Codzilla: Guardian of the Deep

Codzilla: Guardian of the Deep
English-language theatrical poster.
Directed by	Rudolf Krosmeier
Screenplay by	Moshe Sukodin
Produced by	Ibrahim Al-Radicti
Starring	Hugo Lensmonov Martin Renford Rikard Klepmann
Music by	Edgar Kodebov
Production company	Shoestring Productions
Distributed by	Morzov Entertainment Group
Running time	112 minutes
Country	Radictistan
Language	Radictistani
Budget	R$1,800,000
Box office	R$210,000,000

Codzilla: Guardian of the Deep (Radictistani: Codzilla: Wuchter des Vertiefung) is a Radictistani low-budget comedy film released in 2009. It tells the story of an enlarged Cod which terrorizes the citizens of the Radictistani west coast. The film is characterized by its absolute disregard for suspension of disbelief, manifested through purposefully bad special effects. The film was produced for a budget of a mere R$1.8 million and was a resounding success at the Radictistani box office, grossing over R$210 million. It was followed by three sequels: 2 Big 2 Cod, Codzilla vs. Megalodon, and Mechacodzilla and sparked a billion-radin multimedia franchise.

Plot

A still image from the film.

A fishing trawler leaves the Westwoodsur port town of Karlshavn. While trawling for Cod to the west of Radictistan, the boat is attached by a giant Cod fish and sinks, leaving only one terrified survivor to make it back to land in a lifeboat and warn others of the new threat. The world-weary townspeople do not believe his story.

An eccentric researcher at the University of Beschertal, Dr. Igor Simonovich (Martin Renford), hears of the strange tale and decides to travel to Karlshavn to investigate. He is greeted with hostility by the locals, who fear that public discussion of the mysterious creature will dampen the local fishing industry and keep the summer tourists from coming. Dr. Simonovich eventually meets a slightly inebriated fishing captain, Josef Flasrenner (Hugo Lensmonov), who says he believes the survivor's story. Flasrenner says that he too had seen a large Cod fish while on a fishing expedition seven months earlier. He offers to help the scientist catch the creature for study.

Meanwhile another ship is attacked and sunk. This time there are more survivors and hysteria concerning the fearsome "Codzilla" grips the West Coast, paralyzing the fishing industry. Simonovich and Flasrenner set out in Flasrenner's boat. They are joined at the last minute by a Maritime Policeman on leave, Petty Officer First Class Martin Luger (Rikard Kleppmann). The three men search for the creature but find nothing, even after repeated sonar scans. On the eight day, they receive a distress call from a nearby cabin cruiser. They arrive too late to save the ship and watch helplessly as the giant Cod feasts on the boat's passengers and crew. The creature retreats, only to attack the searchers that night. They fight it off with the help of a speargun and distress flares, but the boat is badly damaged. Discouraged, they return to land.

With a third fatal attack, the Royal Radictistan Navy springs into action, sending an anti-submarine destroyer, the Fearless to kill the Cod. The warship's sonar pings attract the monster, which effortlessly dodges a number of torpedoes and depth charges before holing the ship, sinking it. Over eighty men and women are sent to a watery grave.

After losing another ship to the monster and failing to kill it with aerial torpedoes, the Navy turns desperately to Dr. Simonovich for assistance. Simonovich theorizes that Codzilla is seeking to protect the smaller cod which make up a large portion of the Radictistani diet. He proposes that encapsulated torpedoes be placed within the underwater spawning grounds of the Cod. He and his two companions supervise the placement of the torpedoes in Flasrenner's repaired boat.

Codzilla notices the activity near his species' most vulnerable and arrives to defend them. The torpedoes have no effect. Flasrenner is killed when the fish attacks the boat. Simonovich then realizes that at least one of the torpedoes did not fire when the Cod approached. A torpedo hits and sinks the small boat. The two men still onboard jump off and survive the sinking. The fish realizes that the spawning ground is now protected and swims off into the sunset.

Simonovich and Luger return to land, where they convince the authorities to set aside a large Cod preserve off the West Coast, so that the terrible monster will never again feel the need to lash out at humanity in protection of its brethren.

Cast

• Hugo Lensmonov as Josef Flasrenner
• Martin Renford as Dr. Igor Simonovich
• Rikard Kleppmann as Petty Officer First Class Martin Luger

Production

Codzilla: Guardian of the Deep was filmed in the Radictistani fishing town of Muttershavn in Westwoodsur. The film was shot digitally. Principle photography took a mere eleven days thanks to the primitive nature of the effects used. All shots of the Codzilla monster itself were made by filming an actual Cod fish swimming around inside a tank. Its victims were then added into the shot by double exposure. Only a minimum of computer-generated effects were used. The ships used were either real vessels rented for the production, or miniatures as in all scenes involving sinkings. The result of all this penny-pinching is a film which looks marginally better than one shot by a group of secondary school students with a cheap consumer camcorder.

Release

Critical Reception

Codzilla received mixed reviews from theater critics. The Radictistan Times described the film as "unbearably amateur in its production," particularly criticizing the acting, "alternating between wooden and excessively melodramatic." The right-wing Radictistan Patriotic Daily blasted the film's irreverent depiction of the Royal Radictistan Navy. Other critics were more forgiving. The Beschertaler Zeitung described the film as "a perfect antidote to the highbrow, navel-gazing tendency of low-budget cinema, a reminder that a film is meant to entertain and not to be dissected in fashionable coffee houses."

Box office

Codzilla was the most commercially successful film in Radictistani history, recapturing its paltry budget a hundred times over. The film ultimately grossed over $210 million radin in Radictistani theaters. It earned only R$400,000 on its opening weekend, but word of mouth and an expanded marketing campaign resulted in box office receipts which increased exponentially over the film's run. There was no foreign cinema release.

Cultural impact

Codzilla has became a pop culture phenomenon among the younger and more affluent generations. The annual CodzillaCon held in Brightburg, Erdwoodsur draws thousand of fans each year.