Inktober Day 14: Space Witch. I Have Giant Kaiju On The Brain.

Inktober day 14: “space witch.” I have giant kaiju on the brain.

Big print. Ready start carving tomorrow.

Inktober day 8: blood witch. Little flashback to Vampire: The Masquerade.

Inktober day 3: Vagabond/merchant witch.

Inktober day 10: “wicked witch.” I believe I am going to call her Mother of Jackdaws. Nod to Fever Ray.

Godzilla

Disclaimer: I am a daikaiju-sized Godzilla fan. It’s a sibling tradition for my brother and I to see Godzilla films together, and we have seen literally all of them. When I say all of them, I’m not talking some boxed set with maybe five to ten films in total. I  am talking all 29 Toho productions and both American ones. My favorite are the original from 1954, with a bit of a tie between the Return of Godzilla from 1984 and a couple of other Heisei-era films, primarily Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs Mothra, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. I also have a soft spot for Final Wars, because it it ridiculous and fun. 

I like the ones where Godzilla is treated like the inhuman and chaotic walking natural disaster and vector for tragedy that he truly is. Godzilla is a walking metaphor for nuclear tragedy; he is not and never has been a good guy. There’s a lot of goofy Godzilla films, particularly during the Showa era. However, it’s important to keep in mind what Godzilla IS and where, culturally speaking, the concept comes from. 

I really, really hated Legendary Godzilla. I left the theatre feeling like I’d been robbed, and I felt like if that was what American audiences and fans expected from and loved about Godzilla, that we were operating from profoundly different understandings of the character. I don’t watch Godzilla films to watch a good guy. I watch Godzilla films to see a monster who you only hope will get tired and leave after he fights the other monsters, because if that guy has a second wind, you are absolutely screwed. I especially don’t go to Godzilla films to watch a two hour long Call of Duty cutscene featuring cameos from Good Guy Godzilla. If that’s what you like, that’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinion. I just disagree. 

On the other hand, I’ve seen Shin Gojira twice now within three days. Both times, I’ve left the theatre feeling downright euphoric. For those of you who don’t know, Shin Gojira is clearly a “new” Godzilla whose purpose is to talk about the Great Tohoku Earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster through the lens of a monster movie. It’s far closer in spirit to the original than nearly any other Godzilla film. I’m not going to offer spoilers, but I will say that to those people familiar with how the Fukushima disaster unfolded, certain events and shots in the film are chilling. It’s raw. When Godzilla does get around to his prerequisite rampage, it doesn’t feel like an exciting fireworks show. It feels like genuine tragedy. I didn’t cheer. I worried for the human characters. It was a well-directed film with intelligent directorial choices and a script that pointed a laser at recent national trauma. I felt like it was well-paced, and other than some incredibly corny English language dialogue (did the writer run those lines through Google Translate?), I have no real complaints.

If you like a Godzilla who represents human loss and human tragedy, you will probably dig Shin Gojira. If you like your Godzilla to be the kaiju equivalent of professional wrestling, you may not. That’s my two cents.