by Nippon » Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:00 pm
I've looked over....okay, SKIMMED...okay, briefly glanced at a handful of a smidgen of a couple of the comments here. Although I didn't have anything to DO with the story or interior art or ANYTHING, I feel like my two-cents could be worth at least one barrel of hay.
To me, and indeed what Powell seems to have intended from the start, is not to portray the monsters as "good" or "evil." Monsters are beyond those categories because they are inventions of the human psyche....granted, monsters THEMSELVES are inventions of the hoooman braaaaaaiiinnz, BUT in the context of Japanese monster films, kaiju literally are modern gods. They're either modern interpretations of elemental kami or, as Dai put it, like Zeus and Poseidon having their wild moodswings (cue why Poseidon would save a boat one day and flood a city the next).
They're morally ambiguous. It changes depending on the film, and of course it's not an iron-clad rule, but to say that Godzilla is "evil" in KINGDOM OF MONSTERS is really kind of missing the point...or lack thereof. The idea that the kids are in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as the man who tried to help geriatric seniors, getting the both of them stomped on, is really just Powell saying "No one is safe." Kaiju, at least in this book series, are blindly indifferent to the little creatures scurrying about their feet.
Just because something is interpreted as a "god" does NOT lock them in to the notions of good or evil. Almost ALL of classic mythology is evident of that. Hell, even kindly ol' Jehova was prone to nuking someone for looking at him funny...or rather, killing a man's entire family to prove a point to the Starscream of Judeo-Christian mythos. It's all interpretive.
Like I said, Godzilla isn't even AWARE of the kids who got stuck in his mouth, or the people he steps on. And the notion of the violence in Godzilla films having to "mean something" totally applies here. The violence MEANS that Godzilla's destruction is nondiscriminatory. Powell IS making a point so he can bring home the idea that humanity is neither safe from nor can really DO anything to stop these monsters, at least in THIS universe. So, the story comes from how they REACT to this situation.
Of course, I'm not discounting completely the idea that kaiju are beyond good and evil - it's just how they were classically portrayed. Ghidorah even, the grandest force of evil in the Godzilla mythos, can only be said to be truly evil maybe two or three times - the evil comes from the people (or aliens) controlling him. Godzilla himself was indeed titled the "Monster of Justice" in 70's promotional material, not to mention the HB cartoon. So, as it was stated, it's all up to interpretation, either from the creative side or the audience's perspective.
But remember, in this universe, people are ANTS to Godzilla. He doesn't care if your kids got caught in his mouth. He doesn't care if your grandma got stepped on. Why should he? To quote Powell, "They're not here to save the world...THEY'RE GOD %^@! MONSTERS!"