Godzilla (2014) - - - - Part 13

[TDK elbowstrike]

Re: Godzillas fight with the Mutos,

Spoiler

Did it seem like the Mutos, especially the male, were attacking Godzillas gills? It's like they were trying to suffocate him. It reminded me of how sometimes in nature, some shrimp clean the gills of fish in their eco-system. Like that, but far more sinister. If so, nice touch by Gareth.

Sorry if this has been covered already, sooooo many pages in this thread since this weekend. Lol.

 

[Schlosser85]

If the other MUTO was already hatched at the beginning, why was it later in the facility in Nevada?

 

[ares834]

If the other MUTO was already hatched at the beginning, why was it later in the facility in Nevada?

The one that hatched in the beginning went to Japan.

 

[Schlosser85]

Ah ok, I had it mixed up which was which.

 

[Arach Knight]

I don't think many people are seeing the very critique the movie is presenting. The human characters are uninteresting. Intentiinally so. Not one of us are important or significant in the eye of a storm. Godzilla himself couldn't give a **** about us. This director is perfectly capable of bringing out performances in people. But that wasn't the intent at all.

It is impossibe not to realize that the film is attempting to portray humans as unimportant. Dr. Hawkins frantically stated that Godzilla is a god. Dr. Serizawa gave a whole speech (which is present in most of the trailers) about the arrogance of man thinking itself in control of nature, when in reality, nature controls man. The EMP attack/plot device highlighted that man's greatest powers are ineffective against the wrath of nature etc. The message is ever present, it just isn't done well.

 

[Arach Knight]

If the other MUTO was already hatched at the beginning, why was it later in the facility in Nevada?

They were both in hibernation. The first one to awaken caused the earthquake's in the Philippines and then went to Japan to feed off of the reactor and return to hibernation until full maturation.

The female was still in the corpse/bones of the other kaiju. Dr. Serizawa's team took her chrysalis and performed tests on it (including a vivisection). They thought it to be dead but still radioactive and disposed of the remains in a nuclear waste facility in Nevada (alluded to be Area 51).

 

[Deserana]

Not sure if posted but Gareth Edwards has done a spoiler podcast with empire
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41069

 

[spider-neil]

It is impossibe not to realize that the film is attempting to portray humans as unimportant.

That passed me by completely, especially considering the titular character doesn't appear for (what seems like) an hour. Who else are you supposed to focus on?

 

[redfirebird2008]

WB estimating $7.66m for Monday, which puts it close to $101m domestic total. Congrats to the big guy for passing $100m in 4 days.

 

[X Knight]

guess I'm crazy, but I felt for the human characters in the film.

 

[Sithborg]

WB estimating $7.66m for Monday, which puts it close to $101m domestic total. Congrats to the big guy for passing $100m in 4 days.

Nice. Holding much nicer than Spider-man.

 

[Arach Knight]

That passed me by completely, especially considering the titular character doesn't appear for (what seems like) an hour. Who else are you supposed to focus on?

This is unimportant in a Lovecraftian sense, the essential. Not unimportant in the narrative sense. In other words, humanity is insignificant and can be wiped out at any time. It is very much drawing from Lovecraft's cosmicism. It would not be the first time that Gareth Edwards has made a production that some how seems to draw from Lovecraft's mythos. Four years ago, when he made "Monsters" (his only other film), he constantly received questions about the parallels to Cthulhu.

Anyways, the reason why Edwards wanted to focus on showing the kaiju from a human perspective, was not just for scale, but for scope. Edwards wanted to demonstrate that mankind truly does not matter. Honestly, the cinematography did a better job of communicating this theme than the writing did, because the writing was really forcing the issue with trite dialog.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Nice. Holding much nicer than Spider-man.

Hard to say for sure at the moment. Canada had a holiday on Monday, so that should soften the drops across the board for all films.

 

[Kane52630]

guess I'm crazy, but I felt for the human characters in the film.

Especially with Cranston and Olsen.

 

[Arach Knight]

The real test will be this film's second weekend. By that time, word of mouth should begin to show either a positive or negative impact. Also, this weekend, Godzilla is up against Days of Future Past. At the moment, the only thing close to competition for this film is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which is both old in theater terms and seems to have short legs in the theater. But, I do suspect a holiday bump for Big G come next Monday.

 

[Arach Knight]

Especially with Cranston and Olsen.

