Godzilla: The Discussion Continues

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

GodzillaNick: That opening credits sequence was redactedly amazing. I’m actually really glad to have read the prequel graphic novel first, because it gave me an even bigger sense of the history behind this revised version of the story screenwriter Max Borenstein (and several rewriters) were telling. The movie does an okay job of driving home the fact that these are ancient creatures, but the comic lays that out a little better. And it makes the use of nuclear weapons in the 1950s all the more frightening and stupid, when it’s given the oomph of, “You’ve awoken the beasts, humanity! It’s all your fault!”

Brent: That was one aspect that left me wanting in the movie. The original Godzilla was such a cautionary tale about moving into the atomic age, but this one never really had that deeper thematic level to it. They’re like, here are some giant monsters that just woke up and started wrecking up the joint.

Nick: So that is kind of a cautionary tale in and of itself, even without anyone blatantly stating, “We sure are probably fucking up by using more radiation, it just makes them hungry.” Though somebody does say something like that, only to be waved away with the “force of the bomb” spiel.

Brent: True, but to me that felt like a part of the flustered, bumbling reaction people had, like, we don’t know what to do, we’re out of options, so let’s nuke the fucker. Which actually feels like a natural response to a giant monster, a bunch of people with no clue how to proceed running around with their finger on the button.


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