by Lord Ghidorah » Tue Nov 18, 2003 10:33 pm
'Smog was the first Godzilla film I ever saw. I'm glad; the movie's got a serious, brooding message combined with great fighting and - wonder of wonders - human characters with some dimension.
When I saw Ken playing with his Godzilla toys, I thought he must have it pretty good. 'Nice house, cool dad, nifty toys... a great life for a kid, yes? As the movie got darker I suppose that bit of identification made the message more clear. Environmental irresponsibility has made me furious ever since.
The fight scenes were great. One really got a sense that Godzilla simply couldn't handle Hedorah by himself. As was the general trend in the otherwise campy 70s entries, when Godzilla got hurt, you could tell. Acid burns, an injured eye, coughing and collapsing... and the ray. Heh. Godzilla's ray has never been less effective than against Hedorah.
I do have some criticism of the way the film was handled, however. The flying bit was odd, certainly, but my real objection to it is founded on the larger problem - Godzilla, whose breath and even footprints are dangerously radioactive, isn't treated like a major problem. Sure, his appearance does cause concern, and there's that nice bit of attention when he turns towards the humans at the end, but still...
Granted, Godzilla's status as walking H-bomb was largely ignored throughout the Showa series, especially farther on. Still, shouldn't a film with an eco-message have pointed out to its audience that Godzilla using his breath as a rocket would create incredible fallout?
Oh, well. Flaws aside, GvsSM was a good film and one of the better entries into the G-legacy as a whole. I think Hedorah should definitely be used again, especially in light of some government's desperate attempts to destroy environmentalism.
Does anyone else listen to Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" and think of "Save the Earth?"