Godzilla 2014
is a spectacle of a movie, but lacks the substance to warrant being
remembered. The decisions made regarding its characters and structure reveal Eurocentric
and imperialist attitudes disrespectful to the spirit of the Japanese original.
The movie
starts us off in Japan and it must be said in case anyone was confused. No.
Japanese elementary schools are not designed like feudal era mansions. Is that really
necessary when they have a title give us the location in large letters in the
middle of the screen? Later in the film, there will be a battle between
monsters and the camera will come down to reveal swaying festival lanterns in
San Francisco’s China town. As if it's a cool offsides reference to something.
To what? I didn't know Godzilla was Chinese.
The film then
takes us to the residence of our central character. Characters? It's not quite
clear for a while. Anyway, for some reason the camera is dancing around the
figures. Are they trying to surprise us with something? Oh! The family is white!
So even though we're in Japan, we have a white, American instructing the
Japanese scientists at the nuclear facility because, of course, the Japanese
are imitators. Never innovators. They can't handle this technology without the
direction that can only come from an American-born white man. Honestly it's as
if Hollywood thinks American audiences are incapable of empathizing with
non-white faces. As if we must go to whatever lengths necessary to alter the environment
of the story in a way that provides us room for a white protagonist. There was
a graphic novel released in which Dr. Serizawa (Ken Wantanabe) , a Japanese
scientist who's father was killed by the atomic bomb, leads the story. He's in
the film as well, but only barely. And so the message we're given is that
Asian protagonists are ok for comic books, but in order to have truly
mainstream appeal, the face must be white.
( Bryan
Cranston, in portraying the Scientist, Joe Brody, added a rasp in his voice
whenever he spoke Japanese. His accent makes me cringe even as a semi-fluent
non native speaker and I'm sure the difference in his tone is noticeable to
those who don't speak Japanese. But I can't rightly critique that.)
And of course,
the problem isn't that the characters are white. The problem is that they are
imposed on the story for no other reason then their having that trait. They aren't
even characters. The filmmakers are simply throwing white bodies at us an
expecting us to empathies. They seem to think that writing white character's
buys them a pass from revealing what's universally human about these people.
The wife apparently thinks her husband may be dead but she doesn't act like it
until he calls her on the phone, what feels like an hour of screen time later.
There are corny one-liners that lead to smash cuts and great opportunities for
building the characters are ignored. When the father takes off his mask and
says the air is clean, the son should keep his on and say he doesn't trust him.
Instead we cut away awkwardly and return to him with his head exposed. As with
any monster movie, it's a good idea to build tension and hold off the reveal
but that doesn't mean the audiences appetite is never fulfilled. Don't
show the monster in a POV and have double doors slam in front of us just as the
fight begins!!! You can not have under developed characters in a two-hour
Godzilla movie if you’re going to show the monster for less than seven minutes.
After
Ford's mother dies in the accident at the power plant, he and his father have
grown distant. When his father ridicules him for his work in the military his
response is " I stop the bombs." That is a great line for this
movie. At least it would be if Ford didn't spend the majority of the film
trying to detonate an atomic weapon or if, when he was approached with the plan, he showed at least some reluctance given what had been established of
him before. Godzilla 2014 suffers from the same disease that killed Pacific
Rim: random-white-guy syndrome.
Unlike the
original Godzilla of 1954, the monsters in this film are not awakened as a
direct result of American nuclear testing. We're not at fault for the
destruction of the two cities in Japan and the lasting psychological and health
effects. In striving to remove politics from Godzilla, a political stance is
taken. The plan of the United States military is to kill the monsters with an
atomic bomb. It's bigger, they say, then the ones used before. Despite the fact
that these monsters feed on radiation, we somehow think we can kill them by
giving them the itis. There is no strong critique of this plan in the film. And
Dr. Serizawa's passing disapproval means nothing because he's given no power or
importance. And why do the filmmakers seem to think that the corny cliché of a
more powerful organization taking over operations (like the FBI to a police
force) extends to the United stated military exercising authority over an INTERNATIONAL organization?
Do the audiences think the same? No one seems to have found fault with this. So
not only is our reliance on nuclear arms not in question but our supremacy over
the other peoples of the world is absolute.
In the
original Godzilla, the scientist Kyohei Yamane (portrayed by Takashi Shimura of
Kurosawa's Seven Samurai) wants to study Godzilla's resistance to the
radiation. The film is a tragedy about the community's resolve to destroy the
endangered monster rather than understand it. They are only able to do so by
using the Oxygen destroyer, a invention that rivals the atomic bomb in
destructive potential. And by the way the inventor, Daisuke Serizawa (played by
Akihiko Hirata and apparently the father of the doctor from the current story)
knows this and guilt ridden, commits suicide as the weapon he helped developed
kills not only the monster but also all the fish in the surrounding sea. This
film is much more like a Japanese equivalent of Invasion of the
Bodysnatchers, a dark , sci-fi social commentary. The last words
spoken before a call to salute the fallen creature are, "I can't believe
that Godzilla was the last of it's species. If nuclear testing continues, then
someday, somewhere in the world, another Godzilla may appear."
So what do we
understand from how Godzilla 2014 played out? The whole movie is about a
useless human plot that has no outcome on the battle. Had the film followed Dr.
Serizawa, the plot could have had relevance to the ending. It could have chronicled
his struggle to prevent the use of nuclear weapons and perhaps when the
American general illegally confiscated the equipment of the Doctor's international
organization and ignored his advice, as he was prone to do in this film, the nuclear
weapons could have strengthened the monsters and created an even greater
problem. Then the film would take a turn as Dr. Serizawa gained more power and
he was aided in assisting Godzilla. If this were a film truly inspired of paradigms
in Japanese literature, the final battle would have a scene of the people of
the city or even the world watching Godzilla and giving him their strength.
That way when Godzilla appears to be dead. It has weight. That way when
Godzilla awakens, returning to the sea, and the monitors of the football
stadium declare him the people's savior and the King of the Monsters, it means
something. As things are the there were absolutely no repercussions faced by
anyone for the decision to attack the monsters with the substance that brought
them about to begin with and these beats which are meant to be highly
emotional, are not because they lack proper setup. What this film severely
needs is a theme. And for all of you who think a film can be memorable without
theme, for any reason other than being so bad it's camp, for any of you who
think theme can't make DOLLA DOLLA BILLS Y'ALL!!! here is a list:
Thelma and
Louise: freedom
Captain
America 2: big brother and corruption
Starwars:
hero's journey
The Matrix:
belief
Goodfellas:
rise and fall
Wolf of
Wallstreet: conspicuous consumption
Scarface:
Crime doesn't pay
Boyz in the Hood:
finding normalcy amidst violence
Titanic: Love
The Shawshank
Reemption: Hope
8Mile: Self
reliance
The Karate
Kid: a time an a place for everything
The Karate Kid
2: the old and the new
Big Fish: What
is real?
Avatar:
Imperialist vs Native
Invasion of
The body snatchers: conformity
Frozen: Skepticism
vs naïveté / sibling true love
Peter Pan:
growing up is necessary
Rocky:
determination
E.T.: friendship
Shrek: Ogres
(and people) have layers
Godzilla 1954: technological advancements may come at a price
Just a few that
come to mind.
Godzilla 2014: Boom boom boom!!!!
And I repeat: Godzilla 2014 is a spectacle of a movie, but lacks the substance to warrant being remembered. The decisions made regarding it's characters and structure reveal Eurocentric and imperialist attitudes disrespectful to the spirit of the Japanese original.
