Godzilla

[MttStrn]

I saw it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I did have some issues. The main character seemed to serendipitously be almost everywhere a MUTO attacked and be one of the few to survive. This type of thing strains my willing suspension of disbelief. His wife's character seemed to have nothing to do except cry and want her husband home and stare open mouthed at Godzilla. A waste of a potentially good character. Lastly, though it's expected in a Godzilla movie, I find I am tiring of movies that revel in disaster porn. I need a break.

 

[Brandon M Johnson]

You know...I'm kind of weird, in that I actually liked his shell shocked, "Oh god, what am I doing?" expression.

That's literally the exact expression I'd have for like 90% of this movie if I was in it.

That's a really good point. Personally, I think the lead actor is getting a bit too much criticisim in this. Other than maybe letting him react to his Dad's death a bit more, I'm not sure what else he could have done since his role was basically, "Main soldier guy who always seems to be right in the middle of a monster attack." Actually, I thought Watanabe's is the role that needed beefing up.

Other than that, loved the movie. I'd like more of Godzilla in the inevitable sequel (and maybe a more extended Kaiju fight without cutting away every thirty seconds), but I was mostly okay with the slow reveal.

For example, I'm fine with Gareth Edwards cutting away from the first Godzilla\Muto fight after the full Godzilla roar and reveal, because let's face it, a lot of us were probably geeking out at that point and no battle was going to top the pure awesomeness of Godzilla's arrival.

 

[J.S.F.]

Hated it. I know, I'm the lone wolf here, but ever since that Matthew Broderick travesty came out, I've been wondering how much more they could screw up the franchise.

This version was it.

Excellent special effects--natch--and another shitty script. I'd actually put Godzilla vs Hedra above this piece of drek. Really. Just didn't like it at all.

 

[Lauram6123]

Hated it. I know, I'm the lone wolf here, but ever since that Matthew Broderick travesty came out, I've been wondering how much more they could screw up the franchise.

This version was it.

Excellent special effects--natch--and another shitty script. I'd actually put Godzilla vs Hedra above this piece of drek. Really. Just didn't like it at all.

Not a lone wolf. I hated it, too.

And I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane here, I just wanted a good old-fashioned popcorn movie. But the script was so bad! I kept thinking, couldn't they have spent just a tiny percentage of the special effects budget on having someone go through the script and close all of the obvious flaws and plot holes? Sheesh.

 

[CQuinlan]

Put me in the Hate group. They built up three monster fights and kept interrupting them. The pay off was not worth it. Honestly the worst movie I have ever seen.

 

[Vince524]

I liked it. It was fun. Would have liked more of the big guy.

 

[bearilou]

I'm sort of in the middle of the like/hate spectrum, leaning towards the like but having issues with some of the movie.

The first bit, with the dad and his meltdown at his wife's death. All of this character build up just to fridge the wife and show the father's fallout after that. Enter son who is a bit too conveniently 'over' his mother's death and his father's descent (I had to stop with the reactor terms *flails*) into obsession, which we really don't see, but are only told in brief segments. Felt like two movies. The trailers didn't help any with making it seem like a far different movie than the one I sat through. The trailers made it seem like the father and mother had far bigger parts.

Then...the characters we open the movie with are gone and are left with a son who just sort of shuffles from one scene to the next.

But...GODZILLA! And I thought Ken Watanabe did a great job with what little he had to work with. Although, disclaimer...I'm a Ken Watanabe fan so...I'll watch him in anything, even if it's reciting the phone book and squeal like the fangirl I am. But he was wasted in this part.

The Mutos I loved. I especially liked that the female was larger and wingless. And I adored the romance when he brought her a radioactive gift. That scene was just too much for me to do anything other than squee.

However, anytime Godzilla was on screen, well...he's my main kaiju squeeze. I will never not love him. Ever.

