Godzilla in Hollywood (Part 3)

For Part 1:

https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2024/03/godzilla-in-hollywood-part-1.html

For Part 2:

https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2024/03/godzilla-in-hollywood-part-2.html

 

Part 3: The Birth of the MonsterVerse

 

As the 20^th century came to an end, there existed over two dozen Godzilla films, and only one of them was officially made by Hollywood. That one, just called Godzilla, was a box office disappointment (though still turned a profit) and was disliked by critics and Godzilla fans, mainly because it didn’t capture the spirit of Godzilla. Hollywood (Sony in particular) had to repent, and they did, in a way, by bringing Godzilla back to North American theaters sooner than anyone expected, but not with a sequel.

Over in Japan, no one was happy with Hollywood’s giant lizard movie, especially Toho. It seems Americans often have a skewed view of what Godzilla is. Superficially, he’s a large dinosaur-like or dragon-like creature, but he’s a monster that embodies a pivotal part of Japan’s history. He’s not merely an animal trying to lay a clutch of eggs like the 1998 film made him out to be. Even before that, other North American Godzilla media like comics and cartoons and even parodies always hammered home the dinosaur part, but never the atomic metaphor part, and I think the Americanization of the 1954 and 1984 films have something to do with that.

Toho decided to bring Godzilla back after having laid the beast to rest again in the 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, which was the last film in the second series, known as the Heisei era. There was a nearly decade-long gap between the first and second series, but they didn't have a Hollywood film in between those ones. Toho seemed to not only be kicking off a third Godzilla series to remind everyone what a real Godzilla movie should look and feel like, but also to ride on the wave of Godzilla being so talked about again.

Godzilla 2000: Millennium came out in Japan in December of 1999, nineteen months after the TriStar film came out in North America. Talk about a fast turnaround! Hollywood’s one Godzilla movie had been in development hell for the better part of the 1990’s, and Toho had already made five of them in the 90’s before Hollywood’s came out, then they managed to make one more just in time for the new millennium—and, it was superior to Hollywood’s sole attempt. TriStar executives saw how popular Toho’s new movie was in Japan and decided to release it in North America, marking the first time a Japanese Godzilla film would receive a wide international theatrical release since Godzilla 1985. You might be anticipating that Sony made another Americanization, removing political overtones and inserting American actors, but what they ended up doing was re-editing the original film a bit to tighten the pace, dubbing over the Japanese actors, and completely redoing the audio (music and sound), and that was it. There were no American actors inserted this time.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say either version is superior, but the American cut is actually better in several ways than the original Japanese cut. If given the choice, I would go with the American version, and not just because I’m nostalgic for it. The sound design is far better, the pacing is quicker, and the dub adds in a bit of humour. The director, Takao Okawara, approved of all the changes, so after all that positivity, do you think it did well at the American box office when it came out in August of 2000? Unfortunately, not so much.

Some people didn’t even realize Godzilla 2000 was its own movie, not a sequel to the 1998 version, or really much of a sequel to any previous film (though still maintained continuity with the 1954 original), but despite going back to the old school practical effects/miniatures, having Godzilla played by an actor in a suit (with the exception of one shot with Godzilla rendered entirely in CGI) and being a traditional Godzilla movie in all the ways the 1998 film was not, it only made $10 million and got mixed reviews from critics. Many fans enjoyed it, but the lackluster performance meant none of the subsequent Millennium era films to come would receive theatrical distribution in North America. 

Here’s how I know Toho regretted approving Patrick Tatopoulos’ Godzilla design for the 1998 film: as soon as the rights left Sony and went back to Toho, they retained that design, which meant they could do whatever they wanted with it, and instead of just burying it so no one would have to see it ever again, they put it in one of their own movies, Godzilla: Final Wars! You might be thinking, wait a second, if they regretted that version getting made, why would they use it again? Well, in Godzilla: Final Wars, a whole bunch of monsters show up all over the world, and that version of Godzilla appears in Sydney, but it’s not identified as Godzilla. The real Godzilla shows up later and takes on all the monsters one by one, but this other monster is identified as just “Zilla” because to Toho it was and always would be an imposter. The name was meant to represent how the TriStar version had taken the “God” out of “Godzilla” and Zilla gets obliterated within ten seconds of challenging the O.G. It’s an amazing moment, and perhaps the most effective and pointed criticism Godzilla 1998 has ever received.

