Godzilla (2014)

[TheNextNolan22]

 

[kaijukurt]

The main trailer has just passed 20 million views!

 

[TheNextNolan22]

The main trailer has just passed 20 million views!

Nice! Hype is definitely growing.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Nice! Hype is definitely growing.

Godzilla: I won...

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Godzilla: I won...

Somebody needs to recreate that gif, but put Godzilla's head on Walter White's body.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Somebody needs to recreate that gif, but put Godzilla's head on Walter White's body.

I had that same idea!

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Somebody has to get on that pronto!


Oh, and I think I'm gonna stop by Hot-Topic tomorrow to pick up some Godzilla stuff.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Thread title change is appreciated. They get carried away with the cleverness sometimes and it's hard to scan thru them quickly.

Brevity is not a dirty word, unless you're in Transnistria where it means **** **** *** ********* *** ***** ***** and will get you knifed.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I cannot wait to get into the Heisei series pretty soon(not next week as I'll be in New Orleans for WrestleMania Weekend ). Besides maybe one film, most of the films in that series are among my top 10 favorite Godzilla films of all time.

 

[Binker]

I cannot wait to get into the Heisei series pretty soon(not next week as I'll be in New Orleans for WrestleMania Weekend ). Besides maybe one film, most of the films in that series are among my top 10 favorite Godzilla films of all time.

Which one is that?

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Which one is that?

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla.

 

[Binker]

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla.

Yeah, I would agree. That and Mothra are the least of the Heisei IMO. The rest have a strong continuity between the films, and while Mothra and SG do share information, its out of nowhere and you can easily skip them.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Ah, I actually forgot about that movie too. TBH, I never cared for Mothra's appearance/design in the later films. It looked too pretty and colorful and kinda came off fake IMO.

 

[Roose Bolton]

The 80's and 90's films, while creative in their own special way, doesn't exactly make them all that better. And heart? There's some, but its not as abundant as you might think.

Now, Godzilla 2000 doesn't connect to the original Godzilla film because there are no references that ties it to the original. Godzilla in that movie has always been there, we don't know if he's the first of his kind, or another member of his species. So that is stand alone.

Godzilla from Final Wars, this Godzilla is actually the original Godzilla, seeing how this is the only Godzilla who attacked in 1954 and was the only Godzilla to be documented at that time. Which is a creative aspect I find actually interesting.

This same element is introduced in Godzilla X Megaguirus and GMK in that their Godzillas are directly the original Godzilla. The only difference is that one did not die by the oxygen destoryer, and the other was brought back the hatred of the spirits of the fallen WWII soldiers that Japan forgotten.

The Kiryu Saga has one of the most creative aspects in that we have the original Godzilla technically battling as a Mecha/Cyborg against basically a second member of its species. Tied with 3 Mothras in the sequel who's directly tied to the original MOTHRA, and the revealing that Godzilla is drawn to Kiryu and perhaps only wants to bring his species back out to sea, like how Kiryu simply wants to rest in peace. It draws a creative aspect in that direction that takes a step forward in story-telling than most of the Heisei films. Plus there was the interesting aspect that if mankind didn't return the bones of the original Godzilla, Mothra wouldn't protect mankind anymore/Or potentially stop Godzilla.

I always found that point rather nicely constructed, like yeah, Mothra isn't always going to protect us if we mess up REAL bad, and I mean real bad.
The type of bad that even makes the goddess of peace go: WTF Humans!

And violating the scarcity of life of a creature we played a hand in turning into a monster, only to grave rob it and bring it back as a new form of monster/abomination of life isn't actually something that can be backed as a good thing. Even with good intentions, there's no way you can make that ugly fact better.

There are other creative aspects, like Orga and its origin (Which is extremely detailed in the Godzilla 2000 manga and pretty unique), Megaguirus and Dimension Tide, The Three Sacred Monsters(Added with the memorable notion of a good guy King Ghidorah), and there's the Xillians (Whose really been given some interesting creative detail, if you ignore the matrix/anime kind of style given to them), the Mutant Soldiers, Ghidorah's revamp from Monster X to Kaiser Ghidorah, Mothra and Gigan's origin, and the tweaking of Godzilla's origin along with his added grudge in taking down the brought back Gotengo.

The series is just as creative as the Heisei films. Now in terms of heart, that generally rests with the viewer themselves as its rather subjective. For example, GXM had heart because how certain scenes were done and the layout of the monster battles were pretty much a call back to the more, light-hearted times of Godzilla back in the Showa days. I feel the Kiryu Saga had heart as well in how they developed Kiryu's/Original Godzilla's character and the ending it had gotten in finally attaining eternal peace.

And yes, even though Final Wars is greatly outlandish in many ways with a poor assigned Director, this was also somewhat of a call back to the earlier days of Godzilla and how wild things got. Again, not the best director to go with, and definitely wasn't the best G-film of its respective era series. But what was done in several parts of the entire movie, it had some heart. Besides any G-film that bothers to not only remember but bring back Minilla entirely-

Has heart lol.

