The Time Is Right For A New GODZILLA!

UPDATE:Godzilla producer Roy Lee (who also produced the excellent Quarantine and the upsetting The Strangers) contacted me and assured me that most of the items on my wish list are part of the current plan. Understandably, he didn't want to go into details at this stage, but it sounds like they have a good grasp of this property. Thanks, Roy! It's nice to know there are still cool people in Hollywood! News today that Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers struck a deal with Toho to produce a new Godzilla feature film sent waves of differing emotions through movie lovers everywhere. Some, like Nikki Finke at Deadline, expressed disdain, while other famous movie snobs like Jeffrey Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere gave the idea a careful but enthusiastic endorsement. For me, this is a movie that needs to be made. I spent my boyhood staying up until three in the morning to catch a Godzilla flick on the late late late show. Unlike much of American/British science fiction and fantasy, those old Japanese Godzilla films captured an innocence and sense of abandon and play that appealed directly to my own imagination. Sure, the effects were sometimes laughable, and the plots nearly incomprehensible but it ultimately never mattered. The films had heart, wanton destruction, and a charismatic monster at the center of the melee. What boy didn't imagine seeing Godzilla stomp all over their hometown? Or, in my case, imagine that they were actually Godzilla himself ... which is even better. King Kong broke hearts, while Godzilla elevated them. But there is a more compelling reason to make a new Godzilla film: 9/11. Just as the original Godzilla examined the Japanese emotional state in the wake of the atomic bomb, so could a new Godzilla film reflect the damage done to the American psyche in the wake of those terrorist attacks. It's curious how little the events of 2001 have been reflected in American films. Perhaps Americans are less reflective than the Japanese, but it's interesting that the atomic bomb could inspire self-examination within Japanese culture while 9/11 barely registers culturally in America. As a destructive foreign invader, Godzilla could very easily represent the effect of terrorism in a population. As a physical being, he could also represent the embodiment of the terrorists America seeks to punish but cannot seem to find. If the producers skew Godzilla's personality closer to his "heroic" late-stage persona, then Godzilla could act more as an avenger for the wrongs levelled against the innocent. There are many subtexts to be explored within the context of a new Godzilla film. Of course, a new Godzilla movie needs to learn from the mistakes of the disastrous Roland Emmerich misstep in 1998. Emmerich tried to make Godzilla plausible by designing him to look like a giant iguana that could reproduce, rather than the King Of All Monsters. Emmerich also failed to understand that the attraction of a Godzilla film is the monster, not Matthew Broderick playing a scientist running around with his annoying girlfriend. Ultimately, the Godzilla Emmerich put onscreen was merely a very large animal being pursued by soldiers and scientists, and lacked the allure of the Japanese version. So how can a new film avoid these problems and work in today's environment? Here are some suggestions: 1. Give Godzilla a formidable foe. Even the Japanese Godzilla films failed to give Godzilla an adversary worthy to battle. Out of all the monsters Godzilla fought through the years, probably King Ghidorah was the best match. Unfortunately, Ghidorah is far too ridiculous for American audiences to swallow. But, what if the foe was some sort of enlarged animal, like a giant spider with young? Or, you could go the alien route and introduce a hostile alien race bent on destroying the planet. They could even have a monster of their own (much like the plot to Godzilla Versus Monster Zero). 2. Increase the destruction. While Emmerich definitely did a good job with the destruction in his '98 attempt, there wasn't nearly enough of it. There are two or three giant Godzilla action sequences before the film shifts to a lame Jurassic Park ripoff. This movie needs to be solely about Godzilla kicking serious ass and leaving a large, fiery wake. 3. Give Godzilla some personality. Throughout the Emmerich film, I kept hoping to see some flicker of intelligence or showmanship from the beast, only to see none of that. The best scene in the film is when Godzilla leaps up and snags that helicopter after tricking it; had the rest of the film contained that level of characterization, the film would have been much better off. 4. Design Godzilla to look more like the Japanese version. While I had no serious problem with the design of the Emmerich Godzilla, it was still too animalistic to truly convey personality. I don't want to see a man-in-suit necessarily, nor do I want the googly eyes of some of the Japanese suits. He should be sleek, powerful, and dangerous. 5. Make the film about Godzilla. Emmerich made a fatal error in assuming that audiences came to see a Godzilla film to watch Broderick flirt with an ex-girlfriend. 6. Make Godzilla invincible. He represents an unstoppable natural force, so killing him dilutes his power. If you must kill him, you definitely DO NOT kill him with missiles like Emmerich did. Godzilla died in the original film thanks to the ingenuity of one selfless man, which made the event more poignant and important. Any other time Godzilla was shown to be defeated, it was at the hands of another monster, not puny humans. These are some of my suggestions for a new Godzilla film. The time is right for a monumental, Earth-rattling Godzilla movie, one that will reiterate why we love the big guy in the first place. HAIL, GODZILLA!