Godzilla 2014’s PERSPECTIVE Issue
2014’s Godzilla is the start of the Monsterverse and is sometimes viewed as one of the best Monsterverse films. While I do think there are aspects that are great namely its directing, casting, cinematography and buildup of its monsters which uses a mystery to create anticipation only to have a payoff as the big reveal of it were all really well done. While the buildup of the monsters especially can be a lesson in itself,I really think there is a greater lesson to be learned from this film. As I see it, this film is one of the biggest mispotential of all time in terms of its story. The core reason for that would be a mistake in perspective.
Perspective is what allows us to experience a story through the eyes of a character we care for. If done well and the audience actually cares for the character then the story will be great but if shown through the wrong perspective, a great story can also become a boring one. So, through its emotional arc and action this is how Godzilla had failed to choose a good perspective to follow which makes up for a boring story.
Perspective in Story
The opening actually starts out pretty well because our main perspective is a character we care for.
So, the start had Walter White from Breaking Bad as our main perspective. Here he is a paranoid engineer who finds out about some strange vibrations. He is a character who cares for his family and even has a nice promise of celebrating his birthday. However, something bad happened and the power plant had stopped working, causing his wife to be trapped in it. Ultimately this was emotional because of his love for his wife who is trapped and how his paranoia had truly become a reality along with the broken promise of not being able to celebrate his birthday as a family together. All this seems pretty good as it lays out the foundation of the story which should be about him finding out about what had caused this power plant meltdown and even a nice father and son story which showcases the theme of letting go of the past. Instead, what we got was about his son who is a boring character running around disagreeing with his father and wants to go home.
There is not much personality to his son nor an emotional anchor strong enough to revolve a story around him. I want to see more of Walter White. Not have him killed and follow his boring son who just runs around and tries not to get killed. Even after his father died his character became even more boring because he no longer has an emotional anchor.
Essentially ensure the perspective you give your audience to follow is of a character who is actually interesting and has a strong enough emotional weight for the audience to invest in. If not, then they will just idly sit there and wish for a better movie which could have happened.
Perspective through Action
Action wise the film managed to fumble on this in the funniest way possible. Every action scene was either not shown or shown with the wrong characters.
Apparently, the monster had attacked this train or somewhere and it is pretty devastating only that we couldn’t see any of it because the film cuts away from all the action. Godzilla is pretty menacing, and it would have been cool to see how Wanda survives such a large creature only we don’t actually see it because the film just has her to stay in a room with the doors closed.
When we do see the action, it is always with some nameless soldier or character that we never met. This is supposed to be intense and scary because Godzilla or some monster is attacking this guy. However, we don’t care if this random character dies because we have never seen or heard from them before.
Action must be shown and shown with the right people. Why cut away from the coolest moments and show the most boring parts?
Conclusion
In conclusion, 2014’s Godzilla is a testimony on how perspective can easily affect a story. No matter how emotional and compelling the beginning maybe, the shift in perspective automatically made this film more boring. Only through the right characters only will a story be able to truly flourish or else a great story will also plunder with its boring character.
Godzilla is now streaming on Max and Netflix
