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Zilla - Bad Godzilla, Good Monster?

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Zilla (Godzilla 1998)


Why Zilla made a horrible Godzilla, but a perfect movie monster



Hello again, readers.  I've decided that, for today's little think-tank/essay/whatever the heck these are that I write, instead of focusing on dinosaurs, I'm going to take a look at one of Tristar and Hollywood's greatest mistakes, but oddly one of its shinier gems amid the rough.  I am of course talking about the movie monster Zilla, the one Godzilla monster besides Gabara (stupid Ogre) that many Godzilla fans actively wonder "Why the heck was he even invented?"  Well, not only am I going to answer that (and also partially blame Toho for his creation, which means heads up-this could flare a few tempers) but I'm also going to explain why I actually like Zilla, sometimes even more than the regular Godzilla monsters in the series.

First of all, let's start off with the basics: ORIGIN STORY TIME!!!

Godzilla: From Japan to Hollywood

Godzilla is considered by many to be one of those cultural landmarks.  He is to Japan's science fiction industry as Marilyn Monroe is to the swimsuit industry.  Ever since he showed up on the silver screen in Japan he has spawned the second largest fetish in all of Japanese culture (tied with Japan's destruction via massive weaponry, and coming in before tentacles), and there have been giant monster films ranging from Gamera to Ultraman...even the Power Rangers!

In short, there's not very many like him out there, because he stands out so much; so much so that the few who do follow in his footsteps often look like cheap knockoffs (and believe me, there's more than a fair few out there).  Even in the United States he has developed a sub-culture of sorts, even though all he is in the real world is a more frightening version of Barney (referring to the suit people, don't kill me...besides which, I'd love that job; being in a Godzilla suit.  I'd pay to act Godzilla eue), and that sub-culture stands out today.

Naturally this would be the best excuse for Hollywood to make a Godzilla movie.

Of course, like any American-made foreign film, problems start almost as soon as the script leaves the drawing board, and that's if things actually go well.  The original Godzilla script was amazing; there was going to be a cool new monster, Godzilla was going to trash LA (which it desperately needs in real life in my honest opinion), there was going to be a big monster fight...there was even an actual for real Godzilla costume being developed that looked absolutely badass.  There was just one problem Toho managed to have; everything.

Well, okay, not everything.  Just the new monster.

Turns out Toho bit themselves in the butt by rejecting the script, saying that they didn't want an American made monster featured in the story.  The studios could buy the rights for an existing monster in the series, such as King Ghidora, Mothra, and Anguirus to name a few, but the budget didn't manage to cover any of the monsters (they were literally charging an arm and a leg for each monster).  So, the script was scrapped.  How do we know the script even exists and was superior to the monster?  The prototype is actually cycling around on the internet.  (I know, I've read it.  It would have made an epic movie).

In the interests of keeping the movie going, a lot of things were changed.  The script was handed to another guy to write, the costume was trashed in exchange for a brand new CGI monster that would wow the audience, and the location was moved all the way to the East Coast; and subsequently as far away from Tokyo as possible...whether that was on purpose or not, I can't say.  In any case, when all was said and done the movie had become a completely different beast than what we had initially wanted, and thus Zilla was born...and the hate began to blaze.

Why 'Zilla' without the 'God'

To begin with, Godzilla could have potentially been a much better film if it was managed a bit more carefully, changes aside.  (Spoilers from here on, don't re-aw who am I kidding, only the Godzilla fans would really care about this one, and the movie's over a decade old.  Enjoy your spoilers, kids!)

The movie begins, naturally, with a Japanese cargo ship carrying fish sailing in the middle of a storm and making its rounds, likely shipping cargo either to or from Japan.  Suddenly the ship stops, things go wrong, and a gigantic tail crushes the bridge.  In short, no more ship...or at least, no more people or fish on the ship.  The ship itself winds up being crashed on the coast of a Meso-American shoreline on the Pacific, thus not only displaying Zilla's odd strengths (which in reality, the ship should have just sunk) but also splits his connection from Japan altogether.

Zilla then makes a long swimming marathon across the gulf and into the East Coast, where apparently the conditions are just right (lots of rain, a bunch of metal structures, and heavily polluted waters being perfect for a giant mutated lizard to spawn) to lay eggs, as apparently thanks to its genetic structure it is deemed asexual.  New York naturally panics, the military is called up, and instead of being a badass and chasing the military on its heels...he...runs...away...

Eventually it is discovered that he's essentially just getting food so that he can feed his hungry young, which have been laid in the most convenient place possible (the Gardens...hey, giant round building that's huge and covered, perfect nesting sight for anybody.  Hell, I'd bet even the Giant Claw would pop its egg in there).  Eventually the military tries to pull up its big boy pants and actually kill Zilla, but he proves to be a perfect actor and plays dead, only to return home to find that the babysitter torched the place and burned up the kids.

