I’m pretty excited for Gareth Edwards’s Godzilla movie. So excited that I binge-watched all the Heisei era Godzilla flicks recently - along with the original 1954 flick. Here are a few things I noticed, along with some predictions for the new flick.

Spoilers of course, for pretty much all Godzilla flicks, and speculation on the plot of the upcoming movie.

1. Godzilla must be Japanese.

This sounds obvious right? On a superficial level you’d say, “Aren’t all Godzilla movies Japanese? Isn’t this why Godzilla ‘98 sucked?” Well, partially. The rule can be extended to this: Godzilla must be a metaphor for the character or culture of Japan, or some sort of crisis that Japan or the Japanese must deal with.

“The Return of Godzilla” reboots the Godzilla canon by bringing focus back to Godzilla as metaphor. The movie is a serious take on the monster and uses Godzilla to explore the later years of The Cold War. Godzilla is wrecking Japan and The US and Russia are fighting over who gets to nuke the beast, while Japan struggles to exert its sovereignty in this situation. Godzilla is being used to tackle issues of Japanese identity.



“Godzilla vs. Biollante” uses Godzilla and his cells as a plot device to get the ball rolling on a story of international corporate espionage and genetic engineering. “Godzilla vs. King Ghidora” with its convoluted time travel story, still asserts that the monster is part of Japanese history and is directly tied to National prosperity - so much so that other nations from the future see it as a threat. “Godzilla vs. Mothra” has a simpler plot than its predecessors but still has present these anti-corporatist pro-nature “we’ve become too greedy as a nation” ideas at play. “Godzilla vs. Destoroyah” comes full circle, calling back to the 1954 flick and calling for responsibility for the past - denial of the past and failure to take responsibility for the Oxygen Destroyer from the first film creates tensions that take physical form in Destoroyah.

There are examples of Japanese Godzilla flicks where this rule isn’t met, and they are the weakest - “Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla” or “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II” come to mind. In both these movies Godzilla is present but not really representative of anything major - aside from being a big monster that needs to fight another big monster. They’re spectacles, but lack substance. We don’t see these wide spanning international reactions as we do in the other Heisei flicks.

I look forward to Edwards’s flick because from all I’ve read and seen in the trailers, it’s adhering to this rule strongly - the plot is a direct sequel to the original, Godzilla is still Japanese, and he’s reacting to a U.S. born monster. Sounds ripe for metaphor - a good premise to add layers of complexity and make the movie more than spectacle.



2. Godzilla must be apathetic.

Godzilla is just an animal. Sure a giant irradiated animal, but an animal. A lot of the Showa era in which he danced and was champion of Earth and all that were fun, but exhausted the novelty pretty fast.

Godzilla is a human creation, a human responsibility. He doesn’t hate humans. “Godzilla vs. King Ghidora” remains interesting despite its convoluted plot because it explores this wonderfully - we created him, accidentally, and now we have to deal with him. In the same way we have to deal in the real world with Nuclear proliferation and try and figure out ways to agree on disarmament without killing ourselves in the process, Godzilla must be dealt with.

Perhaps this is why I feel “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II” is the weakest of the Heisei series. We don’t see Godzilla do anything bad outside of the usual city rampage, but Mechagodzilla goes straight into overkill mode - and it feels like animal abuse. If the plot of the film had been leading up to this climax, it could have been a brilliant exploration of military-industrial complex. Instead we’re asked to remain sympathetic with the humans yet accept Godzilla as a menace - there’s too much dramaturgical dissonance at work here.

I feel it’s too early to call it with the 2014 flick, since it is featuring Godzilla fighting against another monster. Clearly he’ll be in opposition to the Mutos, but will the flick try to paint him as a good guy or champion of humanity?

3. Man cannot win.

Mankind must learn from its mistakes. As mentioned in point #2, Godzilla is our responsibility. Whenever he acts up it’s because we’re doing something wrong. Straying too far from nature, getting too greedy, trying to hide our past. Mankind survives, sure, but at a cost - Godzilla doesn’t just get blown up and killed off, because his reason for waking up was just. This is one of the key reasons '98 was so bad.

The military cannot save you. Government can’t save you. A small group of dedicated scientists might save you - because they understand we’ve screwed something up.

Godzilla demands that all of humanity learn.

Once again, this feels like a “wait and see” aspect for the 2014 movie.

4. A strong cast of decentralized human characters.

Godzilla’s name is in the title, but he isn’t the sole focus. You can’t have ninety minutes of a giant lizard wrecking stuff, it’ll tire audiences out. You also can’t have ten minutes of monster rampage as a climax to some human dudes romance problems or teenagers character arc - looking at you, Cloverfield. The audience will feel cheated - they came to see monsters. How do you strike a balance?

Monsters are at their best when operating as metaphor. Godzilla is always a stand in for nuclear disaster, natural disaster, a furious mother nature, some sort of large scale imbalance, a global problem.

You can’t have one guy reacting to that. You need multiple. Most good Godzilla flicks feature multiple groups of human characters who may not have complete arcs to their stories, but all serve as symbolic stand ins for large aspects of humanity. You tend to have the politician, the scientist, the businessman, and the everyday dude. This allows us to view how Godzilla is affecting multiple levels of the social order.

Bryan Cranston fits the scientist role in the upcoming film. Ken Wantanabe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson also add to the varied human cast. I just hope they aren’t the only humans or have 90% of the screen-time.

And that’s all I have for now. Feel free to comment, I’d love to talk more and ramble on in dialogue with any fans out there.

BTW my favorite flick so far has been “Godzilla vs. Destoroyah” coz, man, I got lots of reasons.