Legendary Pictures' Godzilla
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Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
I watched it today, fun but incredibly shallow and full of cliche 6/10
I was six years old when I watched the 1998 version and people say it's worse but at least
I was six years old when I watched the 1998 version and people say it's worse but at least
it made and impact on me emotionally when Godzilla was tangled by the wires of the bridge and getting killed. I really felt so sorry for her. This new movie's drama is so cliche it's irritating.
- AKA
- So many names
Ok I think you're gonna have to spell that one out a bit if you want me to understand ya. What was so cliche about it? In what way do you see it as shallow?
- AKA
- X
Such a shame.
Made more ironic by the fact that it's the LEFT Godzilla that was being fat shamed.
X
- AKA
- Yop
Just watched it, and TBH I'm a bit underwhelmed; you guys have been hyping it a lot, 
. I did expect it to be like this though; it's the same with Transformers: too many humans. I mean really, they add exactly zero to the movie as a whole.
I can go on. TL;DR: humans.
Giant monstrosities were kinda cool, but unfortunately their screen time was heavily impaired - and rudely interrupted - by people running around and dying. I mean come on, I'm watching Godzilla versus two other dudes, not Godzilla versus two othOH LOOK HUMANS RUNNING CHILDREN YELLING FOR THEIR DADDIES AND SOLDIERS HAVING A WANK. Final thing was also kinda anticlimactic imo. It's like
At least there was a sex scene in there,
. I did expect it to be like this though; it's the same with Transformers: too many humans. I mean really, they add exactly zero to the movie as a whole.What's her face? Cries and runs away a lot. Kids? Useless addition and all they can do is look derpy and state "Daddy!1". The military? Absolute joke; on the one hand it's a 'Murca circlejerk with soldiers on the field being all comradey and hooah and shit, on the other hand they're completely and utterly ineffective when it comes to giant monstrosities from the beyondness. Oh hey, there's a 100 meter thing thrashing around, let's uh... send a couple choppers. Oh, and fire at it with small arms - they work on tanks too, right? Tanks, gotta need... about half a dozen tanks that flail around whenever something's around. Navy, yeah let's just put a couple ships here that do nothing whatsoever except get destroyed by the thing we know is coming. Oh, I know! Nukes didn't work on fucking Godzilla back in the day, let's just try it again with a bigger nuke! We'll just chuck it here, set a timer to an hour and a half and uh. Oh shit it's here already, oh fuck we fucked up, let's send... half a dozen people or so to save this city from our own mistakes. Alright soldiers, uh, we fucked up, we're gonna send you right where three giant eldritch monstrosities are duking it out, GL;HF. We'll just sit right here and have a wank or something, 'kay?
Giant monstrosities were kinda cool, but unfortunately their screen time was heavily impaired - and rudely interrupted - by people running around and dying. I mean come on, I'm watching Godzilla versus two other dudes, not Godzilla versus two othOH LOOK HUMANS RUNNING CHILDREN YELLING FOR THEIR DADDIES AND SOLDIERS HAVING A WANK. Final thing was also kinda anticlimactic imo. It's like
oh wait I forgot I have lazer breath LOL
At least there was a sex scene in there,
- AKA
- Rishi
Saw it a couple of days ago.
Overall thoughts: painfully mediocre movie.
Felt like a really silly movie trying super hard to disguise itself as a serious one.
Thought there was a decent build up for initial scientist dude to be the main character. Then he dies and snooze-fest son takes over the movie. All the tension building just gets killed from there. While watching this dude for the majority of the film I would periodically look at my watch wondering when the monsters will be back.
The Jaws approach really did not work imo. It just made me feel like the film really unaware of itself as a giant monster movie. If they were derive inspiration from any Spielberg movie, they should have skewed more in the direction of Jurassic Park in terms of how they dealt with showing off the monsters.
Scenes with Gozilla killing things were pretty cool at least. Wasn't really scared tho. The fact that they put the monster in the role of protecting humanity from the real threat just made him feel more like a big friendly giant more than anything. This feeling is exacerbated by the fact the end was less ""i'll be back motherfuckers" and more like "thanks for waking me up in time for my morning swim."
Ken Watanabe was the only saving grace as far as the humans go. I only say this because I felt like he was the only actor truly playing up the campiness that was otherwise painfully masked/suffocated.
