Godzilla (2014) vs Godzilla (1998)

AMERICAN REMAKE VS AMERICAN REMAKE

**SPOILERS**

This article spoils a great deal of the 2014 and 1998 Godzilla films. If you do not wish to be spoiled then feel free to watch the films prior to reading this. Or if you watched one and don't care for the other that's perfectly fine too.

I still have fond memories of the 1998 Godzilla. Like many kids growing up in the 90s there are some films that we love so much that turn out to be complete garbage as we get older. The biggest example for that would be Batman and Robin. But for some strange reason, there are two movies out of the slew of bad ones that I still pretty much enjoy. Batman Forever, a film that most people say is weak compared to the Tim Burton films yet still oddly entertaining and I agree. It was my first Batman movie and has my first celebrity crush, Nicole Kidman. And then there's Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, a movie I'm sure annoyed my parents with how much I watched the film as well as wanting to own every product related to it.

This is the action figure I used to own. No this is not a picture
of the one that I had. This is a product picture.

Its true. I loved that movie so much as a kid that my parents even bought me a life size (more like 6 feet but you know what I mean) blow up Godzilla. I'd terrorize my parents around the house with my giant friend, and it must've been comical seeing this little child trying to carry a light weight yet large creature through a tiny house. I had normal sized action figures too. In fact I remember having Zilla (the Toho canon name for Emmerich's creature) battling my deluxe Jurassic Park T-Rex toy. Which speaking of Jurassic Park, is probably why I liked the movie so much when I was young.

I mean, Jurassic Park was my first exposure to dinosaurs attacking people, so it would've been a matter of time that I would discover Godzilla. My only knowledge of him stems from small clips shown in dinosaur documentaries where the narrator or paleontologist would constantly say, "that is not how a dinosaur would act." And as kids, we always want to show how smart we are so I would always believe that statement. All of that combined attributed heavily to my love of the 1998 film.

However a year or so after the 1998 film premiered, just as Jurassic Park made me want to learn more about dinosaurs, I wanted to learn more about Godzilla. And so I asked my father to rent as many Godzilla movies as possible. The first one that he was able to get his hands on was a film that scared the hell out of me at that young age: Godzilla 1985. Since I'm unable to find a copy of it today, I can't exactly recollect my memories of the film, mainly because it scared me so much that I tried to block it out. I was so frightened of that Godzilla, but not the one in the Emmerich film. Usually when something scares you, the instinct is to stay away. Yet since I asked my dad to find Godzilla movies for me to watch, I decided to keep watching as if hoping to see something similar to the Emmerich film. I was wrong. 

The movies that my father were renting or buying for me were from the Heisei Period of Godzilla, aka the era of the 80s reboot that lasted into the 90s. This reboot's goal was to bring back the darkness from the original 1954 Gojira mainly due to the sequels turning Godzilla into a hero. The Heisei was about making him ambiguous. Most of the time he would be a villain and only turned anti-hero when another villainous monster enters the scene. This level of ambiguity fascinated me as I started to be less and less scared with this Godzilla. It wouldn't be until a couple years later that I would discover what Godzilla is suppose to be: a metaphor for human tampering and the unstoppable power of nature. 

Many years after that realization to now do I see and completely understand why people would look at the 1998 Godzilla as an atrocity. However, as I pointed out in my review of the 2014 rendition, I still find some enjoyment from the 1998 film. And this is where we compare and contrast.

COMPARISONS BEGIN

The Beast - 1998

Production Designer Patrick Tatopoulos was given one note by director Roland Emmerich: "He's got to be really fast." And with that one note, Tatopoulos completely redesigned the iconic slow moving beast into a slick fast moving Tyrannosaurus Rex on steroids. Radioactive steroids. The design has very little resemblance to the original Godzilla. Though if "it looks like a giant dinosaur" counts as a resemblance then I guess that's the closest the two of them will get.


