standing among the cast. Also, he is almost unrecognizable. Physically, he's slimmed down and more alligator-like with smaller eyes and longer limbs. Godzilla's iconic roar is barely discernible in the noises made by this movie's monster. His atomic/fire breath is used once or twice but not explained, even though the movie seems obsessed with making pseudo-scientific explanations about everything else.* And Godzilla is upstaged by his offspring, who go after the main cast like the raptors from Jurassic Park (they even look a bit like the raptors) in the final part of the movie. The script is full of cliches that make the movie feel tired and lazy. The cleverest part of the movie is Mayor Ebert's helper with whom he constantly bickers and at the end is named Gene, when he gives a thumbs down to Ebert. Even so, that joke is aging out as fewer people have a living memory of Siskel & Ebert's At the Movies.

Not recommended--at least the old Godzilla movies earned their cheesiness through being entertaining and being focused on the monster.



*To be fair, the old Godzilla movies don't explain his atomic/fire breath either, but they never bothered with technical explanations.

Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla (2014) directed by Gareth Edwards

Two scientists (Ken Wantanabe and Sally Hawkins) have been investigating prehistoric creatures for decades. In 1999, a Japanese nuclear plant had a meltdown caused by some odd seismic activity. One of the techs, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston), was gathering data and managed to escape with his son but not his wife. Fifteen years later, Joe is still obsessed with finding out what happened to the reactor. The area is under quarantine but that doesn't stop him from breaking in. His son, Ford Brody (Arron Taylor-Johnson) is grown up with a wife and child of his own. He comes back to Japan to bail his dad out again. Joe convinces his son to go back into the quarantine area because a very similar set of seismic activity is happening. They wind up at a secret base run by the two scientists, who are studying a prehistoric spore. The spore hatches, causing mayhem all around. Several monsters show up, with Godzilla squaring off against a pair of monsters trying to spawn more offspring, which would be bad for humanity.

The movie has a slow build-up, establishing characters and detailing what sort of creatures are around and what  powers they have. The focus stays on the humans and how they plan, react, and cope with new threats from the ancient past. Often, the monsters are fighting in the background or are mostly off screen, which works well to keep them mysterious and more overwhelming. The pace picks up as the monsters head to San Francisco and have a classic battle that destroys as much of the town as it does the monsters. Director Edwards indirect style makes the action more interesting and less like a CGI slap around. The movie looks great and finishes well.

The original Godzilla movie from 1954 had a thoughtful reflection on the dangers of atomic power and weapons. The sequels quickly turned into Godzilla fighting whatever monsters Toho studio came up with. This movie respects that tradition by having the sort of nuclear power plant accident everyone dreads. It moves on to a big battle scene at the end reminiscent of the "Godzilla Vs. the Next Offering from the Enemy of the Month Club" movies. This movie is satisfying all around, if you are a Godzilla fan.

Recommended.