Escape to the Movies: Godzilla - Breaking Kaiju

[Edguy]

I enjoyed this film a lot. I actually thought that there was a large portion of monster scenes in this movie, but the majority of those might be only the MUTOs. What bothered me the most was how incompetent and unstructured the military was,and how much bullshit-science they were talking (big surprise in a monster movie..). Godzilla tho.. wow! Spectacular is all I can say.

Also; the nuke.. Didn't they say it was in the megaton scale?! That would mean it's A MINIMUM of 60-70 times stronger than the bombs that were dropped ïn Japan. And Ford just let it drift a little off shore in the boat for a few minutes?! Yeah, that city was totally destroyed by tidal waves, if not from the blast itself, and areas for of miles upon miles were rendered uninhabitable for a century from radiation.

Also, this movies had about the same relationship with radiation as Marvel Comics haha

 

[InkySpines]

Bob pretty much sums up my impression better than I could. If you absolutely need your Kaiju fix like I did it will satisfy it, but just barely. Getting to that satisfaction is an exercise in patience.

It's almost as if they recut this from a better Godzilla movie in order to serve up more military footage. The military stuff makes Transformers and Battle for LA seem smart.
"Dr. Sarazawa, we're told you have situational awareness of the MUTO"....(groan)

It's not even that the main character comes across as Dour McToughguy, so much as a petulant child. Not exactly a favorable portrayal of a Navy Officer. Even the one line tertiary military characters seem to get it more than he does. I really did try to meet the "Daddy comes home from the war" scene halfway...but it was just awful. Fortunately he doesn't talk all that much after the halfway point and his motivations aren't as dominated by getting back to his family as you might expect. At the very least he does seem to understand he has a duty as a serviceman beyond the nuclear family.

Bob hits it on the head by saying this is much more in the format of the more lighthearted Showa monster-mash era. That's okay I guess, but I honestly would have liked to see a Grimdark and Gritty Godzilla reboot this time around, like the trailer seems to be suggesting. Kaiju are perfect for inspiring dread and terror at our own insignificance. That's how Cranston plays it for what little screen time he has, and Watanabe seems to be going for a serviceable if stereotypical Japanese stoicism but there is no room for his character to breathe either. Judging by the trailer it seems the studio thought that was the movie we wanted (it was the movie I wanted) but that isn't the movie they made.

It's easy to chalk it up to design by committee but I can only wonder what happened to that other movie they went out of their way not to make.

It's definitely not all bad. Godzilla looks awesome, his roar sounds awesome, his nuclear breath is held in reserve until a dramatic moment, and he is noticeably more Bitey than usual. The MUTOs are pretty cool, if a little bland (having the male bright and colorful and the female more subdued would have been a nice touch) and the destruction looks very realistic. The skydive past the fighting Kaiju is pretty awesome, and I can appreciate their take on the Kaiju as forces of nature in the background as humans scurry to avoid them but not to the extent that I don't get a good Godzilla fix.

Even at the climax of the final battle I didn't get a quarter so excited as I did multiple times during Pacific Rim.

 

[Vault Citizen]

I was really enjoying the movie up until Cranston's character stopped being the main character and by the scene on the train bridge I was wondering how long the movie had left before it was over.

 

[Seedofbilly]

So, hang on, having pointed out that all the issues with the film stem from the scripting, you're now saying that we have to hold it up to higher standards than other Godzilla movies? The fuck!? Overpaid Hollywood screenwriters are inherently better than the rest? Urm, no, in fact it's almost the opposite. I can't deny the fact that the focal point of the film favored the people perhaps more than it should have but it was still an enormous amount of fun, the build up had a satisfying payoff so far as I was concerned and the prospect of a revival of the franchise (provided the film does well which, let's face it, it will) is very exciting. You can't judge every film by the same rigors and as Godzilla movies go, this was a good one, a solid entry in the cannon. Don't hold it up against the original, either, I keep seeing other critics doing that and it's utterly redundant, the 1954 film is the only monster movie to rise above the standards of its contemporaries TO DATE. Nothing else has, it's the exception the proves the rule because it reflected the exact mindset of its time and place, it was a sharp, biting allegory and you can't replicate the circumstances that it was born out of, no Godzilla movie will ever equal or outmatch it. I understand and agree with your criticisms to a point, but don't expect a film about a giant atomic lizard to achieve cinematic heights that it never aspired to, you're just setting yourself up to be disappointed. Critics shouldn't maybe be a bit wiser than that? Just sayin'

 

[El Comandante]

I´m fully with you BOB. That move was annoyingly borig with all that military stuff going down. It´sok that they wanted it to be a grim Godzilla but there was so much unrealistic shit going down (yeah i know it´s about giant monsters), like an nuclear submarine hanging in a tree or mass growing only by radiation or the total misuse of EMP. You know it´s a borig monster-movie when these things start to bother you. At least Sarge CoD-Dude and wife might die horribly because of a lethal dose of radiation, like the rest of San Francisco. So he might not be around for the mixup with Pacific Rim that I hope for ;-).

