Godzilla (2014) - - - Part 12

[DrDoom]

One more hour!!!!!

 

[Rock Sexton]

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)

I don't care about the amount. The fights were less than creative.

 

[Liam_H]

Why are so many people assuming that if you have problems with the pacing its because things don't keep blowing up the entire time?

 

[redfirebird2008]

$38.5m is an incredible start.

 

[kaijunexus]

While also getting rid of the nuke everything plot device can we also chuck the incompetent military that won't listen to the scientist....i think that's gotten used way too much

You know...I don't think that was really so prevalent in this film, though.

After Dr. Serizawa protested, the general said to him with genuine sincerity, "Please, if you have any other ideas, we will try them" (or something like that). Dr. Serizawa just stood silently. There was no better idea at the time.

After all, these monsters just appeared and ravaged two cities, thousands of miles apart, in a matter of days...and were all converging another major metropolitan population.

In real life, any sane person would cut their loses and be willing to sacrifice a city in order to stop these things from continuing on to potentially slaughter billions.

At the end of the day, Serizawa may have been right, but he had no scientific data to support his theory. He just had a "feeling" that Godzilla would win and wouldn't then continue on to trample the United States.

A scientists feelings don't carry much weight when faced with a massive threat to an entire country, let alone the world.

 

[Rock Sexton]

$38.5m is an incredible start.

Opening weekend is a hit.

However the drop next weekend will be steep. I don't see strong WOM for this one at all.

 

[Liam_H]

Regardless of how bad WOM is or is not for this movie, $200M+ should already be a lock if it opens close to $100M. That's already a win.

 

[MarvelKnight]

Saw this last night. It blew me away. Being a Godzilla fan since I was a little kid, it was amazing. Edwards did him justice.

 

[VM1138]

Yep, I feel duped by the marketing campaign. Pretty drastic difference between "Destroyer of All Worlds" and [BLACKOUT]"Hero of Our City." [/BLACKOUT]

This is a complaint I hear quite a bit, but I don't get it.

[BLACKOUT]Yes, Godzilla saves the city, but he doesn't do it on purpose. And the whole movie Serizawa emphasizes that Godzilla is the alpha predator, top of the food chain. Humanity is in trouble because of this. Godzilla IS the destroyer of worlds. He comes out of the ocean, does battle with other monsters, lays waste to everything, and then goes back to the ocean. He may not have purposely attacked and tortured the small creatures (humans) who didn't pose a threat, but he had no problem stomping around their cities. That's classic Godzilla to me. Now, having other monsters maybe took away from him being the SOLE destroyer of worlds. But he did deliver.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[DrDoom]

What's the budget again?

 

[Superhero 101]

$38.5m is an incredible start.

Wow did not expect this movie to do that good! bigger than TWS opening day is something I did not see. now I am really excited to see this today

 

[MrMaooz]

What's the budget again?

160 million dollar production budget.

 

[Leenie]

Why are so many people assuming that if you have problems with the pacing its because things don't keep blowing up the entire time?

What issues did you have with the pacing, then? I'm curious, because the one consistent complaint I've been seeing about this movie is that there's not enough action and spectacle.

 

[Rock Sexton]

This is a complaint I hear quite a bit, but I don't get it.

[BLACKOUT]Yes, Godzilla saves the city, but he doesn't do it on purpose. And the whole movie Serizawa emphasizes that Godzilla is the alpha predator, top of the food chain. Humanity is in trouble because of this. Godzilla IS the destroyer of worlds. He comes out of the ocean, does battle with other monsters, lays waste to everything, and then goes back to the ocean. He may not have purposely attacked and tortured the small creatures (humans) who didn't pose a threat, but he had no problem stomping around their cities. That's classic Godzilla to me. Now, having other monsters maybe took away from him being the SOLE destroyer of worlds. But he did deliver.[/BLACKOUT]

The problem with your explanation is it WASN'T developed in the movie well. Ken Watanabe simply blurts it out at the most convenient time in the film. Yet they spend over an hour giving us the backstory of the MUTOS. It was an ass-backwards approach.

 

[DrDoom]

This is a complaint I hear quite a bit, but I don't get it.

[BLACKOUT]Yes, Godzilla saves the city, but he doesn't do it on purpose. And the whole movie Serizawa emphasizes that Godzilla is the alpha predator, top of the food chain. Humanity is in trouble because of this. Godzilla IS the destroyer of worlds. He comes out of the ocean, does battle with other monsters, lays waste to everything, and then goes back to the ocean. He may not have purposely attacked and tortured the small creatures (humans) who didn't pose a threat, but he had no problem stomping around their cities. That's classic Godzilla to me. Now, having other monsters maybe took away from him being the SOLE destroyer of worlds. But he did deliver.[/BLACKOUT]

Yeah, I've heard in a review that Godzilla's treated like a wild animal not a malicious creature. He doesnt willingly destroy stuff it's just in his way, I like that.

