Godzilla is not scary enuff

[MegaEvilSaurus666]

I don't know. Part of me sees the break in trend and introduction of a heroic Godzilla as a unique thing, but another part of me sees that this now makes Godzilla harder to write convincingly. With a heroic Godzilla comes personification, and with personification comes familiarity. It's this almost human familiarity that gets some fans cheering for him, but the familiarity makes him a less imposing or even realistic force on screen. I much prefer Godzilla as a neutral force, on nobody's side but his own. A solitary power. A more animalistic, or less expressive/stoic Godzilla is more formidable and powerful, as you never know his intentions, emotions, or even pain. Think about other intelligent species outside the world of hominoids, and you get the idea. You never know who's side he's really on, and that adds an extra element of awe and surprise when he's on screen. This Godzilla now lacks that same presence he had in 2014. He shows up at the perfect time to save the human characters several times in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

There was an interview with Dougherty a bit ago, I think with io9, that really caught my attention.

Personally, I loved the concept that there was a previous civilization that figured out how to live with the kaiju, that cracked that code and figured out how to form a symbiotic relationship for their own survival. And that some cataclysm broke that relationship. And so, while human beings went off and forgot about their connection to the monsters, and chalked up the monsters to fairy tales and legends, Godzilla never forgot. You know, which is why he has some weird distant memory of these tiny, little squeaky creatures. And maybe there is some sort of affection there, which is why Serizawa is all ‘we would be like his pets,’ because maybe that’s how he views us.

All of this connects to an overarching problem. I never liked the idea of adding so many near human personality or behaviors to giant monsters such as Godzilla. The Showa movies that do it are my least favorite overall, with the main exception being Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. I never expected the MonsterVerse to have Godzilla leading a group of titans, as a dominant gorilla would lead his troop, or as a top-ranking chimpanzee would control his group as the top of the hierarchy. The titans in GKOTM has so many parallels to chimpanzees it's not even funny. Part of the reason why Godzilla movies are so entertaining to me is that the main star isn't a human or ape, but is still a fun character to watch nonetheless. It's less about the facial expressions and more about the message he conveys. It seems that many want to bring an evident element of personification to him. I don't see the point in the next film, because now Godzilla and Kong are almost interchangeable from a narrative and personality perspective. Maybe my feelings will change, but that's my perspective for now.

[Dv-218]

I don't know. Part of me sees the break in trend and introduction of a heroic Godzilla as a unique thing, but another part of me sees that this now makes Godzilla harder to write convincingly. With a heroic Godzilla comes personification, and with personification comes familiarity. It's this almost human familiarity that gets some fans cheering for him, but the familiarity makes him a less imposing or even realistic force on screen. I much prefer Godzilla as a neutral force, on nobody's side but his own. A solitary power. A more animalistic, or less expressive/stoic Godzilla is more formidable and powerful, as you never know his intentions, emotions, or even pain. Think about other intelligent species outside the world of hominoids, and you get the idea. You never know who's side he's really on, and that adds an extra element of awe and surprise when he's on screen. This Godzilla now lacks that same presence he had in 2014. He shows up at the perfect time to save the human characters several times in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

There was an interview with Dougherty a bit ago, I think with io9, that really caught my attention.

Personally, I loved the concept that there was a previous civilization that figured out how to live with the kaiju, that cracked that code and figured out how to form a symbiotic relationship for their own survival. And that some cataclysm broke that relationship. And so, while human beings went off and forgot about their connection to the monsters, and chalked up the monsters to fairy tales and legends, Godzilla never forgot. You know, which is why he has some weird distant memory of these tiny, little squeaky creatures. And maybe there is some sort of affection there, which is why Serizawa is all ‘we would be like his pets,’ because maybe that’s how he views us.

All of this connects to an overarching problem. I never liked the idea of adding so many near human personality or behaviors to giant monsters such as Godzilla. The Showa movies that do it are my least favorite overall, with the main exception being Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. I never expected the MonsterVerse to have Godzilla leading a group of titans, as a dominant gorilla would lead his troop, or as a top-ranking chimpanzee would control his group as the top of the hierarchy. The titans in GKOTM has so many parallels to chimpanzees it's not even funny. Part of the reason why Godzilla movies are so entertaining to me is that the main star isn't a human or ape, but is still a fun character to watch nonetheless. It's less about the facial expressions and more about the message he conveys. It seems that many want to bring an evident element of personification to him. I don't see the point in the next film, because now Godzilla and Kong are almost interchangeable from a narrative and personality perspective. Maybe my feelings will change, but that's my perspective for now.

