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I am a life long fan of Godzilla, and I have gotten a lot of flack over the years from some of my fellow fans because I am one of the only ones who liked the 1998 remake. It had completely mis-cast lead actors and some very questionable directorial and story descisions, but I enjoyed the action scenes and liked the fact that it was a movie that tried to take Godzilla seriously again. In fact, I would dare say that it was in large part because of this movie that Toho made Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, which IMO is one of the best Godzilla movies ever made (and like the 1998 film, it pushed itself as a legitimate sci-fi movie rather than a self-parody).
Looking back, the movie obviously isn’t as good as I thought it was when I was 12, but I still hold to it that the movie isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, although many of the critisims towards it are valid. Inspired the many high quality edits I’ve seen of films that had great potential but didn’t meet it, I am currently planning to make a slimmer, more definitive cut of a movie that I feel gets ragged on a lot more than it should. Unfortunately I won’t be able to start working on it until some time in October since I don’t have any editing software on my new computer yet, but I am in the planning stages and I’m open to suggestions any of may have about how to make the movie better (within my means).
My overall goal with this cut is to make a film that is better paced, and has a reduced presence for that irritating blonde chick “Audrey.” I recognize that trying to fix the human element in this movie is sort of like trying to polish a turd, because frankly the directors and writers didn’t have a clue. If I had whatever footage I wanted to work with, I would make a movie that focused on Hank Azaria’s character “Animal,” because he was cool and actually worked well in an action movie. Or, in my dream world, I would have cast an actual action star instead of Matthew Broderick as the “Nick” character (my dream would have been Arnold Schwarzenegger). But that’s not the reality of the situation, so instead I’m left with the task of making a film that focuses less on Audrey, and more on Nicks POV. There’s not much that I can do in terms of Matthew Broderick being totally miscast in the role, but I can at least get rid of the hair pulling aggrivation of Audrey’s frequent whining and voice screeching.
Here is a list of changes I am currently planning to make to the film:
•The newsroom sequence w/ Audrey whining to her boss about her promotion will be cut
•The awkward conversation between that nerdy redhead and Nick deleted about Nicks’ marital status will be cut, as will be most of the former character’s onscreen presence
•Several tweaks will be made to Godzilla’s debut sequence, cutting some parts and possibly incorporating some unused footage from the trailers
•Reduced presence of “Mayor Ebert” sub-plot
•The “I think I lost him” Friday the 13th line in the chopper chase will be cut
•In the looter scene, the octopus movie playing on the TV will be replaced with footage from the original 1954 Godzilla movie
•George Washington statue gag deleted
•The sequence in Animal’s apartment where Audrey is “crying her eyes out” will be cut completely-- her and Animal sneaking into the Madison Square Garden is more of a twist later
•Several scenes w/ Animal and Audrey following the French agents and Nick will be removed for annoying dialogue, and because of the stupid wiggling dead fish
•Audrey’s blubbering during the hatching scene removed
•Several shots of Nick and / or Audrey running will be cut (if possible), because they look pathetic
•Nick’s “gumball defender” scene will be removed.
•Surviving baby Godzilla will be moved to the end of the credits as easter egg, where it should be
•At least one of the two bouncing tire shots will be cut – seriously, repeating a joke doesn’t make it funnier.
•Puff Daddy’s butchering of “Cashmier” in the end credits will be replaced with “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult, followed by the classic Japanese Godzilla theme (or vise versa, I haven’t decided which way yet).
I’m sure I’ll see more places to tweak the film once I get into the editing process, but those are my primary places of interest at the moment. If you have any ideas for places where the movie could use some trim, please feel free to suggest them! I’m open to outside ideas.