 

[Dispatch Ninja]

What do y'all think it needs for them to go ahead with talks for a sequel?

 

[Sithborg]

I think the reactions to Godzilla are genuinely mixed. I will say that it was much better watching it the second time, once I didn't have to satisfy my expectations. On the second viewing, the crowd seemed to really like the first fake out, though the guy next to me didn't seem to like it too much. And my parents really seemed to like it. Saying the second half was pretty intense. And they are definitely not Godzilla fans. I think I may see a few more times at the $2.50 morning shows around here.

I am thrilled with the opening numbers. I was fine with the initial $60 million projections. That we are now talking about possibly breaking 100, it's crazy. Happy time to be a G-fan. Now, if only they could untangle the rights around Godzilla 85...

 

[Rock Sexton]

What issues did you have with the pacing, then? I'm curious, because the one consistent complaint I've been seeing about this movie is that there's not enough action and spectacle.

Again, there's complaints about the action because it lacks quality. They resorted to backing out a lot of the shots and all we kept seeing was the same fight repeatedly, that is right up until you get the atomic breath.

 

[Gabe99]

THR:
Box Office: 'Godzilla' Stomps Toward $100 Million Domestic Debut
The summer's second tentpole took in a whopping $38.5 million on Friday, the biggest day of the year so far.

If traffic holds, the Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. tentpole could best the $95 million debut of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the $91.6 million opening of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Godzilla, earning a B+ CinemaScore, is doing especially strong business in Imax theaters, which generated $6.1 million in Friday ticket sales.

Pre-release tracking had suggested that Godzilla would reach $65 million in its domestic launch.

DEADLINE:
BOX OFFICE: ‘Godzilla’ Crushes It: $98M+

VARIETY:
‘Godzilla’ Crushes Box Office With Largest Opening Day of Year, Set for $98 Million Weekend

The King of the Monsters is also king of the box office.

“Godzilla” obliterated the competition with a $38.5 million Stateside opening on Friday, the largest debut day of the year. This includes $9.3 million from Thursday night screenings. At $6.2 million, the creature feature also earned 2014′s biggest Imax opening.

The Warner Bros.-Legendary Pictures reboot of the Japanese classic is on track for a much-higher-than-anticipated $98 million this weekend, which would be the best opening of the year so far.

This also means the tentpole could top the openings of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which launched to $95 million and $91.6 million, respectively.

If that figure holds, it will also mark the highest grossing debut for a monster movie to date, ahead of the last record holder, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” which opened to $72 million in 1997.

Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla” is undoing the damage done by Sony’s 1998 big-budget disaster. Roland Emmerich’s pic starring Matthew Broderick opened to lackluster reviews and grossed only $6 million more Stateside than its $130 million production budget (it hauled $380 million worldwide). In fact, the last three Godzilla movies have flopped domestically, with “Godzilla 1985” grossing $4 million and “Godzilla 2000” making $10 million.

“Godzilla” had also grossed $20 million from more than 30 markets on Thursday, including $2 million in the U.K. from sneak screenings, $1.7 million in Russia and $1.4 million in Mexico. It opened in 64 international territories on Friday.

The $160 million blockbuster is the last film that WB is co-financing with Legendary — its producing partner of eight years. “Godzilla” is their first big-budget collaboration following last summer’s mixed bag “Pacific Rim.”

Legendary, which financed 75% of “Godzilla,” looks to be turning a new leaf following its recent trouble with the monster genre at the U.S. box office. “Pacific Rim’s” meager takings (it made $102 million domestic on a $190 million production budget) followed Bryan Singer’s “Jack the Giant Slayer” disappointment, another WB release.

 

[Leenie]

This is a complaint I hear quite a bit, but I don't get it.

[BLACKOUT]Yes, Godzilla saves the city, but he doesn't do it on purpose. And the whole movie Serizawa emphasizes that Godzilla is the alpha predator, top of the food chain. Humanity is in trouble because of this. Godzilla IS the destroyer of worlds. He comes out of the ocean, does battle with other monsters, lays waste to everything, and then goes back to the ocean. He may not have purposely attacked and tortured the small creatures (humans) who didn't pose a threat, but he had no problem stomping around their cities. That's classic Godzilla to me. Now, having other monsters maybe took away from him being the SOLE destroyer of worlds. But he did deliver.[/BLACKOUT]

I honestly don't think that the movie flat-out called him a hero.[BLACKOUT] In fact, the humorous news headline said "King of the Monsters: Hero to the City?" There was a big question mark in that headline.