Just ignore continuity for a minute, because that's not really what I'm really talking about, a film can be good if it's stand alone, but that's not my issue. My issue with the Millennium era is that none of them really hold a candle to Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II and Godzilla vs Destoroyah. All of those films took the concept of Godzilla and evolved it, and the character himself. They were big and out there, and they took the mythology in a place that really made it seem legendary. It was a complex look at Godzilla and a celebration of the character.

The Millennium films (barring GMK) were films that had some interesting concepts that they never developed fully or properly explored. It's really not much different from the late 90s Bond films, in that they were decent, serviceable entertainment but didn't really do all that much to make them stand above that.

 

[Godzilla2000]

I somehow managed to get through Godzilla vs Megalon......SOBER. I think I deserve a medal for my brave efforts...

Pshaw! That's nothing! I sat through Godzilla vs. Hedorah clean and sober.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I actually think that's a very good movie, despite a lot of the goofiness.

 

[Breaker]

Just ignore continuity for a minute, because that's not really what I'm really talking about, a film can be good if it's stand alone, but that's not my issue. My issue with the Millennium era is that none of them really hold a candle to Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs Biollante, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II and Godzilla vs Destoroyah. All of those films took the concept of Godzilla and evolved it, and the character himself. They were big and out there, and they took the mythology in a place that really made it seem legendary. It was a complex look at Godzilla and a celebration of the character.

The Millennium films (barring GMK) were films that had some interesting concepts that they never developed fully or properly explored. It's really not much different from the late 90s Bond films, in that they were decent, serviceable entertainment but didn't really do all that much to make them stand above that.

The evolution of Godzilla in the heisei films don't hold a candle to the Showa series, that was a unique evolution despite the later campy-ness.

They didn't really take the mythology all that far. They kept it the same in Godzilla 1984 minus a few tweaks. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah they over complicated his origin story needlessly with time travel with ended up negating the origin concept of the 84 film and Biollante. Making those films more or less their own continuity until the poor writing of SpaceGodzilla gave the films a small connection when explaining SpaceGodzilla. How does that make it legendary exactly?

Godzilla's character remained the same throughout the majority of the heisei series until MechaGodzilla II, in which he started to develop into more of an anti-hero while expressing care and emotions for his adopted son. This development also happened before in the Showa series, so the heisei Godzilla's development isn't as completely grand as your making it out to be. The real key developments that set the two apart is the moment with Shindo and Godzilla crying over the lost of his son from Destoroyah. This made the Heisei Godzilla memorable, and does keep it in line of Godzilla's force of nature character.

But the Shinsei Godzilla Series, each Godzilla has their own character that's just as noticeable as the Heisei Godzilla. GMK Godzilla is pretty much the original Gojira in terms of a walking titanic horror. GXM Godzilla was a tribute to the light hearted years of Godzilla. The Kiryu-Goji brought back the force of nature that's exactly as to how the Heisei Godzilla acted within the early heisei films. Except that Kiryu-Goji appeared to be trying to get back the bones of his dead kind. And the final wars Godzilla is a combination of all of the eras into one. G2k Godzilla is another example of the force of nature Godzilla concept.

Certain actions done in their perspective films sets them apart and makes memorable. They don't need an entire trilogy to show off their own character structure and uniqueness. ^_^

 

[Roose Bolton]

The evolution of Godzilla in the heisei films don't hold a candle to the Showa series, that was a unique evolution despite the later campy-ness.

They didn't really take the mythology all that far. They kept it the same in Godzilla 1984 minus a few tweaks. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah they over complicated his origin story needlessly with time travel with ended up negating the origin concept of the 84 film and Biollante. Making those films more or less their own continuity until the poor writing of SpaceGodzilla gave the films a small connection when explaining SpaceGodzilla. How does that make it legendary exactly?

Godzilla's character remained the same throughout the majority of the heisei series until MechaGodzilla II, in which he started to develop into more of an anti-hero while expressing care and emotions for his adopted son. This development also happened before in the Showa series, so the heisei Godzilla's development isn't as completely grand as your making it out to be. The real key developments that set the two apart is the moment with Shindo and Godzilla crying over the lost of his son from Destoroyah. This made the Heisei Godzilla memorable, and does keep it in line of Godzilla's force of nature character.

But the Shinsei Godzilla Series, each Godzilla has their own character that's just as noticeable as the Heisei Godzilla. GMK Godzilla is pretty much the original Gojira in terms of a walking titanic horror. GXM Godzilla was a tribute to the light hearted years of Godzilla. The Kiryu-Goji brought back the force of nature that's exactly as to how the Heisei Godzilla acted within the early heisei films. Except that Kiryu-Goji appeared to be trying to get back the bones of his dead kind. And the final wars Godzilla is a combination of all of the eras into one. G2k Godzilla is another example of the force of nature Godzilla concept.

