Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - Part 1

[Blitzkrieg]

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Nice.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

So, where's Godzilla going then? The tracking bit on the Monarch Sciences site show him on his travels after being at SDCC, so where's he off now then?

There are many classified Monarch outposts all over the world and it seemed like Godzilla will pay each one a visit with the exception of Skull Island which would happen after the events of KOTM. Godzilla was headed toward South America after moving away from San Diego. There is a classified Monarch location in Colombia which seems to be the likely destination.

But some fans discovered that we can see Godzilla's future movements 2 weeks in advance and that he doesn't go to interesting places before Aug 9.

 

[Arachnerd]

He's doing a world wide tour. Give him a break, he's 64.

 

[Binker]

So I was watching people's reaction to the trailer (BTW, Japanese viewers love the trailer), but one comment made me want to ask this: would it have been possible to have this movie's storyline be the plot for the 2014 film? I'm on two minds here.

On one hand, I couldn't see it working because the 2014 film is a good movie (fight me, I dare you), but the 2014 film was ground zero when it came to this Monsterverse. It had to accomplish succeeding in making Godzilla and the mythos work not just in the film and the universe its setting up, but the audience as well. With all intents and purposes, it worked. So a grounded and serious based on the roots approach was the only way to go, and the correct way; KOTM as the first movie would've been too much, and doing something early at the wrong time.

On the other hand, I could see it working. If you kept the 1954 sequences in the opening title, and establish Godzilla, the cave paintings from Kong in this film and not in that later film, and later on have everyone discover at the same time the other three that ties it back to the paintings and the fight for survival and dominance that is about to start, then yeah, it might've worked.

In the end, there's alot of pros and cons. I'm just glad we have both films because both accomplish alot of things. Plus, the new films from Toho, from Shin to the anime trilogy, we have even more movies that accomplish alot more things on top of that.


Anyway, what say you?

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Maybe... Honestly that's all I can think. Maybe you could have started out with what this film seems to be so far.

On the other hand... The '14 film actually did have multiple monsters as well. This film really only has one more.

I also think right now we can't tell how much the story from '14 plays into this movie so it as a building block might turn out to be rather important. The destruction in San Francisco may well be key to shaping the human characters.

But I see your point that perhaps a film that pushed the spectacle more and atmospherics less might have been a better route.

 

[Arachnerd]

Well, we know it'll explore the ramifications of Godzilla and the MUTOs' appearance according to Dougherty, so there's that.

In my opinion, KOTM wouldn't work as a first movie in a franchise because it would blow the load too early for any future movies. It'd be like starting the MCU with The Avengers (obvious comparison, I know). G14 did a nice job establishing the world and introducing Godzilla and the idea of giant monsters existing on our planet, and it works well enough as an introduction to the Monsterverse.

KOTM works to me as a natural progression of that.

 

[TheVileOne]

IMHO there were a lot of broken promises with the 2014 movie. The movie hasn't aged well, and Edwards clearly struggles with his actors and getting the best performance out of them. Not to mention, getting rid of Cranston before Godzilla even shows up is ****ing stupid.

Godzilla doesn't even have a major role in the story. It's about the other MUTO creatures.

 

[Arachnerd]

I wasn't talking about G14 quality wise, just that it at least works as an introduction to the world.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think it was a decent introduction. Serviceable quality wise. The film did have a good aesthetic IMHO. Reminded me of Jurassic Park. I think it did need a number of rewrites.

 

[Binker]

I like the movie as is. If there were any fixer uppers, it would've been in adding more Godzilla. BUT, it would've been in only two scenes.


1) Seeing the first Godzilla vs MUTO fight. It could've been short in 30 seconds, or a minute, but seeing it beyond what we did and from the small snippet from the TV, and the reaction that giant monsters exist.


And


2) It would've been in the Serizawa scene mentioned the Hiroshima bombing, that was seen in Godzilla; Awakening; Serizawa's grandfather seeing Godzilla in the dark land of Hiroshima, the first time he'd been on land since pre-civilization. That would've been a scary, if not noir-like scene, similar to what we see later in the shadows in SF.

 

[Arachnerd]

We could still get that second one provided they give Serizawa more character development in KOTM.

Of course, assuming he doesn't kick the bucket in that exploding temple scene.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

IMHO there were a lot of broken promises with the 2014 movie. The movie hasn't aged well, and Edwards clearly struggles with his actors and getting the best performance out of them. Not to mention, getting rid of Cranston before Godzilla even shows up is ****ing stupid.

Godzilla doesn't even have a major role in the story. It's about the other MUTO creatures.

Killing Cranston so early was one of the biggest creative mistakes I've seen in film. The movie would have been so much better with him as the main character.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Yeah I soured really fast on the 2014 movie, it's just....so boring, and what little action there is, cuts away too damn much. There was no pay off in that movie. Now this movie, KOTM? This here is looking to be a proper Godzilla film.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Agreed.

[YT]qPdvZLONXWU[/YT]

What was so wrong that we couldn't see one fight with Godzilla and Muto at the airport? Why cut it?

Sometimes too much teasing can get frustrating.

