Teen Tyrant
MemberMothra LarvaeSep-04-2014 11:43 PMSo, having watched Godzilla's fight with the Muto pair several times now, I finally realized why the battle is so wonderful and breaks from the common pattern seen in Godzilla movies.
With a few exceptions in the Millenium series (GMK, Final Wars), Godzilla's films since the first appearance of Mechagodzilla typically have a pattern of Godzilla fighting a creature or creatures that are either larger and stronger than him, or at least equal in size and power. Mothra is an exception, but she has certain advantages that make up for her physical weakness compared to Big G. I realized that Muto, particularly the large female, is very much like enemies such as Ebirah, Kamakaras, Gabara, Hedorah, Gigan and Megalon; that is, enemies from the middle of the Showa era to the Mechagodzilla films. These are enemies that Godzilla is able to physically defeat without a great deal of difficulty when on their own. Godzilla owned Ebirah, stomped the bejeezus out of the Kamakaras, handed Gabara's non-existant tail to him, tossed Hedorah all over the place, and flat-out beat the crap out of Gigan and Megalon. Yeah, when Hedorah grew bigger than him he became a problem, and when Gigan had King Ghidorah watching his back he had trouble, but otherwise, these were enemies who stood practically no chance against Godzilla in a straight up brawl.
The Mutos were a return to this era of enemy. When Godzilla and the female Muto first charged each other, I expected it to be a more violent collision, one resulting in two equally powerful creatures meeting. I was surprised (pleasantly) to see Godzilla more or less pick the Muto up from the ground in a football tackle and push her across half of San Francisco like she was no more an obstacle for him than the buildings he trampled through. You could see her trying to dig her claws into the buildings around them to anchor herself in place and it did nothing; Godzilla was having none of that. Despite her huge size and the implied challenge that a female monster would present (a mother protecting her offspring is nothing to mess around with no matter what species you are), the Muto could do nothing against Godzilla's power. The flying male Muto faired no better. Being smaller, faster and able to fly, he was able to play keep-away with Godzilla and get in a few nips, but that was all. It was only when the two worked together, like Gigan and Megalon, that they had any success against Godzilla, and even then they had to exploit his one weak spot by attacking his gills. It was awesome to see a "heroic" Godzilla tackle a physically inferior foe again, showing that he didn't get his title of King for nothing.
On a side note, I'd like to point out that one other great thing about the Muto, particularly the female, is that it kept up the tradition of each Godzilla era introducing a least one monster that is officially confirmed as female. The genders of all the monsters are more or less up for debate, but only four have been confirmed to absolutely be female, all four were introduced in a different era, and except for the Muto, for reasons described above, all of them have given Godzilla a major headache: Mothra in the Showa era, Biollante in the Heisei era, Megagurius in the Millenium era, and now the Muto in what we could call the Legendary era (American, Hollywood or Gareth Edwards era are also possible options). For this reason, I'm glad we were introduced to a new female monster for Godzilla to tackle, however lacking in challenge she may have been.
Godzilla316
MemberAnguirusSep-05-2014 2:32 AMTrue that. What I like about it is that is shows Godzillas power.
Sci-Fi King25
MemberGiganSep-05-2014 4:29 AM^Agreed.
“Banana oil.”- George Takei, Gigantis: The Fire Monster
Teen Tyrant
MemberMothra LarvaeSep-05-2014 5:25 AMYeah, the show of power they gave him in this movie was incredible, to a degree we haven't really seen often. When he and the Muto charged each other, before they get close, you think that they're the same size; you think we're going to see something like two lions wrestling, that they'll hit each other, stay where they are and just start biting and clawing. But, in the split second just before they hit, you realize,"holy crap, Godzilla's actually bigger than her!"but you have just enough time to shrug it off and think that, as an insect, she's going to have massive strength to compensate for her lesser size compared to Godzilla. But nope. He grabs her like a little kid grabbing a really ugly pinata and running across the store with it! Only when they employ the desperate tactic of tag-teaming him do they have any chance. They still have to use their longer forearms to stay out of his reach and go for his sensitive gills in order to even hurt him, though, so I'd hardly call it a strategy so much as a coward's play.