Godzilla: Final Wars came out in Japan in 2004 and marked the end of the Millennium era. After that, there were no Godzilla movies for an entire decade. Hollywood didn’t make any, Toho didn’t make any, and for myself, this was my time to catch up. Godzilla 2000 had been my first Godzilla movie, which I saw for the first time at home on VHS right around the same time as the 1998 TriStar one, and as a kid, I enjoyed both. But, as I got older and saw more and more of them, I found I preferred the Japanese ones, and the American version seemed less and less cool. After Peter Jackson’s epic remake of King Kong in 2005, I started to wonder: when would they make a new Godzilla? I didn’t even know who I was referring to in terms of “they” but after far too long of a wait, Hollywood finally announced they were giving it another shot.

Fans were nervous to say the least. It wasn’t from Sony this time, it was from Legendary Pictures with Warner Bros. distributing, but an up-and-coming director who had made one monster movie already was given the directing job. Gareth Edwards made the original film Monsters in 2010 with an extremely low budget, but he knew how to handle visual effects and was able to make the movie look quite polished and professional despite having very little money. I watched Monsters in anticipation of his new Godzilla movie and grew more nervous, because it was an entirely character-driven story that hid the monsters often and cut away from the action, opting for building tension instead. If I hadn’t seen Monsters before the new Godzilla, I might have been more disappointed with it, but I was primed in a certain sense for what was to come.  

Finally, after teasing fans about the mysterious story for over a year with several excellent trailers and revealing the new design for Godzilla to instant praise, Godzilla (no subtitle, same title as the 1998 version) came out in May of 2014, and fans breathed a sigh of relief. While some found it to be too dull with its human melodrama and lack of Godzilla action, others praised the Jaws-like suspense and human perspectives of the giant monsters, which also included the new MUTOs. Regardless of what fans and critics thought of the film, it succeeded in three really crucial ways. First of all, it made bank. Produced on a budget of $160 million—which, considering how much the last Hollywood Godzilla cost sixteen years earlier, wasn’t too overpriced—it made over $500 million, and was instantly announced as the first in a series of films. Second of all, Godzilla himself received approval from fans. The design was faithful to the original, the special effects were excellent, and the desire for more was there. Third, and most important of all, it was all fully approved of by Toho.

Last time Hollywood made a Godzilla movie, it resulted in Toho taking their monster back into their own hands and dissing “Zilla” in their own movies. Now, with Godzilla 2014 getting mostly positive reviews and seemingly poised for a successful sequel, they not only let Legendary Pictures continue with a follow up, they lent them the rights to Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: three more classic Toho monsters who had crossed paths with Big G before on more than one occasion. Not only was Godzilla 2 on the horizon, King Kong was getting another reboot from Legendary, which meant Godzilla and Kong were going to meet for a showdown in the third film.

The Godzilla sequel ended up losing Edwards as director but gained another movie monster enthusiast to take the reins: Michael Dougherty, who also contributed to the script. While Godzilla: King of the Monsters (borrowing the title of the 1956 Americanization of Gojira) was not as critically favoured as its predecessor when it came out in May of 2019, many fans of the Showa era films recognized what Dougherty had done: crafted a loving tribute to the Toho Godzilla of old, though it made for a sequel that felt quite distant in tone from the first film. Fan and critic opinions aside, the sequel cost more than the previous one, and made quite a bit less in its theatrical run, but Godzilla vs. Kong was already in production, so if it didn’t do well, Godzilla’s time in Hollywood would run out again. But, Legendary Pictures hadn’t just revived Godzilla, they had revived the idea of a shared cinematic universe of monsters.