Although I disagree, I completely respect your point on this. I can see where you are coming from with Godzilla working best as a neutral force, and that a Godzilla without clear intentions feels more powerful as you can never know exactly what comes up to his mind. In some cases, I do feel like that approach is more effective than a fully villanous or heroic representation. However, I do feel like that concept was present in KOTM- during many points in the movie, it is explicitly shown that despite his interests allinging with those of mankind, most cases of him helping them happen in an indirect manner and he still doesn't fully trust them- such as threatening them on the castle bravo base, and then giving them a warning look after he rises during his revival.

I definitely understand your viewpoint regarding personality in kaiju, but I honestly feel like it's this additional layer of personality that seperates Godzilla and truly gives him a status of something special, more than just another animal in the ecosystem. I always viewed his heroism in later Showa movies as a natural development of his character, as he learns to set his resentment towards the human race aside and fight against threats that can destroy everything alive for everyone's good. I honestly feel like Legendary is simply a logical conclusion of this concept, with him being a full on guardian of earth's balance. However, this portrayal is not up to everybody's sleeve, and a lot prefer a more ambigous and neutral force of nature Godzilla, that doesn't have clear alligances to anyone and acts as he pleases depending on situation- and that's absolutely fine! That's what's so great about Godzilla, his character is completely flexiable and can be portrayed in many different ways without betraying his core. And I definitely agree, a heroic Godzilla is a nice change of pace indeed.

Personally, I do hope that his neutrality gets explored more in Godzilla vs Kong. Perhaps after all of the things the human race did in KOTM, he starts to realize that they might be as much of a threat as the MUTOs and Ghidorah were.

[Dino-Mario]

I like this Godzilla as a semi-heroic force of nature, rather refreshing and quite Showa-like after seeing him as a destructive, unaligned force of nature in the Heisei and Millenium (well, GMK Goji is outright evil) movies as well as Shin and the anime trilogy. Plus, there's the implication this Godzilla can be all too willing to turn on mankind should he come to perceive us as a threat to the planet, as best said by Dr. Chen when Rick says he's glad Goji is on our side.

[tenup]

Look before we got this far into the Monsterverse we were given that infamous mood piece from 2012 comic con which displayed an apocalyptic world that featured a chilling depiction of Godzilla. A path of destruction that felt real and impactful (something lacking in the 2 films so far imo), but this delivery was sorely missing. Then comes the release of 2014's Godzilla (an exceptional film as most agree) and they decide to swerve the whole destroyer of worlds theme and make Godzilla protector? I remember the feeling of being let down by that decision more so than the film being focused on the Mutos. Even the trailers leading up to 2014 had a level of terror that I never found in the 2 films. From a direction standpoint I have been dissatisfied with the depiction of Godzilla and mainly Godzilla alone as I have been ok with the other Monsters with the exception of Kong. And the formulaic strategy of having a family be the central point is wearing thin. Shin Godzilla had a better lineup of characters that felt important imo. Shin Godzilla is the real Godzilla in my view.

[gottatalktothefake]

"real Godzilla"
Ah yes, one of the most cancerous things you can say about Godzilla, up there with true fan nonsense

[Gigantis]

"real Godzilla"
Ah yes, one of the most cancerous things you can say about Godzilla, up there with true fan nonsense

seriously, Godzilla is a character so diverse that there is no true version. You can certainly prefer one over the other, but it's not the true version.

[Dv-218]

"Real Godzilla"? It ain't anymore real than the more heroic Godzilla lol. It's obviously fine to have preferences and like one version over another, but what makes Godzilla so special as a character is his flexibility. He has been many things over all of his years of existance, and to imply that only one variation is valid is a disservice to his long history.
And again, we didn't have an heroic Godzilla for a decade, so it really isn't a bad thing. As you literally said, we have Shin- why not let Legendary play with a more Showa-esque version?