 

[Calla Lily]

So: Godzilla. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd been able to open my eyes for last hour. Which I couldn't because the only available seats were in the second row and the screen was ginormous and EVERYTHING was moving and waving and jumping and rolling and when I opened them even for a glimpse I almost ralphed onto my sneakers.

What I did see: MC was a nonentity. Should've picked someone with more personality. Watanabe was woefully underused. The MUTOS were good. I did manage to see the male give the female the nuke as a gift where they touched noses and their eyes lit up for each other. Cute bit. Also saw the new blue flame breath.

But why on earth did the director film the kaiju battle like Michael Bay filming Transformers fights in ultra close-up showing only bits at a time? Boo.

However, what I saw (first half) and what I heard (second half) was likable. I'll rent it when it's on the small screen and I can pud major distance between me and the screen.

I've loved Godzilla since I was a wee Lily and saw the very first one with my dad. The new movie isn't my favorite, but I enjoyed much of the first half and think I'll enjoy the second.

 

[LOG]

I think Angry Joe has a good take on it.

Also, Movie Bob.

 

[DoodleSnickers]

You know, despite the fact that critics had been slagging it off, I went to go see it the other day. I loved it.


I'm gonna try to keep this as un-spoilered as possible.


Part of that was because of the slow pacing and focus on characters that the critics hated, which was always a hallmark of traditional Godzilla flicks. I've never been a big fan of the oldschool Godzilla, as they were always movies I'd just flick to when I was home drunk on a Friday night. I would've liked a little more of Godzilla, but even in the movies, it was more about the characters while Godzilla slowly worked his way to the big showdown at the end. One thing stood out to me in this one,though...

I was really glad they brought a human element to all the destruction. In too many movies nowadays (looking your way, Man of Steel and Star Trek: Into Darkness), thousands or even millions will get mowed down in the background without a single thought or mention afterwards, and it's been weirding me out. With Godzilla, though, they actually have a couple characters dedicated to showing the tragedy behind all the cities being destroyed.

Even the big mission at the end of the movie (without getting too spoilery) was so they could save thousands of civilians. In our typical movies, some grim-faced major or something would've been like "that's just war, son, let them die to save 'Murca/the world/whatever." So I found the actual time spent in the cities these monsters were rampaging through to be rather refreshing.

 

[cornflake]

Good lord that was bad. Boring, irritating, badly acted by the main, blank-faced piece-of-wood dude, with far too little monster action.

It also seemed to be trying to walk a weird line - like, it seemed to want to take itself seriously, which fine, but then you have to commit. This was so meh. Everything seemed so half-assed, when I feel like if you're doing this, you have to do it whole-assed. I love disaster porn, but it wasn't, as that was mostly just after-the-fact rubble in the dusk. I'd have enjoyed monster fighting, but as someone noted, filming it Michael Bay style (aka badly) felt like being cheated out of the point. If they wanted to hang it on the emotional family stuff, then ramp it up. Everyone past Cranston seemed faintly disaffected, which may have been due to the acting issues but regardless. I also didn't get Hawkins role at all. She was just like, random woman following Watanabe around looking pained. You have her, do SOMETHING with her. She had like 10 lines in the whole movie, but she was perpetually there.

I think they'd have been better off embracing the over-the-top of it. Go all 2012. Put Woody Harrelson out in the desert ranting, throw 14 completely nonsensical "scientific" explanations at the wall, and destroy stuff from near and far, in detail, for 90 damn minutes. Chase your characters with falling buildings and crevasses, damnit. It was terrible and stupid, but it was fun. This was boring as hell.

I thought I'd be the only one complaining about the motion but I see Calla Lilly noticed too. They had handicam-filmed scenes randomly, especially in the early scenes with the Olsen. I thought I was going to have to leave, but they were dispersed so I only feel vaguely seasick. I swear there should be some sort of mandatory handicam warning in trailers or on posters or something.

One other thing I forgot to mention, but I found it weirdly adorable when the male MUTO passed the nuke to the female MUTO, all like, "Hey girl, I brought you a present!" and they bumped noses and their eye-lasers went zip-zip-zip--just precious.

