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Dear Internet,
Hello,
again. It has not been very long since
we have talked. A day now? Must be, since it is the second day of this
experiment. Today "The Return of
Godzilla" came up in the Backlog pile.
As you probably already know, it was an attempt at a Toho trying to
reboot the franchise as part of the 30th anniversary of the original. Do attempt this, they decided to completely
ignore all the other Godzilla movies since the first one as if they did not
exist. There is a problem with this that
I will tell you later about. Also, take
note that I did not watch that horrible English version but the original with subtitles.
Overall,
"The Return of Godzilla" is not a bad movie; it is actually pretty
good. Godzilla reprises his role as a
warning against misuse of nuclear technology like the original film. However, in the original it is understood that
Godzilla comes about because of American nuclear tests and is a recollection of
the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The bombings of those two cities continue to plague the mind of the Japanese
because of how utterly helpless one becomes against it. This is how the original "Godzilla"
film displayed the monster: an near unstoppable force brought about by
mankind's desire to destroy itself through weaponry and is only ended by en
even more devastating device. In "The
Return of Godzilla," the beast is considered to be the same one that
destroyed Tokyo , despite in the original film it was clearly destroyed. While here, it is merely awakened by the
eruption of a volcano. The Japanese are better
able to defend against Godzilla this time around because of "Super X,"
a flying tank. They are able even able
to render Godzilla unconscious until an accidental nuclear missile explodes
over Tokyo, powering Godzilla back to life.
This
brings up the vastly important relationship of Japan to both the USA and the
then USSR. Numerous times throughout the
film, the Japanese prime minister must deal with the pressure of nuclear
intervention from the two other superpowers.
He is eventually able to dissuade the use of atomic warfare and is a refreshing
alternative to the usual headstrong "throw more bombs at it" politician
that seems to always appear in giant monster movies. However well the prime minister is able to
argue and prevent nuclear weapons, the previously mentioned accidental launch
of one missile brings us back to a familiar place. The USA and now the USSR is shown to have
little consequences regarding nuclear testing and bombing. Te countries in the middle, here Japan, that
directly or indirectly must suffer. The
cinematography directly points to this with scenes of the Japanese prime
minister flanked by emissaries from the two countries.
Internet,
you might be wondering what is holding this film back from being an excellent
film like its predecessor. Well, it is
actually Godzilla itself. I am not sure
what happened to him while he was in that volcano for the last thirty years,
but it gave him some strange eyes since then.
I do not know what happened during the rest of the Showa era but big
brown eyed Godzilla with a short snout does not strike fear in my heart.
Also the vast amount of close ups of the
giant monster take whatever else might create a sense of dreadfulness when the
beast attacks. The original film refrained
from showing the beast until absolutely necessary. Here, Godzilla first appears standing, all
fifty plus meters, right in front of a security guard in the middle of the
night. There are no miniature quakes or
loud thumps as approaches, and afterwards the audience is treated to a long
shot of the creature from foot to head.
Instead of angling the camera from the perspective of the frightened
security guard, the shot it elevated vertically until Godzilla looks straight
into the camera with his chocolate iris eyes.
This continues throughout the
film with the monster looks straight into the camera dissolving fear in
seconds.
Also on
a quick note, the soundtrack is rather good with swelling music playing
throughout the destruction of Tokyo and Japan.
However I was disappointed in not hearing the original theme song played
even once. For a reboot, I would think
that would be a sure thing to bring back since it is one of the most iconic
songs in film history.
"The
Return of Godzilla" is an honest attempt at bringing back Godzilla and resetting
the myriad of Kaiju films throughout the
years. And for the most part it
succeeds. It has a message about nuclear
war, the result for non-nuclear using countries that are caught in the middle,
and even touches upon the use of weapons as only escalating problems. There is also the push that Godzilla can
never truly be defeated, only contained or slowed down, but that is more likely
an exit excuse for more sequels, like slapping a question mark onto "The
End." It is worth itself as a
movie, which is more than I can say about the dubs of Godzilla films.
Yours
in Digital,
BeepBoop
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