So from what I'm getting of the plot, Godzilla attacks San Francisco, CA, and the Japanese are all, "Meh, let the Yankees fight that thing themselves." Typical. It's your monster, Japan!
I always thought Godzilla was made from the U.S. testing nuclear weapons on a deserted island in the south Pacific? So wouldn't that make Godzilla an American problem? It probably shouldn't be attacking New York all the time though if it primarily is from the Pacific.
I always thought it was a Japanese-exclusive monster, as the original Godzilla film was made in and was released in Japan. It was supposed to be an allegory to the horrors of nuclear radiation. In fact, Godzilla was supposed to have been a mutant creation born from nuclear radiation. And in the old movies, Godzilla would attack primarily Tokyo and other Japanese cities around that area. Then the Japanese would cook up some robot/other monster to combat Godzilla. I don't know, I get a feeling deep down that we're stealing Japan's monster. King Kong was supposed to be our monster, right?
King Kong came from somewhere else - Skull Island or some non-American place like that. I agree, though, that every nation, every culture, should have its own monster. The only one I can think of off the top of my head that's 100% American is this guy: hosting images
@minstrel - Lemme see if I can do a parody of the Godzilla trailer with Cookie Monster... Cookie Narrator: "You're not fooling anyone when you say that what happened out there was a natural disaster!" Cookie Monster: om nom nom nom nom... Cookie Narrator: "It wasn't a typhoon, it wasn't a tsunami..." Cookie Monster: om nom nom nom nom... Cookie Narrator: "Because what's really happening is that you're hiding something out there!!" <random action scenes> Oscar the Grouch: "The arrogance of muppets is thinking that they have Nature in control, and not the other way around. Let them fight this themselves..." <more random action scenes. Ernie clutches his duckie close to his chest while Bert merely glares at the camera. Big Bird and Snuffy share a bonding moment> Cookie Monster: <posing dramatically, with the camera tilted below his jaw> "ME!!! WANT!! COOOKKIIEEEE!!!" ~*~*~*~ Sorry, sorry, had to do it. Please resume discussion of the Japanese monster.
I honestly didn't think of that. Would explain a lot, though. But now that begs the question. Since Godzilla is attacking the US, are we attacking ourselves, now?
Well we do have Creature from the Black Lagoon, Jaws, C.H.U.D., and a few to our credits as Americans.
Um, yeah! We steal a metaphor the Japanese created to depict what we did to their culture and turn it into one depicting what we're doing to our own. It's insanely poetic. Lefties can say it represents Righties, and widdershins likewise. Everyone's happy. 'Murica!
Aw so family appropriate. 1:20 is what I image he would do walking past a skyscraper and seeing cookies in the window.
Seriously. I'm thinking, what's with all the American Caucasians? Isn't this supposed to be Japan's thing? Have we kyped it from them, now? I think it would be neat if the hero (at the very least) of this was Japanese. Too late now.
There's another one of those words. My dictionary didn't have it, but the Urban Dictionary did. Never heard "kyped" before!
Maybe I'm just over-thinking this, but a part of me feels ashamed that we've basically stolen Japan's iconic monster for our own usage. We've already spat on their Samurai heritage with The Last Samurai, do we really need to steal their monster to make what's essentially another monster movie? Just once I'd like to see our movies not slap Japan across the face. :[ Sorry for being a downer here, but this was my thinking. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they actually do treat the Godzilla mythos respectfully.
Seems to me the producers lost the opportunity to present some non-Western types as international heroes and role models. I mean, we're always shipping our America-centric films around the world with their white (and, occasionally, black) heroes for everybody else to identify with. Why shouldn't the Japanese have a look-in with their own iconic modern legend? Godzilla could go ahead and stomp San Francisco and New York if he likes, but let the problem-solving team be led by peeps from his original turf. Just my gut feeling on the matter.
That makes me wonder about how the trademarks work for Godzilla. Isn't there some Japanese movie company that owns the rights to it? Look how strict they are about Disney not being able to use Spider-Man or "mutants" because they're owned by either Sony or Fox. I guess it would be obvious that they just bought the rights to it.
I think the main scientist (not Bryan Cranston) in this Godzilla is Japanese and he seems to be a big adviser for the military. "The arrogance of man is thinking that we can control nature, while it is the other way around. Let them fight." I forget the actor name, but he plays a big part.
Two quick things, I would believe we spat on their heritage more with Kung-Fu Panda a lot more than The Last Samurai. Secondly, I would say we stole Cloverfield a lot more than we stole Godzilla since Godzilla did have so many American ties in it's creation.
LOL I went to Pitt for a semester on a special program. I lived with some friends in swankity-swank Sewickley. They taught me that connector verbs are totally superfluous.