[Spuro]

Shin Godzilla is the real Godzilla in my view.

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW LEGENDARY'S IS REAL!

[_JNavs_]

Shin Godzilla is the real........ wind-up toy.. since he essentially loses battery after walking in a straight-line for 10 minutes, does a flip (radioactive beams in his case), loses momentum, someone winds him up 10 minutes later, and he continues to walk in a straight-line until he loses the momentum again.

Don't get me wrong he's still cool. It's just that there's no such thing as "The Real Godzilla"

[GuardianGhido]

Just wanna point out that "Shin" means True, Real, Supreme or something along those lines. And Shin is kinda "true" to the 1954 one being a horribly deformed victim as much as he is a devastating consequence of the folly of man, capturing the spirit of the original moreso than any other IMO.
In my opinion he's A real Godzilla but not THE real Godzilla. He's more Gojira than Showa or anything. Godzilla is not a character you can pick one incarnation to represent as a whole. Legendary is one thing, Shin is another, Apples and Oranges. an apple is not the only real fruit and neither is an orange, they're both great fruits and some prefer one over the other. It's basiic comparison.

[Mr_Goji_and_Watch]

Shin is certainly closer to the original, gold standard of a film. Nothing inherently wrong with a more heroic Godzilla, but its worth noting that the best and most interesting films in the series (54, MvG64, GMK, Shin) took the antagonistic approach with the character.

[Dv-218]

Fair enough, but that doesn't mean a heroic Godzilla cannot be experimented with- it's a valid depiction just as the rest.
And honestly, I feel like only GMK is truly antagonistic- he's a restless demon that causes destruction and kills people knowingly on purpose as a punishment. While G54 and MvG depicted a more destructive Godzilla that had qualms with mankind, he's also shown as sympathetic- he got scarred, mutated and got his home destroyed, and now the same creatures that caused this want to destroy him too. 54's death is not depicted as a victory, but as a tragedy- the death of a misunderstood animal forced out of it's natural realm into a world it doesn't understand that took the sacrifice of a brilliant scientist, in hopes that nobody will use his invention as a weapon of war that will repeat the same mitakes that led to Godzilla's awakening and the destruction of Tokyo.

As Godzilla himeslf puts it in GTTHM (lol), he hates and attacks humans because they do the same thing to him.

[NBG2]

Correct

[ReiwaGodzilla]

I don't think this Godzilla needs to be scary at all, but, he had a pretty well made and scary scene in KOTM that i didn't expect, after all, isn't scary the Earth's most powerful monster swimming in the darkness of the ocean into your direction while doing an intimidation display and even circling like a predador that he is? Seems pretty scary and even respectful to me, since it puts humanity in her place, below nature, i guess that's the message of the scene.

[JAGzilla]

Just wanna point out that "Shin" means True, Real, Supreme or something along those lines.

Exactly. Shin Godzilla is literally True Godzilla, and that's this argument ended. All others are untrue.

[G2000]

Ah ah ah ah-aye
I know this
Much is
True

[Jeff-Goldblum2]

I guess the first movie of the World of Godzilla series needs to be titled 'True Godzilla' just to put the fanbase on full tilt.

[BlankAccount]

There may not be one true interpolation Godzilla, but there are pretty lame ones. You can argue Godzilla 1998 is just as a legitimate interpolation of the character as any other before or after but I'm gonna argue it doesn't stop it from being a lame interpretation of the character and is a huge misstep in the wrong direction.

Legendary Godzilla as a character is fine, I wish I could say the same about his films as they need to be better made but the character himself does what he's supposed to do, he gives a sense of awe and wonder, feeling big, majestic, powerful and at times scary be it through intentional threat or accidental because his size alone could accidentally kill someone caught in a fight between him and another monster or the military. Every time he is one screen it is a treat and when there is a close up of his fins lighting up for the first atomic breath of a film the build up and tension and pay off are great. When he's charging up his fins in the Antarctica fight is my favorite shot in the Monsterverse so far, the noise and cinematography are just well done in selling the sense of energy building up and the power it has.

[Garzon]

As far as scariness is concerned, the MonsterVerse Godzilla is certainly not on the level of 1954, GMK or Shin, but those Godzillas were all antagonists, so it’s not really the best comparison.