 

[Compatriot Block]

Watched it yesterday, and loved it despite having a few complaints. But I was absolutely satisfied and hope to see another one.

Maybe it's because I expected it to have a lot of humans in it, like all the other Godzilla movies. Sure I think Bryan Cranston was easily one of the best parts, but I still had a bunch of fun because I went in expecting exactly what I got.

Human hubris, nuclear metaphors and a giant lizard saving us from ourselves. Plus Ken Watanabe's delivery of the word Gojirra made me so happy.

EDIT: After seeing so many people complain about too much fighting in Pacific Rim causing it to get old, I'm surprised to see people saying that this one had too little. I thought it made the fights seem more important, I guess.

 

[InkySpines]

EDIT: After seeing so many people complain about too much fighting in Pacific Rim causing it to get old, I'm surprised to see people saying that this one had too little. I thought it made the fights seem more important, I guess.

Pacific Rim had the MINIMUM amount of optimal Kaiju action IMO.

If there is one silver lining in this for me, it's that ticket sales appear good so far. Hopefully the US military stuff doesn't turn off the global audience too much. It didn't for Transformers at least.

If we can get a King Ghidorah sequel I will consider it well worth my $11.50 for matinee and popcorn.

 

[Compatriot Block]

EDIT: After seeing so many people complain about too much fighting in Pacific Rim causing it to get old, I'm surprised to see people saying that this one had too little. I thought it made the fights seem more important, I guess.

Pacific Rim had the MINIMUM amount of optimal Kaiju action IMO.

If there is one silver lining in this for me, it's that ticket sales appear good so far. Hopefully the US military stuff doesn't turn off the global audience too much. It didn't for Transformers at least.

If we can get a King Ghidorah sequel I will consider it well worth my $11.50 for matinee and popcorn.

I actually agree with you for the type of movie Pacific Rim is. For whatever reason, though, I actually like that Godzilla has a bit less action.

Not that I'd complain if there was more. Just that I can appreciate trying to make the fights seem more important.

Pacific Rim is still the sickest shit, though. Loved that too.

Also, I didn't mind the military stuff as much as I thought I would. They seemed fairly competent (or at least tried to be) and they went straight to the expert scientist for help when their plans didn't work. Hell, the only real victory the got was getting the nuke out of the middle of San Francisco, since they couldn't even scratch the monsters. They managed to avoid making me see them as an obstacle, which isn't common for me in monster movies.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Preface: I didn't watch a _single_ trailer for this film and steered clear of every kind of spoiler. All I had to go on was this poster.

http://www.godzilla-movies.com/media/godzilla2014_poster2.jpg

I found the film to be within the expectations I had for it, it is worth noting that giant monster films aren't something that I actively seek out though I still maintain Pacific Rim was probably last years best film. Hands down. But what struck me more than anything is how annoying it would have been to have seen the trailers then the film, I mean surely the trailers would spoil the _entire_ plot which is easily the most frustrating thing about trailers these days. There is no mystery there, no sense of anticipation having been fed a snippet of what is to come, everything is usually right there in some form or another and if there is one thing people are want to do these days it is delve into a trailer like it needs to be absolutely dissected for every possible inkling of what the film might be.

Colour me shocked when I saw that the trailer essentially did the same job as the first 20-30 minutes of the film, in that it set up the key ideas and introduced some context. I don't see why the trailer being less a complete overview and more of a suggested lead in is a bad thing?

In fact surely the _problem_ with the film industry these days is that trailers make or kill films because of how the people who make them know the trailers will be thoroughly examined by the people who are usually most vocal about this sort of thing?

That the film industry is deliberately feeding nerds and other enthusiasts all they need to come to a reasonable conclusion about a film, regardless of what it spoils or doesn't, in the hope that all the frankly condescending titillation and "blink and miss it" info drops that'll keep people buzzing about the film. Fully aware that they're ruining the film for these people so they can drive up word of mouth for a quick buck because the people they're directing it at are already sold as an audience.

So that they don't need to make films for those people, they don't need to make films that'll please an aficionado like MovieBob _because they already have your money_.

EDIT: Of course, if that was to happen, If studios developed a more efficient hype train that let them cut down on advertising costs and still get mega-bucks thus allowing films to have some sense of "suspense" even for an enthusiast... you'd be out of a job Bob.

From that perspective, you're why you don't like the films about the things you like. You _are_ the darkness Bob.

 

[Varanfan9]

As a long standing Godzilla fan, Bob's criticism is largely unfounded. Practically every Godzilla movie focuses mainly on the human characters, and this one did it better than most. The human plot moved around quickly, and it also succeeded where Cloverfield failed. It showed a monster fight/rampage from a human level, but still had the monster in it, and made them feel titanic. This movie felt really food to watch, and it was spectacular to watch. To me, this movie felt like Avengers. The only part you came to see is the last 20 minutes, and to get the full effect of those last 20 minutes, you need all the build up to you. That's not to say the rest of the movie is bad. I fully enjoyed this movie, and would recommend it to any person, and especially to Godzilla fans.

