|
Steyn on Godzilla
It might have been a more effective metaphor for the last Godzilla movie, released 16 summers ago in the year global warming stopped - or "paused". Do you remember that one? They began showing the trailer the previous summer (1997)â the usual brilliant two minutes, featuring one of the film's better vignettes: some old coot, fishing off the end of a rickety wharf, suddenly gets a nibble on his line; as he struggles to hold on to his rod, the sea swells and the jetty begins to vibrate; Japan's most famous movie monster is about to arrive in Manhattan:Godzilla. Size Does Matter. Coming in Summer 1998. Audiences whooped and cheered and roared their approval. The studio, having spent $140 million making the film, spent not much less on the campaign: absolutely everyone â according to the newspapers, magazines, radio hosts and TV shows â was dying to see what Godzilla looked like, but the producers were keeping him under wraps; there were stories about people close to the project trying to sneak out designs, and some fellows leaked models of the action toy tie-in which proved to be false. Kodak (remember them?) built their summer ad campaign around a guy trying to get souvenir snaps of the stompin' lizard. And then the film opened. And everyone who went on that opening weekend said actually, you know, it was kinda boring. By the second weekend, it was dead. Godzilla came ashore and fell flat on his face. Posted by: badanov 2014-05-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=391402 |