Now, I have to stress that I'm not one of those Godzilla fanboys who are angry with the way he looks. I actually like the design. Anatomy wise the design does look like a vicious terrestrial animal that is equally vicious in the water. As a monster there is really nothing wrong with the way it looks. It is a very elegant design, which is probably why it doesn't work for Godzilla fans based purely on looks. There is also something majestic about it, which is an obvious homage/rip off of the Jurassic Park craze of realistic portrayal of dinosaurs. Those factors probably play into why I like the design of the beast in this film. However, for me, doing a complete redesign is fine as long as the personality of the character is maintained. An example of that would be Wolverine in the X-Men Films who does not look like the short yellow spandex man from the comics, yet he still maintained the savage personality from the comics. I probably would've been fine with a complete redesign of Superman if his personality traits remain in tact. And that was the key to making a physical redesign acceptable. And after binge watching several Heisei Era Godzilla films, I would eventually come to the conclusion that Emmerich's Godzilla failed to capture the personality.

I completely get that they wanted to make it act like an animal. It adds some sense of reality to it. But at the same time they're forgetting one thing: Godzilla is a FORCE OF NATURE! The film portrays him as a sympathetic lost creature that just wants to lay eggs. That's nice for an average monster movie. That's even nice if they had called this a Beast from 20,000 Fathoms remake, which would've made it somewhat more acceptable. The problem is the filmmakers are claiming that this creature is GODZILLA. The name signals mass destruction on a devastating level. A powerful brute force that can't be stopped. In other words: unstoppable. But as the films shows, this thing can get hurt. And by get hurt I mean badly. Godzilla does feel pain but it is more like an annoyance rather than actual flesh wounds. This Godzilla is weak and constantly needs to run away from danger. Which is another thing the creature was lacking as a personality trait: complete indifference to human attacks. This creature can't take a hit and keep going. Instead it has to dodge and evade before it can strike back. Which can be seen as the one plus side of this iteration. He's smart. The original Godzilla was intelligent to a degree, so it can be considered good that this Godzilla is just as intelligent. The number of problems that people have with this creature were apparently fixed by this later iteration:

 

Yes, that's right. The spin-off animated series of this iteration of Godzilla actually possessed all the traits that was missing from the movie version. The animated Godzilla even had atomic breath, a trait that was heavily missing yet only referenced to in the live action reinterpretation.


I think it is safe to say that most of my love for that movie comes from the amazing animated cartoon that followed it. That's why I have a lot to be thankful for with this Godzilla. But still...there can only be one king. And that king has returned.

The God - 2014

When Sally Hawkins character in the 2014 film referred to this beast as a God, she wasn't kidding. This creature is the purest representation of nature. The way he should be. The design that Garth's team went through was clearly a great tribute to the formidable King of the Monsters. It is a new design, based on lizards, sharks, grizzly bears, and of course the original Godzilla, yet at the same time it still feels like the original Godzilla. It doesn't even stray far from what the Emmerich version did. Though if there is a significant difference between this new Godzilla with the original Japanese design, it's him being...fat. Well, fat is not really the term I'd use. That's the term that most Japanese fans and film critics have said about Godzilla. All the "Haha America is Fat Jokes" were used everywhere. But at the same time, this thing is ridiculously huge. I mean really really huge. This is the tallest and the largest interpretation of Godzilla ever. It is twice the size and height of the original. The idea behind that was to inspire a sense of awe as well as a sense of "no matter what we do, there's no point." It is like staring at a passing hurricane being in awe of its power but also questioning if you'll come out alive. That is a trait that the 1998 Godzilla was missing, and this one definitely oozes it.

The backstory of this creature is even more aligned with the original 1954 Godzilla in that this being is ancient. It survived millions of years with the added touch that this being existed when the planet was filled with radiation. Thanks to Seth MacFarlane's Cosmos reboot, I have an idea of how far back this creature must've existed when the planet was teeming with radiation. And if it can survive that, this creature can survive anything. Except other creatures that have the same survival capabilities. But then again, if this creature can survive millions of years it really seems pointless to try and stop it.
I'm actually quite impressed that they found a way to weave in elements of the 1954 Gojira film by making this one seem like a spiritual sequel in a way. This is not the first time that has been done as Return of Godzilla (the Heisei Reboot) and Godzilla 2000 (the Millennium Reboot) both act as indirect sequels to Gojira. This brings a huge amount of respect to the filmmakers for keeping that trend in tact as well as his overall design. But what about his personality?

