Godzilla (2014) - - - Part 12

[Figs]

I still can't get over that shot of Godzilla

Spoiler

breathing his radioactive breath down that MUTO's throat

 

[Adenjo]

So basically what you lot are saying is you have no fun.

Oh we have fun... We're just subtle about it.

Actually when I watched Avengers (which I loved) there was a young man who applauded when Hulk kicked crap out of Loki... The cold hard stares he recieved from everyone around him soon put an end to his actions

 

[Adenjo]

I still can't get over that shot of Godzilla

Spoiler

breathing his radioactive breath down that MUTO's throat

That was one thing the movie did get right.

 

[Figs]

Oh we have fun... We're just subtle about it.

Actually when I watched Avengers (which I loved) there was a young man who applauded when Hulk kicked crap out of Loki... The cold hard stares he recieved from everyone around him soon put an end to his actions

Damn that's harsh. Being subtle when having fun?

I can understand when you're watching a drama, but an action film or comedy...

 

[StarLord]

We don't applaud and cheer in Australia either, kinda pointless if you ask me lol.

I know.

Are they expecting someone to come out and thank them for their response?

I'd get annoyed at that, and I certainly wouldn't pay money to hear a bunch of d***heads cheer and shout during a movie.

 

[jmc]

So basically what you lot are saying is you have no fun.

We clearly have differing opinions on what classifies as cinema etiquette. Seriously though it just doesn't make a lot of sense to be cheering at someone who can't hear you. We go to the cinema to watch a movie, we go to a football game to scream and cheer.

 

[Saitou Hajime]

According to Rth, Friday's estimates for Godzilla are now up to the 37.5-39 million range. It probably isn't missing 90+ million now, and might even have a shot at 100 million.

 

[antonydelfini]

Goodness! What a success. And to celebrate, Im gonna watch Godzilla vs King Ghidorah and Godzilla 2000 tonight.

There's definitely gonna be more Godzilla movies to come. I wonder what would be a good plot for part 2? Maybe 2 countries at war, one country creates new monsters to fight the other, monsters turn on them, Godzilla intervenes?

 

[The Game]

I'm from UK... Which makes me mr lucky in the "no-one applauds or cheers during movies" stakes

We do however mutter "that was crap" as soon as the credits start to roll...
Which is exactly what I did last night after watching Godzilla.

I heard a lot of that last night, lol

 

[DA_Champion]

We clearly have differing opinions on what classifies as cinema etiquette. Seriously though it just doesn't make a lot of sense to be cheering at someone who can't hear you. We go to the cinema to watch a movie, we go to a football game to scream and cheer.

Applauding and cheering at the end of the movie is an American thing, I had only seen it once before moving to America in 2007, following which I saw clapping at the end of half or most of the movies I saw. I didn't see it in Canada beforehand except the one time, nor did I see it since moving to Australia.

 

[Lord]

So basically what you lot are saying is you have no fun.

You silly Americans

We don't applaud here either

 

[BlackFox]

You silly Americans

We don't applaud here either

British stiff upper lip at all times, no sign of emotion shall be shown

 

[DA_Champion]

Godzilla (2014)
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen
Rotten Tomatoes: 73% at the time that this review was written, 63% with top critics.
Grade: C

Spoiler

Godzilla is relatively new director Gareth Edwards' take on the classic Japanese monster, with the benefit of modern Hollywood's money and special effects prowess. The movie starts with an attack on a Japanese Nuclear plant in the late 1990s, that may or may not be due to Godzilla. The movie then fast forwards fifteen years as similar seismological "tremors" are felt, with different groups in the military struggling to interpret them. They eventually converge of an understanding: there are some monsters in the world ("Mutos") and Godzilla is an alpha-monster that hunts them down. In this case we have two Mutos meeting near San Francisco to mate, and Godzilla is joining them to attack them. The military wants to use a nuke to blow up the monsters, but the nuke gets intercepted by the monsters (who feed on nuclear energy) and thus the military has to scramble to get the nuke out of San Francisco. The movie ends with a huge, extended fight between Godzilla and the two Mutos, with humans like Aaron Taylor-Johnson interspersed either as military trying to get the nuke away, military trying to shoot down the monsters in an impotent manner, or human beings like Elizabeth Olsen trying to find shelter.