Heh I liked that too - I thought they were sharing their nuke snack.

Which, btw, they could've made the whole 'plot' make vaguely more sense. Why was the one headed to SF to begin with? Is that where they keep the nuclear wessels? (cookie to anyone who gets that ref)

 

[ShaunHorton]

I dunno. I loved it.

Yes, the main character seemed wooden and stoic, but it fits if you think about it. He had to deal with his mom's death and then had to deal with his father's obsession the rest of the time he was growing up. I get the feeling he was one of those who signed up for the military the day he turned 18 and never looked back. The few times he did, his dad probably went off rambling again within five minutes, so he pretty much wrote his dad off. After years ignoring the fact that your dad even exists, you're not likely to just fall apart when you find out he's dead, even if you're there when it happens.

Of course, that's way too much thought to be having to put into a movie like this without something actually pointing out some of those details.

I would've liked to see more Godzilla screen time, and more of the fights, but I actually liked the fact that he was more just an omnipresent being once he was introduced. It allowed him to have multiple grand entrances I thought. I especially loved the warm-up to his breath, just a general blue glow from a single point through the dust, slowly running up his back as the smoke cleared. I would've stood up and cheered if I could have.

I also did get the "wessels" reference. But I thought they established early on that the male and female were sending signals to each other, which is how they both knew to go in the directions they were moving in.

Only things which didn't make sense to me was how nobody had previously noticed the huge holes in the ground where the MUTO's popped out.

Well, I am now eagerly awaiting news of the sequel, which has already been green-lit.

 

[Myrealana]

I finally saw this yesterday.

It blew the 1998 movie away in every possible way.
As for acting and story, it destroyed Pacific Rim like kaiju destroy cities. (Though, the monster fights in PR were epic.)

I enjoyed it. I thought it built some real suspense early on.

Spoiler

Killing off one of the top-billed actors early on without him really being able to do anything heroic was a great choice.

I like the monsters. They looked enough like guys in rubber suits to evoke the feeling of the old Toho movies, but with good enough CGI to make it feel real. I loved that the main actor wasn't some superstar with a ton of name recognition, and the bigger names were people known for their character work, not for blockbusters. It all felt very real and immediate to me.

 

[Myrealana]

Which, btw, they could've made the whole 'plot' make vaguely more sense. Why was the one headed to SF to begin with? Is that where they keep the nuclear wessels? (cookie to anyone who gets that ref)

I think they're across the bay. In Alameda.

 

[cornflake]

I think they're across the bay. In Alameda.

For everyone who knew that was, indeed, from Star Trek IV, the one with the whales, George and Gracie, and the very sympathetic scientist, Gillian!

 

[WaveHopper]

..."Main soldier guy who always seems to be right in the middle of a monster attack."...

Why on earth didn't the army realize that all they needed for bait was to put the soldier guy onto a rowboat in the middle of the Atlantic, and Godzilla and every MUTO around would converge on him. Simples.

 

[Zoombie]

I finally saw this yesterday.

It blew the 1998 movie away in every possible way.
As for acting and story, it destroyed Pacific Rim like kaiju destroy cities. (Though, the monster fights in PR were epic.)

I've seen both films recently, and...honestly, I lean more towards Pacific Rim in terms of the plot. But I just really like the metaphor of Kaiju as climate change being solved via the cooperation of multiple nations using modern technology (as symbolized by giant robots punching said Kaiju).

It feels more helpful than the now 70 year old "nuclear power is bad" vibe I got from the new Godzilla movie.

 

[kuwisdelu]

I've seen both films recently, and...honestly, I lean more towards Pacific Rim in terms of the plot. But I just really like the metaphor of Kaiju as climate change being solved via the cooperation of multiple nations using modern technology (as symbolized by giant robots punching said Kaiju).

It feels more helpful than the now 70 year old "nuclear power is bad" vibe I got from the new Godzilla movie.