"We know him as.................*dramatic pause* GOJIRA" entire audience cracks up laughing
"No wait how about instead of eradicating the monsters we make them fight each other instead" everyone in the room leaves. entire audience once again bursts into laughter.
Thought there was a decent build up for initial scientist dude to be the main character. Then he dies and snooze-fest son takes over the movie. All the tension building just gets killed from there. While watching this dude for the majority of the film I would periodically look at my watch wondering when the monsters will be back.
The Jaws approach really did not work imo. It just made me feel like the film really unaware of itself as a giant monster movie. If they were derive inspiration from any Spielberg movie, they should have skewed more in the direction of Jurassic Park in terms of how they dealt with showing off the monsters.
Scenes with Gozilla killing things were pretty cool at least. Wasn't really scared tho. The fact that they put the monster in the role of protecting humanity from the real threat just made him feel more like a big friendly giant more than anything. This feeling is exacerbated by the fact the end was less ""i'll be back motherfuckers" and more like "thanks for waking me up in time for my morning swim."
Ken Watanabe was the only saving grace as far as the humans go. I only say this because I felt like he was the only actor truly playing up the campiness that was otherwise painfully masked/suffocated.
"We know him as.................*dramatic pause* GOJIRA" entire audience cracks up laughing
"No wait how about instead of eradicating the monsters we make them fight each other instead" everyone in the room leaves. entire audience once again bursts into laughter.
Overall thoughts: painfully mediocre movie.
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Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
Let me make a list?
1. Dead wife/mother whose sole purpose is to serve as drama for male characters
2. Wife waiting for husband and spends screen time crying and reacting for drama's sake, whose purpose is to provide a motivation/happy ending for male hero
3. Dad who people thinks is crazy but turns out to be right
4. His apparently very crucial discovery didn't really serve anything. Okay so they found out that the spider monsters are mate calling? Does that help the situation? I feel whether or not they discovered daddy's research doesn't affect the outcome that Godzilla will kill the two other monsters anyway.
5. Besides the main hero learning that his dad was right all along, how did he grow as a hero? Does his 2 second eye-contact with Godzilla called a "connection?"
6. Okay the hero has some bomb diffusing skills, but it didn't matter anyway
7. I was expecting that Godzilla here will be explored?Does he fear humans and hide from them? The nuclear tests made it bigger? Godzilla felt like a giant Deus Ex Machina to kill the spider monsters rather than the focus of the movie. He's such a cool big monster chilling out and swimming and that's why he deserves more.
2. Wife waiting for husband and spends screen time crying and reacting for drama's sake, whose purpose is to provide a motivation/happy ending for male hero
3. Dad who people thinks is crazy but turns out to be right
4. His apparently very crucial discovery didn't really serve anything. Okay so they found out that the spider monsters are mate calling? Does that help the situation? I feel whether or not they discovered daddy's research doesn't affect the outcome that Godzilla will kill the two other monsters anyway.
5. Besides the main hero learning that his dad was right all along, how did he grow as a hero? Does his 2 second eye-contact with Godzilla called a "connection?"
6. Okay the hero has some bomb diffusing skills, but it didn't matter anyway
7. I was expecting that Godzilla here will be explored?Does he fear humans and hide from them? The nuclear tests made it bigger? Godzilla felt like a giant Deus Ex Machina to kill the spider monsters rather than the focus of the movie. He's such a cool big monster chilling out and swimming and that's why he deserves more.
That's the reason why the 1998 film made more impact to me. Despite the fact that I forgot 90% of the movie which I think I should be grateful of, at least there I understood that Godzilla is simply a poor creature who didn't deserve her fate. This new film tried sooooo hard to make you feel sorry for the main characters instead of making the audience see Godzilla more than a monster.
- AKA
- X
• "How about we let them fight each other?"
You know, because this is what they DID. They're ancient predators and parasites that preyed upon each other as a part of their natural lifecycle. Plus… you know, and the US and Russia BOTH nuked Godzilla over and over again in the 50's and managed to do… absolutely nothing. The only plan the military has is to hope to take down ALL THREE of them in one go with an even bigger nuke? Right. (Not to mention that Serizawa's family was from Hiroshima during WWII, so the idea of using a nuclear weapon anywhere near a populated city is going to be extremely unacceptable - especially if it doesn't kill them, it's just going to make a bad situation VASTLY worse).
