The latest film about the dinosaur-like destroyer uses a winning forumla that harkens back to older Godzilla films. While smashing and dashing the world around him, the Japanese monster has symbolized different things.
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Advertisement
A brief history of Godzilla films
It's the return of the monsters: Godzilla is back on a path of destruction in the latest film, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters." Revisit a few milestones of the record-breaking franchise.
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
'Godzilla: King of the Monsters'
Godzilla is a pop culture icon that just won't die. Released worldwide at the end of May, "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" is the latest title in a series of popular films. The movie franchise holds the record for the one with the longest continuous run. Originally conceived in Japan, where 32 films dedicated to the film monster were produced, this installment is a Hollywood blockbuster.
Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The original Godzilla from 1954
The producers and the director of the very first Godzilla film from 1954 certainly had no idea that the Japanese monster figure would one day be "seized" by US studios. After all, Godzilla was created nine years after the end of World War II, against the backdrop of American nuclear testing at the time and the atomic bombs that had been dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Image: imago/EntertainmentPictures
Godzilla vs. King Kong (1962)
But cinema writes its own story. In the third Godzilla film, "Godzilla vs. King Kong" (original title: Kingu Kongu tai Gojira), which was released in 1962, Japanese film studios borrowed the prime monster figure from the US, King Kong.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Everett Collection
The second Godzilla wave in the 1980s
In 1984, the fictional monster celebrated a comeback in Japanese cinema with "The Return of Godzilla," heralding the second phase of Godzilla films. After Godzilla had turned into a "good" monster in the previous works by protecting Japan from enemies, the fiend was once again an all-destructive beast.
Image: picture alliance/United Archives
A German reawakens Godzilla for the US market
It was a German of all people who reanimated the Japanese monster for the US (and thus the global) market. Roland Emmerich, who was celebrated in Hollywood for his cinematic orgies of catastrophe, set the digital cinema machinery in motion for his 1998 version of Godzilla. Never before had the orgies of destruction been so perfectly staged, but the film remained rather soulless.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tristar
Japanese Godzilla for the new century
Yet the production of Godzilla films also resumed in the motherland of the monster. Producers brought "Godzilla 2000: Millennium" to the cinemas, which induced a third wave of Godzilla films. It was a great success in Japan, but in most other countries, the new Godzilla films were only released on video cassette and DVD.
Image: imago/EntertainmentPictures
For true fans: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
In Japan, producers remained diligent, but the tricks of the new films, such as here in a scene from "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" (2000), appeared old-fashioned in light of the digital revolution. Still, Japanese viewers appreciated the ancient-looking aesthetics. The films continued to be successful on the island.
Image: picture-alliance/KPA
Ever new opponents: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
The Japanese Godzilla films integrated cinematic legends again and again and were full of allusions to various historical events. Compared to the great Hollywood films, this bag of tricks seemed simplistic from a Western point of view. What also composed the Godzilla myth in Japan: the so-called "suitmation technique," in which actors slipped into large, heavy costumes, or "creature suits."
Image: AP
Preliminary end: Final Wars
As the last movie of the three Japanese Godzilla movies for the time being, "Godzilla: Final Wars" was made in 2004 — on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the popular movie character. A central theme of the movie was environmental pollution. But just as in the other Japanese Godzilla movies, the viewers' delight was the top priority as the fans loved the naive style of the monster movies.
Image: imago/EntertainmentPictures
Godzilla rises again
In 2014, Hollywood revived the Godzilla myth on a grand scale, employing the latest digital technology. "Godzilla" was an American-Japanese co-production, but it had little in common with the naive-looking Japanese Godzilla films. "Godzilla" is disaster cinema at its purest and was so successful among viewers that it prompted the creation of the Godzilla sequel that's now opening in cinemas.
Image: Warner Bros. Picture
10 images1 | 10
Movie audiences are used to seeing Godzilla destroying whole cities and their inhabitants. Monsters tend to do that. But in the new Godzilla sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which opens in cinemas around the world starting May 29, the monster also apparently attacks the superhero movies that are currently so popular.
Indeed, the superhero genre has broken countless box office records in recent years, with the latest such film, Avengers: Endgame, continuing to rake in millions.
Blockbuster strategy: Lots of monsters
A winning factor behind the recent superhero movies was that several well-known pop and comic hero figures either faced off against each other; or alternatively went into battle together. It follows the motto: the more heroes, the better.
The same principle applies to the new Godzilla film, which features four menacing monsters: Godzilla is joined by the three-headed King Ghidorah, the giant moth Mothra, and the flying dinosaur-like creature Rodan.
Godzilla is not the only monster in the newest film in the successful franchise seriesImage: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The four fight for control of the world, threatening humanity and amplifying the orgy of destruction on the big screen with endless new slaughters and battles. And like the superhero films, the Gozdilla series again integrates elements from multiple film genres such as horror, science fiction and catastrophe movies.
Monster duo: Godzilla and King Kong
Cinema buffs will know, however, that all this has been done before. It's precisely the older Godzilla films that quickly discovered the key to success: two monsters are more attractive than one. The third film in the original Godzilla series was King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), and featured the giant American ape fighting the Japanese saurian creature.
The logic was straightforward. One monster has great destructive power, rendering whole cities and landscapes to ash. But two? Or even more? There were, and are, no boundaries when it comes to monster movies.
The human figures in 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters' are scared about the creature's destructive abilitiesImage: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Sometimes film titles have promised more than they have actually delivered. Some Godzilla movies with deceptive titles were played in German cinemas. For instance, King Kong or Frankenstein were mentioned in the Godzilla films' German distribution names in the 1970s, but neither the giant ape nor the scientist or his monster made of corpse parts played a role in the films.
Godzilla reinterpreted
The original premise behind the very first Godzilla movie from 1954 has diversified across the numerous sequels. The original Godzilla was a symbol of the consequences of the global nuclear arms race, and its descendants have also reflected the times: environmental destruction, ruthless exploitation of nature and animal life by humans, climate change, animal experiments gone out of control, genetic editing, and much more.
But the monster has not always been a terrifying evil figure; Godzilla sometimes also took on positive traits.
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the monster does what monsters do best — and what the audience expects: Destroying everything in existence and spreading fear and horror among people. It's doom-and-gloom plot and production is ultimately fashioned to give you the creeps.