I have mixed feelings on this movie. On the one hand, it had some cool monster fights, it had a positive (albeit heavy-handed and shallow) environmental message, and Elizabeth Olsen is really pretty to look at (though she doesn't contribute to the plot of the film and could have been removed in whole). On the other hand, the first act was really heavy-handed, there was a lot of annoying exposition particularly by the Japanese guy, and the whole second act was boring and I had trouble stating awake. Bryan Cranston's character at the start is the cliche of the man-against-the-system railer fighting the heroic struggle to protect his family and let out the truth, he bored me.

For example, it's established at one point that there is a male muto and a female muto. OK. It is then established that they are converging towards each other geographically. OK. It is then ... stated that this is being done for mating purposes ... Jesus, is that additional line actually necessary? There is a male and a female and they are moving towards each other, you don't need to tell us that this is being done to reproduce, we can infer the purpose. When the monsters meet later on, they show the monsters meeting, but they don't show them having sex, which could have been fun.

One clever moment I'll point out in the movie, right after the movie cuts out of a scene that is a monster fight, we zoom in to a kid's room (the kid of Johnson and Olsen), and we see his dinosaur toys, I thought that was a nice and smooth transition, since Godzilla is kind of like a dinosaur. He then sees reports of the monster fight in Hawaii on the news, and he tells his mom "look, Dinosaurs", her facial expression changes, because her husband was passing through Hawaii so she is afraid for him.

What saves this film (for me) are the monster fights at the end of the movie. But I'm someone who enjoyed ... Alien vs Predator, and T-Rex vs King Kong in King Kong, and Freddy vs Jason ... I like monster fights, but most people don't care for them, and it's not as though the monster fights in this movie are any better. This wasn't as cool as T-Rex versus King Kong in Peter Jackson's King Kong, the abilities were not as well-defined and some came out of nowhere, and actually the monsters came out of nowhere in some circumstances leading to a cheap shock. At one point, Godzilla uses a blue fire breath that is very effective, yet for some reason had not shown up at all earlier in the film when it would have been useful ... very confusing.

I thought the score was manipulative in trying to force a mood, but the assault of music is a general problem with Hollywood movies. I wonder if most movies would draw completely blank reactions from audiences if the score was turned off.

The monster fight in King Kong also took place during the day, unlike the fights in Godzilla and Pacific Rim, which were at night which made it hard to follow, which the directors probably thought made the monsters scarier. I think Del Toro and Edwards might have read about Jaws in film school, which is said to be a great movie because you don't directly see the shark for most of the movie which makes him scarier. OK -- that worked for Jaws, which came out in 1975. That trick has been used a lot in the past 39 years, it's probably not that great of a trick anymore, let's move on.

I have one question about the plot: At the end, when the larger female Muto is closing in on the nuclear weapon, Godzilla comes and kills the larger muto. But we had just seen Godzilla collapse unconsciously below an office tower he destroyed, and in the next day Godzilla wakes up below that rubble, half of San Francisco removed from the docks. So, was it a separate Godzilla who killed the larger muto? I don't know, I think so.

A positive note: they didn't end the movie by showing us that some other monster had survived as a cheap cliffhanger to create artificial suspense and trepidation for a sequel, which we've all seen many times before. They ended the movie with the world ready to move on from the monster fights, and Godzilla being declared a hero for beating up the other monsters.

Ongoing ranking of 2014 movies for me

Tier 1, A grade: Noah, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Lego Movie,
Tier 2, B grade: Robocop, Divergent, 300: Rise of an Empire, Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Tier 3, C grade: Godzilla, Amazing Spider Man 2

Looks like I'm generous with my grading, 9 movies watched and no F-grade yet.