• Godzilla's atomic breath was clearly a last resort, which is why he doesn't use it constantly or until near the end of the battle. It's why he passed out of exhaustion after using it the second time to kill the female MUTO - since unleashing it's a HUGE energy drain (in addition to having a building collapsed on him).
Additionally, the way that they acted like animals but still maintained the old-school kaiju style was really impressive. There're all sorts of little things. The way Godzilla is confused by what the Golden Gate Bridge is and tentatively feels it out. Also when the male MUTO lands on buildings, & when Godzilla tail-slaps him into the skyscraper, they expect them to function like solid structures (like mountains), and are caught off guard when they crumble under relatively small stress. Not to mention, little physical movements like Godzilla fighting by staying in place and physically overpowering them, or the MUTOs focusing on hooking and pulling him off balance, or the ways that the MUTOs interact with each other.
• Godzilla & the MUTOs weren't a threat to humanity as monsters. On the contrary, as monsters, the MUTOs are probably one of the more empathetic entities in the film -- which is really the point. It's the effect of JUST their presence that we can't do anything against, because they're an analogy to our inability to combat natural disasters that we oftentimes contribute to -- hence the Fukushima reactor/ tsunami parallels with (the Janjira Reactor collapsing from the MUTO and Godzilla just approaching Hawaii), 9-11 city destruction (most of the downtown fight), and other large-scale disaster parallels (all the scenes of trying to find lost loved ones) - in addition to the fact that the MUTOs were awakened by strip mining and destroying the environment.
• More to that point, the humans are really just a vessel that follow and give perspective to the helplessness and futility of the human attempts to stop things on their own. Ford & Godzilla's journey also has a small parallel, but that's mostly just during the final battle. For the most part, the humans LITERALLY do not matter At. All. We basically just follow their attempts and the eventual ability for Ford to stop us from making everything worse. We're our own worst enemies in the film, and the scope of everything the humans did from start to finish, doesn't even register in terms of the primary conflict.
Even so, it's clearly not everyone's cup o' tea, and it isn't completely perfect, but it did a hell of a lot right.
You know, because this is what they DID. They're ancient predators and parasites that preyed upon each other as a part of their natural lifecycle. Plus… you know, and the US and Russia BOTH nuked Godzilla over and over again in the 50's and managed to do… absolutely nothing. The only plan the military has is to hope to take down ALL THREE of them in one go with an even bigger nuke? Right. (Not to mention that Serizawa's family was from Hiroshima during WWII, so the idea of using a nuclear weapon anywhere near a populated city is going to be extremely unacceptable - especially if it doesn't kill them, it's just going to make a bad situation VASTLY worse).
• Godzilla's atomic breath was clearly a last resort, which is why he doesn't use it constantly or until near the end of the battle. It's why he passed out of exhaustion after using it the second time to kill the female MUTO - since unleashing it's a HUGE energy drain (in addition to having a building collapsed on him).
Additionally, the way that they acted like animals but still maintained the old-school kaiju style was really impressive. There're all sorts of little things. The way Godzilla is confused by what the Golden Gate Bridge is and tentatively feels it out. Also when the male MUTO lands on buildings, & when Godzilla tail-slaps him into the skyscraper, they expect them to function like solid structures (like mountains), and are caught off guard when they crumble under relatively small stress. Not to mention, little physical movements like Godzilla fighting by staying in place and physically overpowering them, or the MUTOs focusing on hooking and pulling him off balance, or the ways that the MUTOs interact with each other.
• Godzilla & the MUTOs weren't a threat to humanity as monsters. On the contrary, as monsters, the MUTOs are probably one of the more empathetic entities in the film -- which is really the point. It's the effect of JUST their presence that we can't do anything against, because they're an analogy to our inability to combat natural disasters that we oftentimes contribute to -- hence the Fukushima reactor/ tsunami parallels with (the Janjira Reactor collapsing from the MUTO and Godzilla just approaching Hawaii), 9-11 city destruction (most of the downtown fight), and other large-scale disaster parallels (all the scenes of trying to find lost loved ones) - in addition to the fact that the MUTOs were awakened by strip mining and destroying the environment.
