Novelization vs. Film: Godzilla 2014

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Desghidorah
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Novelization vs. Film: Godzilla 2014

Post by Desghidorah »

Novelizations are an interesting beast. They tend to come in one of two flavors. The first is almost exactly the same as the finished film, with a slight distinction here or there. This often happens when no changes were made to the film in the midst of production. The other however, are often quite different from the final film. Usually this happens when a film has a lengthy production lasting over a year or more, as that gives more time for changes to happen from the "final" script as new ideas might crop up in the middle of production; but the novelization needs to be done to release in tandem with the final film. The Monster'verse novels, for the most part, seem to fit into the second category. The stories are more or less the same, but often content from earlier scripts, scenes cut for time, or replaced during production aren't present. Sometimes this was even content the novel author would add in to flesh something out.

Now comparing different media types isn't an exact science, but I felt a compare and contrast between the novelization and final film could be interesting. And, might as well start with where it began in 2014. So for this I'm going to be more concerned with the major differences vs. minor changes scene to scene.


Opening Sequence

First sign of deleted scenes surviving in this media is the noticeably longer opening. Namely the 1954 bomb test is longer with a nuclear submarine emerging as a false alarm for Godzilla's much, much bigger arrival. The more major addition however is an extended scene involving the Filipino miners who were caught in the collapse of when Dagon's tomb got opened up.
Steeling himself against the heart-rending sights and sounds, Serizawa approached one of the patients. The man’s face was so badly swollen that he looked barely human. Scorched skin peeled and blistered. His hair was falling out. The burns and swelling made it impossible to determine the patient’s age, but a glance at his chart revealed that the dying miner was only twenty years old.
So young, Serizawa thought, even as he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Now was no time for sentiment. He needed hard data and information if the root cause of this catastrophe was indeed what he suspected. Many more lives might well be at stake.
One of his aides had rescued a portable radiation detector from their supplies. The handheld device included an external wand. Serizawa unslung the detector from his shoulder and switched it on. Drawing nearer to the cot, he pointed the sensor at the patient.
The detector clacked rapidly. The needle on the monitor spiked upward, into the red zone.
The scene is quite grim and very similar to Shinkichi's roles in 1954, Hiroshi in 1984, and of all places the unnamed Japanese sailor from 1998; a sole survivor witness to the antagonist monster. Only this time he's doomed the moment we see him. And judging from the cut prosthetics we can see from some behind the scenes imagery, he wouldn't have died pleasantly. But he's lucid enough to give Serizawa a grim warning and condemnation.
“He says,” the nurse translated, “that people like you… you came here, you raped the earth. You tore holes in her flesh… and now she’s given birth to a demon.”
This does a pretty good job of making the MUTOs suitably eerie and reminds me a tad of the Meganulon and Rodan from the latter's titular film in role... In fact come to think of it the MUTOs behaviors in the film are actually quite a bit like the Rodan couple from that film, the things we realize with time. I can see why this was cut for time, but this introduction I think would have done a lot of good at setting a spooky tone for our antagonists. That said, given pacing is one of the film's problems, it is also possible a longer introduction could have bled the audience's attentions more. So, marginal perk to the book here.


A lot more Ford

I'mma just put this all under the same listing as the scenes are all to mostly set up the same purpose. Instead of jump cutting from the now grown-up Ford landing from his tour of duty, we spend a bit of time where his wife and son meet him at the air base. Elle is all too eager to have her husband back, but Sam is noticeably very shy. This particular scene was filmed and can be seen in the B-Roll footage around the 1 minute mark. The point is made that Ford's been away for quite a bit, noticing Sam doesn't even seem to recognize him and is much larger than the toddler he left behind. He and a supportive Elle try, but Sam's too skittish to even hug his father without prompting. Ford keeps getting flashbacks to his own family life as a child and it's made pretty clear part of his frustration with Joe will be because he's scared he's become a negligent father as well. Making Sam younger (he's 4 here) also helps drive the point that Ford's worried history is repeating itself.
He couldn’t help smiling at the toys, which reminded him of the same ones he’d played with as a child—before his mother died and everything went to hell.
Don’t think about that now, he scolded himself. Concentrate on today… and Sam.
This is coupled with several more instances making it clear the incident at Janjira left some lasting scars and Ford is struggling to reconnect with his son the best he can. The other major early additions also follow Ford around, including that scene with Akira that got cut which actually stems further into the family concept. The parents picking up their delinquent child from the police station are disappointed, but forgiving and embracing in the novelization... whereas in the film we get some levity comedy by having the father launch into a tirade which does actually help a bit in the transition into Ford and Joe's first major scene together. The conversation between Joe and Ford is mostly the same, but I suspect ATJ was allowed to wing-it with some of his lines as the tone he often uses isn't present here. The ending of his and Joe's argument here is more Joe breaking down and just getting exhausted, whereas in the film we have some extra lines like
"Come home with me... I got a little boy who's desperate to see his grandpa."
Which also gave some good expression exhibition by Cranston and Johnson. Oh and one other big difference, huge deal...
The flickering screen of a thrift-store TV set cast a phosphor glow over the room as Ford tried to zone out to an old monster movie playing on the late show; sometimes watching vintage movies with the sound down helped him unwind at the end of a long day. His eyelids began to droop as giant prehistoric creatures battled each other amidst balsa-wood sets.
Apparently in the Monster'verse, Toho made Gamera. Novel Ford is a G-Fan and thus he is the best main character ever. :lol:

Sarcasm aside, the scene where Joe is deadset on the trek back to Janjira also has a line of him being adamant there is home, not back in the states in direct counter to the plea Ford made. The two butt heads a bit more here, but Ford, against his judgement, gets some lines where he agrees to go for the sake of his father getting closure. He goes about on the journey through Janjira, where Joe had wandered off without him for a spell, and the two argue a bit more after Joe takes his mask off and declares the air clean; with some more snark to lighten things back up.
Joe inspected the street signs. He nodded in recognition.
“It’s just left on the next street,” he promised.
“The one before or after the rabid pack of dogs?”
An additional bit is Ford having more memories when he and Joe go back to their old house, bit of forshadowing for the MUTO with Ford visibly seeing a caterpillar he'd been taking care of had cocooned and left after all. It also is the first indicator to him the meltdown really might not have been nearly as bad as claimed like his father said. There's also a small bit with Ford specifically thinking of Sam when he rediscovers his old toy. It's a navy man and specifically the kind Sam wanted as a toy as he likes the color of their uniforms. This is why Ford takes it with him while regretting leaving again all the same. Just to lament this sting a bit more, we briefly zip back to Sam conscious his father broke his promise to still be there when he wakes up.

We also get more foreshadowing to the MUTO with lights flickering on and off and distant rumbles while the Brodys explore their old house.

This culminates in the only major change up to the point the two are taken in by MONARCH and the MUTO breaks out. In the novelization, the MUTO break out takes long as Ford gets out of his restraints, seeing the mayhem unfold. The MUTO causes a domino effect and Joe can see how the falling cables and towers are poised to crush his son, causing him to increasingly scream at the top of his lungs with no regard to his own safety. He manages to get his son's attention and warn him in time, but sacrificed precious time to save himself; resulting in the internal injuries from a fall that later kill him.

While slower paced than the film; these scenes do actually work to endear us to Ford a bit more than the brisker pace the movie got. It does come with some trade-offs, such as a slightly poorer showing by Joe Brody with him being more desperate and reclusive. That does mean less Cranston if the movie stuck to this exactly, but the upside is most of the bigger moments by Cranston's character are still present and Ford gets way more showings off. While Ford Brody isn't A+ material for a protagonist, I do think he'd have worked better with some more focus like this; as past Hawaii most of his scenes in the film consisted of trying to get out of the way of the resident kaiju until they reach the finale. Joe meanwhile lost almost none of his scenes and dialogue and I think this is a good indicator the film's human leads could have possibly worked better. Cranston is a fantastic actor and he nailed it, by Johnson isn't at all shabby if given good material. This novelization makes it pretty clear there was material there for him on a good caliber that complimented Joe's dialogue and actions very well, as the strained-but-clearly-trying relationship they have is very apparent. It feeds into Joe's sacrifice to save his son over himself.

There is one trade-off when it comes to dialogue, and that is Joe Brody's final words.
“Whatever it takes,” he said faintly. “You have to end this…”
He began to slip away, perhaps for good.
“Dad—”
“Whatever it takes…”
“Dad, stay with me!” Ford exclaimed. “Dad!”
I actually prefer the film version. While Joe's obsession to find the truth to get closure on his wife's death is strong, the film version's send off to Cranston's character of-
"Go home to your family... keep them safe."
Strikes as wiser because he's giving his son wisdom he didn't heed. Don't go on a quest, just be a better father than he had been. Still, aside from that downside, I do think the novel does a better job setting up our main character. Between this, the earlier script, and the B-Roll I never quite realized how much of Ford's key scenes wound up cut. Still, the margin between the two isn't magnitudes greater and part of the difference is probably because a novel can more easily get away with more meat to the material for content than a film, without it looking like padding.

Next, I'll cover the Hawaii sequence into the awakening of the female MUTO.
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Gawdziller1954
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Re: Novelization vs. Film: Godzilla 2014

Post by Gawdziller1954 »

The novelization is basically the 2012 script changed so there aren't as many contradictions to the final film
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Desghidorah
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Re: Novelization vs. Film: Godzilla 2014

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Gawdziller1954 wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 8:28 am The novelization is basically the 2012 script changed so there aren't as many contradictions to the final film
It's not quite that egregious, I'd actually say it's about 80 to 90% the final film with an extra 10% of stuff that carried over from the 2012 script. Stuff like a family dynamics are completely different than the 2012 script but are exactly the same as the 2014 script, just more fleshed out. I'd also say the tone seems a little bit darker than the final film.

What I suspect is the cause behind the differences is mostly probably changes they made while filming, such as redoing some lines and cutting certain scenes.
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Re: Novelization vs. Film: Godzilla 2014

Post by Gawdziller1954 »

Desghidorah wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 8:47 am
Gawdziller1954 wrote: Sun Apr 25, 2021 8:28 am The novelization is basically the 2012 script changed so there aren't as many contradictions to the final film
It's not quite that egregious, I'd actually say it's about 80 to 90% the final film with an extra 10% of stuff that carried over from the 2012 script. Stuff like a family dynamics are completely different than the 2012 script but are exactly the same as the 2014 script, just more fleshed out. I'd also say the tone seems a little bit darker than the final film.

What I suspect is the cause behind the differences is mostly probably changes they made while filming, such as redoing some lines and cutting certain scenes.
Aye, as well as the final kills. AFAIK as far as into the pre-vis stage for the honolulu battle the 2012 version of Hokmuto (reptilian, wingless until after the Honolulu encounter) was being used.
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