Which modern Godzilla movie is your favorite? (2014-2021)

EdCh

THANK YOU

SasquaDash,
That's certainly what happens in the movies, but that's not what they're about.

Even Adam Wingard said, "politics are out the window," for Godzilla vs. Kong. The movie has no real meaning--It isn't about anything. It's dumb escapism, amped up to 11. Which is fine, to an extent, but there's even a line in the movie where a character says, "It's so stupid," a moment of meta-realization that makes me question whether or not the filmmakers are laughing at or with the movie.

Certainly other Godzilla movies have gunned strictly for nonsense, but even then there's a trace amount of meaning, regardless of how forced. (Godzilla vs. Megalon's anti-nuclear lip service against nuclear testing accidentally starting a war, for example.) But there's just not much to come back to. A movie without something to say is less interesting to me and frankly All Monsters Attack has a lot more to say.

Yes, Ichiro makes friends with Minilla in his dreams. Yes, it's through stock footage. But why? Because All Monsters Attack is about the deconstruction of the Japanese nuclear family during an economically trying period.

In the late 60s, with everyone trying to move closer to the city for work, Japanese families were sandwiched into tiny padlock-esque living situations. (As seen in the movie.) Just to make rent, both parents were forced to work two jobs and children were forced to fend for themselves--Ala, every kid we see in the film.

Crime was effected by these conditions, so Ichiro's run-in with criminals was a commentary on that rise as well. The movie transforms into a somber coming of age tale about a child forced to take care of himself because economic conditions won't allow his parents to help him.

One of the saddest moments in the Godzilla series comes when Ichiro leaves his mother crying by the tail end of the film. (In one cut of the movie, this is the final shot before it fades to credits.) She's not crying because her son could've been killed. She's crying because he said he didn't need her. He's grown out of a need for her protection and she missed him coming of age because of the job she had to work. Forget "sad" moments like Godzilla dying, or Serizawa sacrificing his life to booster shot Godzilla with a nuke--This is real. This was, and is, a real moment that everyday people go through and it's gut-wrenching.

I suppose that's what All Monsters Attack comes down to. Ishiro Honda, director of the original film, directed this movie as a story he had always wanted to direct--A story about, "normal people in normal Japanese life." It's what he always wanted to do before being shoehorned into monster and sci-fi movies. Here he uses the Godzilla series for that opportunity. It's unique because there's no villainous monster attacking. No alien invasion. No secret organization. Nope, Godzilla is just a movie series for a kid escaping reality--Hence the stock footage.

With that, you could say All Monsters Attack gives even Godzilla vs. Kong some form of reason to exist.

EdCh,
Although I have no finite stance on the Anime Trilogy, I certainly agree with every word of your take. The films are very thought provoking and it's exciting to see filmmakers continue to use Godzilla for forms of trauma and experiment with the characters as something even further beyond our normal expectations.

Which is why I want a 3-hour MonsterVerse movie, to make a deep story.  I want a more darker take in the MonsterVerse post-GVK.

G. H. (Gman)

Just because a movie decides to not focus on politics doesn't mean that it's dumb and has no substance. Meaning can come from different sources, it doesn't always need to relate to politics. In an age where political drama is constantly shoved down our throats, it's nice to see something that is focused on a different topic. The fact that the movie focused more on the mythology of it's world, linking it to real life legends is, honestly, a breath of fresh air, and even if the movie was just pure escapism, that's not nessasarily a bad thing... 

Also, taking a single throwaway line from a scene and using it to judge the entire movie doesn't really feel fair to the movie or the filmmakers...

SasquaDash

That wasn’t Gman’s point. He didn’t state politics as the thing  missing from GVK it was an example, and is a good one, because movies especially today focus on being politically correct. GVK is just meant to be fun. There is no hint at a real world meaning, Godzilla doesn’t represent something in it and neither does Kong. 

I though Godzilla represented Nature while Kong was basically Mankind, and MechaGodzilla was man's reckless to the environment

SasquaDash,
SarcasticGoji is spot on. Politics are only one facet of meaning a story can have. Even my examples with All Monsters Attack weren't political, not directly anyway. But they were certainly social. I'm sure if we dig far enough we can find some thread of importance Godzilla vs. Kong may or may not be trying to say. But that wasn't the point of the movie--theme wasn't the goal. The point was utter, mindless escapism.

Even if the movie was, "focused more on the mythology of it's world, linking it to real life legends," (and even that is suspect - what "real life legends," specifically?) the question is to what end? What does it all mean? What is it trying to say? Why is it relevant? And why should we care? While I certainly enjoyed the visual exploration of the Hollow Earth, it doesn't ring with any importance outside of expanding a world that may or may not continue.

At this point in the franchise, I simply need more and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for more when films made on a budget of less the $1 million have found ways to say important things through neutered resources and absurd mandates. And frankly, for a long, long, exhausting list of reasons, I don't think that kind of exploration fits the Hollywood blockbuster vernacular very well.

Unpopular opinion, but I REALLY liked City on the Edge of Battle. Unlike most, I thought the Mechagodzilla City was really creative and the twist with the bilsaludos(sorry if I spelt it wrong) gave that evil Godzilla alien vibe from the showa era. 

I did too