• More to that point, the humans are really just a vessel that follow and give perspective to the helplessness and futility of the human attempts to stop things on their own. Ford & Godzilla's journey also has a small parallel, but that's mostly just during the final battle. For the most part, the humans LITERALLY do not matter At. All. We basically just follow their attempts and the eventual ability for Ford to stop us from making everything worse. We're our own worst enemies in the film, and the scope of everything the humans did from start to finish, doesn't even register in terms of the primary conflict.
Even so, it's clearly not everyone's cup o' tea, and it isn't completely perfect, but it did a hell of a lot right.
X
Godzilla's not preying on them tho. He just goes out of his way to kill them then leave. Did he do this before? Just going around trying to slaughter all the other giant creatures for no reason? Godzilla isn't a predator because he doesn't eat them, he eats radiation.
And there's no reason why Watanabe's character could possibly know that Godzilla would fight them then go back to chilling in Bikini Atoll. We're just supposed to believe him cause it's Godzilla and everyone knows Godzilla is the good guy.
And there's no reason why Watanabe's character could possibly know that Godzilla would fight them then go back to chilling in Bikini Atoll. We're just supposed to believe him cause it's Godzilla and everyone knows Godzilla is the good guy.
Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
The audience laughed when the first scene was like "THE PHILIPPINES" I'm not expecting that my country will have something to do with Godzilla.
Now on why The Muto's were in the Philippines (and probably Japan too) at the first place is quite weird. I mean the mainstream theory is that my country was formed by underground volcanoes after the dinosaurs went extinct from what I know. Mutos are supposed to be way older so yeah.
/just thoughts
- AKA
- Jesse McCree. I feel like a New Man
I've been wondering why MUTOs are born and raised in our backyard too, and a godzilla skeleton attached to their pupa form as well confuses me.
- AKA
- X
The MUTOs used to prey on the Godzilla organisms and lay their eggs inside its carcass because the inside is highly radioactive when exposed (hence why the two eggs were laid inside it and remained dormant until the exposure catalyzed the reaction - which is mentioned near the beginning).
Additionally, at Inter's first point, Apex/Alpha predators are at the top of the food chain, but it doesn't necessitate that they feed on everything that they kill. In this case, he's killing the MUTOs because they represent a threat to himself (they lay their eggs inside his species after they kill them, so this is survival-type battle, not a predator/prey type attack). That's why he doesn't consume them after killing them and just goes back into the ocean. Not to mention that ingesting parts of a parasite that lays eggs inside you and feeds off of internal radiation is PROBABLY a bad idea. Had the MUTOs killed him, his carcass would have likely been dragged to their clutch of eggs so that his radiation would help fuel their growth.
Finally, Serizawa's theory about Godzilla coming to kill them isn't entirely pure guess work. The Monarch organization from the film is covered in slightly more detail in the Godzilla: Awakening graphic novel that gets into a different kaiju being revived during the attack at Hiroshima from the huge burst of radiation. Serizawa's father sees it while rescuing his family. That's when Monarch is created and basically follows Godzilla hunting down the other kaiju, and follows as all the US/Russian attacks try to take him out in the '50s. His proposal would have been based on looking at Godzilla's behaviour and comparing it to what his father saw 60 years earlier.
Additionally, at Inter's first point, Apex/Alpha predators are at the top of the food chain, but it doesn't necessitate that they feed on everything that they kill. In this case, he's killing the MUTOs because they represent a threat to himself (they lay their eggs inside his species after they kill them, so this is survival-type battle, not a predator/prey type attack). That's why he doesn't consume them after killing them and just goes back into the ocean. Not to mention that ingesting parts of a parasite that lays eggs inside you and feeds off of internal radiation is PROBABLY a bad idea. Had the MUTOs killed him, his carcass would have likely been dragged to their clutch of eggs so that his radiation would help fuel their growth.
Finally, Serizawa's theory about Godzilla coming to kill them isn't entirely pure guess work. The Monarch organization from the film is covered in slightly more detail in the Godzilla: Awakening graphic novel that gets into a different kaiju being revived during the attack at Hiroshima from the huge burst of radiation. Serizawa's father sees it while rescuing his family. That's when Monarch is created and basically follows Godzilla hunting down the other kaiju, and follows as all the US/Russian attacks try to take him out in the '50s. His proposal would have been based on looking at Godzilla's behaviour and comparing it to what his father saw 60 years earlier.