And if you notice throughout his encounter with them, Godzilla really does not have any respect for the Mutos whatsoever. He knows instinctively that they are his enemies; that they threaten his alpha predator status, that as radiation parasites they will one day target him to feed on or their offspring will burrow into his flesh and cocoon themselves inside like with the skeleton seen at the beginning of the movie; if Godzilla has good memory and is as smart and emotional as he seems, then it's possible he even remembers members of his species, perhaps even direct family members, being killed from the inside out by the Mutos. It could be a personal grudge on top his instinct to defend his territory and protect himself from being a future food source.
Whatever the reason, you can tell from his attitude that Godzilla barely acknowledges them as a nusiance, and certainly not as a threat. His only vaguely more aware of them as pests than he is aware of humanity! And given the way he fights them, his attitude of pure contempt and no respect towards them shows through. When he picks up the Muto and starts shoving her across the city, it's like he's saying, "What are you going to do?! Just what the f*** do you think you're going to do?!" When he knocks her to the ground and places his foot on her, stomping her, he's kinda saying, "Get your parasitic ass back in the dirt where it belongs!" When the male Muto comes swooping in at him and he up and murders it with his tail, he's like, "Dodge that, prick." And when he kills the female in that oh so satisfying fashion, you can read in his body language the he's thinking, "I've had enough of your bull****!" He totally kicked the dog crap out of those things, just like the good ol' mid-Showa era days, with an attitude that clearly showed that not only was he badass, he knew it and did not need to show any respect to his so-called "enemies" at all.
TheGMan123
MemberTitanosaurusSep-05-2014 7:40 AMI love this portrayal of Godzilla, as well as the MUTOs. It shows that they aren't mere "puppets for Humans to act in" as is of some older films, but also not mere animals either. Both sides are ferocious creatures with some clear instinctual patterns, but also have a side to them that speaks of greater cognitive ability than most. Godzilla is intolerant of their presence to an almost unnatural degree, and the MUTOs likewise.
I also like how Godzilla is able to best either of them solo, but gets beaten when they pair up against him. It's very much like how it would work in real life. A solo animal who's bigger, stronger, more aggressive, and with greater motivation would prove too much even for the most dedicated mother, but once dad comes home, the tide turns on the rival predator.
Teen Tyrant
MemberMothra LarvaeSep-05-2014 8:19 AM" A solo animal who's bigger, stronger, more aggressive, and with greater motivation would prove too much even for the most dedicated mother, but once dad comes home, the tide turns on the rival predator."
Not always. In fact, assuming the animals involved are typically of a similar size/build, the mother animal can fight extremely viciously. People who have been attacked by mother elk defending their calves, for example, have described an animal meaner than an attacking grizzly bear. This was actually shown in the Dark Horse Godzilla comic book series issue #13, with the monster Burtannus. Burtannus was a mother monster who's babies had just hatched. Godzilla showed up to defend his territory and tried to kill her. He got in some good shots, but in the end, Burtannus put him down, and the word bubbles described her attacking with a strength that only a mother protecting her young could possess. Personally, I thought it was crap, as Godzilla is a unique case and should have been able to take her down no matter how protective she was. I think it was done just so readers would not feel mad at Godzilla for killing a mommy whose babies would now be left to fend for themselves, or worse, that Godzilla would kill the babies too.
In relation to Godzilla, the only monsters allowed to defeat him for any reason are King Kong and Mothra, and even they are questionable. But for real animals like these monsters were based on in this movie, accounting for similar sizes, the father animal showing up would only have been for him to kick the attacking predator while it was down. It would be the mother to actually put it down.
Carnosaur
MemberMothra LarvaeSep-05-2014 10:35 AMin a majority of species, the female is larger then the males - this isn't the case in the mammalia, but in lizard, amphibian, fish, and even a lot of bird species the female is larger by a considerable amount.
The maternal instincts - especially in mammals is particularly fascinating.Grizzly bear mothers outright kill anything that they see as a threat to their cubs, even healthy adult males. The preservation of the next generation is what drives that instinct.
I think this was the case with the muto's as some are arguing, and the female did put on a whole lot better of a fight then the male did,but the two together almost took him out, notquite...but still.
2 v 1 isn't especially fairin a lot of cases, and we saw that in this movie. Godzilla certainly was big and strong enough to pull out the big W though, even if it took a whole lot of strenuous effort and time.
Nature doesn't deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.
