Godzilla (2014) - - - Part 12

[sportjames23]

The best way I can describe it is to compare it to Jaws.

Most of Jaws is music, a fin here, a fin there, one quick shot here. It's not until the third act of Jaws that you get to really see the shark do his thing. Godzilla is just like that. A glimpse, a tease, a tail, a spine, one quick full reveal....and then the glorious third act kicks in and delivers one of the coolest friggin' action set pieces I've seen in years.

Describes it perfectly.

Really enjoyed this movie, way more so than the 1998 movie. Looking forward to the Blu-Ray.

 

[Superhero 101]

Just saw it thought it was okay a 7/10 for me definitely slow movie the end was great though

 

[sportjames23]

Godzilla vs King Kong

Oh, PLEASE make this happen!

 

[sportjames23]

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.

Sounds like what a lot of detractors felt about Man of Steel.

 

[Lord]

Sounds like what a lot of detractors felt about Man of Steel.

But that was Superman, not Godzilla, superman's about hope, not being called Jesus because everyone around him says so

 

[Dugath]

Hate to say it folks, this movie was "ok" at best.

Nothing really stood out for this movie except maybe his roar.
I will be honest I thought the CGI was not that great.

A few times during the movie it looked like an actor in front of a Green screen showing a Muto or Godzilla. [BLACKOUT]Once instance that stands out is when the winged one rises up out of the pit for the first time.[/BLACKOUT] Take in account I did see it in Imax.

The acting was sub par and as already is documented the "action" is on the light side. Even the wife after words said..

1-Thought there would be more Godzilla.
2-Thought there would be more action.
3-Thought Cranston would be in it more.

Not saying it is a "bad" movie. Just not really great.

 

[Godzilla2000]

Well, it's a Godzilla movie. Are you expecting Citizen Kane? Compared to the Broderick film this one is vastly more entertaining.

 

[addison81]

I get people saying not enough Godzilla but i felt there was plenty of action. The cgi was great in my opinion.

 

[Bullseye1]

5/10 for me. When the monsters were on screen it was great. I also enjoyed the transworld start to the movie but killing off Juliette Binoche one of the greatest actresses ever did not bode well for acting in this movie of which there was very little. Quite surprised by EOlsen who I consider a fine actress but this part was atrocious. Brian Granston was fine but not great and Aaron Taylor cannot act to save his life. Some of the editing also got tiring real fast especially the scenes where the monster battles were cut short after waiting almost 1.5 hours for them.

 

[guitarsingerguy]

"Director Gareth Edwards has already stated that if a sequel was ever made, he'd use the same anticipation model he used for the first movie - where, like in Spielberg films, the monster is talked about for the first half of the movie before it's finally revealed."

That's concerning.

It's definitely strange. The reveal is out of the bag. Let him shine the next go round.

 

[Silvermoth]

I just hope we don't have to go through the "daddy forgot my birthday" thing again. If it's about characters at monarch which is relevant to the story I'm ok with that but if it's pointless reality tv drama please don't.

By the way, during the kiss at the end did anyone else think "gross, they're brother and sister!"

 

[jmc]

I just hope we don't have to go through the ''daddy forgot my birthday'' thing again. If it's about characters at monarch which is relevant to the story I'm ok with that but if it's pointless reality tv drama please don't.

By the way, during the kiss at the end did anyone else think ''gross, they're brother and sister!''

If it was Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal then yes I would have lol.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

Whatever qualms you may have with this film, I feel they will take it into account now for the sequel, Happy Godzilla is back! Maybe Toho starts getting back into it as well.

 

[lukebrodyg]

If ever a movie warranted a 2nd viewing, I thin this is it.

It seems most people (myself included) were expecting something very different. I think a 2nd viewing would help since all those preconceived notions would be gone.

 

[DorneyDave]

A second viewing won't make this film any less boring.

 

[sportjames23]

A second viewing won't make this film any less boring.

And yet, here you are still talking about it.

Never understood why people who don't like something keep talking about it. Plenty of movies I don't like, but I don't waste time talking about how much I don't like them.