X
- AKA
- So many names
@Danseru: Ok, some of those ARE indeed cliches and we probably could've done without them. Some of the others though are just tropes, as far as I see, and tropes are not bad.
As for the rest of the discussion in this thread, at this point I actually have to hearken back to what Ghost X said in a way: It really is almost like we're not watching the same movie
As for the rest of the discussion in this thread, at this point I actually have to hearken back to what Ghost X said in a way: It really is almost like we're not watching the same movie
Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
@Danseru: Ok, some of those ARE indeed cliches and we probably could've done without them. Some of the others though are just tropes, as far as I see, and tropes are not bad.
As for the rest of the discussion in this thread, at this point I actually have to hearken back to what Ghost X said in a way: It really is almost like we're not watching the same movie
Tropes aren't bad, but IMHO the ones I listed in Godzilla isn't well done nor they contribute to the story well.
As much as the
Dead Mom
Spock's mom's death
Frigga's
In Godzilla...
Mommy's death served cause a rift between father and son and this prevents the son from accepting his father's discovery which builds up to nothing at all. The thing is the father's discovery is just some sort of commentary rather than an actual plot device that will change the outcome of the situation. Whether or not daddy's right the same stuff happens: Mutos awaken, Godzilla respond to them, they go to Hawaii, then to California, wreck stuff, and Godzilla kills Mutos.
Sometimes I'm very lax in criticism but this time I'm just disappointed that so much time is wasted in unnecessary things than Godzilla himself.
Edit: Just because I criticize a movie it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I liked Frozen but it doesn't change my opinion that its writing is weak.
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- AKA
- X
Except that
the rift between him and his father means that Ford doesn't know anything about his father's research, but barely has enough to get them pointed in the right direction - i.e. the echo location means that they start looking for response calls, which wouldn't have even been something they considered before, and points them in the right direction just before things come crashing down. It helps to establish the general feeling of helplessness early on that you're always just a half step in the right direction too far behind.
That being said, it's also the fact that the humans literally accomplish one thing in the film, and that's the fact that Ford moves the nuke out of a high-density human populated area. The humans essentially are only capable of mitigating the damaged that they caused to themselves, which brings back to the main point in the film of man being in nature's control.
That being said, it's also the fact that the humans literally accomplish one thing in the film, and that's the fact that Ford moves the nuke out of a high-density human populated area. The humans essentially are only capable of mitigating the damaged that they caused to themselves, which brings back to the main point in the film of man being in nature's control.
X
Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
^
As for the rest, there are always ways to interpret a work intelligently and I enjoy reading your explanations. For example, Legend of Korra fans have written extensive and intelligent essays presenting Mako and Korra's relationship as good writing, for me it's definitely not.
Godzilla's writing leaves room for a lot "ambiguity" that results to views in different sides of the spectrum. I can read your stuff and won't be able to deny that it's a valid interpretation of the movie, but I still find the writing sloppy. If you think the theme is nature being in control, I didn't see that explored in the film itself. Maybe Watanabe's "they will kill each other because its nature's way" referenced to it but it's not enough for me.
At least the 1950's version had a line in the end lamenting Godzilla's death saying "in the future there might be a Godzilla again because of man."
From what I remember they already spot Godzilla (he's damn huge) and predicted his path even without the Echolocation. The research just explained why he's going in the US. But I might review this movie again so I'm not saying I'm 100% right.
As for the rest, there are always ways to interpret a work intelligently and I enjoy reading your explanations. For example, Legend of Korra fans have written extensive and intelligent essays presenting Mako and Korra's relationship as good writing, for me it's definitely not.
Godzilla's writing leaves room for a lot "ambiguity" that results to views in different sides of the spectrum. I can read your stuff and won't be able to deny that it's a valid interpretation of the movie, but I still find the writing sloppy. If you think the theme is nature being in control, I didn't see that explored in the film itself. Maybe Watanabe's "they will kill each other because its nature's way" referenced to it but it's not enough for me.
At least the 1950's version had a line in the end lamenting Godzilla's death saying "in the future there might be a Godzilla again because of man."
