Godzillahas had himself a major comeback, and we should all be thankful. The monster icon is in the midst of a huge renaissance, what with the ongoing Monsterverse franchise built around the presence of him andKing Kongand thereleases ofShin Godzillaand the upcomingGodzilla Minus Onein Japan. Apple TV+ is working on another Godzilla property entitledMonarch: Legacy of Monsters,which starsWyattandKurt Russell. People have gotten a taste for the heat that he brings, and they want more. He’s come a long way since his origins in the iconic 1954Godzillafilm, and he evolved over the years in ways that needed a drastic course correction. When Legendary Studios wanted to reboot the big man for modern audiences, they needed someone who knew how to portray monsters in a light that would make them feel more tangible, and therefore more emotionally impactful; so they turned toGareth Edwards.
Godzilla Went From a Monster to a Hero
WhenIshiro Hondaformulated and directedGodzillafor Toho Studios, he envisioned it as a titanic metaphor for the ravages and destruction that the nuclear bombs left behind in the wake of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. As a creature explicitly awakened from the testing of nuclear weapons and powered up by the radiation, Godzilla was a harbinger of the eternal fallout of nuclear weapons and the constant threat of a nuclear holocaust that hangs over the Earth’s head,just as J. Robert Oppenheimer was afraid of. Godzilla’s iconic roar and his physical acting courtesy ofKatsumi Tezuka, combined with the incredible miniature models and pulled-back cinematography, instilled a sense of shock at his presence, like watching a train crash from 1000 yards away. The film has had the remarkable legacy that it does, in large part due to its ability to manage the combined weight of being earnest about its sociopolitical subtext and being genuinely exciting when it switches into the pure monster mash of Godzilla stomping on houses and igniting his enemies with his atomic heat ray. With that artistic success came financial success, and a sequel was quickly ordered — but with subsequent sequels came some changes.
As the films progressed, Godzilla slowly became more of a good guy, reflecting that the audience’s relationship had changed into him being the equivalent of a superhero that people were excited to see win. In each of his sequels, likeGodzilla Raids AgainandDestroy All Monsters, the plot maneuvered him into positions where he had to fight off other monsters like King Ghidorah, Anguiras, and Ebirah. The Japanese government usually manipulated Godzilla into fighting the monsters in order to save their own skin, and Godzilla usually won the fight before slinking off to live another day. It got to a point that the writers even changed Godzilla’s character to learn to be “tolerant” of humans, having him be a role model to children inSon of Godzilla.
Even after a major reboot in 1984 withReturn of Godzilla, effectively marketing itself as a return to form for the franchise, it still immediately went back to Godzilla fighting other monsters in an unambiguously heroic light in the sequels. When theRoland Emmerich-directedGodzillawas released in 1998 as the first attempt at an American studio making a Godzilla film, it was not only a massive failure both critically and financially, it was seen as an embarrassment by Toho Studios, who took it upon themselves to reboot the franchise once again. This reboot leaned even harder into the monster mash-up aesthetic, to the point that the films started to feel more likePower Rangersepisodes; something had to change.
Legendary and Warner Bros. Step In
In 2010, Legendary announced that they hadworked out a deal with Tohoto produce their own Godzilla franchise as a co-production with Warner Brothers. When it came time to choose a director, they went with Edwards. Edwards' hiring is arguably one of the first major instances of the now dreadfully overworked practice of major studios plucking directors of one successful indie film and choosing them to be the creative figurehead of a new franchise. History shows this can go two ways, but Edwards' track record proves that he is a truly unique filmmaker with a grounded approach that many science fiction filmmakers claim to have but few regularly display. His first film wasMonsters, a small-scale indie about a photojournalist (Scoot McNairy) searching for a friend’s daughter (Whitney Able) in the midst of alien lifeforms crash landing and taking up space near the U.S.-Mexico border. Rather than be a big spectacle, thanks to its miniscule budget of $500,000, it’s ultimately a modest road trip film led by two deeply intimate performances and occasional appearances of aliens that inspire awe and wonder; it’s this formula that the people at Legendary responded to and felt fit best with what they wanted from a new Godzilla.
Gareth Edwards' Approach to Godzilla is More Grounded Than Previous Attempts
When Edwards went to Comic Con in 2013 to promote his upcoming version, he wasasked how he saw Godzilla, and he described him as “a representation of the wrath of nature…He’s the punishment we deserve.” He followed that up by saying that what was most important to him was making Godzilla feel “believable” and as “realistic as possible.” This is very in line with his approach toMonstersand even leading into his overall vision forRogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is arguably the most tactile feeling of all theStar Warsfilms. Edwards understood that in order to make Godzilla live up to the promise of being a force, neither friend nor foe necessarily, he had to present Godzilla in a way that felt demystified and terrifying, unlike how he had been portrayed in the past. In effect, he just applied the same rationale to Godzilla as he later did to Darth Vader inRogue One: the less you see of him, the better.
Though, it isn’t enough to say he simply hid Godzilla. Edwards takes a page fromSteven Spielbergand how he kept the shark hidden inJawsby constantly building him up via the destruction he leaves behind. He always kept the camera in positions that could plausibly be captured by an actual human being. It never feels like the camera is zipping around or exaggerating its movements via computer assistance; the camera is almost always placed at eye level with the human actors, with the angle exemplifying just how hard you’d have to crane or twist your neck to see Godzilla. It is always looking towards Godzilla in a manner that conveys a shaken fear, that he is such a traumatizing being that you’re hesitant as you try and get a good look at him. There’s a shot where the camera has the POV of children in a bus on the Golden Gate Bridge as Godzilla walks right through it, and the camera swaying as it desperately tries to keep up with Godzilla’s path is one of the most terrifying shots I’ve ever experienced in a theater.
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It feeds into one of Edwards' best skills as a director — his understanding of scale is immaculate. Up until the climax where Godzilla goes full hero mode and fights the adversarial monsters, his whole body is never on-screen entirely. We either see his feet stomp in front of a window as the camera shakes with his steps, a red flare shoot like a star against his massive chest, his spikes sticking out of the water as he glides through it, or we see his whole body shrouded deep in fog, like a religious idol in a candle-filled temple. In a manner not dissimilar from howChristopher Nolanshowed the bomb test inOppenheimer, Edwards communicates that Godzilla is a force so awesome, that the film can only barely have the courage to bask in his full glory until it is absolutely necessary.
Traditional Godzilla films are fun for their fight scenes, but that fun comes not from dramatic fulfillment, but from the sheer chutzpah of the special effects and the rampant joy that comes from how unapologetic the cheese is. They are not, in a word, scary — if even nerve-wracking. Seeing Godzilla fight his current foe does not inspire the catharsis of a hard accomplishment earned, but the sugar rush of an exercise in craft done impeccably well. Gareth Edwards sought to put that catharsis back into Godzilla, to make the audience get sucked into that underlyingdesireto see a giant lizard defy the laws of reality and rational science as a conduit for the pleasures of destruction and shock. Edwards kept Godzilla on a leash, until at just the right moment…he let him roar.
