by king_ghidorah » Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:42 pm
I suppose I'd also have to agree with Ebirahsmeg...I see both sides here, but ultimately, I do think this it is a slightly, tasteless thing to show children being eaten...and that's all it is...a matter of taste. Would things like that happen if Godzilla were real, you betcha...does it work storytelling wise...well, that's a matter of opinion, but for me no it doesnt.
The children dying in the original film had some emotional impact...it wasn't for the sheer mean spirited pleasure that seems to be the case here (and the majority of American horror films these days)...
The death in the original film meant something...it was trying to say something...Honda and hell, Kawakita too and just about everyone who has ever worked on Godzilla outside of Kaneko, understood this and kept the violence on humans to a minimum...kaiju are escapist fun, people and children especially don't want to be reminded of death necessarily...kaiju films and stories are essentially wish fufillment, stories of unlimited power...you don't like you school, bam it's gone, dont want to pay taxes well you don't have to because Godzilla just stomped the tax building...
I personally detest the "evil" Godzilla...because in the majority of movies, Godzilla isn't evil any more than King Kong is...sure they both hurt and kill people, but they are every bit as tragic as they are monsters. This is one of the problems I have with GMK is that it legitimized the "evil" Godzilla...but I do see Kiryu's point about kaiju being like demi gods, neither good nor bad...it's just that in GMK, you never really ever get a sense of duality in Godzilla...he's strictly an evil SOB, but the demi god metaphor works for every other kaiju film and is the road to take in any subsequent G Films and stories