by David Rasmussen

Created on: February 25, 2009   Last Updated: February 28, 2009

Psyche. Actually I just wanted to post my thoughts on this so I picked something randomly.

Thing is asking a question like would the movie Godzilla have been more successful with a different name is sorta like asking if cigarettes would be less harmful to you if they had a different name... in other words the name of the movie has nothing to do with the suck factor, because I don't care what you call this movie it'll still be campy compared to the superior pre and post Wide Eyed Good Guy Godzilla era... what? That? You never heard of that? Oh.

Briefly. After a few movies out at the start of his career (including the original Godzilla (which was remade in English with the addition of Raymond Burr who actually was not in the original Japanese version), Godzilla vs. King Kong (heralding a future when big name titles would clash in movies like Aliens vs. Predator, Jason vs. Freddy and W. vs. Earth... ok, maybe not the last one) and Godzilla versus Mothra (... even to today I can't get that damn song of the little twins out of my head... damn you little Mothra summoning twins! DAMN YOU!) before the people behind Godzilla (in one of their rare lapses of judgment) decided to make Godzilla turn good... complete with wide eyes and bad movies like the one with the kid who dreams of Monster Island and Godzilla Jr (who later becomes Godzilla II in the late 20th Century/Early 21st Century Godzilla movies), Godzilla versus the toxic waste monster, and Godzilla teamed up with spin-off character that failed to spin-off the giant (best known for his "holding pattern over airport maneuver") Red something robot dude... another theme song I can't unstick from my head. Eventually, however, Team Godzilla brought him back to his city smashing roots of old, and the series took off again as good stuff.

Then Team Godzilla had a lapse of sanity again, and let the Americans make their own Godzilla movie in the late 90's... why? Who can say, maybe it was that time of the year and the staff was huffing crazy shrooms or something in their miso soups, whatever it was they gave the Americans the right to do Godzilla and in 1998 Roland Emmerich co-wrote and directed "Godzilla", the movie which starred Matthew Brodderick, Jean Reno (yahh!), Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Michael Lerner and Kevin Dunn.

Thing is the cast maybe wasn't the problem... no, I take it they were NOT the problem (Godzilla survived worst castings during his good guy years, believe you me) the problem is the Americans just had

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