Theme or Aesthetic?

[Camdigidy]

Something I really hope Godzilla: King of the Monsters will succeed in is it's theme. Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, along with many of Honda's works, has a theme of unity. Enemies must come together in order to succeed, one of of them alone cannot defeat Ghidorah. I really feel an American Godzilla can deliver a message America could really use nowadays: unity.

When I saw the recent supposed "leaked Rodan", I thought "I can get past a radical design if they get the theme right." And I'm curious if other fans feel the same way.

So my question:
Would you rather have a US Godzilla movie with awesome designs that 95% of the fandom likes and awesome, satisfying battle sequences, but loses the theme of unity.
OR
Would you rather the new movie drive theme home and really explores it, but the monster designs are mostly disliked by the fandom?

Possible Spoilers

I'm afraid that the new movie will forget what Honda wanted to say in his movies. I've heard that Godzilla will face Ghidorah one on one for the finale. In my opinion, the character of Ghidorah works best when he can't be defeated alone.

[Dr. Professor]

I'm not so much concerned about the theme of unity, though it's one of my favorite themes from the Honda films and I'd love for it to have a presence in the film, I'm more worried about the anti-nuclear stuff being absent. Although it didn't have a huge presence in G14, it was still in there. I'd hate to see them give the opposite message. Sorry to bring up the supposed plot leak again here, but it applies to what I'm saying.

Spoiler:

The supposed plot leak involves Dr. Serizawa detonating a nuclear bomb to revive Godzilla so he can save the world. I feel that this would spit in the face of not only G14, but obviously the original film, and a good chunk of the entire franchise.

[LSD Jellyfish]

To be completely honest, Shin has sorta filled any sort of need in my heart for a serious thematic Godzilla film. As much as it would be great if it could, I sorta doubt that it would be better thematically than Shin. As a result, my wishes for what I want from KOTM, is just absolute insanity with tons of great action. Basically, I’m hoping that Shin and KOTM form a sort of duo for two of the best Godzilla movies ever for different reasons. I’m not really sure “unity” is a theme that’s really intricate though, but based on what you said about current politics and issues wouldn’t mind it.

[UltramanGoji]

The Godzilla franchise is not Honda's. Honda's themes are only relevant to the movies he directed and should have no bearing on anything else.

So option A.

[MrGoji1999]

The Godzilla franchise is not Honda's. Honda's themes are only relevant to the movies he directed and should have no bearing on anything else.

So option A.

Yeah, I agree with UltramanGoji, the franchise is not just Ishiro Honda, as much as I love him. Just like Shin Godzilla felt like an Hideaki Anno film, KOTM has to feel like it is Dougherty´s film, not Honda´s. Even G14, as faithful to the source material it was (and even having an, altough not HUGE in its presence like Dr. Professor said, anti-nuke message), it din´t feel like an Honda, Fukuda or Kaneko copy-paste film, and more like what Gareth wanted it to be. That said, I woun´t mind if the film has a unity theme or some other kinds of themes in its own way, but for now, I think option A would make me happy of this film, even if it dosen´t have the most deep message of any film .

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

G14 reminds me a lot of Tezuka film personally.

[Maritonic]

The Godzilla franchise is not Honda's. Honda's themes are only relevant to the movies he directed and should have no bearing on anything else.

So option A.

We have a winner! We have a winner!

[vibramrunner]

To really answer this question, it depends on the theme they end up going with doesn't it? I think a movie that is, from a story telling perspective, consistent in pace, tone and clarity is the most important thing -- and that includes the thematic element. That's what gives the fight scenes heist, IMO. I'm very happy with the first two films, so I'm excited to see where they take it.

[scottzilla]

Aesthetic, all day. G14 focused on theme way too much, and fell short on both aspects(hold the final battle). Kong focused more on action and visual beauty, and even though the plot suffered a bit for it, it is so much more fun to watch over and over again, and that's the real test of a good monster movie in my opinion.

[Ivo-goji]

It's not a choice between those two things. The movie could easily have both (or neither if we're unlucky).

[Camdigidy]

The Godzilla franchise is not Honda's. Honda's themes are only relevant to the movies he directed and should have no bearing on anything else.

So option A.

Pretty solid point there.
Upon thinking about it, wanting similar themes from older movies actually goes against what I tend to like to see in remakes. I usually like seeing things done different. I guess my desire for a similar theme comes from my want for the filmmakers to "get" Godzilla like us fans. But they haven't failed us yet (in my opinion).

[AbudJasemAlBaldawi]

I'd far prefer a more interesting theme and story because I've outgrown drooling over cool action and monsters (although I still do lol but I mean I don't consider that enough to make a movie "good"), but it all depends on what the movie is trying to do. Shoehorning serious themes that the director can't do justice would hold it back, but generally yeah I wish Godzilla movies generally would be more thought provoking. This film does look like it will have some kind of theme to it but I'm not expecting anything super thought out like Shin Godzilla.