In the 2010s, Marvel Studios proved a big budget cinematic universe was possible, with the success of The Avengers and subsequent superhero crossover films. DC tried to speed run their own cinematic universe but tripped and fell along the way. Meanwhile, Godzilla had quietly been tied in to King Kong with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, which was designed to set up Godzilla vs. Kong down the road. Back in the Showa era, Toho had already made monster movie crossovers like this. Mothra debuted in her own movie in 1961 before she ever fought Godzilla, and Rodan likewise appeared in his own film even earlier in 1956, only two years after Gojira. The ninth Godzilla feature from Toho, 1968’s Destroy All Monsters, brought together eleven different monsters into one movie. Legendary Pictures were not only trying to do what the MCU was doing, they were also just doing what Toho had already done.

About a year after Godzilla (2014) it was announced that Kong was joining what would become known as the MonsterVerse, which was a shared cinematic universe of Godzilla, Kong, and other giant monsters. The two titans came together in a Hollywood-produced film for the first time in Godzilla vs. Kong, which came out in 2021 during the pandemic after having been delayed multiple times, two of those times due to the pandemic. Miraculously, Godzilla vs. Kong was able to make a profit despite most movie theaters still being closed when it premiered (thanks to it also becoming available on streaming at the same time as its theatrical release) and positive word of mouth helped it turn into one of the first big mid-pandemic hits. I don’t think it was just due to the pandemic, or the more positive critic reviews, or the streaming availability. I think Godzilla vs. Kong was just a solid piece of entertainment that delivered on its promise of having the two monsters fight.

Godzilla’s future in Hollywood is looking bright. Like with the original deal between Toho and Sony, Legendary Pictures intended to make a trilogy of Godzilla movies, and unlike Sony, they succeeded. The rights expired in 2020, so for a while it looked like Godzilla vs. Kong was going to be the last one. The MonsterVerse had lived fast and died young, it seemed. But, after Godzilla vs. Kong did so well, the rights were renewed from Toho and the MonsterVerse lived on. A sequel was fast-tracked, called Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, set for release in early 2024. In addition, the series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premiered on Apple TV+ in 2023 and wrapped up its first season of ten episodes in January 2024. Although Godzilla was not the focus of the show, which aimed to fill in some of the blanks about the mysterious organization that had been introduced in the 2014 film, Big G still made memorable appearances throughout, looking as good as he had in the MonsterVerse films.

Something I didn’t mention earlier was how Toho brought Godzilla back for a new film of their own after the success of the 2014 Godzilla, but it wasn’t in the same vengeful way as the last time Hollywood had made one. Shin Godzilla came out in July of 2016 in Japan, and also received a limited theatrical run in North America later that same year. It was significant because unlike past Toho films, Shin Godzilla wasn’t Americanized or even dubbed over. Hell, it wasn’t even retitled! They sort of started calling it Godzilla Resurgence, but then abandoned the American name and just started using the Japanese title, Shin Gojira, only with the American name for the monster. It was given English subtitles and wasn’t edited in the slightest, which showed how far we had come from North American distributors thinking people wouldn’t even see a foreign film if it wasn’t adapted to American standards.

Even though Shin Godzilla was a successful reboot, it didn’t get a sequel, and for the first time ever an American Godzilla film series was going strong while Toho did not have one going. Toho was content to make computer-animated Godzilla films and an anime TV series, all of which were easily and instantly available to North American fans thanks to streaming. Toho’s next live-action Godzilla movie, another reboot called Godzilla Minus One, received a much wider North American theatrical release in December of 2023, and ended up becoming one of the best reviewed films of the whole year, as well as the highest grossing Japanese film internationally of all-time, and the first Godzilla movie to be nominated (and win) an Academy Award. Go-Go, Godzilla!

Somehow, some way, after so many tenuous decades of Hollywood not being able to get it right, both Toho and Legendary have found a way to have two sets of Godzilla films going at the same time, and both are thriving. It truly is a great time to be a Godzilla fan!