Yes, Godzilla was able to destroy the MUTOs, which were the biggest threat to humanity at the time, but I definitely saw Godzilla killing people on the Golden Gate Bridge during that part of the film. Sure, people aren't his target, but he's not out to save them.[/BLACKOUT]

The movie was pretty crystal clear to me that Godzilla isn't a hero or a villain. He's a dominating animal defending his territory against other monsters, and people are merely ants to him. Not a threat, not a target, just ants. Sure, he's not actively seeking to destroy humans like he is with other monsters, but if he just so happens to squash us like bugs, he clearly wouldn't care.

 

[Liam_H]

What issues did you have with the pacing, then? I'm curious, because the one consistent complaint I've been seeing about this movie is that there's not enough action and spectacle.

The fact that we spend a good majority of the middle of the movie watching Ford jump from set piece to set piece. Don't hate his character or anything but not very interesting either. He's also interacting mostly with random soldiers that pop in.

Plus the whole middle of the plot dealt so much with how to destroy them but it boils down to....[BLACKOUT]we need to use a nuke, oh crap we need to disarm the nuke now before it kills everybody.
[/BLACKOUT]

Like the beginning and the end of the movie but the middle section is kind of a drag. It may seem like people are saying they wanted more Godzilla action. But its more like what we use to "build up tension" is just very uninteresting.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Ok, here are my initial thoughts:

I was was surprised to find out that this film did not end up being more akin to a disaster movie where Godzilla is a walking natural disaster that causes turmoil and effects the individual characters where there's a gray debate over the nature of Godzilla with themes of man trying to control nature, etc.

Now granted, that's just what I got from the marketing. But I'm sure people here thought the same.

But once I realized that wasn't the movie we were getting, we got a pretty different movie entirely. A movie that starts off as a cool conspiracy film then segue-ways into an kickass enjoyable Roland Emmerich (yes, Roland Emmerich, but more Independence Day Emmerich) meets the original Toho films.

I really felt like a kid again, watching Godzilla turn out to be a good guy all along and fighting the MUTO's. I rooted for him. I was worried about him. I just enjoyed the hell out of him. But despite all of this, it's good! It's well executed! The structure of getting into the MUTO's and Godzilla was very well handled. The characters were interesting, Watanabe being the most.

Overall, not what I was expecting, but it made up for it through just being an enjoyable kick ass Godzilla movie. I can't wait to see Godzilla return.

Now I have some problems. Aaron Taylor Johnston wasn't the most well cast. I like him, and it's one of those things where I liked him more as the film went along, but I didn't quite buy him as a father towards the beginning. Once he became more involved with the military and doing what he is best at, that's when I believed him a lot more.

Elizabeth Olson was great in what little she had. Why wasn't she given more to do? She provided a nice emotional anchor and reminder as to the reason why Brody is doing this for, but if only she was given more in the plot.

Edwards certainly delivers the geek moments.

Spoiler

"Let them fight."
and perhaps the most awesome antagonist death I've seen in a long time.

 

[Rock Sexton]

The fact that we spend a good majority of the middle of the movie watching Ford jump from set piece to set piece. Don't hate his character or anything but not very interesting either. He's also interacting mostly with random soldiers that pop in.

Plus the whole middle of the plot dealt so much with how to destroy them but it boils down to....[BLACKOUT]we need to use a nuke, oh crap we need to disarm the nuke now before it kills everybody.
[/BLACKOUT]

Like the beginning and the end of the movie but the middle section is kind of a drag. It may seem like people are saying they wanted more Godzilla action. But its more like what we use to "build up tension" is just very uninteresting.

If ATJ was able to carry the middle portion of the movie with some quality writing to back him up, I would've felt a little better about what I was watching. But man, it was just cornball stuff with the military (outside of the HALO jump). The way you explained the bomb situation was exactly how I felt. I just rolled my eyes. ATJ became the most "conveniently" placed man alive during most of the movie.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Edwards certainly delivers the geek moments.

Spoiler

perhaps the most awesome antagonist death I've seen in a long time.

Yep, that was my favorite part of the movie. t:

 

[Lord]

Anyone read the comic book prequel? There was a very weird scientist in it, does he appear in the movie? He was pretty old school "wacky" scientist that i thought people no longer made.