Eh? I didn't see the kaiju in Pacific Rim as having anything to do with climate change.

I thought Godzilla functioned better as a metaphor; I didn't take the message to be "nuclear power is bad" at all:

The concept of climate change also appears, but this gets a lighter treatment. In the movie, there are some sympathetic references to ignorance of good scientific reasoning in strategic decisions. Those instances will feel validating for those of us who have watched the continuous and thorough ball-dropping on issues like climate change or net neutrality when there is perfectly excellent information out there for anyone who would take the time to understand it. "Nature does what nature wants and needs to do" is one of the movie's stronger messages, and what people want or feel like they have to do either in self-preservation or retaliation is immaterial.

It would spoil the movie to talk about it too much, but our reliance on technology comes into play when threatened by a natural phenomenon that can spontaneously render most of our advancements ineffective. In Godzilla, the device comes in at exactly the right times, but it isn't used as a trump card to the creators' credits. Instead, the movie points out how humans—made so powerful by everything created from the Industrial Revolution onward—can still be blinked out of existence.

http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2014/05/how-godzilla-stays-relevant-in-a-world-of-abundant-nuclear-warheads/

 

[Zoombie]

Eh? I didn't see the kaiju in Pacific Rim as having anything to do with climate change.

It was mostly the whole bit about how the aliens were invading at that time where the world had been polluted by humans because that was when the environment suited them, and the whole fact that Kaiju in the movie basically destroyed the environment around them when killed...stuff like that.

 

[kuwisdelu]

It was mostly the whole bit about how the aliens were invading at that time where the world had been polluted by humans because that was when the environment suited them, and the whole fact that Kaiju in the movie basically destroyed the environment around them when killed...stuff like that.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that line. But still, that wouldn't really make kaiju a metaphor for climate change, would it? They merely arrive to take advantage of it.

It seems to me that the kaiju in Pacific Rim are a catalyst and not representative of anything in-and-of themselves. They function purely as an embodiment of the invisible walls against which we throw ourselves, to draw out the human drama and conflicts.

In Godzilla, the kaiju are more directly representative of natural forces, where the titular character himself represents the ultimate balancing power of nature, and the MUTOs are representative of humanity's blind reliance on technology to solve our problems, and our arrogance that we can be a master over nature.

Ultimately, Pacific Rim is more about "man versus man" and "man versus himself", while Godzilla is more about "man versus nature" and "man versus god".

Pacific Rim's kaiju are representative of our own internal demons that we must confront and overcome, rather than build a wall to escape from, while Godzilla's are representative of the forces we arrogantly try to master but can never truly control, and we must instead learn to live in harmony with.

 

[Zoombie]

True!

And, don't get me wrong, I totally loved BOTH movies. It's just a matter of which thing I'm more in the mood for.

Do I want the more serious movie that has less action? Or do I want the more silly one that has more action?

Also, how much radioactive nuclear breath do I want in a movie?

 

[kuwisdelu]

Me too. Actually, I'm sitting in Godzilla again right now.

I just happen to love analyzing these kinds of stories.

It comes with being an Eva geek.

 

[Zoombie]

I like your interpertations!

 

[Maggie Maxwell]

Just got back from the theater and I must say, I liked it. It's a pretty standard "American giant monster" flick along the lines of Transformers and Pacific Rim. Too much focus on the humans, not enough on the monsters, but good when they do go to the monsters. They escorted the most interesting character off-screen too early (MC's dad), not enough time with Watanabe's character, and the main character and his main squeeze were flat as cardboard. Way too many cut-aways at the good parts. ("Let's show this fight on the TV so we can show off flat-lady and flat-kid doing nothing.") However, the monsters were great and action sequences fantastic. Much better than that 1990s travesty, but not as good as some of the more classic Godzillas.

 

[suha52]

Yikes!

You actually liked that humongous piece of cinematic fecal matter?

Let's all hope that no more Americanized versions of the Godzilla movies come out.
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