Cats may be the most openly mocked Oscar-bait film of the century; it's the film that critics have called "disturbingly sexual" and, in turn, has earned itself nine Razzie nominations, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress and even Worst Director. There is little controversy in saying that Cats deserves to clean out at the 40th annual Raspberry Awards. However, there is a Razzie nomination that is enough to make genre film fans scratch their heads.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is nominated for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel, a nomination that feels out of place for a film with such an enthusiastic cult following. The other nominations for this category are hard to argue with: Hellboy, Dark Pheonix, Rambo: Last Blood and A Madea Family Funeral. All of those seem to fit the nomination category, at least from a critic aggregation standpoint. Every nomination except for Godzilla has less than 30% on Rotten Tomatoes with the positive reviews from critics being lukewarm at best, not to mention overwhelmingly negative audience reviewers.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn't an outstanding rating by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the "positive" reviews that show why this film has a broader audience. Godzilla: King of the Monsters holds an 83% audience approval rating with Rotten Tomatoes and has gotten positive buzz online, though it's not just the audience that has given the film positive praise. Many top critics have seen the validity of the film, praising it for its "epic fights" while dismissing that the film doesn't have a large narrative drive.
"Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a sense of wonder," Matt Zoller Seitz wrote for RogerEbert.com. "After I left the screening late at night and emerged onto a dark city street at nearly one a.m., I wanted to look up rather than straight ahead, just in case Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon or Rodan the giant pterodactyl came screaming down from the clouds. That's not the same thing as saying this is a perfect movie."
The Godzilla franchise has never been a heavily character-driven series. From the beginning of the franchise in 1954, Godzilla has been a property that's primary entertainment comes from spectacle -- which was created initially by film director and special-effects pioneer, Ishirō Honda. Honda created an entirely different genre of film that dominated the latter half of Japanese cinema. Kaiju films or "strange beast" films are an art form of filmmaking that has never had the same commercial or critical success in America as it has in Japan.
Even critically acclaimed American Kaiju films have failed to meet box office expectations. Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim made the bulk of its box office haul overseas, despite critical acclaim domestically, while its sequel earned substantially less. 1998's Godzilla was a similar story financially speaking, though it was panned by both critics and audiences. This makes the 2014 American Godzilla film a rarity in the American kaiju genre: both largely a commercial and critical success. But it was also wrought with criticism from kaiju fans who disliked its lack of monster battles and Jaws-like ominous horror. Where 2014's Godzilla was criticized for lack of action, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was criticized for too much action.
Director Michael Dougherty's vision for Godzilla: King of the Monsters is one that is uncompromisingly classic Kaiju. In an interview, Doughtery stated:
"Shortly after Legendary offered me the job, my brain cells naturally went crazy, and I think my 10-year-old self took over. I then just brainstormed everything I wanted to see in a Godzilla movie. It was all done old school, you know. Pen and paper. It all just kind of came out in bits and pieces. Random imagery. So, for instance, there were certain moments between Godzilla and humans that I always wanted to see on the big screen."
It has proven challenging to please long-term fans of the Kaiju genre, even when appointing a director who has been a fan of the genre since he was a kid. It took a bit of time to find the audience for Godzilla: King of the Monsters somewhere, but there it found its audience, nonetheless. Casual fans of the Kaiju genre and lovers of monsters, as well as the occasional moviegoer overwhelmingly enjoyed the film. Those who went into the movie to be entertained got what they wanted.
Traditionally, The Golden Raspberry Awards have been a place where creators can laugh. Who can forget Halle Berry accepting her Razzie for Worst Actress for her performance in Catwoman? The award ceremony is good-natured fun that turns a box office and critical nightmare into fun, positive PR (for those with a sense of humor). It seems that Godzilla's Razzie nomination comes from those who mistook a campy Kaiju genre film for highbrow cinema. Where Cats had "disturbingly sexual" visual effects, Godzilla: King of the Monsters took theaters with a stunning eldritch roar.