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Godzilla To Retire (for now)
ackthpt writes "CNN is reporting that Toho, after 50 years and 28 films, will be retiring Godzilla (Gojira in Japan) after this years film. Toho has thought of retiring the venerable monster before, but after pulling the stops to make a special Best of Best this may be it (but you never know, particularly if it draws large audiences)"
And how many retirement concerts did Barbara Striesand have?
:)
Go'zilla isn't going anywhere...the press will see to that. This will simply be another comeback spike. It worked before and it will work again, and that's a good thing
Popular fictional characters never retire, they just get put away for a spell to create a pent-up demand. There will likely be more, but it'll likely be 10 to 20 years before somebody realizes they have a popular franchise that they're not using and it's time to revive it.
not going to be another sequel for a while no matter what
:)
No matter he said all that last time?
It's a marketing trick, and not a new one, by any means. Looks like it is already working, so more power to him.
Toho group has taken over the operation of the Virgin Cinema movie theaters in Tokyo and seem to be doing a bang-up job of bringing first run movies to Japan in a very timely fashion.
It still costs an arm and a leg to see a movie here, but the theaters are much more comfortable than any that I've been to in the US.
Godzilla ought to be retiring. The threat of environmental damage and subsequent mutations caused by a nuclear waste spill has been shown to be a Chicken Little cause. As more countries shift their means of electricity production to nuclear, we have seen a progressive reduction of air pollution in those countries. In the US, coal and oil are still the primary means of power generation, and it shows when looking at statistical charts how much pollution per capita is produced by Americans.
Godzilla ought to be retired because the reasons that he was brought forth in the first place are gone. A new creature, relevent to today's global threats ought to be created so that kids can learn about those threats in an interesting and entertaining manner. Whether the threat ought to be fossil fuel pollution, terrorism, or global warming, bringing the issues to the public in an easily digestible and entertaining medium is the first step towards educating everyone about the dangers posed by these global problems.
I have been pwned because my
nobody* in the movie industry would go back on their word just to make money!
*by nobody, I, of course, mean everybody.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Godzilla ought to be retiring. The threat of environmental damage and subsequent mutations caused by a nuclear waste spill has been shown to be a Chicken Little cause. As more countries shift their means of electricity production to nuclear, we have seen a progressive reduction of air pollution in those countries. In the US, coal and oil are still the primary means of power generation, and it shows when looking at statistical charts how much pollution per capita is produced by Americans.
True, but Godzilla wasn't really about nuclear power. Godzilla was all about the nuclear bombs that the United States dropped on Japan.
The effect that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese psyche was simply incredible. It instantly broke the will of the Japanese to fight, enabling the Americans to come in and transform their society. The scars still haven't completely healed. Every time you see some post-apocalyptic anime/film/book come out of Japan, you can bet that it was influenced by the atomic bomb.
Gojira was just a natural outgrowth of that. Look at the original story: A huge amoral destructive force comes from abroad and lays waste to Japan. Conventional weapons are useless against it, and it destroys the Japanese military. The monster is only stopped by the use of a weapon that is so terrible that the creator would rather die than see it unleashed upon the world.
Gojira was always a bomb reference. As long as we have super-weapons, he'll never be irrelevant. I'll miss the big guy.
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