Posted on 05/17/2014 7:59:48 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
The new Godzilla is out, and while I'm not the biggest fan I saw it last night and enjoyed it.
Some dissapointing statements were made by the filmmaker about the film being about climate change. Seeing the film, I don't understand how he would make that connection other than to score Hollywood points. That isn't what it is about. The original film was about the destructive power of the atomic bomb, and the beliefs that despite our technological arrogance, nature was still in control. This is the opposite of saying that emitting some carbon dioxide can destroy the Earth. Happily, this film stays with the original theme that nature is in control.
The previous American try at a Godzilla film was a disaster, and like a diehard Denver Bronco fan when the team makes it to the championship, fans were happy someone was making this new one, but worried it would be another disaster. The filmmakers knew this too of course, but made some good choices, and even some risky choices that turned out well. Good choices in that it follows the original faithfully, and risky in that it makes some of the same choices the 1998 film did, but executes them a whole lot better. By that I mean both films had human stories as the primary focus instead of just a monster smashing stuff.
What makes the difference between the 1998 failure and this movie is two events that happened in between, the Fukushima earthquake and meltdown, and the world trade center attacks. Both events have had profound effects on the people affected and by everyone in the countries hit. And where the 1998 film chose a lighthearted, don't take this seriously path, this one treats the monsters and their destruction as real disasters on the scale of 9/11. The humans don't go for comic relief, they are real people making realistic choices to stay alive, just as we have seen in the real disasters.
This film is about Fukushima and 9/11 as much as the original was about the atom bomb. It could not have been made before those events, and looking back, that explains the 1998 film perfectly. 1998 was simply too frivolous a time to make a Godzilla film.
LOL!! I love the sound effects in that video.
Please let me know if a Mac version of Pale Moon comes out.
THEM!
to add a fourth...
Yeah. CGI is used as a substitute for a few minor things, like a plot, character development, good acting, good direction, plausible premise, coherent dialog....
Can't be done in Hollywood. THEM! is too religious.
Godzilla is a surrogate for America.
The big overwhelming force that came out of the sea and devastated Tokyo.
Americans came and pretty much flattened Japan from a distance. They they arrived in person, big, loud, scary, uncouth.
The Japanese (quite reasonably) expected these loud invaders to rape, pillage and burn, to demand draconian (hmmm, like a dragon!) reparations, to bleed Japan dry and discard the husk.
That was the first Godzilla movie. It fit the temper of the times, it was an attempt to psychologically cope with a new world turned upside down, a world where Japan wasn't ascendant.
Then it happened. The Pale Destroyers (hat tip Blue Lancer) didn't destroy Japan! They helped Japan rebuild everything they bombed! Rebuilt the infrastructure, established a constitutional government, established entire industries, became the biggest customer, and fast friend and defender of Japan.
Huh?
HUH???
The following Godzilla movies attempt to grapple with this conundrum. Godzilla vs this that and the other creature. Godzilla not quite as a friend of Japan, but an least as a fellow combatant against other threats to the Home Islands.
And then Baby Godzilla was downright cute!
That's the what the Japanese scientist knew from his youth. The big scarey monster turned out to be not so bad after all.
Re: Your tagline.
See post #82.
Last I’d read is that Pale Moon has no plans for a browser for Mac.
That could change, however. Since so many have dumped Firefox.
That’s the last I heard as well. Still, hope springs eternal...
And yes, I will drop Firefox as soon as a Mac Version of Pale Moon becomes available.
I’ve got em bookmarked!
will do
Never got that.
I also thought that Pacific Rim was a great movie.
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