Certain actions done in their perspective films sets them apart and makes memorable. They don't need an entire trilogy to show off their own character structure and uniqueness. ^_^

The Showa Godzilla essentially went from Jaws to a superhero, that doesn't feel like a believable character arc to me, and his actual transformation wasn't really made a thing of in the films themselves. It was just a tonally shift brought on by a change of tastes in the audience at the time. With the Heisiei films he retained his sense of danger even at his most heroic, and it was mostly that the films themselves focused on those moments that made you think there was more to him.

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah may have had an inane use of time travel, but it actually took the time to show Godzilla's evolution of character, and portrayed him as something more than destructive monster. It showed the nobility that laid within his bestial nature. Plus it depicted his actual origin story. Regardless of time travel we still see him prior to his mutation, and we saw that despite his physical changes he still retained some of what he was. I think that's a reverent take on the character.

And where MechaGodzilla II succeeds is by taking the classic character of Rodan and making his whole relationship with Godzilla into something more heroic and in some ways beautiful. To me, that took the classic mythology and improved on it, gave it depth.

I do think that Kiryu was the best iteration of MechaG in the entire franchise, so theres that. And as I've said, GMK despite being so weird, was a great film, but Godzilla 2000 for instance, seemed like it was purely made to remedy the response of the 98 film, it was a paint by numbers Godzilla film without any greater ambition. To me it's middle range at best. And Godzilla vs Megaguirus was fairly meh as well. It was like Toho was coasting on autopilot for those first two movies before they realized that that **** wouldn't stick. Final Wars...now that was different and frenetic, but it was like the "best of" moments of the series, all done so fast and so crazily that nothing sank in. It was the Die Another Day of the Godzilla franchise.

What made the Millennium era fell lesser is that of those films, only one or two could be held up among the greats of the franchise, or really as great films in general. GMK and Godzilla against MechaGodzilla are the two I think that go beyond the by-the-numbers flavor of that era.

 

[redhawk23]

Ah, I actually forgot about that movie too. TBH, I never cared for Mothra's appearance/design in the later films. It looked too pretty and colorful and kinda came off fake IMO.

Battra is amazing though.

The 90s Godzilla vs Mothra is so weird though as it doesn't really seem to fit anywhere. Godzilla vs Mecha Godzilla takes off almost immediately from vs. King Ghidorah and things from that film actually have repercussions. The Mothra film just looks different overall. Godzilla vs Space Godzilla, crappy as it is, more or less brings the Mothra film back into the fold continuity wise.


I've only watched the first half of Godzilla vs. Destroyah, before work the other day. That movie is metal as hell.

 

[kaijukurt]

Saw the Godzilla trailer with my Captain America Imax screening.

Silenced the crowd, got them talking afterwards.

Damn right it was awesome. That roar shook the place like there was no tomorrow.

 

[Binker]

The Showa Godzilla essentially went from Jaws to a superhero, that doesn't feel like a believable character arc to me, and his actual transformation wasn't really made a thing of in the films themselves. It was just a tonally shift brought on by a change of tastes in the audience at the time.

The change is made in Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster. In that, Godzilla is evil until Mothra tries to change Godzilla and Rodan's minds because Ghidorah was far more evil and could destroy the world if they didn't stop him. It was that movie where Godzilla revealed that he hates humanity because they "attacked" him (aka the a-bombs), which is why he refuses at first, until Mothra gets beaten the crap outta her that Godzilla and Rodan come to her aid.

Even though that was the first movie to turn Godzilla into a good guy, it wasn't a permanent change yet. Monster Zero had Godzilla and Rodan fighting Ghidorah again, but for most of the movie, they were under the control of Planet X and still showed his destructive nature. Sea Monster and Son still had Godzilla as aggressive until he showed kindness when need be, and Destroy All Monsters had him and all the other monsters under the control from the Kilaaks until the monsters went after them because they were a threat to them; it was just a benefit to humanity's survival when the monsters' goal was the same as the humans. Godzilla's Revenge doesn't count because it's a) all in a kid's imagination, and b) stock footage for the most part. For me, Godzilla became a superhero officially with Smog Monster, because he is helping humanity, and that stayed until the end of the showa series.

So based on me remembering these movies, there is a sense of character development because even with the change in Ghidorah, his official superhero status didn't happen until 4-5 movies later, but used those movies' events and developments to get him there.

 

[terry78]

Ironically, a magazine called Cracked actually does get it right more often than not when they slam stuff.

 

[Schlosser85]

That article uses extremely flimsy reasoning and is obviously just wanting the movie to suck to begin with. It's not worth a serious discussion.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

Cracked has been slipping for the past year. That is easily the most poorly written and laziest article I've read from them and that's not just my anticipation for the film talking. Anybody who is even half following the film can disprove half the crap in that article.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Cracked has been slipping for the past year. That is easily the most poorly written and laziest article I've read from them and that's not just my anticipation for the film talking. Anybody who is even half following the film can disprove half the crap in that article.

And that's saying something....