This Godzilla is very close to what everyone would expect from him. He's a force of nature. Unstoppable. Fairly intelligent. And indifferent to humanity. However, surprisingly that last trait of indifference is taken a little bit further. Usually when Godzilla is attacked by the military, he retaliates and destroys them then goes on to destroy a major city. Oddly enough, this Godzilla did no such thing. In fact this Godzilla didn't even bother to retaliate when the military attacked him. He was annoyed but at no time did he try to fight back. This is interesting as it shows a more animalistic side to Godzilla than ever before. When an animal is cornered, it will strike back. But in the case of Godzilla, a creature that is incapable of being cornered, it will run away. Does that make it a coward? Not really. Because again, even without knowing it, this thing indirectly kills people. What does it really want to kill? The M.U.T.O.s also known as the creatures that he preyed upon millions of years ago. His goal is only to hunt creatures that are massive and ignore combat with anything else. This is a departure from the Godzilla who would destroy buildings even after saving the world from a dangerous threat. This Godzilla does no such thing. If a building is in its way, it will go through. But really, this God avoids confrontation with humanity and just focuses his energy on the real prey.

Because of this some people have misinterpreted him as a hero. He's not a hero. His actions just seem heroic because what he happens to be doing does benefit our survival. But in fact, it really is about fulfilling his own hunter instinct. So yes, he does come off as a guardian. It definitely goes hand in hand with the Show Era Series. But he's more of a guardian for the planet, not the beings living on it.

Plot vs Plot

I don't know how many people notice this, but the two films kind of have the same exact plot. Not completely the same... well kind of. In the Emmerich film radioactive testing causes a gigantic creature to emerge. In the Edwards film a radioactive power plant causes a gigantic creature to awaken. Emmerich's film had a French agency trying to record and cover up the actions of the creature. Edwards' film had a Japanese agency/corporation(?) recording and covering up the presence of the creature. In both films a gigantic creature turns a major coastal city into a nesting ground. And in the end it is the protagonist's job to destroy the nest. Do you know what the difference between the two movies was? In Edwards film, the ones doing the nesting are the M.U.T.O.s and not Godzilla. In fact, from sources that I found on what Emmerich wanted to do for the sequel are extremely similar to Edwards film. I'm not joking. The planned sequel to Emmerich's film was about gigantic insects that were created by the same nuclear blast that made Godzilla terrorizing the world with their only hope of surviving is the surviving child of Godzilla! Yeah, that's the plot for Emmerich's sequel. And it is the plot of Edwards movie. Which is strangely like the plot of Emmerich's film. Weird huh? But who handled it better? Obviously Edwards. Why? He made Godzilla a wild card instead of the world ending antagonist. Not only that, the build up and the actions of the characters are more realistic and believable compared to the cartoon characters in Emmerich's film. Which is really weird that the cartoon characters of the animated Emmerich Godzilla were more believable than the live action characters. But when you look at it this way, it really does show you that Emmerich was not wrong with his thinking. It was perfectly sound. The problem was making Godzilla the father/mother of an apocalyptic brood.

You know the 2014 one is the winner

It's obvious who made the better film. Really obvious. However, I did this to point out the differences yet similarities that the two films have. Do I prefer one over the other? Yes. But am I one of those people who hates the Emmerich version? I want to be, but I can't. It was a key film in my life that made me obsessed with Godzilla. I even watched it recently again and still found it vastly entertaining. But I definitely LOVE Gareth Edwards' take on the King of Monsters. I look forward to what the future brings with this new reboot and hope that it remains bleak...atmosphere wise that is.

Godzilla (2014) - Analysis and Review

The Return of the King

I feel like I'm in the minority of my circle of friends when it comes a film called Pacific Rim. Apparently it was suppose to make me feel like a kid again because its Kaiju (Giant Monsters) fighting Mechs (Giant Robots). Who wouldn't be excited by that? I'm not saying I wasn't. I enjoyed the film. But I didn't have that sense of nostalgia that apparently triggered in them. However, for the new American remake of Godzilla directed by Gareth Edwards, that is when my childhood came flooding back with a big smile on my face.

The Plot

Caught in the middle of a conspiracy, Lt. Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and his father Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) witness the awakening of an ancient threat. The only thing that can possibly save the world from this old terror is a creature just as ancient. That creature being Godzilla.

