Godzilla (2014) - - - Part 12

[Doctor Jones]

Okay, I have a question about the plot:

Spoiler

Why doesn't the MUTO take the nuclear missile from the train that the helicopter takes the next morning?

 

[redfirebird2008]

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'll just agree to disagree with you. The marketing campaign very clearly made him out to be the threat to humanity in the movie. That is my view on it and I'm not alone in it.

 

[kaijunexus]

I'll just agree to disagree with you. The marketing campaign very clearly made him out to be the threat to humanity in the movie. That is my view on it and I'm not alone in it.

Bleh. I'm so tired of people judging films based on what they expected because of the marketing. It was the same thing with Iron Man 3.

Judge the film based on its own merits. If you're incapable of doing that, then do yourself a favor and avoid as much movie marketing as you possibly can...paying attention to it is obviously doing you no favors.

 

[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.

 

[Leenie]

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.

Gotcha, that makes sense. Personally it didn't bother me, but I can totally see why these things wouldn't catch people's interests (since all of us have seen this stuff before).

I do agree that the strongest parts of the film were the beginning and the end.

[BLACKOUT]If Cranston's character had not died so soon, I think we would have gotten an interesting father-son story for this movie, which would have added a lot to the film, in my opinion. I liked the humans in this movie, but I also think that Cranston was written out too soon, since he lit up every part he was in.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[redfirebird2008]

Bleh. I'm so tired of people judging films based on what they expected because of the marketing. It was the same thing with Iron Man 3.

Judge the film based on its own merits. If you're incapable of doing that, then do yourself a favor and avoid as much movie marketing as you possibly can...paying attention to it is obviously doing you no favors.

That is not the issue. If they had actually done something with the story that I liked, I wouldn't have cared about the marketing. I strongly prefer the 1954 version of Godzilla to what they did with the later Toho films. So turning this movie into something that was more about the OTHER creatures driving the story bothered me a lot.

 

[Liam_H]

Gotcha, that makes sense. Personally it didn't bother me, but I can totally see why these things wouldn't catch people's interests (since all of us have seen this stuff before).

I do agree that the strongest parts of the film were the beginning and the end.

[BLACKOUT]If Cranston's character had not died so soon, I think we would have gotten an interesting father-son story for this movie, which would have added a lot to the film, in my opinion. I liked the humans in this movie, but I also think that Cranston was written out too soon, since he lit up every part he was in.[/BLACKOUT]

[BLACKOUT]Cranston seemed so natural to slip right in with the movie. Watanabe even points him out saying "I want him", but then he just dies. Both of them could've worked together to try and figure out more about Godzilla...is he a threat? if so how can we stop him? should we really trust him to defeat the two MUTOs? etc.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[Rock Sexton]

In regards to the marketing .....

Don't give us a ton of Bryan Cranston in the trailers and then have him exit stage left so soon in the movie. It's a buzzkill, because what was left to carry the torch was pale in comparison to him.

 

[Hulk1968]

From Variety Magazine (posted 2 hours ago)


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

Variety

By Maane Khatchatourian 2 hours ago

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.

The pic starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen is playing in 3,952 theaters. It received mainly positive reviews, earning a B+ CinemaScorea and 73% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[kaijunexus]

That is not the issue. If they had actually done something with the story that I liked, I wouldn't have cared about the marketing. I strongly prefer the 1954 version of Godzilla to what they did with the later Toho films. So turning this movie into something that was more about the OTHER creatures driving the story bothered me a lot.

Any disappointment in the lack of focus on the titular monster is certainly valid to me (though I'm very happy with what we got). However, only 2 Godzilla films (3 if you count '98) out of 30 have featured Godzilla alone without other monsters. And the vast majority of those movies feature Godzilla either as an outright hero or as an ambivalent force of nature that vanquishes a common enemy.

The Godzilla in this movie was more in keeping with his portrayal as a whole over his 60 year career than something closer to the 1954 original would ever have been. I understand if some people wanted "Godzilla: The atomic destroyer of man", but he hasn't been that in roughly 50 years.

Besides, consider this...

Godzilla wasn't out to save anyone in this film. He was just doing his thing, and his thing just so happened to benefit us this go around.

I would very much doubt that this notion has been lost on the filmmakers. I fully expect Godzilla to shower a little humbling wrath down upon his new, unsuspecting human fans in the next film.

 

[Hypestyle]

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I liked it, for the most part.

I wonder was the "Brody" family name an accident? You know, Jaws... There were even "dorsal" sequences, and a final confrontation alone on a boat at sea.. lol..

