The most interesting thing about this entry in the Godzilla canon is, quite simply, that Godzilla isn't really the bad guy; despite the fact that the trailers and our own expectations sort of conditioned us to believe that the lizard king would rise out from the depths of the Earth to unleash hell upon an unsuspecting human race, the movie treats him as a far more ambiguous character; by the end of the film, in fact, Godzilla is pretty much rallied as a hero. Annoyingly, the script doesn't deal with Godzilla as a "character" in any way at all; he's still a blank canvas. So Ken Watanabe's scientist spends much of the movie claiming that Godzilla must be left to fight against the plainly evil Mutos in order to "restore the balance." Okay... that's interesting, right? But how does Watanabe know about Godzilla's motives? Why aren't they expanded on? And why does Godzilla attack humans and smash skyscrapers in some scenes, only to reveal himself as a hero in the end? The blurry nature of Godzilla's motives seems like lazy screenwriting; why does he help us? He should have been made more compelling, not more confusing.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
