After it started as a clear metaphor for atomic warfare, which the terms of their defeat precluded the Japanese from openly discussing, Godzilla got translated into a few dozen rubber suit monster battles, then crossed the ocean to become American entertainment. I had lost all hope that it could become anything else than meaningless monster bashing. Yet 2016's Shin Godzilla showed that, no, the big guy can still serve as a symbol, in that case one of the insane human belligerence, and you don't need billions of dollars to do it. And now Gojira -1 (because Godzilla 38 didn't have the same dramatic effect) kind of does the same.
Yet this is a different beast. The largest part of the film is about a young man who feels very modern, a guy to whom things happen, lacking the maniacal nationalist courage expected of a kamikaze pilot, lacking agency and manliness. He is just a nice guy who wants to live, during and after the end of WWII. Even his girlfriend and his child are things that just happen to him, without his control. But he can't remain like that, because Godzilla keeps popping up in his life, like a crazy ex. In this film, Godzilla is a symbol of the crushing weight of life, survivor guilt, powerlessness, insignificance. Not a good giant protecting the planet against invented other monsters, but something overwhelming, terrible, indomitable, that yet needs to be defeated.
It's not a film without flaws, though. It's overly long and some of the acting, as far as I am concerned, felt like a tribute to the original Godzilla. In fact there were a lot of scenes that hinted at that original film. It is saying "hey, we know who Godzilla is, let's do it justice". Yet in 2024, Godzilla is no longer Japanese, it's international, like a weathered actor falling out of fame in Hollywood, it returns to the stage to try to find meaning again. It focuses on people, not special effects, on national dramas that got swept under the rug at the original film's release. Did I like it? Yes, but it also dragged along too slowly.
Bottom line: This is a great film just in comparison with all the crap they recently made about the subject, otherwise it's a rather decent reboot of the original Japanese Godzilla.
Yet this is a different beast. The largest part of the film is about a young man who feels very modern, a guy to whom things happen, lacking the maniacal nationalist courage expected of a kamikaze pilot, lacking agency and manliness. He is just a nice guy who wants to live, during and after the end of WWII. Even his girlfriend and his child are things that just happen to him, without his control. But he can't remain like that, because Godzilla keeps popping up in his life, like a crazy ex. In this film, Godzilla is a symbol of the crushing weight of life, survivor guilt, powerlessness, insignificance. Not a good giant protecting the planet against invented other monsters, but something overwhelming, terrible, indomitable, that yet needs to be defeated.
It's not a film without flaws, though. It's overly long and some of the acting, as far as I am concerned, felt like a tribute to the original Godzilla. In fact there were a lot of scenes that hinted at that original film. It is saying "hey, we know who Godzilla is, let's do it justice". Yet in 2024, Godzilla is no longer Japanese, it's international, like a weathered actor falling out of fame in Hollywood, it returns to the stage to try to find meaning again. It focuses on people, not special effects, on national dramas that got swept under the rug at the original film's release. Did I like it? Yes, but it also dragged along too slowly.
Bottom line: This is a great film just in comparison with all the crap they recently made about the subject, otherwise it's a rather decent reboot of the original Japanese Godzilla.
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