 

[DA_Champion]

In my Australian movie theatre, there was a really annoying preview for X-Men DOFP. Australian actor Hugh Jackman addressed the audience in his Australian accent and told us to watch the movie with him when it comes out, the preview then followed.

 

[DeadPresident]

Just saw it, really impressed. I didn't find there were too many "money-shots" but I liked the atmosphere the movie created.

I thought the execution was quite good. Edwards pulled off the juggling act of reintroducing Godzilla to a new audience and paying homage to the older movies well, and oddly the score was one of my favorite parts. Considering the scale and scope of the events I like it when the score feels like its mirroring the events in intensity, but maybe that's just me.

The score and a lot of the editing selections do a good job of making it seem like a Toho movie incorporating current technology, particularly the use of

Spoiler

the television news coverage.

I wouldn't have minded

Spoiler

seeing a bit more of Godzilla

but overall I thought the narrative flowed nicely, it could easily have turned into a Pacific Rim copy and that would have detracted from the message I think it was trying to send. Kudos to Edwards for keeping the spirit of the classic movies alive in this one.

For all the criticisms people seem to have they should carefully consider what could have come out had the director been someone else, some choices were oddly placed but this movie is a fantastic reintroduction. I really, really hope there is more on the way.

I still can't get over that shot of Godzilla

Spoiler

breathing his radioactive breath down that MUTO's throat

Same reaction! It was insane, can't remember the last time I thought something was as badass as that on film.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

They should have ended it like The Dark Knight.

Sam: Why is he swimming, Dad?
Ford:Because we have to chase him.
Sam: He didn't do anything wrong.
Ford: Because he's the hero Earth deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. Godzilla.

 

[Lord]

Actually, you would need to change it to: He's the hero Earth Needs, but not the one it deserves. Since he's indeed the only one who can take on the MUTOs, but not exactly something we like to exist.

 

[DA_Champion]

I liked it, but it had a lot of problems.

I didn't find the lack of Godzilla a problem. Yeah the continious teasing of fights was annoying, but really there was only so much they could do with the monsters. As the last battle showed there wasn't much variety. I really liked the final fight, but it being cloaked in darkness was a bit of a letdown. Made it a bit hard to see at times.

That being said, it had nothing on the Pacific Rim brawls. Those were far more visually interesting and actually viewable.

The film's biggest problem is thin human characters, clunky dialogue, and overly sentimental moments, like all the times they try to "humanize" Godzilla. There is also the laughably bad things like Godzilla passing out alongside Ford, the Mutos apparently being invisible half the time and the "King of Monsters" news crap.

That all being said, the film's greatest strength by far is Godzilla. His look is fantastic, even if he looks more adorable then fierce. I rather he had been a force of nature as opposed to the People's Champion, but the roar and breath made up for that.

All in all, I liked it, but I feel like this will be a highlight blu-ray more then a film I watch all the way through again.

Pacific Rim had better fight scenes and a better musical score. However, the human characters were far more annoying, and the pseudoscience was more offensively stupid."Drift compatibility" was shockingly dumb and i any case contradicted by the film.

 

[Dispatch Ninja]

I don't understand a desperate need for more of godzilla fighting. There wasn't a whole lot more to add without tiring, imo, the audience.

Anyway, I really loved this movie

100% agree with this. They got the amount of godzilla screen time/monster action just perfect imo. Any more would have definitely been tiring (pacific rim)

 

[DA_Champion]

100% agree with this. They got the amount of godzilla screen time/monster action just perfect imo. Any more would have definitely been tiring (pacific rim)

Part of the reason that people are saying they would have liked to see more of Godzilla are that:

1) The scenes without Godzilla are mostly boring, with low-quality human characters;
2) The cutting of Godzilla in the first two thirds of the movie to mostly hide him is a narrative device developed by Jaws 40 years ago but since so overused that nobody buys it anymore and it simply comes off as manipulative.

