Godzilla (2014) - - - - Part 13

[Rhomee]

Just came back from watching the film--finally!--and my feelings are a bit mixed.

On one hand, I know I will definitely be purchasing Godzilla on Blu-ray, and I enjoyed it well enough that I'm considering going back for a second viewing. The monster scenes were by far my favorite parts of the movie. Anytime Godzilla or the MUTOs appeared on screen, it had my full attention. The final battle/climax scenes, including

Spoiler

Godzilla's tail-slam, his atomic breath (which I cheered for), the death of the final MUTO, and the daytime scene at the end when the Big-G seemed, by all rights, to be dead

really got my heart pounding. Also, the shots of the boats trailing after Godzilla in the water were just absolutely fantastic in my opinion. And that flaming train scene... my goodness. Even at the very beginning, when the MUTO in Japan was emerging from the...egg? Pod? Anyways...I found that to be very intense. Basically, anytime one of the monsters appeared was a gold star in my book.
One minor nitpick, however, is that I wished Godzilla had the same amount of screen-time that the two MUTOs had. (Or is it just my imagination that they were on screen more than the big guy?)

On the other hand, I found the human cast after

Spoiler

Cranston's death

to be severely underwhelming. I think, had Cranston and Binoche's characters been the ones to carry on the rest of the film ala ATJ and Olsen's roles, I would have enjoyed the human scenes much more.
In fact, (and this is just my opinion, mind, and no offense meant to the actors or their fans) I don't think the movie would have suffered at all had they not included ATJ and Olsen, and instead followed Joe, Sandra, and young Ford Brody as the main characters throughout the entire movie. The timeline of the film would have been a bit different, obviously, but I, personally, would have been a bit happier with it.

That being said, I still liked the movie well enough and I am glad it has done well enough to warrant a sequel in the future.

 

[Wildcard]

Kick-Ass 3 is not gonna happen lol.

Mark Millar seemed to be confident that it would, not that that guarantees anything.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I think 2014 is one of the best looking Godzillas.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

I bought the 6 inch NECA, its fantastic.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

@Blitz- Same. I love the design.

Dreammaster- I have yet to see the 6 inch via Neca (online only?), but I've seen the old school Zillas', and I bought these two from TRU. The Atomic Roar is pretty cool too, imo.

 

[Wildcard]

Went to see this (again) today & it's still highly enjoyable with damn good replay value, I'd say. I still feel the same about the screen-time of the monsters & think that it isn't really a valid complaint.

Both Godzilla & the MUTOs appear enough to do what they're meant to do in regards to the story. The MUTOs unleash massive destruction & Godzilla is there to stop them...the whole final act is one big fight between them so I just don't buy the "he (Godzilla) was barely there" stuff.

Also liked the human story a bit more upon viewing it again, & still think that ATJ handled himself well as the film's lead. Cranston's loss & want/need for the truth was believable and palpable. I completely bought Cranston & ATJ being father and son, I thought they played off one another well & created an interesting dynamic between the two.

Seeing Godzilla and the MUTOS throw down again made me more excited once I started thinking about the sequel & the potential monsters that could be unleashed later on.

*crosses fingers* Come on King Ghidorah.

 

[Gabe99]

Box Office: 'Godzilla' Conquers China With $10.9 Million Opening Day
Box Office: '22 Jump Street' Surges With $60M; 'Dragon 2' Hits $50M

Globally, Godzilla crossed the $400 million mark over the weekend, finishing Sunday with a total $429.6 million, including $248.3 million internationally.

Legendary's Thomas Tull Talks 'Godzilla,' Universal Move, China Plans in Rare Interview
As Legendary Pictures gets ready to unleash its new Godzilla movie on May 16, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull said that the $160 million movie could begin to turn a profit once it hits $450 million at the worldwide boxoffice.

“Starting a new franchise, if it did $450 million worldwide, anything above that would be pretty good. It’s still expensive, but it’s not a $200 million movie,” Tull explained

Legendary CEO Thomas Tull Talks GODZILLA, the Project’s Inception, the Slow Build Structure, the Prospect of a GODZILLA/PACIFIC RIM Crossover, More

Now that Legendary is affiliated with Universal is there a chance that someday we might see a King Kong versus Godzilla movie?

TULL: [Laughs] Wow, that’s…that’s pretty interesting.

You need to get on the phone with Peter and start talking about that.

TULL: Yeah, well look, our saying around our shop, “You can never have too many giant robots or monsters.”

Godzilla’s kind of a hero in this, he kind of comes in and stops these anomaly’s and King Kong’s kind of an anomaly so it kind of makes sense.

TULL: I love it all.

I’ll write pitch and send it off to you.

TULL: I’ll hear it, absolutely.

I know you don’t talk about sequels and I’m not even going to ask you about it. What I am going to ask though is…the movie cost around 160. I know there’s a lot of marketing costs, is there a magic number at Legendary that you are like, “We need to hit this number and everyone’s going to be very happy”?

