1. Kaiju Film Assignment
Ethan Payne

2. GODZILLA 2014
Godzilla 2014, directed by Gareth Edwards, is a huge Hollywood blockbuster
which made over $529 million. Director Gareth Edwards is known for his
independent Kaiju film “Monsters” which bares similarities to Godzilla’s storyline
based in an unknown land where giant creatures live, inspiring him to take a
classic monster and create the modern Godzilla. The 2014 film had a budget of
$225 million, of which $160 million was used for the production of the film,
produced by Legendary Pictures. Due to the historical and metaphorical
relation to Japan, the film was distributed by Toho production company which
helped Warner Brothers to reach their worldwide box office of $529 million.
Edwards inflicted deeper social and political themes into the film, alike the
original film, touching on important issues reflecting the entitlement of humanity
and how the government may withhold important things from the public eye. In
this film we see a major cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth
Olson, two actors who are extremely well known to the public which results in a
strong star power. Warner Brothers can use large names such as these within
marketing and advertisement to draw in a larger audience.

3. COLOSSAL 2016
Colossal is an independent film written and directed by Spanish short film
director Nacho Vigalondo, produced by a Canadian production company called
Brightlight Pictures and funded by both Voltage Pictures and Route One
Entertainment. This film had a budget of $15 million, drastically contrasting to a
Hollywood Blockbuster like “Godzilla”, however only grossing a small $4.7
million box office. Despite making a small amount of money in the cinemas, this
film was successful when it came to online sales home movies. This resulted in
the filming being widely popular and having very positive ratings. Being an
independent film, Colossal throws some more daring and risky themes and
conventions at the audience that blockbuster films would not usually do due to
the risk of damage to the amount of money being made. In this film, as an
audience, we interpret themes that have an emotional impact on the audience.
This includes more obscure themes such as, emotional and physical abuse,
relationships, addiction and strong female figures. Similarly to “Godzilla”, this
film uses star power to draw in a larger audience. Anne Hathaway, being a multi
talented and well respected actress, was used as a major name to market the
film which is a clear example of how star power is used to promote films.

4. ATTACK THE BLOCK 2011
Attack the block, directed by Joe Cornish, is a British independent film. This film
was produced by several production companies such as Film 4, Studio Canal
Features, UK Film Council and Big Talk Pictures. Being an independent film,
Attack the Block needed to find funding from multiple different companies to be
produced. The film had a budget of $8 million, similarly to “Godzilla” a lot of this
budget went into the production of the film. Attack the Block made almost half
of the original budget in the box office making $4.1 million, however the film
rose to the top three during the first week of release competing with large
Hollywood films such as “Thor”, which is created for a similar range of audience
to whom the sci-fi and fantasy genres appeal to. Attack the Block is intended to
be a ‘spoof’ of a serious and intense Kaiju film, however the film puts forth a
variety of social issues including, poverty, social class and racial stereotypes
and discrimination. This film does not have as much of an impact of star power
as the other two films due to it being a much small production. However Attack
the Block does star Nick Frost, a British actor who has a large following within
the UK. Despite not being a huge Hollywood actor, Frost’s work is popular
enough that a member of the audience may have discovered the film through
noticing this actor, and admiring his acting style.

5. GENRES AND CYCLES
The original Godzilla film sparked the Kaiju genre when it was released in 1954.
Kaiju originated in Japan and soon spread all over the world becoming one of
the most popular and successful genres in modern film. Godzilla (1954) was
both socially and politically aware of very important issues at that time, however
since then the Kaiju genre has become based on large and ‘seen as’
dangerous monsters of whom usually have conflict with military forces/
humans. In the modern Godzilla (2014), the monster Godzilla isn't the only
creature to be introduced into the film, we see the large beast fighting off other
horrifying radioactive monster that are terrorizing the human population.
Similarly in Colossal we see Anne Hathaway’s ‘monster’ battle against Jason
Sudeikis’ ‘monster’ which results in the death of Sudeikis’ character and the
celebration of the human population being free from the terror the monsters
were causing. Colossal takes classic conventions of a Kaiju film and develops
them to create more meaning. For example when we see Anne Hathaway’s
‘monster’ stood in the center of a largely populated city surrounded by military
forces, helicopters and planes, this can reflect alcohol addiction and how it can
harm other lives around you.

6. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL
CONTEXT
Each of the films I have spoken about cover a large range of both social and
political issues. Each film uses their own monster as a metaphor to reflect
sensitive issues. For example Godzilla is used to reflect how humanity treats
the planet, this portrayal can be seen as quite serious due to the way the film is
intended to come across. However Attack the Block and Colossal both use
comedy to highlight important yet sensitive issues. In Colossal the monster is a
representation of herself (Anne Hathaway), her addition and how she is
possible seen by other people, where as in Attach the Block the monsters are
used to bring two extremely different social classes together to work as one.
In the original Godzilla (1954) the monster is used to reflect back to an almost
forgotten time in Japan’s history, reflecting the nuclear paranoia. In 1954 the
crew of a boat called the Daido Fukuryu Maru saw a blinding flash in the sky
and hear what sounded like thunder. Shortly white ash began to settle around
the boat resulting in the crew suffering from severe radiation sickness.

7. FUNDING AND BUDGET
Starting with the highest, Godzilla (2014) has the largest budget of the three
films I have covered. At $225 million for a budget the film was produced and
distributed by both Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers. A large portion of
this film was shot in Vancouver, Canada. Many large Hollywood films are shot
here as it is cheaper due to Canadian tax credit. Many other major films have
been shot in Vancouver such as, X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumanji, Final
Destination, Catwoman and Fantastic Four. Just to name a few. Canadian tax
credit it beneficial for independent films also, however only if the director,
producer or cast members are Canadian. Colossal had a budget of $15 million
yet was funded by a Canadian production company. Having the smallest
budget of $8 million, Attack the Block had several production companies
working together on the film which resulting in more funding. In contrast to
Godzilla grossing $529 million, Colossal made $4.7 million while Attack the
Block made $4.1 million. Despite both of these films not doing so well in
cinemas, Colossal went to made a lot of money within home video sales and
online download purchases and Attack the Block is now available on US Netflix.