Zarm wrote:Except it kind of fails, too, because he doesn't actually cause the death, or even really contribute to it; he just incidentally shows up while Godzilla's unrelated death is already in progress. It's kind of like having the Joker (or maybe Joe Chill) show up to harass Batman and kill another Robin in a story where Batman's dying of cancer. It's kind of symbolically confused, because the full-circle element is kind of a redundant add-on to the actual death story. Like an extremely-glorified cameo.
To me, that's why the 'full circle' aspect fails. because the OD never really has anything to do with anything; remove it from the movie, and nothing changes for Godzilla or humanity except for the subplot over Junior.
I totally get where you're coming from, and I've had the same thought, when my logic brain is steering. But the movie still manages to do its job, for me, by totally giving me the feels; that comes down in part to D's presence as a reminder of the series' history, and in part to the realization that this Godzilla is now beyond even the forces that killed the original, that things have reached truly apocalyptic heights.
The bigger problem, for me, is that Shinichi's idea to recreate the OD - which is probably the biggest, most compelling moment of human drama in the movie - doesn't go anywhere, because the presence of Destroyah promptly abrogates it.
Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world.