5. Better human characters
For all the good Gareth Edwards did with Godzilla in terms of harking back to the dark and ominous tone of Honda’s original movie, it was let down somewhat by the lack of decent human characters.
Godzilla may be the titular character, but humans should play a pivotal role in a Godzilla movie as much as the King of the Monsters does. As we discussed on the Flickering Myth Podcast, if you look at Mothra vs. Godzilla (aka Godzilla vs. The Thing), you could easily make the argument that Mr. Tako is as much of a villain in the movie as The Big G is. Furthermore, you need likeable human characters to root for as they move the story forward. We need to care about them, we need to cheer for them and we should want to see them survive. Bryan Cranston was likeable enough, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson had all the personality of a wet flannel. As such, the drama in the final reel didn’t have the same impact it could have had.
For Godzilla 2, we need the opposite of this. Bring back Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Serizawa and Sally Hawkins’ Vivienne Graham (although she needs to be fleshed out more) but give us a host of new human characters to follow as Godzilla smashes around in the background.
Just, please make them interesting.
Originally published May 20, 2014. Updated November 29, 2022.
