GODZILLA
Starring Matthew Broderick, Maria Pitillo and Jean Reno
Written by Dean Devlin, Terry Elliott, Rolland Emmerich and Terry Rossio
Directed by Roland Emmerich
I can probably come up with a dozen reasons why GODZILLA doesn't work. We could start with the script, which redefines the term "lightweight." Then we could move to the performances: Matthew Broderick's nutty professor routine never quite works, Hank Azaria thinks he's a recurring character on "Sesame Street," and Maria Pitillo's performance has the weight and texture of that powdery sugar they sprinkle on funnel cakes at the county fair. The special effects, while serviceable, in no way push the envelope. The filmmakers have even taken it upon themselves to not only alter Godzilla's appearance, but to change the whole concept of the beast from its original Japanese incarnation. The script even resorts to lame Siskel and Ebert jokes. I could go on. But despite its many flaws, I have to admit that I kind of dug it. The film walks a tightrope, to be sure, and very nearly plunges into awfulness at every turn. But you know what? If I was twelve years old, I would have walked away completely satisfied. When you're talking about a Godzilla movie, isn't that what counts?
Much has been written about how the original 1954 Japanese film GOJIRA, debuting not even ten years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, represented the self-inflicted punishment the Japanese felt they deserved after losing WWII, as well as their dreadful fear of the Atom bomb. But little has been said about why the films caught on in the States. To the millions of American boys and girls who watched Godzilla rampage through Tokyo on low-powered UHF stations in the 70's, Godzilla represented the primitive, destructive Id which our parents and school teachers demanded we keep in check. What kid didn't stomp on his army men in the backyard sandbox, fantasizing that he was 300 feet tall and able to do pretty much whatever the hell he wanted? Godzilla was just a big ugly kid throwing a temper tantrum-- and he had atomic breath to boot.
So INDEPENDENCE DAY creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the latest inheritors of the Godzilla legend, had a pretty clear task before them. Give us a cool monster, updated for the Digital Age, have him destroy a major metropolitan area, give him some army men to stomp on, and come up with a couple of semi-interesting human characters to help us pass the time while we're waiting for the Big Guy to show up. Not too tough when you have Sony footing the bill, right?
The first calculated risk they take, as previously noted, is to completely alter the whole concept of the Lizard King. The Japanese version was nigh on invulnerable; he'd stand there and let the Japanese army take its best shot, then he'd wipe them all out with one blast of his atomic breath and continue on toward Tokyo. The new Godzilla, while equal in size, is more vulnerable and considerably more mobile than his predecessor. When the army starts shooting at this guy, he doesn't stick around' he hauls ass. Most of the destruction he wreaks on Manhattan is more or less a side effect of his need to outrun missiles and jet planes. Consequently, it takes a long time before we get a good look at him. We see a tail here, a foot there, but I kept waiting for a money shot, which never really happens. When we do get a good look at him, he turns out to be much more lizard-like than the old version. I can only compare the shock of his new look to the shock of comparing the new VW Beetle to the old model' not better, exactly, but different.
This Godzilla can also burrow, and ends up hiding from his human hunters deep in the New York City subway system. This turn of events leads us into a long dry stretch where we're forced to spend a lot of time with the sketchy human characters while they try to outwit a horde of baby Zillas which have hatched from eggs laid by their asexual parent in Madison Square Garden. The whole baby Zilla stretch is a dead rip-off of the Veloceraptor attack in JURASSIC PARK, only the special effects aren't as good. These scenes are saved, however, by the presence of Jean Reno, who plays a steely French secret agent who leads a team of commandos dispatched by the French government to kill Godzilla after they unwittingly created him with their nuclear tests in the Atlantic. As if the French would give a damn whether Manhattan gets flattened or not' they'd be laughing so hard that champagne would squirt out of their noses.
Broderick, as nerdy scientist Niko Testopoulos, is a game presence, but he really wouldn't be missed if someone else had taken the part. The rest of the cast is fairly anonymous, which reminds us of how much the success of INDEPENDENCE DAY depended on Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Devlin and Emmerich reasoned, not illogically, that they could forgo star power, since Godzilla was the only star they needed. But then they limit Godzilla's screen time to a couple of extended cameos. It doesn't make sense, and yet it worked. There's just enough humor, just enough Godzilla, just enough destruction and mayhem to pull it off.
Even so, I couldn't fault anybody for giving this picture a thumbs-down. I bought it; you may not. Devlin and Emmerich are competent filmmakers, but their true genius lies in their ability to take a high concept and market the shit out of it until you feel like an utter rube if you don't pony up your eight dollars at the box office to take the ride. It's almost more fun to watch them market a film than it is to sit through the finished product. GODZILLA delivers, though just barely. The twelve-year old in me had a good time, anyway.
GRADE: C+
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