Analysis

My plot summary is not the official summary of the film, but that is the straight forward plot of the movie. And while I did say that Godzilla has to "save the world," that doesn't meant that he's trying to save mankind. He's literally just a creature of instinct. It is his nature to seek out gigantic beasts and kill them then go back to the sea. At least that is the explanation of this iteration of Godzilla. Which has always brought up a question of debate as to whether or not Godzilla is a hero or villain. The answer that this film was able to hammer home was simple: he's neither. 

This Godzilla is depicted as a FORCE of nature. One that comes and goes the same way a hurricane or a tsunami does. The connection is made obvious in a scene when Godzilla causes a tsunami that kills many people, even when all he was really doing was just getting out of the water. He is indifferent about the lives of humanity because we are honestly nothing to him. We are his equivalent to ants. Small things that just happen to be in our way whether we're aware of it or not. It really makes it clear that he's really just doing what he does, which is rise up out of the ocean if a gigantic radiation hungry beast starts wandering the Earth, and really that's it.

This is definitely a slight departure from his destroy humanity nature which was in the original Godzilla (Gojira) film as well as some of the Heisei films (the 80s and 90s reboot). However, the idea of him being a Guardian was something that the Showa films (the original 50s-70s run) made loud and clear. So in fact, this Godzilla is a mixture of all that came before. He does borrow some of his nuclear metaphor origins but really it is more about the unstoppable power of nature that takes hold of what he represents for our generation now.

Review

Having read and seen reviews prior to watching the film, I was well aware that the most common complaint of the film is that Godzilla is not in it too much. Having went in with that mindset I was surprised by how much he was in it. Though the definition of "wasn't in it" probably means him on land and doing stuff. He is in the film a lot, just mostly swimming.

The story is serviceable enough to bring back the King of Monsters to the big screen. It does a smart move in giving Godzilla fans the things they love about the franchise (Godzilla vs giant monster(s)) as well as injecting a reality that can only be compared to what Chris Nolan did with Batman (real and gritty). However, I'm not saying that this is anywhere near close to a Chris Nolan movie, but it definitely has enough realism to amplify the absurd nature of the movie. The monsters were treated as animals acting out on instinct rather than some sense of wanting to destroy the world. It is a great take on the giant monster genre that usually drums up needless world destruction. Not that I'm criticizing it, because let's face it Godzilla fan love massive destruction. But in this film it is rather subdued to make it feel more like a catastrophe than destruction porn.

The acting in the film is great with Bryan Cranston being the standout performance in the film. We feel an immediate connection to his character that really helps us the audience and his onscreen son played by Aaron Taylor Johnson get sucked into what's happening. Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn give great performances with what they are given. While it can be argued that Johnson's character was one of the weakest elements of the film, I don't believe that his performance detracted from the film as a whole. Even Juliette Binoche has a small but pivotal role that enhances the standout performance that Cranston has.

While I can criticize by saying that yes the story was serviceable but not anything amazing and that Godzilla doesn't show up too much I think the real criticism on everyone's mind is this: Cutting away from the Action. The film does a great job building up the tension between two monsters facing off throughout the film but always cuts away when they actually begin to fight. While I didn't mind it because they give a full blown monster battle at the end of the movie, I can understand why people would be upset about being teased through the whole film. I would argue that had they shown half of the Airport battle between Godzilla vs the male MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) then it would've sated people's need to see a battle throughout the film. However all they did was show the start then immediately cut away to the aftermath on the news. Again, there is a full blow battle between Godzilla and the MUTO couple, which completely justifies holding off on all the action till the end.

The two movies I would compare this iteration of Godzilla to are Jaws and Michael Bay's Transformers. Both movies hold off from showing the titular character as well as having human characters drive the story. However Jaws is an excellent example of this type of storytelling while Transformers is a fun film but there are times when the characters act like idiots. If anything this Godzilla is the middle ground between the two while leaning more towards the greatness of Jaws while borrowing some destruction from Transformers.

Final Thoughts

This film did what Pacific Rim could not: bring a smile to my face. This was me reliving my childhood in a more realistic sensibility. As a huge Godzilla fan, this was definitely a treat for me. Though I can understand why some Godzilla fans may not like this film, I respect them for that. However, this is a really good film. Not great. But I have a feeling when a sequel comes along, all the problems with this film will be fixed in the next one. Also as a final note: I still enjoy the Roland Emmerich Godzilla even though I can see how horrible it is.

SCORE: 7.9/10 - A great modern retelling of the legendary King of Monsters