The recent news that Monsters writer/director/cinematographer/editor/SFX wunderkind Gareth Edwards is the puny human selected to helm the new (American) Godzilla is awesome. I liked his Monsters a lot. Edwards has the sensibility to strike the right balance between SFX spectacle and character/story that could give this movie the gravitas and pathos that the big G deserves.
Of course we all know what happened the last time a studio other than Toho attempted this. It was bad. Unbelievably bad. However, balance was restored in 2004 when Toho (with the assistance of this badass) put a violent and final end to that Yankï gaijin kaijubortion. Ryûhei Kitamura's Godzilla: Final Wars saw the real Gojira completely fucking murder that fraud by throwing it into the Sydney Opera House. I actually stood around for a while one day as part of that sequence was shot, watching terrified people run down a debris strewn street not five minutes from where I live.
So, if there's one good thing to come out of that Hollywood fiasco, it's that it provides a ready-made and exhaustive primer on just what not to do this time:
Step 1: never hire Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich or Patrick Tatopoulos for anything. Ever. Again.
Step 2: just do the opposite of every single frame of that monstrous piece of shit.
Legendary Pictures is the company behind the new Godzilla. This instills a certain amount of confidence, as they're known for producing huge genre productions that comfortably sit at the smarter end of the mainstream spectrum (recent home to Christopher Nolan & Zack Snyder for example). Anyway, they've made a good start by offering the gig to Edwards.
Now, obliterate skyscrapers and melt tanks with your atomic heat ray, driven to destroy by the epic kaiju scores of Akira Ifukube and Masaru Sato. HERE.
Of course we all know what happened the last time a studio other than Toho attempted this. It was bad. Unbelievably bad. However, balance was restored in 2004 when Toho (with the assistance of this badass) put a violent and final end to that Yankï gaijin kaijubortion. Ryûhei Kitamura's Godzilla: Final Wars saw the real Gojira completely fucking murder that fraud by throwing it into the Sydney Opera House. I actually stood around for a while one day as part of that sequence was shot, watching terrified people run down a debris strewn street not five minutes from where I live.
So, if there's one good thing to come out of that Hollywood fiasco, it's that it provides a ready-made and exhaustive primer on just what not to do this time:
Step 1: never hire Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich or Patrick Tatopoulos for anything. Ever. Again.
Step 2: just do the opposite of every single frame of that monstrous piece of shit.
Legendary Pictures is the company behind the new Godzilla. This instills a certain amount of confidence, as they're known for producing huge genre productions that comfortably sit at the smarter end of the mainstream spectrum (recent home to Christopher Nolan & Zack Snyder for example). Anyway, they've made a good start by offering the gig to Edwards.
Now, obliterate skyscrapers and melt tanks with your atomic heat ray, driven to destroy by the epic kaiju scores of Akira Ifukube and Masaru Sato. HERE.
Amen to that!
ReplyDeleteDespite never wanting to see an American remake ever again, I would consider checking out a Gareth Edwards penned, directed version.
And "that" scene in Godzilla: Final Wars, is one hell of a funny moment. I simply love that there's no fight, just Whack. Fuck off. Message received loud and clear.
Cool that you got to see some of it being shot!
Cheers!
J.
It was cool J. I walked past the shoot...
ReplyDelete"hey, what are you guys filming here?"
"Godzilla"
"WHHAAAAAAAT??!!"
Godzilla was a BIG BIG part of my childhood so I'm hoping again all odds this new film won't suck. I was only able to sit throw one of the 90's Godzilla movies, Destroyah, real downer but a great score.
ReplyDeleteI feel pretty strongly that the only way a Godzilla movie is going to work is to set it in the 60's. Give me bright color clothing, cool architecture (to get smashed!)and some other wacky monsters. The only thing sillier than Don Draper vrs. Godzilla would be another dark moody film that tries to scare us.