The new Godzilla movie is a rip-off

[Piecewise]

Spoiler: SPOILERS.

Damn. I've never seen you this bummed out before, man.

Sounds like this movie was a pretty unpleasant surprise. I've come across a review that claims there's a procession of unnecessary characters (what I disliked about Transformers) to try and engage with the younger audience, plus a possible attempt at a hackneyed underlying message about nuclear power. All of this, it apparently tries to do seriously.

*Sigh*...daaaaamn, man. I don't know what to say. I know a lot of people were really looking forward to this one. Think I'll go re-watch The Lord Of The Rings to take my mind off all of this for a bit.

SO what you're telling me is that it's an accurate retelling of the first godzilla, which was a monster that represented nuclear war and the destruction it caused japan?

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok I just got back from the cinema and honestly despite reading the non spoiler review, I actually still liked it!

Spoiler

Also did I missed something? Somewhere before the last half of the film (Hawaii scene) you got a good brief front shot of Godzilla thus he wasn't exactly still in silhouette until the final battle.

I mean yeah as expected it focus on the human side of the film and the pacing etc but I thought it was mostly alright althought the first battle in Hawaii was a tease (you only saw bits on it on the news) but it promise what it delivered at the end!

 

[Draconalis]

snip

What I got from it was that they were underground feeding off the radiation closer to the core, but I get your point. I guess I was just too busy being bored and disappointed with the rest of the movie to notice.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The thing is the "main" monster doesn't feel main at all. And it's not really a horror movie, it's a disaster movie occasionally trying to pass for horror in some very implausible scenes in which people somehow manage to miss the 300 foot tall monster just around the corner.

One thing I've been hearing from a couple of my friends and a few people on twitter is that there is a lot of military propaganda in the film. Not legit propaganda, mind. They level the same criticisms as you, except they claim there is a lot of military porn (almost) on the level of a Bay movie.

Is this true?

There is some of that, but it's a little more surreptitious than a Bay movie. There's something very fanfiction-y about the protagonist, a young, handsome USN lieutenant who gets instant authority anywhere he goes. The scientists who study Godzilla ABSOLUTELY NEED HIM to explain what's going on, and then the military that's transporting a nuclear bomb ABSOLUTELY NEEDS HIM because that's how he sells it to them, and then the squad that is sent to retrieve said bomb ABSOLUTELY NEEDS HIM because in his words he's "the only one who can disarm it". So he's travelling around the world all the time, instantly being the best man for anything wherever he arrives, and by the end of the movie he's the only human being who has accomplished anything at all (single-handedly, too). So while the military isn't particularly effective in the movie, Mary Sue Brody is a different matter altogether.

Attaching a headcam to Godzilla and watching him break stuff for two hours would be very dull. Imagine how utterly terrible Alien would be if the camera followed the alien. Plus to be completely honest Godzilla is a big-ass lizard, not really a character. Godzilla films aren't about Godzilla any more than Armageddon was about the asteroid.

Yes, I already read through a similar argument about how "Oh you mustn't like Jaws at all then!". I'll quote it below for you:

I don't know if you've seen the new Godzilla movie, but he does NOT drive the plot. He's not the central threat. He's not A threat. He's a big question mark of nothing, uneventfully swimming across the ocean, carefully avoiding toppling the military ocean liners, ready to end the movie. Nobody is awed or scared by him. None of the things the characters do reflect on Godzilla or even depend on Godzilla. Ken Watanabe's character says "Let them fight" (Godzilla vs. MUTOs), except they don't even do that, the military are stupid and want to bomb the motherfuckers some more. The conflict of the movie lies in the threat of two MUTOs. This isn't even an opinion. Carefully look at what the characters in the movie say and do, and you'll see Godzilla doesn't factor in any of it. MUTO causes earthquake, MUTO escapes Monarch, MUTO wreaks Hawaii, other MUTO tears toxic waste, levels Vegas and goes to Frisco, other MUTO assaults military convoy, both MUTOs mate. The characters think, act and react entirely around this. They are victimized by this or survive this.

So when you conjecture that Godzilla is the same as the xenomorph from Alien because we don't see a proper body shot until the end, also think about set up, character, motive, conflict and action.

 

[BillyBlackSheep]

I'm paying to see monsters smashing things and possibly an enviromental or anti-nuke message hidden somewhere in there and from the reviews i've read it seems like it delivers. I'm pretty excited that it features two giant praying mantises, i hadn't expected that! I think i will like that it apparently takes some time to get going, if that means it makes an effort to build some characters and some atmosphere.

Though it is probably worth noting that the original Godzilla is the only one i've enjoyed so far.Therefore not really a fan and probably a bit more open to changes, but i can understand if a fan is dissapointed.

There is definitely no anti-nuke message, these creatures have always existed since ancient times. They feed on the radiation of the earth.

No one here is a mutation.

Are you the reason we have Transformers?

