Godzilla (2014) - - Part 11

[antonydelfini]

Yeah, f*** different opinion.

 

[Leenie]

I am honestly not at all surprised by the small amount of Godzilla's screentime I keep hearing about. I've been expecting an almost Jaws-like approach, where it's a lot of buildup and blue-balling, with a finale that (from what I've heard) delivers.

Also, I'm not at all surprised about Godzilla's screentime because of Gareth Edwards. I saw Monsters for the first time not too long ago, and there's very little amount of time spent on the actual monsters. It's mostly focused on the humans and the destruction that the monsters cause. I figured this would be the case for Godzilla as well.

Granted, I haven't seen the film yet, so I'm taking all opinions into consideration. I'm okay with Godzilla's shorter amount of screentime for now (again, I'll see how this plays out in the movie when I get the chance to see it, of course). I think that for a first film in a new franchise, you want the leave the audience wanting more. For sequels, though, Godzilla should be shown a lot more.

 

[jmc]

I guess whether there's 'enough' Godzilla really comes down to how you view the human characters. If you found them interesting enough the lack of Godzilla probably isn't a big factor. There were a couple of times admittedly where I wanted to see what was going on between the monsters, but then again in hindsight did I really need an extra 10-15 mins of monster mayhem? It's not like two human characters duking it out where you can choreography a cool and interesting battle, it's essentially two brawling animals biting each others and knocking over buildings, there's really only so much of that one can take before it becomes tedious. Too much and you get a Man of Steel type situation whereby it just becomes visual noise.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I don't see how this didn't get knocked from critics, again not saying it's horrible but it certainly isn't as awesome as it was hyped up to be in my opinion. Had this been a super hero flick for example, where the actual superhero didn't show up until the last 15 mins and majority of the screen time when to boring irrelevant civilians it would have been blasted. Sure, Bryan Cranston is great and it's like he forgot he was in a Godzilla movie and was acting for an artsy Oscar nominated film.

The rest of the cast is okay but overall, they were uninteresting. It's a problem in my opinion when you have a Godzilla movie and 90% of the screen time deals with human drama. The other 10% goes to Godzilla and the Muto. Also, the freaking Muto has more screen time than Godzilla. Then you don't actually see them fight proper until the last 15 mins and even that feels short due to the human drama cuts. Godzilla has like 10 mins or less of screen time in a two hour movie titled with his name that's unacceptable to me. If there is a sequel lets hope there is more Godzilla and more epic fights. This is just a base line 7/10 movie for me and that's being generous.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

I guess whether there's 'enough' Godzilla really comes down to how you view the human characters. If you found them interesting enough the lack of Godzilla probably isn't a big factor. There were a couple of times admittedly where I wanted to see what was going on between the monsters, but then again in hindsight did I really need an extra 10-15 mins of monster mayhem? It's not like two human characters duking it out where you can choreography a cool and interesting battle, it's essentially two brawling animals biting each others and knocking over buildings, there's really only so much of that one can take before it becomes tedious. Too much and you get a Man of Steel type situation whereby it just becomes visual noise.

Pretty much, I cared enough about the character to follow Ford's journey & see the whole thing through his perspective.

And yeah, you'd probably see complaints that the movie has too much repetitive action if Edwards played it safe & by the numbers. It makes it all the more rewarding with the third act.

 

[Stark Bauer]

we need a non spoiler thread for godzilla. i cant read this without getting rage from spoilers. all i want is to track the box office for this film for its dometic and ww runs. and to discuss how much we all think it will make and how its better than the dark knight lol.

 

[Supernova]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, my only is not enough cranston. I enjoyed the slow burn approach of waiting to see godzilla.

 

[The Shape]

Well, I loved it. The fact that we don't see Godzilla too much throughout the film makes it THAT much more exciting when he is on screen. He was a badass. Amazing special effects work.

 

[jmc]

Needed more Cranston that's for certain.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

The one thing I agree with. ... More Cranston lol its at 74% I think that's fair I personally have it 9/10 going to watch it again tonight.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

Problem is, I don't know what else they could have done with Joe's character really, he knows

Spoiler

something iffy happened, but he's not that qualified about the subject other than that. What could have happened? He'd have gone with Ford? He couldn't, he'd have gone home and then we'd have two separate plot lines?

 

[Schlosser85]

How many times does godzilla use his atomic breath?

