by Irish Gfan » Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:46 pm
OK, let me explain myself in regards to my stance on the characters from GXMG.
What I meant was that most of what they do and most of what they talk about have anything to do with the threat of Godzilla. Akane, Prof Yahara, and his daughter Sara.
Akane spends most of the movie being a mopey emo saying that nobody cares about her and her life is nothing. You could argue that it stems from guilt over the incident at the start of the film with Godzilla, which would make sense. But she says she's been that way her whole life. So is her story about her atoning for messing up with Godzilla at the start of the film or is it for her to stop being Mopey Mary and learn that her life does matter? If it is the latter, then the start of the film really feels like it has no bearing on anything. The soldier that blames her for his brother's death doesn't even seem to phase her. She just sort of accepts that nobody likes her and that would be the case whether the Godzilla incident happened or not. Even after the crew accepts her, she still acts all sad, lending credence to my feeling that her pessimistic, self loathing attitude goes far beyond the incident with Godzilla at the start of the film and she would be the same person whether that happened or not.
Then we have Yahara and his daughter Sara. This really floored me. So his initial objection to working on Mechagodzilla was not potentially unleashing another terror on the world or playing God when he shouldn't. It was that he was worried about not spending time with his daughter. WHAT?! The major social implications of this project is no concern to you, AT ALL?!?!? And then they go "Oh you can take your daughter with you" and he's like "Oh OK". And then he spends the whole movie hitting on Akane. And then you have little Sara, who starts out as a happy little kid, and then turns into Mopey Mary Jr, not because Godzilla is killing people, and not because of Mechagodzilla's outburst. She feels bad that Mechagodzilla has to fight...and it has something to do with her dead mom and a plant that she thinks is her mom or some crap.
So we have one of Mechagodzilla's engineers worried about stuff that has nothing to do with Godzilla or even Mechagodzilla. We have Mechagodzilla's pilot being all depressed the whole time for reasons that are never explained all that well. She feels worthless and has her whole life, which as I said would be the same whether Godzilla was around or not. And we have a little kid being all sad about her dead mom, a death that had nothing to do with giant monsters or any kind of violence.
The characters feel like they aren't even in a monster movie and this is just a completely different drama of some sort, with Godzilla serving as an interruption from time to time. Even Mechagodzilla's outburst in the middle of the film is never fully explained, no satisfactory resolution is given, and by the end of the film, they just act as if it never happened. It almost feels like the characters don't care that Godzilla is around or are even that worried about it, which is a huge no-no in making a monster movie. Whether the tone is serious and bleak or silly & campy, the attacking monsters should be viewed as dangerous.
I am not saying characters can't have those things like Sara's mother being dead or being a sad sap like Akane, but there was just so much of it that it felt like all of those backstories and dealing with those issues were the focus of the movie and not Godzilla or Mechagodzilla. Like I said, outside of a fantastic opening sequence in harsh weather conditions, Godzilla doesn't feel like much of a threat at all because the characters themselves don't even seem to care all that much about it as they've got other personal issues to worry about.
I also read a comparison in this thread to the characters in Mothra Vs. Godzilla, and that is a ludicrous comparison. The trio of main human characters in that film are arguably the true heroes of the film as they are the ones that have to act as ambassadors to Infant Island on behalf of Japan (and the whole world actually as that is how the Infant Islanders view them). They have to basically deliver what the message of the movie is supposed to be and everything they do revolves around the monsters whether it be trying to get the egg back or begging for Mothra's help against the awesome threat of Godzilla. Even the crooked businessmen that took ownership of the egg serve a purpose as it is there actions that lend the people of Infant Island to distrust humanity as a whole and put Mothra's potential aid of mankind into question, which or forces the main heroes to extend the olive branch. I think it ties in rather well with what goes on with Godzilla & Mothra.
And yes, the ending the of fight left me feeling cheated. Mechagodzilla is damaged but still functions. Godzilla was wounded, but is still very much alive and isn't soundly defeated in anyway. It left me hanging. I read a comparison in this thread to the ending of King Kong Vs. Godzilla and I have a couple of points on that. I didn't like that ending. I feel like if you have the two biggest movie monsters of the time fighting each other than the conclusion of the fight should be more decisive than that, but at least I felt like Kong won. I never questioned who the winner was. It was a cheap ending, sure, but at least at the end of the movie I knew King Kong had defeated Godzilla. In this movie, they even called it a draw in the post credits sequence. It just feels like there was no ending and no conclusive winner. This goes far beyond the typical "Godzilla is beaten but LOOK his eye opened!" or "Oh no! Is that Godzilla's roar" type of ending. Those are done just to leave the door open for a sequel, which is fine. Heck, even Godzilla Vs. Biollante made sure to kill off Biollante and its creator to give us some finality there.
Ultimately, GXMG is made better by the fact that it does have a sequel in Tokyo SOS which ties up all the loose ends and tells an overall better story in the process with some nice monster action to boot. The characters in THAT film like the Fairies & Dr. Chujo do question the method of creating Mechagodzilla as a slap in the face of nature. Sure, Mothra caring about Godzilla's bones being raised seems a bit forced & odd, but at least these are all motivations that tie back into the monsters themselves. The characters on the other side argue against that stating that they need to defend themselves against the great threat of Godzilla. Every character has a motivation or backstory that ties it into the monsters themselves, their potential danger, and everything else that goes along with it, and that makes it a far more acceptable movie.
Now comparing Godzilla X Mechagodzilla to Godzilla X Megaguiras, yes GXM has a lot of flaws. The editing is weird. The pacing is weird. The kid character might be the most pointless "Kenny" in the entire series, and Megaguiras is a pretty unimpressive foe for the Big G (I actually liked the Meganula swarm more). But I appreciate the film for its wackiness. A black hole gun? That might be the most ludicrous weapon ever brought up against Godzilla, and it is hilarious. They could have done more things with it like having Kuriko being so dead set on getting revenge against Godzilla that she doesn't consider the negative impact of such a weapon (enter Megaguiras). Really that was an angle they could have played up with Megaguiras being the result of Kuriko's quest for vengeance and rather than obtaining vengeance against Godzilla, it could have been about her coming to terms with herself and finding peace. But they didn't play up that angle and it just goes into wacky Sci-Fi territory. But the characters in the movie (with the exception of the aforementioned Kenny that disappears half way through the film anyway) somehow have a motivation that circles back to Godzilla & dealing with him whether it be Kuriko, Kudo, or the government officials and their clean energy project. The movie is unfocused & overly simplistic, but it has a wacky vibe to it that at least makes it fun to watch, which is more than I can say about GXMG which is a bit of a drag.
So with all of that, my basic point is, Godzilla X Mechagodzilla is the weakest of the Millennium films and I am sticking to that point. Godzilla X Megaguiras has many obvious flaws, but I find it, overall, to be more entertaining. I'll have no qualms about calling that one the second weakest though.