Now, at this point, I'm going to stop with the spoilers.  The real things I find wrong with the movie are easy to spot.  First off, most of the planning for the script obviously seem to be like a vie for vengeance against Toho (come on, really good script that would have made a great movie and lots of money being shot down because the Japanese are too proud to have American creativity muddy their waters...as if we didn't do that enough already.), with not only the monster attacking an island on the opposite side of the world but also behaving like a coward and essentially taking the "God" out of "Godzilla."  The second part is the acting, naturally.  Good lord, just because the dubs were horrible doesn't mean that they can carry on to the actual American-made English-speaking English version of the film!  The third part, of course, is that in the end there's really nobody to blame but Toho.  And they even decided that, to poke fun at how bad our American creativity is, they'd kill the monster (which they happened to spawn themselves btw) in a fiery blaze in the latest of the Godzilla movies...

Ooookay, now that the rant is done, let's go to the good stuff!

Why 'Zilla' is 'Killa'...okay, really, we couldn't pick a better title?!

Even though the script was an in-your-face and hastily done rehash of what could have been an awesome film, Zilla's not a bad monster.  Even his behavioral patterns in the show makes perfect sense for a monster of his description and origin.  Sure, that doesn't make him Godzilla, but it does make him something worth liking.

First of all, Zilla's origin story is rather similar to Godzilla's, though it takes a different twist.  Rather than being a pseudo-extinct dinosaur doused by the radiation from the WWII Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs come back to haunt Japan for all of eternity like it was Japan's fault, Zilla was an unhatched iguana on the French-Polynesian islands.  French Polynesia was subject to dozens upon dozens of Nuclear tests done over the course of the Cold War.  Naturally, within the next 30 years, something weird might turn up as a result of those genetically mutative tests, right?  Well, according to movie logic, that's a given!

Zilla was naturally an Iguana, a famously herbivorous (though occasionally eating insect feed) lizard known for its aggressive behavior, its color changing, and (in the case of the Marine Iguana) for its amphibious nature.  They can burrow incredibly well, and they are very good survivors in tropical environs.  As herbivores, they are also very jumpy.  Though if you get close to an Iguana without noticing it will probably get you a hiss in the face, running after it from a distance will get it to skedaddle really quickly.

Sound familiar?

Zilla's transformation, even his piscivore nature, makes total sense from a biologist's point of view.  As a former herbivore, he is quick to decide on flight rather than fight, though as an Iguana his naturally aggressive nature means that he's just as likely to bite back as he is to fight (his behavior in the follow-up cartoon, the cameo in Final Wars, and his general appearance in KaijuSamurai's Godzilla comics).  As a piscivore, he can get a lot more energy to move around than if he was herbivorous, and thanks to his previous insectivore nature the change in diet is a gradual and acceptable one for his body to handle.  Even the scutes on his back have logic sense; they are mutated/modified from the display scales of an Iguana.

All in all, Zilla's a fully explainable mutated movie monster.  While throwing on the nostalgic name of Godzilla may have thrown him off of the right track a bit, he isn't something to sneeze at.  Rather, he is a monster worthy of his own salt, despite his rather rocky origins and upbringing, and should be accepted in the fold of movie monsters the same way other B-movie monsters are; as an enjoyable and quirk character you'd love to draw or be in its shoes while ignoring your siblings laughing at you behind your back...okay, maybe that's just me, but still...

I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit.  Maybe the next one to come will involve more giant movie monsters! ...Or maybe it'll be another something that'll rile people up in a vain attempt to get others to think outside the box.  I dunno, we'll find out.

Until next time, we out!

-Kerian
This one will potentially rile people, but not atheist dinosaur fanboys this time (even though I got a lot of good responses mixed with the last two of these I did along with the bad ones I filtered out), but rather a different culture of individuals...

I share the love/hate relationship that many people have with the 1990's Godzilla film released by Tristar, but I actually enjoyed it to a certain degree.  If nothing else, it was because this was my first experience to Godzilla (that I can coherently remember, the one with Gabara in it doesn't count), and feeds my love of both saurian creatures and creature design in general.

I won't lie; I like giant monster films.  Tristar's Godzilla was a particularly fun one.  But I was not appealed by the horrid acting or, as I later found out, the attempt at the film's makers to sort-of get revenge on Toho's decision to kill their previous, actually good attempt at making a Godzilla film, but rather the appeal of the monster and how they managed to make him not only a believable monster, but also one who's behaviors actually carry out from his species of origin.

I'll let you guys decide if I'm right or wrong.  Leave comments below, and I'll respond in kind.  Enjoy!


-Kerian

Image from Tristar's Godzilla (1998)
Godzilla (1998) (c) Tristar
Godzilla the character (c) Toho co
Writing by Kerian-halcyon
© 2014 - 2024 Kerian-halcyon
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POOVER's avatar
I'm a Japanese who've been loved Kaiju movies since my childhood. 

Regarding the 2014 movie, people say the movie is a masterpiece. ??? It wasn't faithful at all. Real Godzilla movie won't justify nuclear weapons, Godzilla is not guardian of universe, and seeing the public cheering and seeing off Godzilla, I was like "WTF wrong with these people?? What was all the tsunami scene was about??" And  Godzilla 1998 IS the masterpiece because it is one of the fewer movies in the series which seriously faced tragedy of nuclear weapons, monsters as the victims, and never refereed using nuclear weapons against Godzilla in the plot.