Written By: Dan Geer
Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014) was a valiant effort to revive the famous Kaiju as an American studio production, and it by far exceeded what Roland Emmerich did with the genre back in the late 90s. While Emmerich’s take veered far too much from the source material, Edwards really brought it back home by bringing the monster back to resembling the classic Godzilla of old (instead of a giant iguana), and honoring the spirit of what Toho did for the Japanese market for decades by having Godzilla stay true to its roots in terms of story and character, and giving it the top-notch special effects and story treatment the lovable giant monster had always deserved.
Sure, Edwards only had so much he could work with on the limited budget he was given, which lead the story to be crafted in such a way where there was tremendous buildup to the appearance of Godzilla, focusing much more on the human characters in the interim. Of course, this upset some fans since the famed monster wasn’t on screen as much as they had hoped he would be (although when he was, it was spectacular to say the least). However, fans should be grateful, because this paved the way for this year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters to really bring on the mayhem they were expecting with that first film, showing not only Godzilla much more, but other classic Kaiju from past Toho films as well. Director Michael Dougherty shows he knows the genre, and executes it with class.