 

[nightwing06]

This 2014 version of Godzilla honors the 1954 film and the Toho Studios that still bring back great memories.
Fortunately it doesnt have any of the goofy antics of the 1998 Godzilla film,but it does have a few flaws and annoyances.

Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is a nuclear scientist at a Japanese nuclear power plant which goes into meltdown
after severe earth tremors strike nearby.Brody suffers a loss and never gives up on what really happened at the plant
Fifteen years later,he still seeks answers much to the dismay of his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) an explosive ordinance disposal officer.
After going to Japan to bail him out,they both find the truth ...a truth that they both werent expecting.

Cranston is great as usual,and does his best with his screen time,but Aaron Taylor-Johnson,Elizabeth Olsen,Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, and David Strathairn fall into basic disaster movie character slots.
Oddly once the action starts Director Gareth Edwards pulls back from what seems would be something the audience will be thrilled to see
The first time this happens its slightly humorous but after the fifth time it became obnoxious.

Fortunately Edwards provides some suspense in a few scenes,and lets the audience marvel at the size and features of the creatures that inabit the film.He also wisely gives Godzilla a few upgrades and fun action sequences that makes the audience cheer.

Im looking forward to what the king of the monsters will take on next in the already in the works sequel.

Scale of 1-10 an 8

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I get people saying not enough Godzilla but i felt there was plenty of action. The cgi was great in my opinion.

I didn't think the action was anything great really. The Halo jump was nice but once the final Godzilla battle started it really wasn't anything all that spectacular. You'd get a bite here, then cut to boring hero guy doing hero stuff, then back to Godzilla getting pushed into a building, cut back to boring guy doing his hero stuff...rinse, repeat. The only highlight of the whole fight was the

Spoiler

atomic breath and the tail spin

. Other than that it's not something worth sitting through 100 minutes of dull filler again.

 

[ares834]

And yet, here you are still talking about it.

Never understood why people who don't like something keep talking about it. Plenty of movies I don't like, but I don't waste time talking about how much I don't like them.

Same. Never understood it either. But a lot of people like to complain I guess.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

And yet, here you are still talking about it.

Never understood why people who don't like something keep talking about it. Plenty of movies I don't like, but I don't waste time talking about how much I don't like them.

Yup. I don't understand it either.

There is a difference between engaging in an actual discussion and coming back over and over to toss out backhanded insults toward a film or whatever just because you don't like it.

Makes zero sense. Why wouldn't you want to discuss something you DO like?

 

[djsunyc]

huge opening weekend - somewhat expected.

with x-men opening this weekend, how big of a drop off do you see for godzilla?

$93 mil domestic - will it crack $25 mil next week?

 

[ares834]

It will easily crack 25 mil next week, especially since it is memorial weekend.

 

[Tony Stark]

This is the Godzilla we should have gotten in 1998 and didn't. Once again, bad move for Sony, giving up the rights and letting them go to Warner Bros.

The biggest plus of this movie is that it's so faithful to the Japanese Godzilla films. Godzilla is more or less the "hero" of this film, as he was in the Japanese films, rather than a threat they had to stop.

The one disappointment for me is that a lot of energy is sapped from the film when [blackout]Bryan Cranston's character is killed[/blackout]. The rest of the cast does a so-so job, but can't make up for the first 1/3 of the film.

But overall, I can see why this got such positive reviews. This is the Godzilla fans of the character deserved. It's not a camp fest, it's taken very seriously, and while a lot of the characters in the film are cardboard cutouts, and there's a lack of any kind of monsters for about an hour into the film, overall this is very much in the style of the Japanese movies.

 

[lukebrodyg]

A second viewing won't make this film any less boring.

You know what I meant.

 

[Arach Knight]

Except the Transformers flicks have been awful? Or how about the directors don't need to cater to people who want direct-to-dvd flicks that are 2 straight hours of Monsters fighting, because the vast majority of people don't want that. Godzilla is far from a cameo, he is involved in every part of the movie from 45% onward.

