Godzilla purists may worry about Hollywood's embrace Monday of their hero. The history of the franchise showed that all the movies resonated well with millions of Godzilla fans except the 1998 film made in Hollywood for US$125 million, which was one of that year's biggest flops at the box office.
Among the criticisms of that disaster was that Godzilla ran from the Army instead of stomping it, and that he didn't have his signature atomic blue fire breath, not to mention the highly derivative plot.
The Final War should avoid some of those pitfalls, shunning computer animation in favour of the traditional filming method of using a man in a heavy latex suit stomping around and causing havoc on a miniature set.
To a new generation of Godzilla fans, the sheer tackiness of the vision is what makes it so alluring.
"I can't wait to see the movie," said Wayne Hopkins, 15, whose first meeting with the monster came via the video-games that bear his name. "Anyone can make a digital monster these days. But it takes real talent to interest people with a giant rubber doll."
RSS