TULL: You know…

I like putting you on the spot like that.

TULL: Yeah, I know you do. Look, I think for us if the movie does- I’d really like for it to at least have a four in front of it globally, and if it does that we’re in a good position.

So basically over five and six we’re talking about the S-word, or could be.

TULL: We love this universe, we love Godzilla, and if we’re fortunate enough to have a high class problem we’ll deal with it then.

 

[highbloodman]

No regrets seeing it. I really liked it, even after seeing X-Men: DOFP. I don't mind the sparse and predictable script, the real fun was in the monster battles.

 

[redhawk23]

The monster battles are fun but unfortunately film isn't particularly interested in them.

 

[Wildcard]

Box Office: 'Godzilla' Conquers China With $10.9 Million Opening Day
Box Office: '22 Jump Street' Surges With $60M; 'Dragon 2' Hits $50M


Legendary's Thomas Tull Talks 'Godzilla,' Universal Move, China Plans in Rare Interview
As Legendary Pictures gets ready to unleash its new Godzilla movie on May 16, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull said that the $160 million movie could begin to turn a profit once it hits $450 million at the worldwide boxoffice.


Legendary CEO Thomas Tull Talks GODZILLA, the Project’s Inception, the Slow Build Structure, the Prospect of a GODZILLA/PACIFIC RIM Crossover, More

This pretty much confirms what I've been thinking for a while. I kind of figured with a project like this they wanted to (at least) reach over $400 million. It should be on track to actually hit $500 million WW, though, if this weekend is any indication.

 

[redhawk23]

I've expressed my disappointment with several aspects of this film but I'm glad it has been a successful re-introduction of the character. I hope now they can move on and get a different director. I appreciate the work Edwards did, and I love the Godzilla design the film established (seriously one of my favorite Godzillas ever) but with Edwards committed to making a Star Wars film I'd rather they give someone else a shot. Like Bond, this franchise is bigger than anyone director and other filmmakers may have interesting things to bring to the table.

 

[redhawk23]

http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/early-weta-workshop-designs-for-godzilla/

Interview with FX supervisors from WETA. They say that Edwards originally didn't want the blue radiation breath in the film and that they themselves fought for it.

Considering that those two shots at the end of the film helped to make up for so much of the mediocrity of the rest of the film that is kind of ridiculous.

Can we get a new director please?

 

[Donut]

& that guy is doing a Star Wars movie. I am getting even more worried

 

[CapedCrusader14]

Wow I thought Gareth would have been all over the radiation breath. Kinda funny cause those were the only outright fantastic moments of the film.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Yeah, the atomic breath was without out a doubt the best part of the movie.

 

[Super Kal]

i loved that scene... i cant believe he didnt want the atomic breath, that is classic Godzilla.
shame on him for wanting to take that away.

 

[Donut]

I've expressed my disappointment with several aspects of this film but I'm glad it has been a successful re-introduction of the character. I hope now they can move on and get a different director. I appreciate the work Edwards did, and I love the Godzilla design the film established (seriously one of my favorite Godzillas ever) but with Edwards committed to making a Star Wars film I'd rather they give someone else a shot. Like Bond, this franchise is bigger than anyone director and other filmmakers may have interesting things to bring to the table.

Get Edwards away from Star Wars & he can keep doing Godzilla movies I say

 

[Super Kal]

seeing that Edwards didnt want the atomic breath, i say keep him away from Godzilla... if he isnt even willing to stay true to the original Godzilla lore, then dont even bother coming back.

 

[Sithborg]

I don't know, I don't see that quote quite as condemning as you are making it sound. It could easily have been about blue flame and the fins lighting up vs normal fire.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Aww yeah. To think, I was playing Save the World earlier and saw this. t:

http://www.psu.com/a023818/Godzilla-for-PS3-in-development-by-Bandai-Namco


Also, yeah, kinda disparaging to hear that about Gareth.

 

[Donut]

Now I wonder if Edwards could get away with it. Would there be no big action scene at the end of the movie ? I wonder if that was the studio stepping in & finally telling Edwards no

 

[BrollySupersj]

Perhaps we're jumping the gun on this one with Gareth. It's possibly they were fighting him on keeping the atomic breath the way it is. Not that it wouldnt be there from the start.

The art book did say that Gareth was interested in portraying the breath as lighting, to enforce the God angle.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

True. It may be worded wrong. I have the "Art Of" book, but I've only skimmed it so far.

 

[redhawk23]

There are some interesting comments from the WETA guys of Edwards pushing in the direction of what "shouldn't be done" in regards to Godzilla's design. They ultimately see it as a strength that eventually led to interesting details filling out a more traditional design but having seen all those extremely fish and salamander like designs, combined with their further comments about really having to fight to give Godzilla the back spikes, I really have to wonder what Edwards wanted.