Why do people keep mentioning Olsen? Her character was useless. She had one scene of important dialog, which was convincing Ford to go rescue his father from jail. After that, we don't really hear her say much, and she hardly does a thing. Unless multiple scenes of "shocked" expressions constitute sympathetic sequences. I could not have cared less if she died.

 

[DorneyDave]

That passed me by completely, especially considering the titular character doesn't appear for (what seems like) an hour. Who else are you supposed to focus on?

Exactly.

So the focus is on the humans, who are uninteresting on purpose?

However, we don't get to see the monster, on purpose.

So I was purposefully was given a very boring film?

I think this film takes a hit this weekend because of X-Men, not really word of mouth. Word of mouth is basically mixed for this one and that's how it will stay. I just think it's a dividing film, just like Man of Steel and ASM2.

X-Men seems to be the first real shot this summer to have a very positive reaction among almost everyone.

 

[Kane52630]

Why do people keep mentioning Olsen? Her character was useless. She had one scene of important dialog, which was convincing Ford to go rescue his father from jail. After that, we don't really hear her say much, and she hardly does a thing. Unless multiple scenes of "shocked" expressions constitute sympathetic sequences. I could not have cared less if she died.

Well, I'm sorry if human emotions are lost on you, but she brought in that human/emotional element.

 

[DorneyDave]

Well, I'm sorry if human emotions are lost on you, but she brought in that human/emotional element.

I completely disagree. She has ZERO character and her emotions were "look up in awe" and "sob"

 

[Figs]

I dunno man I've seen people who would argue against that, they said this new one was on the level of the 98 Godzilla. lol

Those people have no idea what they're talking about. The characters in this Godzilla may have been a bit bland and uninteresting but the characters in Godzilla '98 were all pretty much caricatures. At least the humans in this new film felt a bit real and wheren't there just for humour.

 

[DorneyDave]

Those people have no idea what they're talking about. The characters in this Godzilla may have been a bit bland and uninteresting but the characters in Godzilla '98 were all pretty much caricatures.

The characters in Godzilla 1998 were much more entertaining to watch at least, even if they were caricatures.

The characters in this Godzilla were all caricatures to, very boring ones.

 

[Tony Stark]

Those people have no idea what they're talking about. The characters in this Godzilla may have been a bit bland and uninteresting but the characters in Godzilla '98 were all pretty much caricatures. At least the humans in this new film felt a bit real and wheren't there just for humour.

I'm still cringing from Siskel and Ebert being the co-mayors of New York.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I'm sorry, but the "human characters are uninteresting on purpose" argument might be the weakest thing I've ever heard.

Let me say that first off, I really enjoyed the movie. But I do agree that, despite assembling an impressive cast of actors, some of them aren't used particularly well. Cranston and Binoche are really good, but are out of the movie far too quickly. This is excusable in Binoche's case, since her demise is what puts Cranston's arc character in motion, but they could have done so much more with BC and ATJ as a team. Watanabe, Strathairn, Hawkins and Olsen felt fairly generic in roles that could have been played by actors fair less talented than they are. ATJ fares a little better, though it may just have been because he was in it the most. Although his character does make some truly boneheaded decisions for a guy who is supposed to be really smart...

Spoiler

he KNOWS all three monsters are convening in San Francisco and the military is going to nuke the coast, yet he tells his wife and kid to STAY there and wait for him? Seriously?

Anyway, I do think they were trying to portray the humans as insignificant in that there was very little they could do to actually stop what was happening. But to say that they were intentionally written to be forgettable and uninteresting is silly. If the characters were forgettable and uninteresting, it is a flaw, plain and simple.

 

[Figs]

The characters in Godzilla 1998 were much more entertaining to watch at least, even if they were caricatures.

The characters in this Godzilla were all caricatures to, very boring ones.

No, they were not caricatures. They felt like real human beings in this film but once again, I do agree that they weren't written well. Not in terms of feeling real but being a bit more interesting.

I'm still cringing from Siskel and Ebert being the co-mayors of New York.

You're making fun of those actors right? It's typed out text, can't tell if you're joking or actually thought that fat white haired mayor was really Ebert. t:

 

[Loki882]

Yeah, I'm going to take issue with anyone who compares this to the 98 version. The characters here might have been somewhat bland (except for Cranston and Olsen), but I didn't want to actively kill any of them, or have Godzilla kill them. The 98 version's characters weren't just uninteresting, they were insufferably annoying (except for Jean Reno, he was cool).