Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Long Live the King

I'm genuinely excited. Been a while since I've been interested in the movies. I'm not really all that interested in the human element though. Also, is it wrong that I'm looking forward to the King Kong vs Godzilla remake in 2020? Something in me craves this cheesiness, and maybe funkier cheese with King Kong and Godzilla vs their Mecha Counterparts. That's the kaiju cheese I crave most.
 
Waking this thread up for an important announcement!
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-pass-bechdel-test-vera-farmiga
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Beacons of genre cinema have often (but not always) underserved female fans with male-centric marketing and underwhelming female characters. That’s certainly been changing in modern movies, but now the biggest monster franchise in the world is joining its genre peers as they push towards progress. Director Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters is the sequel to Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla and may have the best representation for women of any film in the series.

This comes from actress Vera Farmiga, who plays Dr. Emma Russell — the Monarch scientist that invented the Orca, a machine allowing humans to communicate with the Titans — in the film. When speaking to TotalFilm about the movie and Russell’s relationship with her daughter Madison (Stranger ThingsMillie Bobby Brown in her film debut), Farmiga explained that the film takes a different tack than previous entries in the iconic monster franchise.

“The previous Godzilla really focused on the relationship of a father and a son,” Farmiga said, referring to Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Joe and Ford Brody from the 2014 film. “At the heart of our film is this relationship between a mother and daughter.” Madison and Emma are kidnapped by a mysterious organization, giving them plenty of time to work out family drama as well as the genre fare — like Madison’s strange relationship with Mothra. In fact, their closeness in the film is a bit of a landmark for the series.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters “might be one of the first Godzilla that passes the Bechdel test,” said Farmiga. The Bechdel test refers to the requirements laid out by Alison Bechdel in a 1985 comic: a movie should have two (or more!) women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. Simple, no? You’d think so.

However, according to the Bechdel Test Database, there are only two Godzilla films that even marginally pass the test: 1998’s Godzilla and 1989’s Godzilla vs. Biollante. Neither feature long conversations between their female characters, though they achieve the technical minimum for the test. Now that Godzilla: King of the Monsters will actually feature a few female leads, it could pass with flying colors. And it does feature Mothra, who has “the superpower to give birth,” according to Farmiga, who counts the creature as her favorite Titan.

Maybe Godzilla: King of the Monsters will finally be the Godzilla film to respect its queens when it comes out on May 31.
Godzilla: YAASS SLAY QUEEN
Edit: Double sorry
 
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I'm not happy...but I'm going to be more calm and centered about this.

Please don't bring identity politics into my giant monster movies. It is one of the few genres that hasn't been infected by this insane culture war bullshit.

Otherwise, you will force me to go full on exceptional and start #MonsterGate. You don't want that.
 
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I'm not happy...but I'm going to be more calm and centered about this.

Please don't bring identity politics into my giant monster movies. It is one of the few genres that hasn't been infected by this insane culture war bullshit.

Otherwise, you will force me to go full on exceptional and start #MonsterGate. You don't want that.
From observation on the trailers and whatever they announced. It doesn't look like identity politics is in question. As far as the stupid article goes, it's just plain clickbait.
 
Vera must not have seen many Godzilla movies because I'm sure there are some (even going back to the Showa series) that pass this stupid "test".
She's probably only ever seen the 98 Godzilla movie where the two main female characters do nothing but prattle on about the men in their life.
 
Vera must not have seen many Godzilla movies because I'm sure there are some (even going back to the Showa series) that pass this stupid "test".

Hmmmm, lets see.....

So the test requirements are that the movie has to fit the following qualifiers: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

Off the top of my head, I came up with the following entries in the Godzilla series that pass:

1) Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) = Mothra's fairies were featured here and speak on behalf of Mothra. They also converse with the photographer Junko who also gives the big passionate speech to Mothra and her people, which serves as the big declaration of the moral of the film.

2) Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster (1964) = Mothra's fairies are back, this time as essentially political diplomats and celebrities. They even devise the plan to have Mothra get Godzilla and Rodan together to fight Ghidorah. There is also a bizarre subplot about a princess that escapes as assassination attempt, but wakes up believing she is an alien prophetess. She predicts when and where all the monsters will show up and provides an explanation for what Ghidorah is. An female investigative reporter is also around and tries to get the scoop on the princess' story. There is at least a couple scenes where all four female characters are featured together.

3) Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (1966) = Again, Mothra's fairies are involved. This time played by different actresses and have a much smaller role, but they help save everyone at the end of the movie. Also, we have the native woman Daiyo who provides the other characters with information on who the villainous Red Bamboo are. She was also the only native to successfully escape captivity from the Red Bamboo, so extra woke points there.

4) Destroy All Monsters (1968) = Well the alien invaders, The Killaaks, are all women here, and the test doesn't specify that the women can't be villains. They actually manage to be the least silly of Godzilla's many alien invaders.

5) Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster (1971) = Bit of a stretch here as the main women in the family don't converse much, but they all have active roles, whether it be caring for an injured husband, or actively participating in Hedorah protests.

6) Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972) = The main characters in this one are basically a Scooby Doo gang, but without the talking dog. There are two women in the gang, one of whom is a karate expert that beats the crap out of the aliens at one point and makes fun of her dopey cartoonist boyfriend (actually, are they couple? The movie was never really clear). The other major female character gets the ball rolling on uncovering the aliens' plot after her brother disappears. She steals the important mcguffin tape from the aliens.

7) Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) = There is the Azumi priestess who awakens King Ceasar, the daughter of the scientist who admittedly doesn't play a huge role, but there is a female archeologist in the film, and all three of them are present towards the end, commenting on what is happening and moving the story forward to its monster filled finale.

8) Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah (1991) = The Heisei series featured Miki Segusa as a recurring character, making her the main character of the series for a lot of people. She is a psychic that uses her powers to help against Godzilla and eventually form a bond with him. In this film, she converses with one of the time travelers, Emi Kano, about their plan to erase Godzilla from the timeline, and Miki is also the first one to realize that Emi released the Dorats, eventually resulting in the birth of King Ghidorah. Emi has a redemption arc and is responsible for stopping Godzilla at the end of the film.

9) Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1992) = Mothra's fairies are back!

10) Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1993) = G-Force's Mechagodzilla team includes Miki Segusa and an American pilot who knows karate (and is a terrible actor by the way). Miki also converses with the main female lead of the film, Azusa, as both of them start to realize that killing Godzilla might not be the way to go.

11) Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla (1994) = Weird that this one passed since there are romantic subplots abound, but Miki is back and there is Dr. Gondo, both of whom want to pursue non violent ways of stopping Godzilla and step in to tell the pigheaded men how wrong they are!

12) Godzilla Vs. Destroyah (1995) = Miki is losing her psychic powers and has a new psychic student that pals around with her throughout the film. There is also Miss Yamane, a great grand daughter to the Dr. Yamane of the original film and niece to Emiko, the female lead of the original film, and we see Aunt and Niece converse with each other.

13) Godzilla 2000 (1999) = Io is probably one of the most bearable kid characters in the entire series and we see her bond with Yuki, who pals around with Io's dad's Godzilla watch network and eventually comes to form kind of a family unit with them.

14) Godzilla X Megaguirus (2002) = The main character is Kiriko, a female and is a high ranking officer in the G-Graspers group and her immediate superior that she converses with is a woman as well.

14) Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) = Akane is the lead and deals with a bunch of personal issues and guilt and shit, and there is Sara, a little girl upset over her mom's death and they bond throughout the film.

15) Godzilla Final Wars (2004) = Although the men carry most of the action, there are women scientists, officials, and reporters throughout the film that converse and don't talk about men.

16) Shin Godzilla (2016) = High ranking political officials, diplomats, and experts of both genders converse, plan, and strategize to stop Godzilla. No talking about men.

So yeah, I applied your stupid test, and I came up with 16 entries. Not bad for a series of movies geared towards boys and started in 1954.

And to further highlight why the Bechdel test is worthless, Terror of Mechagodzilla didn't pass, despite Katsura being one of the most interesting characters in any Godzilla movie. And Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla does pass the test, even though I can't stand the female lead in that film.

So I'll ask again. Do you want characters that are interesting and well written, or do you want them to share your skin color and nether regions?

EDIT: Oh I forgot the Anime Trilogy! Two of those three films feature the twins Maina and Miana who are basically the new versions of the Mothra twins. They converse and talk about Gods and monsters...not men. So lets raise that number to 18.
 
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Director Michael Dougherty really has an eye for visuals. I've noticed this when watching Krampus and TrickrTreat. Every shot in this movie looks gorgeous and a step up from the 2014 film where I couldn't make out what was going on half the time. Yeah, the human dialogue sounds corny af but I don't care about that.

King Ghidorah looks like a badass motherfucker and I love it.
 
I just want to see big bad Destoroyah back in the picture. People forget that he was one of the hardest villains to fight in all the movies. I have a soft spot for Orga too but I doubt he'll ever show up again. He was pretty stupid at the end. Biollante would make for a great earth-themed villain though.

The biggest tragedy, especially since they scrapped it for what eventually became the Tristar film, was that we never got to see the Gryphon fight Goji. He had a pretty cool design.

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My big hope is now that we're getting Ghidorah, Mothman, and Rodan we're only one or two movies away from goofier ones like Gigan or Megalon.

Either you mean Mothra, or I'm gonna be really fucking stoked to see my favorite cryptid duking it out with a 350-foot tall nuclear rage monster.

Anyway, since I didn't it posted yet (shame on you all):
 
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