Godzilla 98
Steven Murray
Hi,
I've been reading the posts to this group during the past few months
regarding Tri-Star's Godzilla movie. It seems people are either looking
forward to it or simply disgusted by the changes that are being made to
the Godzilla mythos.
I consider myself to be a fan of the Toho Godzilla movies (I
particularly like Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Kong vs.
Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster). Having said that, I am
really looking forward to the new take on Godzilla.
I look at it like 1951's The Thing from Another World and 1982's The
Thing. Both were great movies, but both were vastly different movies.
I still like the 1951 movie as much as I ever did even though I consider
the 1982 movie to be a classic monster movie in its own right. I figure
the same will hold true of the new Godzilla.
Steven
Barry S. Goldberg, Esq.
Steven, while I appreciate your point, and agree with it to a certain
degree, I'm not sure that "The Thing" is the best analogy. Both
versions of that movie were based on a short story by William Campbell
called "Who Goes There?" Although the 1982 remake was vastly different
from the 1951 version, it was actually much closer to the original
story. So, it's not very helpful to argue whether the remake was true
to the original movie, since the original movie itself wasn't
particularly true to the original story.
Godzilla, on the other hand, is another matter. The original "Godzilla:
King of the Monsters" [or, to be more precise, the original "Gojira"]
was the original source. In spite of Mr. Devlin's claim that he is
amking the movie Toho WOULD have made if only they had access to modern
special effects, he has nothing to back up this claim other than his own
hubris.
Having said that, though, let me repeat what I have said many times
before: I really *DO* think that Devlin and Emmerich are going to make
a really great movie. With all the changes that have been discussed,
however, it just won't be a great "Godzilla" movie. I'll still watch
it, and I'm sure I'll still enjoy it. I just won't expect it to have
any similarity to the Toho version. This isn't a criticism of the
movie, just a criticism of the decision to call it "Godzilla."
Personally, I really liked "Independence Day". I saw it twice in the
theaters, and went out and bought the videotape. I would have been a
little put off, however, if they had called it "War of the Worlds" or
"Earth vs. the Flying Saucers". Although it owed much of its plot and
feel to these two movies, it really was a different story. Similarly,
they should have called their new movie "Gazorka" or "Attack of the
Monster Lizard" or something....
Barry
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Barry G.
Barry's Temple of Godzilla
http://www.ultranet.com/~barry/godzilla.htm
Sysop on the Universal Thread Godzilla forum
http://www.universalthread.com
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