1998 was America's first try at bringing the giant lizard to America with Mathew Broderick as the unlikely hero scientist to battle the beast. It was dumped on by critics and to this day, even among the tradition of summer blockbusters lacking any substance, it is still seen as a different kind of monster than intended by almost everyone. Yet for some reason there has been talk within the last year of trying it again. I'm a bit pessimistic for it yet I really want to see something beyond a foam rubber suit on the silver screen, and nobody knows how to blow a budget on a movie like America. But to do a proper reboot, you first need to see what went wrong the first time.
GODZILLA
The biggest complaint about the 1998 movie was it just wasn't Godzilla. You had a giant iguana with spikes on its back and had it breath fire. In a very vague way, they got it, but at the same time they were way off the mark. It's almost like they were trying to create Jurassic Park in a way. You see it often with video games but from time to time it happens in movies, somebody has an idea they want to sell and they shoe-horn it into a licensed property to make it look more promising. The 1998 film wasn't Godzilla, it was "Giant Lizard Attacks New York." It just didn't have the soul that Godzilla typically has in the Japanese movies, that feeling like when Optimus Prime finally shows up in Transformers and you know things are about to get awesome. The 1998 film built to that point with the partial reveals of the monster, but then instead of seeing Optimus Prime, you got a Go-bot. One of the key ingredients to pull off the reboot is to really make it feel like Godzilla. In Japan, Godzilla wasn't just some giant monster who happened to come across Tokyo, he was an unstoppable force of nature bordering on chaotic animal and god-like protector.
THE STORY
One thing that stands out about what Japan has done with Godzilla is the movies aren't really about Godzilla. There's always been some underlying theme for the most part, whether it has to do with genetic experimentation, nuclear weapons, or cultural discrimination. That was usually the purpose of the other monster involved, a product of our own evil with the unstoppable destroyer turning into our savior. Sony's 1998 Godzilla was man versus beast, a nerdy scientist becoming a hero and saving the world from a giant monster. There was not much else going on. What could have been a statement about the military, environmentalism, or any number of additional topics was boiled down to a crappy B-movie plot.
For the reboot, the easiest way to solve the problem with the story is to not make an origin movie. So much is spent in American films explaining the monster. We have to know why there is this monster, yet it is this very attitude that ruins zombie movies. Part of what makes the first Living Dead movies so great is George Romero didn't care about explaining the zombies. He has even said he just wants to make movies about people and zombies help him get the funding. In a way, that's how Godzilla should be treated. J.J. Abrams was successful in telling a compelling story with Cloverfield by treating the monster as more of a natural disaster than an enemy. It was a story about a guy trying to get to his girl and there just happened to be a monster tearing up the place while he was at it. It is said that all good science fiction stories have very human problems. The new Godzilla can take any number of approaches with this. The story could be about global warming, an environmental disaster like BP is currently part of with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, over-consumption of natural resources, and yet still keep to the original origin of nuclear testing. The key is to make the story about people, not the monster.
HAVE ANOTHER ANTAGONIST
As it seems to be the theme, the problem was man versus Godzilla. Another antagonist would help to add that more human of a story. Typically it came in the form of another monster, something I would really like to see Hollywood do just because I think it would be awesome to have two CG monsters tearing up the city. It doesn't have to be though. Depending on the story, it could be an evil corporation, government agency, mad scientist, or even some kind of super weapon. Personally, I'd be leaning toward having the giant monster and one of the others. It would be an easy story to have a statement on genetic manipulation and have Godzilla fight a giant monster created using a sample of his DNA and offer an explanation for why this monster is suddenly attacking. The company finds possibly a dead infant Godzilla, takes it for samples bringing the real deal to attack the location, and the company then creates a monster to stop the destruction it unwittingly caused. The monster goes wild and the people end up needing Godzilla to take care of the problem. The human feature could come from the hero of the story having a relative who could benefit from genetic manipulation, whether it be in the form of a disease or any other illness and this could be the main focus of the story, the hero's struggle against the evil company.
In 1998, Hollywood found out people come for the monster, but stay for the story. Unfortunately they didn't have much of a story. True, Godzilla is a giant monster, but at his heart that's not what Godzilla is about. Let's just hope Sony gets it right this time.
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