Friday, September 21, 2007

There it is, get it!

The world must have been turned topsy-turvy (a hyphenated word I absolutely love), because both April and Sean have updated their respective blarghs.
I really enjoyed both of their posts, and you might too, so go check it out.

In reference to my previous post about watching Godzilla : Final Wars last night, I had to try to explain Godzilla and his inherent and total dominance in the field of awesomeness to April.
I was amazed to find she was not aware of Capital G's greatness.
Even more amazing though, was that she didn't know anything about Godzilla besides that he was from Japan and she could pick him out of a line-up.
At one point during the opening credits he let loose with a blast of his patented Atomic-Breath which elicited a confused and incredulous "WTF" from April.
I had to explain to her that Godzilla is like the Superman of monsters.. in that he's the best.
To which she replied, "Couldn't you also say he's the worst, then?"

1 comment:

Pulpatooner said...

Wow, how do you explain what makes the Big Z the KING OF ALL MONSTERS? It's like trying to explain the beauty of a sunset, or why puppies are cute.

Hmm, here are a some thoughts:

1. Historical Precedence.
Although King Kong came first, and inspired Godzilla, Godzilla begat an entire genre/industry. All who followed did so in his shadow.

2. Repitition.
So, if Kong came first, why is GZ wearing the crown? Quantity. GZ has always been there for us, anytime we needed a monster fix, at any stage of our lives. There's just so much Godzilla material out there to love/hate/debate.

3. The Godzilla scream.
Such a great sound. If you can describe noise as iconic, then that is one of the great icons of cinematic soundscape.

4. Layered identification.
GZ combines pretty much everything a little kid wants to be: a dinosaur, a dragon, a giant, a wrestler, and a good swimmer.

5. Villains.
Again, this separates GZ from King Kong. Kong fought, what? Biplanes? Modern ennui? Godzilla fought aliens, robots, mutants, and other monsters. Lots and lots of other monsters. Pretty much every other monster there was. You might have a whole parcel of movies all your own, but you're not really on the monster scene until you've paid homage by getting smacked around by the King.

6. Also, cities.
Everyone wants to beat up a city. Just admit it. And Godzilla owns the patent on that.

All this despite the fact that pretty much all Godzilla movies are unwatchable. Who cares? The movies aren't the real home of The Big Z. He lives in the minds and hearts of every kid who has every set up a tower of blocks, only to gleefully smash them down while yelling "ROAWR!"