\

Funny you should mention Transformers because as my friend put it, "It's Transformers all over again. Too much emphasis on the humans, and bare of the title character in their own movie."

This wasn't as bad as Transformers... but it was too close for comfort.

Then your friend, like you, didn't get it. Just like MovieBob didn't get it (as usual, ugh). The point isn't to empathize with the human characters, although they have been stripped down in personality enough that you CAN empathize with their situation, it's to utilize them as viewpoint characters.

In Transformers, the human characters were the actual focus of the film. Shia Lebeouf had an arc. He started off not being able to bang Megan Fox and then he learned the power of robo-friendship or whatever and he got to bang Megan Fox as a reward.

In Godzilla, Taylor-Johnson's character is only attempting to reclaim what he already had. Like Serizawa and Godzilla himself, he's attempting to return to balance. But he doesn't have a distracting character arc. At the end of the film, when he pushes the boat with the nuke out to sea, it's not because he learned a valuable lesson. He was already a bomb disposal expert at the beginning of the film. He was literally DOING HIS JOB.

So why do we "focus on the humans" so much? The answer is that WE DON'T. We focus on WHAT THEY'RE FOCUSING ON. They exist to lead the camera upwards. They exist to have little to no impact on the creatures themselves throughout most of the film. They exist to reinforce the themes of the story simply by their presence and to otherwise point out how incredibly insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. They're the banana for scale, if you use Reddit.

God, I really wish people knew how film works (including MovieBob, and again, ugh). It would really make these conversations a lot easier.

 

[Draconalis]

snip

I disagree. The humans are there for drama. Monsters can't Drama.

And I expect lots of humans being on screen for a godzilla film... I just don't expect it to be 90% of the movie. I also prefer the reason I'm seeing the movie to be more than a plot device used to close an arch.

 

[BillyBlackSheep]

snip

I disagree. The humans are there for drama. Monsters can't Drama.

And I expect lots of humans being on screen for a godzilla film... I just don't expect it to be 90% of the movie. I also prefer the reason I'm seeing the movie to be more than a plot device used to close an arch.

I don't think that's something you can actually disagree with. It was very, very clearly both the filmmakers' intent and the nature of the film itself. Plus, there is a frankly ridiculous amount of kaiju action this film, even if the Big G only gets in a big beatdown at the very end.

You really can't make the claim that 90% of this film is just humans and still expect to have your opinion taken seriously. Choose one is what I'm saying.

Also, "arc" and not "arch". And, while I get that that maybe isn't something you want to see, it doesn't really matter. Because that's literally what I just explained to you that the film isn't about.

Is literacy just not a thing anymore?

 

[Draconalis]

snip

In regards to everything you said... I disagree.

And no matter what the movie's intent, I judge it to be a bad film.

 

[BillyBlackSheep]

snip

In regards to everything you said... I disagree.

And no matter what the movie's intent, I judge it to be a bad film.

Enjoy your wrongness.

 

[Zontar]

Right at the beginning of the movie Bryan Cranston's character is trying to tell the people who run the plant that it looks like there's some kind of freak earthquake on the way and they should maybe think about taking that seriously, but he can't get anyone to pay attention until it's too late.

Well, given how power plants are built, that's actually completely understandable. I mean hell, the 3 meltdowns that have happened are because, in chronological order: incompetent construction, incompetent construction, and incompetent maintenance coupled with cutting corners which would have been alright had it not been for a once in a century tsunami.

Really, as long as it's a properly maintained facility ignoring his warnings would be the natural reaction.

 

[Dansen]

The thing is the "main" monster doesn't feel main at all. And it's not really a horror movie, it's a disaster movie occasionally trying to pass for horror in some very implausible scenes in which people somehow manage to miss the 300 foot tall monster just around the corner.

One thing I've been hearing from a couple of my friends and a few people on twitter is that there is a lot of military propaganda in the film. Not legit propaganda, mind. They level the same criticisms as you, except they claim there is a lot of military porn (almost) on the level of a Bay movie.

Is this true?

NOT.AT.ALL.

Anyone who says that is a moron or hypersensitive. They are not portrayed as this glorious organization but rather normal people trying to do their jobs. Emphasis is placed on the military hard ware to show how powerless the "Strongest Military" in the world is against these creature. If anything it places them in a less glorious light as many of them die like punks without doing anything significant. In fact, the military wasn't even important at all they just prolonged the inevitable, sent people to their deaths and almost killed millions in the process.


Excellent movie, highly recommended if you want to see an monster action flick. Fucking nerds are the worst fans sometimes. They are so damn dogmatic they can't appreciate anything outside their expectations.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

To be quite frank I was extremely disappointed in this film and it's lack of Jet Jaguar. You people are complaining that Godzilla isn't in it that much whilst I patiently waited for Jet Jaguar to show up and got NOTHING. All I wanted was to hear his song on the big screen, but NOOOO that was never going to happen, was it?

Spoiler