Spoiler

twice

 

[Destructus86]

hmmm...I was pumped for this movie until I started hearing how there's almost no Godzilla in the film and that was the whole point of me wanting to see it. :/ Very disheartening....I might just wait for blu-ray. Crap....

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I'm not bothered about the lack of screen time but I hate the [BLACKOUT]hero[/BLACKOUT] part.

Yeah, that's going to bother me as well. When I listened to the musical score and heard how bombastic it was and didn't vibe with the ominous tone the trailers were selling I had a feeling something was "off".

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I'll be the jerk and ask did you really think the humans would be compelling and well written? This is Godzilla; just because it's the American Godzilla doesn't mean it was going to be anything different. On average, Godzilla movie humans are about as interesting as Freddy Krueger victims. Godzilla movies are not made for drama, they're made for action.

 

[Destructus86]

I really wanted to see a movie this weekend....which would be the better option in all of your opinion? Godzilla or Spider-Man 2?

 

[Tim_Riggins]

hmmm...I was pumped for this movie until I started hearing how there's almost no Godzilla in the film and that was the whole point of me wanting to see it. :/ Very disheartening....I might just wait for blu-ray. Crap....

A movie like Godzilla you see on the big screen, it has to be experienced this way. The almost no Godzilla claim is exaggerated, he's in it for an easy 25 minutes I'd say, he has ample screentime, just not as much as some would have wanted.

Godzilla movies have always had very little actual Godzilla & Godzilla action in them, this has a good chunk of him.

 

[djsunyc]

saw this last night (thursday at 7pm). here's my review although many have vocalized it already.

Spoiler

i give the movie a 5.5 out of 10.

there's just not enough godzilla and they kept cutting away from the action.

godzilla's first appearance drew cheers from the crowd in my theater but then they quickly cut away and all you saw was some fighting in the background on a news telecast on the tv and then that was it. very dissapointing.

i thought the movie was about 15-20 mins too long. the dialogue was kind of mundane and very cliched and cheesy.

aaron-taylor johnson gave a very wooden no emotion performance you see on syfy network. there really was no emotion invested in his storyline trying to reunite with his family. no emotion for his father's death. and even cranston hammed it up.

i thought the film was beautifully shot and when we did get action, it was great. but the movie rewatchability is very low. fast forward to the godzilla and monster scenes and that's all you'll need.

best scene imho was seeing him charge up to use his atomic breath.

i expect this to have a huge opening weekend, then die out quickly after word of mouth due to the lack of actually godzilla action.

movie was not bad nor was it really good. it was just there.

 

[regnak]

Is Godzilla really that inconsequential? I have a hard time believing that? Granted I haven't watched this yet but is it really that bad?

No the ones saying that are greatly exaggerating. They seem almost frantic to convince us of their way of thinking. Everyone should see the movie for themselves.

 

[kevin2323]

saw this last night (thursday at 7pm). here's my review although many have vocalized it already.

Spoiler

i give the movie a 5.5 out of 10.

there's just not enough godzilla and they kept cutting away from the action.

godzilla's first appearance drew cheers from the crowd in my theater but then they quickly cut away and all you saw was some fighting in the background on a news telecast on the tv and then that was it. very dissapointing.

i thought the movie was about 15-20 mins too long. the dialogue was kind of mundane and very cliched and cheesy.

aaron-taylor johnson gave a very wooden no emotion performance you see on syfy network. there really was no emotion invested in his storyline trying to reunite with his family. no emotion for his father's death. and even cranston hammed it up.

i thought the film was beautifully shot and when we did get action, it was great. but the movie rewatchability is very low. fast forward to the godzilla and monster scenes and that's all you'll need.

best scene imho was seeing him charge up to use his atomic breath.

i expect this to have a huge opening weekend, then die out quickly after word of mouth due to the lack of actually godzilla action.

movie was not bad nor was it really good. it was just there.

Cranston Hammed it up? really?

people please dont use these reviews as a means of whether or not to watch the movie.

if you have to go by random peoples opinions on the movie then you really arent a Godzilla fan and shouldnt watch it anyways.

it's a good movie. does it have flaws? yes but the payoff for godzilla fans more than makes up for it. imo

if you wanted to watch it from the start , go watch it

 

[GremlinZilla89]

Wow, I'm disappointed. Not with the film. With the amount of whining about it.