I didn't like how Cranston didn't last until the end of the film. I thought, maybe, there might be a sequence where he sacrifices himself in the climax to save Ford or some civilian folks, but...

...I wonder how much paleontology and bio-sciences in general are turned upside down in this movie. The Monarch organization knew about Godzilla and the Mutos-- but they were apparently withholding this world-changing information from the broader scientific communities? Wow.

I liked the nod to Hiroshima by Watanabe's character.

I didn't like how the earlier fight sequences seemed to be truncated-- it just seemed-- I don't know, disingenuous, somehow.

The three creatures caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, let alone all the human casualties. I'm wondering how the economies of Japan and USA begin recovery accordingly, in the next installment. The rebuilding should take years, if not decades.

 

[Leenie]

The box office news is great.

Even if people didn't enjoy the movie, I still want it to be successful enough to warrant sequels. This movie opened the door for so many possibilities, and I think they can get crazier with future films while giving Godzilla more screen time.

 

[roach]

I wonder was the "Brody" family name an accident? You know, Jaws... There were even "dorsal" sequences, and a final confrontation alone on a boat at sea.. lol..

it was on purpose....Ford's wife's name was Elle...Chief Brody's wife's name is Ellen

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

I didn't realize the massive plot hole dealing with the nuke which was suppose to be the biggest baddest nuke ever made! It blows up and... nothing? How far from land was it? No effects from fallout? No tsunami? Basically, no damage whatsoever?

It would of been great for Ford to see all three monsters fall, and realize the nuke is not needed and deactivate it. He would have had purpose and be a hero. It would of been a great conclusion. Godzilla was the weapon to end this all, not the nuke.

 

[nocomics]

In regards to the marketing .....

Don't give us a ton of Bryan Cranston in the trailers and then have him exit stage left so soon in the movie. It's a buzzkill, because what was left to carry the torch was pale in comparison to him.

I agree as well, plus Ken Wantabe's character too needed more screen time. Plus, it just wasn't the early exit of Cranston, but it was the moment that it happened. Wantabe was asked who he needed to help and he said them, but the flipping character died 1 minute later, that was a let down imo.
They laid the ground work for more monsters in a sequel if one gets made( I hope it does). I thought the movie was okay, but it did feel to drag on even though there was stuff going on(maybe it was just wanting to see Godzilla or uninteresting characters), they could of cut 10 min's or so might of been better.
Far as screen time, anyone have G's screen time on this compared to others?
*If they do another movie, I hope they use King Ghidra or Gamera as enemies(or ****, Mecha Godzilla?)

 

[Dispatch Ninja]

I didn't realize the massive plot hole dealing with the nuke which was suppose to be the biggest baddest nuke ever made! It blows up and... nothing? How far from land was it? No effects from fallout? No tsunami? Basically, no damage whatsoever?

It would of been great for Ford to see all three monsters fall, and realize the nuke is not needed and deactivate it. He would have had purpose and be a hero. It would of been a great conclusion. Godzilla was the weapon to end this all, not the nuke.

I wonder if the mutos

Spoiler

weakened it somehow when they had it by feeding off of its radiation? The bomb thing isn't making sense to me either. The one at the beginning was huge and they described that as tiny compared to the one that detonated at the end.

 

[Matt]

My thoughts:

The movie opens very strong. Then [blackout]Cranston dies[/blackout] and we are left with a human character who isn't really developed, is stiffly acted and who the audience does not really care about. That drags the movie down A LOT.

So for about an hour, we are teased with shots of destruction and chaos left in the wake of the monsters, but we never see it. We are teased with fights between Godzilla and the MUTOs, but all we see is a shaky news clip. We are teased and teased. We wait and wait. All the while, the humans do things that essentially equates from going from point A to point B while Godzilla swims underwater. We finally get to the climax, we get to see the destruction and the fighting....but by that point, I didn't really care. I was too worn down from the hour of nothingness. I had to pee, my daughter was restless and I wanted to go home. The fight was cool...but it was too little, too late and it kept cutting to the humans we didn't care about who were conveniently in the middle of it for some reason.

I think this movie could've been a lot better if it were about 30 minutes shorter and lived up to its namesake, gave us more of Godzilla and less of the humans. And if it had to waste an hour on humans, it should've kept the one interesting one around.

Anyway, the first 30 were good and the last 30 were good. Everything else was a snooze-fest. I rate the movie somewhere between a 6 and a 7, so yeah, 6.5/10.

