JAGzilla wrote:HillyHulk wrote:I just thought that Biollante could be a good fit for this universe. Given that it was an experiment by a scientist combining the DNA of Godzilla with a plant which led to the creature of the crocodile plant (and also the soul of a lady, I don't remember specifically but that was weird), the same story could be done here (without the psychic, that wouldn't make sense even in this universe. The lady spirit has to go, too). Shin Godzilla would be a fascinating kaiju to the world of science, after all.
Time was I would've agreed that the 'lady spirit' was some weird side thing that could and maybe should have been removed, but watching GvsB again more recently has changed my mind. Biollante stood out because of her origin, and more specifically her connection to Dr. Shiragami. Some of the most effective scenes in the movie (the genre, even) are the ones where Shiragami is staring in horror at this twisted, hideous thing he selfishly, thoughtlessly created in a last-ditch effort to save some part of his daughter, and you have the unsettling knowledge that it worked, and there actually is something human in there. It's powerful stuff.
Which isn't to say Biollante couldn't function without Erica, of course. I'm sure she could still be extremely cool. She would feel... diminished, though, to me.
I agree that Erika being a part of Biollante's origin is pretty critical to the character. Making her just another monster is...just odd, I think, and misses a huge part of her. After all, Biollante wasn't just a monster that showed up out of nowhere. That said....
I think there's an easy way to keep Erika involved that has nothing to do with her spirit at all and really just takes minor changes to the original film that'd completely change several things that we'd see and experience. Godzilla and especially Shin Godzilla, is known for his regenerative properties. So just have some scientist (say a Dr. Shiragami) be studying samples taken from Tokyo where his focus is the regenerative aspect of the cells with his daughter also studying with him (they're like a prestigious father-daughter dynamic duo) and when something happens to Erika, instead of her being outright killed just have her mortally wounded to where she's suffered injuries that she'll certainly die from in a few days no matter the medical help. Que the father recklessly trying to apply what he's learned of Godzilla's regenerative properties to his daughter and then we have her make a full recovery, only things shortly start to go wrong as she continues to evolve and mutate out of control.
The most difficult part of that, I think, is how to add the rose element as it makes little sense for a father to add rose DNA to his daughter as well in such a dire and time sensitive situation. But maybe they are allocated a small sample of Godzilla material and they had already been experimenting with rose dna so all the samples they had were already slightly compromised in that way. Also, he wouldn't be adding pure Godzilla cells to his daughter but he would've thought that he properly isolated the mechanism that caused the regeneration and just used that element.
In this way, we can have more interactions between the father and daughter and actually get Erika as a real character with a personality and motivation (in other words, the film won't start with her being blown up but spend time getting to know her first). We'd also see her mental state as she initially thinks she's OK but then slowly starts to change into a monster and be split between her humanity and her new found monsterhood. We also get a film that uses elements from the original Godzilla vs Biollante but in a very different light (as there's no need to copy the previous film completely----if you aren't going to do something new and interesting with it then don't do it at all).
So yeah, I don't think it'd be hard to keep the Erika element a part of Biollante.
holy poop. okay it is pretty intimidating. But that just makes me want it more!
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