 

[DeadPresident]

Part of the reason that people are saying they would have liked to see more of Godzilla are that:

1) The scenes without Godzilla are mostly boring, with low-quality human characters;
2) The cutting of Godzilla in the first two thirds of the movie to mostly hide him is a narrative device developed by Jaws 40 years ago but since so overused that nobody buys it anymore and it simply comes off as manipulative.

I'm skeptical about that claim, but let's assume you're right. If they remedied that then all the mouth breathers would've come out with exclamations about "this was some trash drama with a Godzilla cameo lolol!".

How's that adage go...you can please some people some of the time?

 

[DA_Champion]

I'm skeptical about that claim, but let's assume you're right. If they remedied that then all the mouth breathers would've come out with exclamations about "this was some trash drama with a Godzilla cameo lolol!".

How's that adage go...you can please some people some of the time?

The way to remedy that is either to make the movie shorter by cutting out most of the useless human crap, or keeping the length as is but with a superior human product.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

I saw the film last night and I really enjoyed it. I don't know what you guys thought of World War Z, but I thought they kinda copied that formula. The same way that, that film wasn't so much about zombies as it was about humanity and the whole world dealing with zombies; this film isn't so much about Godzilla as it is humanity and the whole world dealing with Godzilla and these MUTOs. Cranston had a very good role and did a nice job. I don't think he was wasted.

Spoiler

He was killed off way too early though, and his replacement with Ford was a bit inspired. Joe was the heart of the film early on so it was disappointing to see him die so quickly. For being a main point of advertisements, I'm really surprised he wasn't the main human character.

Ford was a good, serviceable main human character. He did his purpose and nothing more or less. Felt like a nameless marine in a video game or something. You like him and root for him, but only because they shove a family in your face and you have to. Aaron is a decent actor, but this leaves me worried for his Quicksilver.
I enjoyed all the side characters like Ichiro and Elle. They were good, but again just serviceable. Cranston is the only stand out. However, he doesn't even get to use his max potential. Possibly since we saw his greatness in a long 5 season tv show compared to a movie?
I really enjoyed the plot and what they were going for with story, theme, and tone. I felt this was very appropriate for our reinvention of Godzilla. Seeing how humanity and the world deals with this is why I liked this (and World War Z) so much.
I knew Godzilla was going to have limited screen time so I prepared my self for that. I was surprised how much more screen time his enemies, the MUTOs had though. I guess they thought one exposition scene on Godzilla was enough? I really liked the MUTOs and their story though. It was well done. And while you don't always see Godzilla, his presence is always known.
Now the two cut-aways! Was it done for style or lack of budget? The first one, the news one was OK. It did bother me, but it wasn't the end of the world. The second one, when the doors close I thought was particularly effective. I really liked that one. Then we get the final battle was absolutely incredible. It was slow, massive, and brutal. Exactly how these types of monsters are suppose to fight. That atomic breath, especially the final use of it, no words! Maybe the cut-aways were good so that the final battle would be as great as it is. Unlike most movies, you can't have a couple of Godzilla fights and them not be essentially the same thing each time. The throw each other into buildings, claw each other, bite each other, etc.
I really enjoyed Godzilla overall. 9.0/10.

 

[GreenKToo]

Loved it. Its right up there with the 54 one for me. 9/10. Loved the final fight.

 

[DA_Champion]

Reiterated from my review, I have one question about the plot:

Spoiler

At the end, when the larger female Muto is closing in on the nuclear weapon, Godzilla comes and kills the larger muto. But we had just seen Godzilla collapse unconsciously below an office tower he destroyed, and in the next day Godzilla wakes up below that rubble, half of San Francisco removed from the docks. So, was it a separate Godzilla who killed the larger muto? I don't know, I think so.