****SPOILER ALERT****

I never said Transformers was a great film. I said that Michael Bay understands what audiences desire. And no matter what equivocation one wishes to propose to argue the semantics of that statement, the fact remains that each and every Transformers movie is a blockbuster smash hit. In fact, I dare say that Transformers has defined the modern cinema blockbuster. Sure you have a human sub plot in each film, but that never detracts from the war between the autobots and decepticons. And since Sam spends the majority of his time in the company of the autobots, it isn't as if the audience misses out on seeing Transformers throughout the film.

Regardless of whether or not one enjoys the scripts or the acting, the general audience is never dissatisfied because the Transformers films give people what they want: the presence of the titular character(s) and plenty of action sequences involving said character(s).

Godzilla is not the type of film in which people go into the theatre thinking, "you know what I want? analytic thought about the arrogance of man, the caveats of technology, the power of nature and broken family relationships." And it would be one thing if the film actually handled those elements well. I'd be more inclined to accept the effort made to produce Godzilla as a disaster movie if I actually felt as though I were watching a disaster movie. Sadly, I didn't.

The disaster element of Godzilla is worse than 2012, but I can enjoy 2012 for being laughably bad because the film never took itself seriously to begin with. In fact, it's hard to call this film a disaster film because no monsters attacked anything until the very very end. Most of the time, the MUTOs were simply walking/flying to their destination in search of nuclear power to feed on. Godzilla was mostly swimming. Most "disaster" moments (save for the Golden Gate Bridge scene) were brief news clips. Most human scenes were arguments about battle tactics, failed phone calls to spouses and puzzled expressions upon the faces of children (lots and lots of shots of children). The movie failed to meet any of its objectives: it fails as a human drama, it fails as a disaster film and it fails as a monster movie.

And no, Godzilla is not involved in "every part of the movie from 45% onward." When Godzilla reaches Hawaii, we see him for maybe a thirty second reveal and the start of a fight that has no follow through because the scene jumps back to Ford's wife at home in San Francisco. When Godzilla reaches San Francisco, we see him walk through the Golden Gate Bridge to escape shell fire from humans. He just ignores them, plows through the bridge, and then the scene switches. Then we see him again for perhaps thirty seconds as he prepares to battle MUTO, which cuts away as Ford's wife runs into the shelter.

When else do we properly experience Godzilla before the final fifteen minutes of the film? We don't. But we do get plenty of birds eye shots of his back while he swims between U.S. naval ships. Godzilla has no real presence until he gets into full combat with the MUTO kaijus. And even then, Godzilla spends half of the fight unconscious or down on the ground getting pummeled.

The most interesting human character, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is killed, unceremoniously, in the first half hour. Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), a brilliant nod to the original 1954 classic, is wasted in this film. His character was initially very intriguing. He is one of the first scientists to encounter the kaijus before anyone knows exactly what is being dealt with. He works for a shadow corporation whose sole duty is to study these creatures and find a way to kill or contain them. And then, oh yeah, in the original film, he is the person who comes up with the Oxygen Destroyer. Very promising, right? Well too bad this version of Dr. Serizawa ends up becoming a human literary device as he spends the rest of the film spouting philosophy and exposition, completely wasting a character, screen time and the immense talents of Ken Watanabe.

There is no redeeming an entire two hour experience based on thirteen minutes of screen time involving the titular character. Not when the rest of the plot is so awful, full of plot holes and sloppy logic, and absolutely useless characters. And not when the final fight is so anti-climactic and generally pretty weak compared to even old rubber suit toho fights. There is exactly one cool moment in the entire fight, which is Big G firing his atomic breath down mother MUTO's throat. That was unexpected, visceral and satisfying. Too bad the rest of the fight was overly dark and uninteresting.

I'd give this film 0/10 if not for the fact that it at least managed to make Godzilla look like a proper Godzilla, something that can't be said for 1998s similarly woeful effort. With all that said though, this film is doing gangbusters at the box office, so there is a very strong chance for a sequel, and sequels always mean an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the first outing. So here is to looking forward.