I’ll admit: going into this rewatch of Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters! I expected the Terry Morse’s American version to shy away from the themes of the Japanese version a lot more than it did. The US edit draws a lot of criticism, which it deserves, for cutting some key scenes from Honda’s original. But the overall anti-nuclear themes are still prevalent. What doesn’t get discussed as much is the absolute dehumanizing erasure of all of Takeo Murata & Ishiro Honda’s characters. Morse’s King of the Monsters! butchers the tone and emotional pacing of the film, which has the effect of watering down any of the message the film tries to keep intact.

Read More