GODZILLA
The most heavily advertised, promoted, and merchandised
movie of the year, "Godzilla", is finally here. I’m happy
to report that once again, the writing, producing, and directing team of
Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich have stolen from the best and added a few
imaginative twists of their own to create a monster movie that can stand
on its own.
"Godzilla" sticks to the formula established by the great apocalyptic monster movies of the fifties, like "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" and "Them". Show a man-made tool of destruction in action, like an atomic bomb - give a bird’s eye view of the aftermath, and the visible signs of a monster unleashed as a result - let it wreak havoc in a few desolate places - leave one survivor who can give an identity to the scary creature - recruit a hero who has a special skill needed to defeat the creature - introduce him to the muscular forces that hope to bring the thing down - track the monster to a heavily populated city - and then…LET IT LOOSE!
And let Godzilla loose, they do! - All over New York. In the water. Out of the water. Uptown. Downtown. On the streets. Under the streets. East Side. West Side. All around the town! Rubble! Rubble! Everywhere! No famous New York landmark is left untouched either by Godzilla or the military who blow up everything around him (except for the Empire State Building and The World Trade Center - the two "King Kong"s and history have already laid claim to them). The Big G even pays a visit to one of New York’s most venerable sports arenas and one of the world’s most famous bridges for a hair raising finale that includes a spine-tingling, jaw-dropping, Jonah-like set piece that almost puts the heroes in the belly of the beast.
The makers of "Godzilla" are shameless in their excess. They deliver everything the hype promised. A monster more real than the cardboard characters that keep the plot rolling. There’s a mayor who tries to turn the destruction of New York into a political opportunity, a saccharine sweetheart who wants her shot at TV stardom on the local news, a male chauvinistic TV reporter who won’t cut her in on the action unless she has ‘dinner’ with him, a Damon Runyonesque cameraman who imparts pearls of wisdom about the ways of the world, and his equally clamorous gum-chewing girlfriend who’s gonna’ murder’im if he doesn’t kill himself first chasin’ giant lizards. Then of course there’s the mandatory military commandos with their give’m-hell-heroics. Unlike some of the original characters Devlin and Emmerich created for "Independence Day", like the mad scientist who spent too many years locked in the lab, or the bush pilot who swears on his last bottle of booze that he was abducted by aliens, "Godzilla"s bit players are given the Saturday morning cartoon treatment with generic dialogue that’s intended not to offend. The comedy relief is not all that funny. It’s at odds with the realism that the bulk of the movie so painstakingly strives to create.
On the plus side, Matthew Broderick has a nice breezy quality that keeps "Godzilla" from becoming too ‘heavy’ as Nick - the Worm Man - Tatopoulos(the same last name as "Godzilla"s digital creator), a biologist who studies mutated life forms caused by nuclear fall out. Jean Reno is a standout as a French secret service agent sent by his government to clean up the mess it started with unlawful nuclear testing.
The first half hour of "Godzilla" is thrilling. It sticks to the formula and the formula works, from the spooky title sequence right up to the Big G’s Broadway debut. The picture nosedives for a while when it shifts focus to the human relationships, and then bails itself out for the last forty minutes with an inventive twist on Godzilla’s sexuality(I won’t mention it even if the clips are all over the tube), an underground chase that emulates the Raptor episode in "Jurassic Park", and a cab ride that is one part demolition derby, and two parts "Jaws".
I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of the rubber suited "Godzilla" franchise. However, the original 1958 Japanese "Godzilla:King of the Monster" is a fascinating movie for a number of reasons. Until then, most American moviegoers’ idea of Japanese movies was based on Hollywood films like the potboiler, "House of Bamboo", or the romantic, "Sayonara". Movies by people like Akira Kurosawa didn’t count because they were, for the most part, never seen outside the urban art houses. "Godzilla:King of the Beasts" was, to the best of my knowledge, the first Japanese movie to have a broad appeal in the States after World War II. It was inspired by "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" from 1953. Another Japanese import, "The Mysterians", an alien invasion flick, was a big hit a year later. It was inspired by "The War of the Worlds", also from 1953. No doubt, they all had some influence, whether directly, or indirectly, on "Independence Day" and the new "Godzilla".