Godzilla

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Godzilla (Japanese: ゴジラ, Hepburn: Gojira), is a fictional monster, or kaiju, originating from a series of Japanese films made by Toho Studios since 1954. Since then, Godzilla has become a worldwide popular culture icon, appearing in a variety of media, including 32 Japanese-made films by Toho Studios, 5 different American films, as well as different TV shows, video games, and comic books.

Godzilla is an enormous, destructive, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. Others have suggested that Godzilla is a metaphor for the United States, a giant beast woken from its slumber which then takes terrible vengeance on Japan. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones, portraying Godzilla as an antihero, or a lesser threat who defends humanity. Later films address themes including Japan's forgetfulness over its imperial past, natural disasters, and the human condition.

Godzilla has featured alongside many supporting characters. It has faced human opponents such as the JSDF, or other monsters, including King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and Gigan. Godzilla sometimes has allies, such as Rodan, Mothra and Anguirus, and offspring, such as Minilla and Godzilla Junior. Godzilla has also fought characters from other franchises in crossover media, such as the RKO Pictures/Universal Studios movie monster King Kong, as well as various Marvel Comics characters, including S.H.I.E.L.D., the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

Godzilla (1998)

In 1998, German/American director Roland Emmerich remade the original film Godzilla using CGI and a whole new setting and story. This film switches the action from Tokyo to New York City and uses state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI) to represent the titular monster. The film garnered heavy criticism by fans of the original as well as the production company responsible for the films Toho Studios, who criticized the fact that the film did not contain the anti-nuclear message present in the original and had redesigned the creature as being a mutated Marine Iguana. The 1998 film could be considered a revamp rather than a remake, mostly due to the different appearance of "Godzilla", who, rather than a mutated dinosaur was changed to an iguana mutated by nuclear fallout. An animated series taking place after the film was made, with the Godzilla of that series, while being based in design of, and the offspring of, the one from the film, was depicted closer to the original Godzilla, and was well received.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

In 2004, Toho produced Godzilla: Final Wars. In this film, an organization called the EDF (Earth Defense Force), which is composed of humans called "mutants", has been formed to counter the monster attacks that take place periodically. However, an alien race known as the Xilians takes control of many of the monsters on earth (one of which is the Roland Emmerich version of Godzilla, now called "Zilla") and directs them to attack many of Earth's major cities. Then they capture them, appearing to mankind as benevolent. However, when their true intentions of eating humans is revealed, they release the monsters on the cities to continue their destruction. Eventually, Godzilla (who was imprisoned in the ice) is freed, and proceeds to defeat each and every one of the monsters. He starts with "Zilla", who he defeats in 45 seconds (to show how much "better" the original Godzilla is). He then goes on to destroy the rest of them, ending the Xilian threat.

Godzilla (2014)

In 2014, another remake was released, directed by Gareth Edwards and starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Ken Watanabe. The film garnered mostly positive reviews, as the Godzilla in this film resembled the original design of the character, as opposed to the 1998 film. However, some were critical as Godzilla does not get much screentime in the film. This version of Godzilla later reappeared with more screentime in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (where he fought against several hyperfauna from the other Japanese films and ultimately against King Ghidorah), and later in the film Godzilla vs. Kong.

Filmography

  • Godzilla (1954)
  • Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
  • King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
  • Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
  • Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
  • Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
  • Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
  • Son of Godzilla (1967)
  • Destroy All Monsters (1968)
  • All Monsters Attack (1969)
  • Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
  • Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
  • Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
  • Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
  • Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
  • The Return of Godzilla (1984)
  • Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
  • Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
  • Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
  • Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
  • Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
  • Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)
  • GODZILLA (1998) - American remake
  • Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)
  • Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
  • Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (aka GMK (fan acronym)) (2001)
  • Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
  • Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
  • Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
  • Godzilla (2014)
  • Shin Godzilla (2016)
  • Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
  • Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018)
  • Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018)
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
  • Godzilla Singular Point (2021)
  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Links

Further reading

  • Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters, by William Tsutsui, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004
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