 

[Tim Chuma]

At least it might convince Toho to make another Godzilla movie like they did after the 1998 film.

In the later Godzilla movies people could take the monsters toe-to-toe. Madman Entertainment in Australia released all bar five Godzilla movies in box sets.

Was huge cheers in the midnight screening when Godzilla destroyed the Sydney Opera House (Melbourne audience to a T).

While Final Wars was fun, Destroy All Monsters is still my favourite all in monster movie brawl. I could not stomach Son of Godzilla.

Pacific Rim/Godzilla crossover next?

I don't think there are too many superhero movies, just too many being made to the same cookie-cutter formula.

 

[Gerardo Vazquez]

So much negativity stemming off Bob these days I think I will be confusing him with Yahtzee at some point. Can anybody give me an example of a reboot he actually liked ? Any reboot. Ι am getting a feeling that he is so attached to his childhood memories that if someone so much as tries to alter them and create something new, he is 100% against it and on day one.

Edit: just came back from seeing it. Yeah, Bob likes to blow things out of proportion when it comes to childhood memories. The human story wasn't nearly as bad as he made it out to be. Also, Johnson and Olsen ? They did fine, they weren't given a lot to do in this movie. In fact, the entirety of their lines could be written down in a couple of pages I think. And THAT's what has Bob's wand in a knot about Age of Ultron ? With Whedon directing it ?

Overreacting much ?

While I'm not entirely against reboots, and I think some are good films in their own right, I'm also pretty peeved when people defend them by going "The ONLY reason you hate ~Insert name of Reboot~ is because you're so attached to the original, and can't recognize this for the good film it is.". While hating reboots for the sake of hating reboots is bad accusing people of only disliking them, because they're reboots, and not because they have glaring flaws isn't much better.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I felt that the emphasis on the military was a big failing of this film. The point of the military in a Godzilla film is to show how powerful Big G is when he absolutely wrecks them. And you know what? That's exactly what happens in this film. Every single action the military takes in Godzilla is an utter failure, right down the main character failing to disarm the bomb (the job he was flipping trained for!). Why it felt the need to focus on the military's bungling of a Kaiju attack is a question only Hollywood can answer.

My favorite scene in the film was actually when Godzilla smashed through the Golden Gate bridge. The focus was on the panicked bus driver, desperate to get away from giant stompy death. I don't have a problem with humans in Godzilla movies, but I would have liked this film a lot more if there were more scenes like this. How Godzilla affects individuals in different ways. Not just the military failure.

 

[daxterx2005]

ha, if you didn't flat out say that was kick-ass I wouldn't have even known.
He's come a long way from being the little dweeby guy.

 

[Gatx]

I just saw the movie tonight, and it's definitely got that Transformers-y thing going on of it focusing too much on the human element. It's like, there's a Godzilla movie playing out definitely, but THIS movie is like a weird side movie about what this one random dude is doing at the time. I think they could've had a much better, more monster-centric storyline if they had focused on Cranston's character rather than the son.

 

[schwegburt]

Just watched it too. It was DECENT, not great but not bad.

Bob's absolutely right about the Transformers thing. I wanted to see more of the monsters not Lieutenant Hurt Locker White Bread. Ford Mustang did a decent job and I did like his character a bit. But it's hard not to considering they made him a100% all American good guy. I can definitely see the pandering Bob complained about and I didn't like it.

And speaking of which. Ken Watanabe should have been the main actor in the movie. And you know for a fact that the only reason he didn't get it comes from Hollywood's fear of casting an Asian dude, a middle aged one at that, as the lead role in a blockbuster.

Bob highlighted Godzilla's faults well. I still liked the movie but they could have cut out chunks of it to make room for the monsters. Then slash up Sgt Dodge Durango's scenes in favor highlighting Ken Watanabe.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

It's kind of fascinating to me how divisive this movie is.

Both people and critics seem to be completely split. They either love it to death or despise it.

I for one, dug the hell out of it. My feelings toward it were exactly that of the snobbish critics you described. I thought the lack of Godzilla actually appearing made it seem all the more powerful and earthshaking when he finally did show up.
But then I also really like all the humans. I don't even know what you're talking about when you saw the main character was bland and poorly acted. I thought he was quite complex and that the actor did a really good job. He gave us the military perspective, his family, who I also really liked, gave the civilian perspective and the Asian scientist gave the overworld view.
I also thought it was a lot better in terms of the US military than you gave it credit for. They did a good job of making the soldiers actual people. They also showed the military as trigger-happy maniacs when they started shooting with the buses on the bridge, so it's a bit unfair to compare it to Transformers.

So I adored it, but it's really interesting to see the varying opinions on this.

EDIT: I did have one major problem and I've been trying to figure it out, but I can't, so maybe someone can help me: Why did the M.U.T.O. go [i/]away[/i] from Yucca Mountain? Why didn't they both instantly flock to it like internet denizens to nude anthropomorphic animals?

 

[IrisNetwork]

Bob, you're not the only one to compare this to Jaws AND Transformers.
I just saw Trilbee reviews and he did pretty much the same on YouTube. A bit more emphasis on the pacing.