I’m noticing that a lot of the movies in this category are pretty action packed. Why do you think creature features are more action movie than horror movie? (Do you?)
No, I don’t. Some creature features are out and out horror.
It’s just that the ones that appealed most to us (and that we could
agree on) are very action packed. It’s about what entertains me and with Godzilla,
it’s got the great action, but it’s also got escapism and humour. Maybe it’s a
bit “America, Fuck Yeah!” but I can forgive it that for being such a good film.
What we’ve done is pick monsters that are actually quite
believable – as far as monster movies can be, anyway.
Normally I’d ask for a quick synopsis, but this is freaking
Godzilla. If people don’t know what that’s about…
Which fucking rock have you been living under?
I grew up with Godzilla and he’d been around for
about twenty years then. Don’t get me wrong – the were some pretty awful
ones – but I loved those old Japanese monster movies as a kid. What I didn’t
love was the man in the suit, which was why this Godzilla movie won.
So instead of asking what it’s about, I’m going to ask
why this version of Godzilla made the list. There are so many of them…
Sometimes, I think about what it would be like to show
someone who saw those old Universal movies back in the ‘30s something like Godzilla.
I wonder what they would have thought?
I remember my nan telling me that when she saw Frankenstein,
she had to run home because she was terrified the monster would get her. If
you could have shown her this back then, I think she would have had a
heart attack and died.
When you look at those old Godzilla movies from the 50s/60s,
it’s quite evident that it’s just a man in a suit but, as a kid, I didn’t care.
With King of the Monsters, they kind of went back. They’ve done a throwback
to that man in a suit monster and it’s just a little cringey.
Why do you think Godzilla’s still so popular? It’s
been made and remade something like 32 times. What do we love about this giant lizard?
It’s the same with King Kong. Kids love monster movies. Those
kids grow up and it becomes about nostalgia. Each time, it seems to improve,
except for the new one. I know a lot of people would disagree with me – and I’m
not saying it was a bad movie – but the monster just isn’t that good.
The details of Godzilla’s origins aren’t really clear. In
King of the Monsters, he’s been sleeping under Antarctica, right? I
think he was a Titan? But, in the 1998 Godzilla, we created him by being
reckless with nuclear weapons. (Well, the French did but you know…) Why
do you think his origins always change?
I think people are always striving to make it more believable.
They demand more from movies and are more likely to tear it apart if it isn’t
realistic enough. They want the science to work. They want to be able to believe
it, at least while they’re watching.
As for the French thing… well, don’t forget, when the French
did their nuclear testing, it was in Paradise. Godzilla kind of
calls them out on that and holds them to account. That’s so… French.
Yes, and good for it. The problem is with governments, they
tend not to get held to account for their actions. Britain often does it to itself,
but the French aren’t self-deprecating in that way. I can’t imagine they would have
liked that.
Do you think it’s important for movies to do that? Do you
think it helps for entertainers to call out governments when their fail to do
it?
If it’s honest, yes. If it’s overboard or nasty for the sake
of being nasty, you’re shaming a country in a way that’s unfair. The French
weren’t the only ones who made bad decisions when it came to nuclear testing so
you can’t only point the finger at them and solely blame them.
Do you think accidentally creating a Godzilla-like
monster is possible? I mean, there was that nuclear power plant in Japan that
got damaged in the tsunami and that Russian accident that was basically
Chernobyl H20…
No. Mutated? Yes. A 300-foot monster? I’m going to say no.
How would it sustain itself? It would have to eat so much, and I just
don’t see it being able to do that. Whatever it ate (even if it was us,) it
would run out of food in no time.
Godzilla looks different in every movie but, in this
movie, he looks a lot more like a dinosaur and less like a… whatever the fuck
was happening in King of the Monsters. What did you think of that
choice?
I prefer the fact that he looked more reptilian in this one, like a mix between an iguana and a T-Rex.
When you see the beginning, you’re shown the lizards looking up at this blast,
you can see where they got the Godzilla shape from. I mean, it’s not realistic
to have all those lizards in one place, but I do like the fact that I could
believe that animals are mutating.
We were just talking earlier about the elephants in Africa
being born tuskless so it’s not that far-fetched to see evolution happening at
quite a rate.
This is going to sound kind of crazy, but I want to
relate Godzilla to some of the social issues we’re facing today…
It wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.
I think it’s interesting that Godzilla is definitely a male
monster – they refer to the beastie as “he” all the way through – and no one
bats an eye that this dude is laying eggs everywhere. Like, okay. I think that’s
kind of a great things to show kids (except for the whole terrifying monster bit)
because it shows that there are men out there who can give birth. It’s this bad
ass monster movie, crushing gender norms.
I think you might be reading too much into it but we’re from
very different generations. It’s a natural thing in the wild with reptiles. It’s
kind of like Jurassic Park. They make all the dinosaurs female but,
because they’ve filled the gaps in the DNA with frog DNA and it was a type that
could change its gender if needed, you end up with dino babies.
I read that Godzilla was a box office failure. Honestly,
I didn’t know that. I loved the movie when it came out originally. Why do you
think it flopped?
Something can be made or broken on a critic’s whim. I don’t
like to listen to critics. I’ll judge for myself, thanks very much. Everyone I
know loved Godzilla. Why was it lambasted? I couldn’t tell you. They put
the money into it and the acting was great. It still made over $100 million,
which you’d think would be enough, but that’s not enough for some execs.
It’s like Solo with Disney. It turned so much profit
but not enough for The Mouse. Fans are screaming for a sequel, but it’s not
likely to happen because Disney always wants more.
Matthew Broderick is definitely not an action hero. I
think the appeal is that you’re telling people that you don’t have to be ArnoldSchwarzenegger or Dwayne Johnson to be a hero. You’ve got this little dweeby science
geek who’s just become the most important guy in the world. You didn’t really
know a lot of the supporting cast, at least not well, but it works.
There’s the thing. When you’ve got someone like Jean Reno,
it takes it up a notch. They say sometimes about actors acting without acting. Jean
Reno is like that. Sometimes actors try so hard to convey emotion, but Jean
Reno can do it all with the lift of an eyebrow.
My favourite line in the movie is when Reno’s Philippe
Roaché is pretending to be American and he says, “Well, thank you very much” in
a very Elvis voice and when Broderick’s Nick gives him a WTF look, he says, “Elvis
Presley movies. He was The King.” If it is his voice, it’s such a good impression.
Okay, give me your overall thoughts on Godzilla.
It was nice to see Godzilla brought right up to date without
the crummy man in the suit. Coming up to the turn of the Millennium, with the
likes of Jurassic Park out there, it had to be something different.
The trailer said it all for me. There’s a moment when that giant foot comes
down and crushes the T-Rex skeleton and it’s that evolution in a nutshell.
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