 

[Matt]

I agree as well, plus Ken Wantabe's character too needed more screen time. Plus, it just wasn't the early exit of Cranston, but it was the moment that it happened. Wantabe was asked who he needed to help and he said them, but the flipping character died 1 minute later, that was a let down imo.
They laid the ground work for more monsters in a sequel if one gets made( I hope it does). I thought the movie was okay, but it did feel to drag on even though there was stuff going on(maybe it was just wanting to see Godzilla or uninteresting characters), they could of cut 10 min's or so might of been better.
Far as screen time, anyone have G's screen time on this compared to others?
*If they do another movie, I hope they use King Ghidra or Gamera as enemies(or ****, Mecha Godzilla?)

I wouldn't want to see Mothra. I mean, the winged MUTO was more or less her (only I think the winged one was the male, right? But it served the same basic purpose). So yeah, no real need for Mothra. Gamera is a bit cheesy, IMO. Ghidorah could be good. I dunno...I kinda want Mecha Godzilla. I feel like they could do some cool things with it. Maybe in light of the MUTO attack, the military creates Mecha Godzilla, a fully nuclear powerhouse designed to hunt these creatures/protect humanity from them. Eventually, perhaps during a fight with Godzilla, it malfunctions and the military looses control and it is up to Godzilla to stop it? I dunno, I'm spitballing.

 

[Figs]

I'm going to catch flack for this but I'm starting to agree with a few critics that said this movie isn't for people with short attention spans.

If it would have shown the first two fights in full, the third fight would have been nothing special.

 

[UltraSuperGuy]

[BLACKOUT]Cranston seemed so natural to slip right in with the movie. Watanabe even points him out saying "I want him", but then he just dies. Both of them could've worked together to try and figure out more about Godzilla...is he a threat? if so how can we stop him? should we really trust him to defeat the two MUTOs? etc.[/BLACKOUT]

Yeah, the story would have been much better off with both Cranston and Watanabe as the main characters. I thought the fact that the military is just going to listen to Watanabe and trust that he knows everything about Godzilla was ridiculous. HOW does Watanabe know so much about Godzilla? How does he know that he's there to "restore balance" and poses no threat to humans? Never explained in anyway, we just have to accept it. Very lame.

 

[DeadPresident]

I wouldn't want to see Mothra. I mean, the winged MUTO was more or less her (only I think the winged one was the male, right? But it served the same basic purpose). So yeah, no real need for Mothra. Gamera is a bit cheesy, IMO. Ghidorah could be good. I dunno...I kinda want Mecha Godzilla. I feel like they could do some cool things with it. Maybe in light of the MUTO attack, the military creates Mecha Godzilla, a fully nuclear powerhouse designed to hunt these creatures/protect humanity from them. Eventually, perhaps during a fight with Godzilla, it malfunctions and the military looses control and it is up to Godzilla to stop it? I dunno, I'm spitballing.

That's a $1b movie right there, done vaguely well.

 

[redfirebird2008]

The box office news is great.

Even if people didn't enjoy the movie, I still want it to be successful enough to warrant sequels. This movie opened the door for so many possibilities, and I think they can get crazier with future films while giving Godzilla more screen time.

Yes. I didn't love the movie but I want it to succeed and create a strong franchise. It was at least much better than Michael Bay's Transformers. I was a huge fan of the Transformers as a kid and I hate what Bay did with it.

If we're going to have big monster fighting movies, then I'd rather have them without the immature sexist/racist jokes that Bay always stuffs into his movies.

 

[Sithborg]

I wouldn't want to see Mothra. I mean, the winged MUTO was more or less her (only I think the winged one was the male, right? But it served the same basic purpose). So yeah, no real need for Mothra. Gamera is a bit cheesy, IMO. Ghidorah could be good. I dunno...I kinda want Mecha Godzilla. I feel like they could do some cool things with it. Maybe in light of the MUTO attack, the military creates Mecha Godzilla, a fully nuclear powerhouse designed to hunt these creatures/protect humanity from them. Eventually, perhaps during a fight with Godzilla, it malfunctions and the military looses control and it is up to Godzilla to stop it? I dunno, I'm spitballing.

It was an interesting idea that Toho didn't fully realize with Kiryu (aka Mechagodzilla III). It also had a great thread about the ethics of the Japanese rearming to fight Godzilla. I need to rewatch that one.

 

[Hulk1968]

That's a $1b movie right there, done vaguely well.

That MechaGodzilla (Mecha G III) idea was already done. Besides, I don't think it would be realistic. Well we are talking about giant monsters so I guess it could be done, I suppose.

Oh and with regards to Gamera... it's owned by a different movie studio and there are already talks / rumors of a new Gamera movie coming out next year in Japan.

 

[Matt]

Page bump.