Kaiju — including Godzilla — have a Cthulhu problem.
At least, when it comes to Legendary’s film "MonsterVerse" franchise.
FYI: No spoilers that you can’t get from seeing the trailers for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters", "Godzilla vs. Kong," and "Godzilla x Kong: New Empire."
The early form of what became the Cthulhu Mythos {1} was, at its best, pure nihilistic cosmic horror. The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods penned by Lovecraft, Howard, Lieber, Moorcock, et al — Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, and the rest — are not merely big monsters, but effectively forces of nature that are not malevolent so much as completely indifferent to humanity. Rather like the way humanity regards, say, ants.
And then came along August Derleth. Derleth’s efforts were absolutely instrumental in preserving and maintaining these works. Derleth even coined the name "Cthulhu Mythos"!
However, Derleth also added in his own stories, which altered the entire tone so much that his works are sometimes called the "Derleth Mythos" to emphasize the distinction. Derleth’s Christian world-view muddied the cosmic horror elements, even going to far as to add quasi-benevolent entities that could oppose the existing amoral Great Old Ones.
This impulse is completely understandable — nihilistic cosmic horror is intended to be deeply uncomfortable — and has more than continued since Derleth’s death.
I’m just as guilty of this as anyone; right now, I have a crocheted Cthulhu plushie, wreath, and finger puppet all within my sight.
That said, there is a CTHULHU SQUISHMALLOW, for crying out loud.
By making the Great Old Ones into simply "the big bad guy" or something cute, it makes that horror comprehendable and manageable.
Which completely undermines the entire point of the Mythos.
Cosmic horror is not "there’s a big critter out there that can eat me." Cosmic horror is the inescapable realization that the universe is a place so large, so vast, that we cannot possibly comprehend it. So large, so vast, that all of our mighty struggles and triumphs and defeats, every act of valor and courage and triumph and defeat, are as utterly unimportant as the fate of a single bacterium on a drop of water somewhere in the sea.
That space beyond human understanding is also the space that Godzilla — and other kaiju — inhabit.
Godzilla’s roots are in Japan’s trauma from nuclear weapons and a society trying to come to grips with this force that is so indiscriminately destructive. That trauma is a clear parallel to the horror that the Cthulhu Mythos conveys. Godzilla is a force of nature, fundamentally unknowable. You cannot reason with Godzilla; merely get out of its way and hope it does not notice you.
The single best line in Godzilla (2014) knows this.
There is no way that humans can manage — let alone defeat — the kaiju. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe’s character) knows this. The best he and humanity can hope for is that the kaiju that is least problematic for humanity wins.
Not the one that is on humanity’s side. The one that is least problematic.
The distinction is vital. This is their world; we just happen to live on it.
This sensibility is perfectly done in the Apple TV series "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters". I initially approached it skeptically, but in ten episodes it manages to hit all of these notes perfectly well, solve most of the plot problems in the Legendary Godzilla franchise {2}, and got me to care about Monarch, the characters, the story, and even Godzilla itself. The plot is clever, the characters believable, and it is perhaps the best Godzilla story I have ever seen on screen. {3}
"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" is so good it even got me to forget the train wreck of "Godzilla vs. Kong" for a while.
Then the day after the series finished, I saw the trailer for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire".
I have problems with counting Kong as a kaiju, even though Legendary seems hellbent on doing so. Kong — unlike Godzilla or Cthulhu — is not unknowable. While Kong is not able to be tamed or controlled, Kong is understandable. He — like us — is an ape. Even in the original, Kong is moved by empathy towards Fay Wray, though humanity (in the film) does not return the favor.
But place him alongside Godzilla, and suddenly Kong is a stand in for humanity. Kong suddenly represents understanding and empathy and compassion and struggle and, eventually, triumph in the face of a nihilistic universe that does not care.
By including Kong as a peer of Godzilla, the tone immediately shifts from cosmic horror toward action movie. "Godzilla vs. Kong" — aside from not understanding either of these themes — was overstuffed and underwritten, fumbling plot point after plot point in service of "oh, that’d look cool" without thinking about what would make it cool.
I guess the difference is here: In the last episode of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," the plot builds in such a way that a final reveal hits, even though I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming early enough that I stood up and turned off the overhead light (it was glaring on the TV). My amour started to ask why, but I just said, "Wait."
The reveal was glorious. It was fulfilling and satisfying while simultaneously evoking a sense of horrified awe.
Nearly every episode of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" pulled that off.
I did not get that feeling — not once — from "Godzilla vs. Kong."
Regardless, the first minute of the trailer for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" seemed to tack back toward that cosmic uncertainty, with a voice-over emphasizing the limits of human understanding.
But then there is a shot of a cute mini-Kong, followed quickly by these lines of dialogue:
"Kong can’t face this on his own."
"He won’t be alone."
And then this image of Godzilla and Kong doing the "superhero team-up dramatic run" toward an enemy.
The second trailer is worse, doubling down on dumb discredited ideas about "alphas", ignoring the work that "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" did to make the Hollow Earth idea less stupid (largely by still calling it the "Hollow Earth"), and then giving us THESE lines:
"Kong is going to need some help."
"Godzilla is on its way."
Look, I get it. My inner five-year-old went "OOOH," because that’s exactly the sort of thing I would have done with my toys when I was a kid. I understand the impulse that made Legendary want to pit two big critters against each other. I like seeing really cool visuals and effects.
But it completely fails in the way that "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" succeeds.
Legendary’s kaiju franchise — at least, in films — is a stuffed plush Cthulhu, filing all the uncomfortable and disquieting edges off in order to sell something more palatable.
They are big, dumb movies that turn cosmic horror into action figures. Literally.
Yes, it looks pretty. And the trailers use swelling, rising music to great effect to try to make these absolutely dumb things seem inspiring by confusing our limbic systems.
Normally, I wouldn’t care. I would just continue to not particularly worry about it the same way I’ve not worried about the live-action Transformers franchise for … well, all of them since the first one. I’m not just out to yuck someone else’s yum here.
But damn "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" for showing us how much better it could be. For being so damn good that it made me care just in time to be disappointed again.
{1} Obligatory acknowledgement of the straight-up xenophobia and racism of Lovecraft, which is not the point here.
{2} I’ve yet to see "Godzilla Minus One"; however, "Shin Godzilla" produced such a ludicrously funny-looking version of Godzilla that I cannot take that film seriously.
{3} John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society is near the top for non-filmed kaiju stories overall. HIGHLY recommended.
Featured photo by Fabian Reus on Flickr under a CC-BY-SA license.