WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Godzilla: Singular Point, now streaming on Netflix.
Besides the title kaiju himself, Godzilla: Singular Point features a plethora of gigantic monsters from Toho's history. Many of these, such as Jet Jaguar and Manda, have not been used in years, so it's great to see them finally get a chance to shine once again. The Netflix series' versions are some of the most impressive that these characters have ever been; contrastingly, some of them are also incredibly weak compared to what fans are used to.
Though many of these Showa era beasts are updated to look and act in a much more terrifying manner, their threat level, or lack thereof, sees them taken down with relative ease. Here's how the monsters of Singular Point, including Godzilla himself, are both horrifying and horribly portrayed.
How Singular Point Portrays Its Kaiju Well
In the case of characters like Manda, Kumonga and Anguirus, no version of the monsters has ever looked cooler or more terrifying than they do in Singular Point. Anguirus, in particular, is bulkier and spikier than ever, eschewing some of the goofier elements of his original design. His more animalistic attributes also amp up the threat level, making him behave exactly as a violent beast would.
The spidery Kumonga is also incredibly resilient, boasting a healing factor that regrows the spider species' limbs via a gooey substance heavily resembling the Showa era smog monster, Hedorah. This allows the creature to come back even once it's seemingly been killed, making it hard for even the giant robot Jet Jaguar to permanently take it out.
Jet Jaguar himself is also finally back after an extended absence and given more focus than ever before. This sees him be continually built upon and upgraded throughout the show, increasing his attack power and intelligence while truly turning him into the hero that his creator Goro always wanted him to be. Unfortunately, Jet Jaguar is also a good example of every way in which the show fails to maintain the threat level of any of the kaiju, even for as cool as some of them look.
How Singular Point Fails Its Kaiju
Jet Jaguar starts off incredibly weak in the series and is quickly beaten during the debut of Rodan. Rodan, however, is quickly felled himself, and the rest of his flock don't rise too far above this cannon fodder status. The fact that the easily beaten Jet Jaguar is able to later hold his own against the kaiju just goes to show how appearances can be deceiving and that, for as ferocious as some of the redesigns look, the monsters lack much in the way of real fortitude.
For instance, the robust-looking Anguirus appears to be durable, and this revamped iteration has an attack that can sense and deflect projectiles. Unfortunately, two blasts from a close-range projectile do it in, and neither shot is particularly difficult to make. This is a far cry from usual kaiju stories, wherein human technology is basically useless against the monsters.
There is also a new monster, Salunga, who resembles a cross between Baragon and a much cooler-looking version of Gabara. Unfortunately, there's nothing much to Salunga, either, and it's not long until it's done in by human machinations -- albeit far less quickly than most of its brethren. Even Godzilla himself has a lower threat level, despite his potentially causing a nuclear holocaust. He's barely seen in his own show, and the danger that he represents is already inherent in other, far weaker monsters. It doesn't help that Jet Jaguar is later able to fight him all too briefly.
This all stems from the even greater than normal focus on human characters, which forces them to be of more use than usual against the monsters. While this serves to keep the protagonists of Singular Point alive and pretty much always out of any real danger, it undermines the coolness and horror of the monsters and, more detrimentally, the King of the Monsters.
