Thursday, November 29, 2018

Sad Godzilla Amongst the Ruins


I used to love monster movies.

Went through a phase where I read a ton about the early movies of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman.  And then another phase of King Kong and the giant Kaiju Japanese monsters.

I’ve never liked horror movies- I don’t enjoy being scared.  But monster movies used to hit a sweet spot for me.

There’s a 2019 movie coming out:  Godzilla- King of the Monsters.  Here’s the trailer:




And… I’m not happy seeing it.  I’m depressed and sad, really.

Two reasons- one minor, one major.

The minor one:  Dear Lord, why do all of these movies have to be so literally dark?  I know ‘less is more’ and maybe the actual movie you can really see the monsters- but here everything is dark and grey and blue and muted and so difficult to see.  The technology is better nowadays, the cinematography is great- why make everything so shadowy?

But here’s the major one:  I. Do. Not. Like. Disaster. Porn.

I don’t want to see 2 hours of cities being decimated and lives obliterated.  It’s not fun or enjoyable.

Those 50’s and 60’s Godzilla movies?  They looked cheesy and fake.  You know what else?  They were fun- in part because you knew they were cheesy and fake.

If I want to see a realistic image of a building being destroyed, I can watch the news.

I can’t imagine this movie doing well- who wants to see a monster movie and feel sad?