The high-tech rebirth of a monster

Script does matter! And that is the problem with most of monster flicks like Godzilla. The protagonist is so busy gnashing up others that...

Script does matter! And that is the problem with most of monster flicks like Godzilla. The protagonist is so busy gnashing up others that the story gets crushed somewhere in between.

So what will Godzilla do? He is Japanese, for starters, and actually called Gozira till the Americans, or rather Hollywood discovered him. So Godzilla gets to take off its lizard suit (as the Japanese films had him initially) and goes high-tech with computer wizardry in its Hollywood avatar. Anyway, Godzlla, the lizard-cum-whale-cum-a-whole-lotta-radioactive- mutant-things gets to America (where else?). No, it is not given a movie contract. First it has to prove its capabilities to cause mega mayhem.

And if we see the American president battling the monster don’t be too surprised. After all, this film comes from the same stable that gave us Independence Day. Mathew Broderick gets to save the day as Dr. Niko Tatapoulos, a biologist from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He teams up with the army and a French secret service agent (Jean Reno as Phillippe Roach). And the French are involved because Godzilla is after all the by-product of the French nuclear blast in theSouth-Pacific.

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We also have the all-powerful media that gets to do a bit of the mayhem, in a much more subtle manner, of course. One of the journalists (Maria Pitillo) happens to be an ex-heartthrob of good old Dr. Tatapoulos. Ultimately all get together to get the big, big guy. Whether they succeed or not, only Hollywood will tell.

So the 125 million dollar question is will Godzilla click or not? Only time, video rights, plastic replicas and promotional campaigns will tell. And we will let you in on a little secret. Godzilla can get a whole lot of little Godzillas (Godzillets?!) all on its own – no mates or mating season required …which means that there is scope for a whole lot of sequels. After all, quantity does matter too.

On at Vijay Talkies from Friday.

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