We couldn't properly enjoy a fight because the movie kept cutting away


The san francisco fight starts up and then we cut to the soldiers

[YT]7EtLElpSMwA[/YT]

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Anyone remember TNT's MonsterVision from the 90's and the bumper they did using Blue Oyster Cult?

[YT]XgXIKMW0ZcU[/YT]


Also... Joe Bob Briggs.

[YT]8rCOX2sqAc4[/YT]

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Looking forward to listen to his score.

 

[DACrowe]

Well, we know it'll explore the ramifications of Godzilla and the MUTOs' appearance according to Dougherty, so there's that.

In my opinion, KOTM wouldn't work as a first movie in a franchise because it would blow the load too early for any future movies. It'd be like starting the MCU with The Avengers (obvious comparison, I know). G14 did a nice job establishing the world and introducing Godzilla and the idea of giant monsters existing on our planet, and it works well enough as an introduction to the Monsterverse.

KOTM works to me as a natural progression of that.

You mean like doing a Batman v Superman movie as your second film, before an established Superman (or Batman) has been presented?

 

[JtheDreamer]

IMHO there were a lot of broken promises with the 2014 movie. The movie hasn't aged well, and Edwards clearly struggles with his actors and getting the best performance out of them. Not to mention, getting rid of Cranston before Godzilla even shows up is ****ing stupid.

Godzilla doesn't even have a major role in the story. It's about the other MUTO creatures.

I was very much into the movie as it followed Cranston. Then he got killed off and the movie died with him. He brought a seriousness to the material that the rest of the cast couldn't. In fact everyone else was a cardboard cutout and bored me to tears.

Then Kong SI happened and character-wise it felt like the same problem - hence my lack of enthusiasm for this universe at the moment.

 

[Consona]

I liked Godzi was not over-used in 2014 movie, it was all compensated by that great fight at the end anyway. And I liked it being more MUTO centric.

 

[mikeboydus]

From most of the comments I have seen from the general public on social media, they think this is a reboot and not a sequel to the 2014 film. So I think they could have easily started with this film as the first in a series, introducing the series core characters and history.

Now some people say but wouldn't that be like starting with the Avengers? No its like starting with the X-Men and Godzilla is Wolverine.

The next story could easily deal with the creation of Monster Island and the construction of mechatitans, leading to conflict with Kong over the use of Skull Island and the arrival of Godzilla on the island, but then everyone has to face a greater threat awakened by the recent titan war.

You could then build up to an epic finale based on Destroy All Monsters, basically World War Ghidorah with the entire earth, all of the titans, and whatever mechatitans humanity have built all fighting Ghidorah and his awakened creators.

 

[elgaz]

Agreed.

[YT]qPdvZLONXWU[/YT]

What was so wrong that we couldn't see one fight with Godzilla and Muto at the airport? Why cut it?

Sometimes too much teasing can get frustrating.

We couldn't properly enjoy a fight because the movie kept cutting away


The san francisco fight starts up and then we cut to the soldiers

[YT]7EtLElpSMwA[/YT]

Personally I enjoyed the slow build-up. It added to the tension, and I felt the monsters were ultimately more terrifying within the context of the film because of the fact that we really only saw them initially from the point of view of humans at the airport - who had these massive creatures fighting just outside, creatures that made humans look no bigger than ants.

Drawing away from that perspective and showing the monsters in all their glory so early in the film would have killed that sense of fear and terror IMO. The film would essentially have come just a string of CGi monster battles.

 

[elgaz]

I was very much into the movie as it followed Cranston. Then he got killed off and the movie died with him. He brought seriousness to the film that the rest of the cast couldn't. In fact everyone else was a cardboard cutout. It bored me to tears.

Then Kong SI happened and character-wise it felt like the same problem - hence my lack of enthusiasm for this universe at the moment.

Agreed. The problem was the disparity between Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Whilst I like Aaron as an actor and he's perfectly capable, Cranston is on another level in terms of charisma and acting ability.

So opening the film with Cranston as a somewhat lead, then suddenly losing him and switching to Taylor-Johnson just doesn't work. I felt they could have kept Cranston's character alive and the movie wouldn't have suffered, ultimately his death - whilst poignant - didn't really contribute anything to the motivations of the remaining characters to try and stop the monsters from tearing the world apart.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Agreed.

[YT]qPdvZLONXWU[/YT]

What was so wrong that we couldn't see one fight with Godzilla and Muto at the airport? Why cut it?

Sometimes too much teasing can get frustrating.

We couldn't properly enjoy a fight because the movie kept cutting away


The san francisco fight starts up and then we cut to the soldiers

[YT]7EtLElpSMwA[/YT]

They even cut out parts of the battle in San Francisco, shots from the trailers weren't seen in the movie.

 

[Consona]

Personally I enjoyed the slow build-up. It added to the tension, and I felt the monsters were ultimately more terrifying within the context of the film because of the fact that we really only saw them initially from the point of view of humans at the airport - who had these massive creatures fighting just outside, creatures that made humans look no bigger than ants.

Drawing away from that perspective and showing the monsters in all their glory so early in the film would have killed that sense of fear and terror IMO. The film would essentially have come just a string of CGi monster battles.

Exactly.