I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie was, especially as my only other introduction to Baby Godzilla was in "All Monsters Attack"/"Godzilla's Revenge," and oh wow, is that movie just an atrocity. Even little 7 year old me thought that when my grandma got be that 5 movie collection.
I'm going to give this movie a serious review and express my interest in seriously analyzing the story structure of this film. In one of my screenwriting classes, the professor told us, "There are only two stories: a hero goes on an adventure, and a stranger comes to town." I'm gong to categorize this film as A Stranger Comes to Town, as it's shown in many ways.
First off, our protagonist is just a dude who drops in on this island and we happen to follow him. He, a stranger, enters this island (Monster Island!) after we've already established the people on the island and what they're doing. He's just an outsider, and I think we follow him for that exact reason; narratively we can just drop in on the middle of a situation and not have to worry about character arcs or anything really since, well, we're just dropping in!
Second, the monsters are all strangers to the protagonists. Baby Zilla drops into the story and affects the rest of them. THEN Godzilla enters the island from offshore, coming to the aid of his child (Who's the mother? The movie doesn't say).
Third, an island girl is spotted by our outsider protagonist and through their teamwork they are able to work together to escape the island. In addition to this, you could argue that the humans are also strangers to the monsters on this island; strangers who have come and are doing these crazy experiments affecting the rest of them.
If anyone has an arc it's Godzilla, and this is one thing I surprisingly really liked about the movie: Godzilla as a father. He comes in and saves his child and, not having a father of his own, is giving Baby Zilla some tough love, often leaving him behind so the child can stand up for himself and learn. We are fortunate enough to get some private moments of bonding between just the two, no outside monsters involved. One scene includes Baby playing jump rope with Dad's tail. Another scene includes Dad teaching Junior how to breath fire properly. A key CHARACTER/RELATIONSHIP DETAIL in that scene is HOW Godzilla father's his kid. He steps on Junior's tail to get him to breathe fire. Sure it hurt, but it showed the kid what he was capable of. Dad leaves and after Junior does it on his own, he snuggles up with dad. Awwww.
As far as the human story goes, I was surprised to find myself being drawn in! Each scene progressed the plot, revealed new things, or lead to an actually tense action packed battle. The only thing I could have asked for more of is Character. Note, I'd rather have little character/personalty, people just living naturally, than just stock personalities like we get later in Godzilla vs. Gigan. If it were a little more like John Carpenter's The Thing-with all of those dudes locked up, surely they'd get to know one another some.
The ending was TENSE. We have 4 different monsters fighting, each with their own special ability and the Zillas either being weaker ( to the spider) or outnumbered (to the mantis). Due to the odds against them, I was actually rooting for Godzilla, not just bored after another fight (like I was in Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2004)-which, quick sidenote, we know Godzilla's not going to die 30 minutes in, and it's just those two fighting and therefore there's not much tension).
Finally, when the Experiment works, Monster Island turns into a freezing apocalypse. Dad and Junior have finished the fight and are moving on. But the snow is beginning to cover junior. He's slowing down. He calls out to Dad, who is far ahead. Eventually Dad recognizes how faint Junior's cries are. He turns back and embraces his son. The camera pulls out as the two freeze. JEEZ!
"Oh but wait!" a human exclaims, it's all OK because Godzilla hibernates apparently. How does he know this? He just does. Doesn't hibernation take months of preparation? And when have you heard of a lizard hibernating? Shhh, no questions.
Develop the characters further and remove the open ending for the franchise to continue and leaping lizards, you've got a great movie on your hands!!
I'm going to give this movie a serious review and express my interest in seriously analyzing the story structure of this film. In one of my screenwriting classes, the professor told us, "There are only two stories: a hero goes on an adventure, and a stranger comes to town." I'm gong to categorize this film as A Stranger Comes to Town, as it's shown in many ways.
First off, our protagonist is just a dude who drops in on this island and we happen to follow him. He, a stranger, enters this island (Monster Island!) after we've already established the people on the island and what they're doing. He's just an outsider, and I think we follow him for that exact reason; narratively we can just drop in on the middle of a situation and not have to worry about character arcs or anything really since, well, we're just dropping in!
Second, the monsters are all strangers to the protagonists. Baby Zilla drops into the story and affects the rest of them. THEN Godzilla enters the island from offshore, coming to the aid of his child (Who's the mother? The movie doesn't say).
Third, an island girl is spotted by our outsider protagonist and through their teamwork they are able to work together to escape the island. In addition to this, you could argue that the humans are also strangers to the monsters on this island; strangers who have come and are doing these crazy experiments affecting the rest of them.
If anyone has an arc it's Godzilla, and this is one thing I surprisingly really liked about the movie: Godzilla as a father. He comes in and saves his child and, not having a father of his own, is giving Baby Zilla some tough love, often leaving him behind so the child can stand up for himself and learn. We are fortunate enough to get some private moments of bonding between just the two, no outside monsters involved. One scene includes Baby playing jump rope with Dad's tail. Another scene includes Dad teaching Junior how to breath fire properly. A key CHARACTER/RELATIONSHIP DETAIL in that scene is HOW Godzilla father's his kid. He steps on Junior's tail to get him to breathe fire. Sure it hurt, but it showed the kid what he was capable of. Dad leaves and after Junior does it on his own, he snuggles up with dad. Awwww.
As far as the human story goes, I was surprised to find myself being drawn in! Each scene progressed the plot, revealed new things, or lead to an actually tense action packed battle. The only thing I could have asked for more of is Character. Note, I'd rather have little character/personalty, people just living naturally, than just stock personalities like we get later in Godzilla vs. Gigan. If it were a little more like John Carpenter's The Thing-with all of those dudes locked up, surely they'd get to know one another some.
The ending was TENSE. We have 4 different monsters fighting, each with their own special ability and the Zillas either being weaker ( to the spider) or outnumbered (to the mantis). Due to the odds against them, I was actually rooting for Godzilla, not just bored after another fight (like I was in Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2004)-which, quick sidenote, we know Godzilla's not going to die 30 minutes in, and it's just those two fighting and therefore there's not much tension).
Finally, when the Experiment works, Monster Island turns into a freezing apocalypse. Dad and Junior have finished the fight and are moving on. But the snow is beginning to cover junior. He's slowing down. He calls out to Dad, who is far ahead. Eventually Dad recognizes how faint Junior's cries are. He turns back and embraces his son. The camera pulls out as the two freeze. JEEZ!
"Oh but wait!" a human exclaims, it's all OK because Godzilla hibernates apparently. How does he know this? He just does. Doesn't hibernation take months of preparation? And when have you heard of a lizard hibernating? Shhh, no questions.
Develop the characters further and remove the open ending for the franchise to continue and leaping lizards, you've got a great movie on your hands!!