This is going to make me sound like a complete jerk, but I don't care. I'm disappointed that people seem to genuinely exaggerate almost every major issue that has been brought up. I expected more from the people who post here. You all are acting like a bunch of ADHD addled teenagers. I was genuinely starting to expect to be disappointed with the film because of all the negative word of mouth, but I just got a HARD lesson in never letting peoples opinions influence mine.

I can understand the character issue. The characters themselves are fine. Yes, FINE. Not outstanding, and I wasn't expecting them to be. My Godzilla fan side doesn't expect amazing, three dimensional character work from these films even if it is a big budget Hollywood update, so honestly I get why people would be a little let down considering the talent involved-but there wasn't a bad performance in the bunch. People keep spewing "wasted talent". I never got that saying. What, so you would rather them cast crap actors instead? Wouldn't you want the best actors involved even though they aren't spewing Shakespeare? I would much rather have good actors in archetypal/small/expository roles than bad actors. Just my preference. I don't know about you.

Taylor-Johnson seems to be getting the amount of flack Charlie Hunnam got for Pac Rim and I think it's overblown. He was a likable lead to follow around and experience these events with. He wasn't overly emotive and was rather stoic, but I think that's the ENTIRE point of the character. But I still bought into his relationship with his father and wife.
That's kind of the point of the whole film, is to be put in the shoes of these various people throughout the narrative and see these happenings from a human level. And on that aspect the film grabbed me and got me hooked. I was never bored. The plot itself and the exposition and the build up is all very old-school-monster-movie and I dug the hell out of it. And that is really what this movie is going for. It's a horror movie with a massive scope, much like the original film. These types of films do not need a cast of three dimensional characters with 30 minute back stories and complex relationships. And you know what, there is more attention paid to the characters here than ANY other Godzilla film ever made. Well, it's equal with the original Gojira at least. So in comparison to say some of the more well received blockbusters over the past few years maybe the characters are rather typical (not bad, typical), but in comparison with the rest of the franchise these people are borderline three-dimensional.

The biggest sticker seems to be Godzilla himself. Would I have liked more of him? Yes. But not in a way I felt cheated. I wanted more of him in the way I wanted more dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, more aliens in Alien and Aliens, more shark in JAWS, more Gojira in Gojira. So basically, I was so satisfied by the end of the film that I didn't want the experience to be over. But honestly, his screentime is perfectly substantial. No, do not go in thinking you're going to get amazing monster fights every 10 minutes. And as much as I love that stuff, I honestly think it would have been a mistake to go that route here.

9/10. One of the best movies of it's kind in a long time.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

ANNNDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Gremlin gets it.

About the action, Pacific Rim went there already & profusely not so long ago.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

I'll be the jerk and ask did you really think the humans would be compelling and well written? This is Godzilla; just because it's the American Godzilla doesn't mean it was going to be anything different. On average, Godzilla movie humans are about as interesting as Freddy Krueger victims. Godzilla movies are not made for drama, they're made for action.

Being a massive Godzilla fan, I never expect great character work from these films. Outside of the first film the human drama is very rarely interesting/entertaining enough to sustain the absence of giant monsters. They are almost entirely plot driven with cliched, paper thin characters. And on top of that the plots are ludicrous and barmy as all hell. Out of all the Toho Godzilla films, I can safely I say I was genuinely engaged by the humans in maybe 3 films tops. Some of the films are flat out boring when monsters aren't fighting. It's up to the plot to be fun to carry the human story in most of the films. And with this film, the plot is very engaging. It hooked me and never bored me. And honestly, this is probably the most human and grounded of any Godzilla film next to Gojira. So in relation to the rest of the franchise, the human element is a revelation.

I understand being letdown by the characters considering this a big budget Hollywood A-List film, but I wouldn't call any of the characters bad. Just typical. They serve a their purpose like they are supposed to.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

Yeah, story has always been effin disastrous in Zilla movies, like really silly nonsense. So to me, here, this is a big upgrade, actually a decent story. Stock characters is indeed what they are, scientist guy, crazy conspirationist guy, soldier guy who has to come home to his family, military guys, etc, etc

 

[regnak]

Wow, I'm disappointed. Not with the film. With the amount of whining about it.

This is going to make me sound like a complete jerk, but I don't care. I'm disappointed that people seem to genuinely exaggerate almost every major issue that has been brought up.
9/10. One of the best movies of it's kind in a long time.

I totally agree with this. Also the movie had a budget of $160 Million(per Box Office Mojo) so they probably couldn't have afforded more CGI monster fights.