- AKA
- X
They knew that Godzilla was going to be hunting the (male) MUTO, but the EMP knocked out their sensors, so the military's hunt for the MUTO was relying solely on visual cues, and they didn't have any idea where it was going to be headed until they learned that it was speaking with its mate.
I don't think that Serizawa's character leaves much of that ambiguous with quote like, "Nature has an order, a power to restore balance." (directly referring to Godzilla) and "The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in our control, and not the other way 'round." (again referring to the kaiju and Godzilla compared to us).
X
- AKA
- TresDias
I'm finally seeing this tomorrow. Fuck all ya'll who already have.
Danseru-kun
Pro Adventurer
I don't think that Serizawa's character leaves much of that ambiguous with quote like, "Nature has an order, a power to restore balance." (directly referring to Godzilla) and "The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in our control, and not the other way 'round." (again referring to the kaiju and Godzilla compared to us).
X
The line itself isn't ambiguous but the writing of the entire film is mediocre to support the line. Even if
the Mutos are awakened by man's activities this is drastically different from the nuclear bomb angle. The awakening of the monsters becomes somewhat of an accident rather than a by-product of man playing god.
I forgot to express this properly earlier but I dislike that the Mutos are more featured than Godzilla himself. Anyway, I've expressed my disappointments enough. I watched this film without reading any reviews or comments and I don't think I was biased against it but it still didn't impress me.
I forgot to express this properly earlier but I dislike that the Mutos are more featured than Godzilla himself. Anyway, I've expressed my disappointments enough. I watched this film without reading any reviews or comments and I don't think I was biased against it but it still didn't impress me.
- AKA
- TresDias
Pretty much all my sentiments have already been expressed in these posts by Theozilla, Unlucky and Carlie:
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580122&postcount=316
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580247&postcount=325
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580249&postcount=326
Did not love it, really, but didn't dislike it at all.
It makes some excellent observations, particularly
Not necessarily.
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580122&postcount=316
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580247&postcount=325
http://thelifestream.net/forums/showpost.php?p=580249&postcount=326
Did not love it, really, but didn't dislike it at all.
As others have said, Cranston delivered a powerful performance while he was still in the movie, and that ultimately makes the rest of the film feel very "what could have been." He and Watanabe together would have been amazing, but, alas, there was none of this.
Hell, even just more of Watanabe and Sally Hawkins might have made up the difference. At least we got that one really poignant scene with Watanabe's character showing the admiral his father's watch.
Otherwise, not a lot to be said. Elizabeth Olsen was very good with what scenes she had, proving that at least one of the actors in her family live up to the occupation, and while Taylor-Johnson couldn't carry the movie the way it needed to be, he did what he was put on the screen to do.
No complaints whatsoever about how the kajiu were handled. I really appreciated the restraint practiced in holding back with the spectacle of them until the film's final act. "Pacific Rim" may have spoiled us in that regard, but this film and that film were telling two very different kind of stories -- with "Pacific Rim," we see a world where kaiju incursions are an everyday thing, but with this new "Godzilla," we're looking at the world's first contact with these sort of extraordinary animals.
I also really liked how generally indifferent the kaiju were to our species. Until we start hitting them in the face with rockets, we don't really demand their attention even when they passively take notice of us. That's how an animal will realistically behave when encountering what amounts to insects in its eyes.
So, overall, a good film, but not one that changed my life. It's as well-designed as any Godzilla movie ever has been, I suppose (except for the original, in light of the metaphor and collective-unconscious anxiety behind it all), but it wasn't as fun as some have been to me. Maybe that's nostalgia talking or maybe I got spoiled by "Pacific Rim," but with Godzilla now introduced, a sequel can cut loose a bit and really let its atomic breath fly.
Hell, even just more of Watanabe and Sally Hawkins might have made up the difference. At least we got that one really poignant scene with Watanabe's character showing the admiral his father's watch.
Otherwise, not a lot to be said. Elizabeth Olsen was very good with what scenes she had, proving that at least one of the actors in her family live up to the occupation, and while Taylor-Johnson couldn't carry the movie the way it needed to be, he did what he was put on the screen to do.
No complaints whatsoever about how the kajiu were handled. I really appreciated the restraint practiced in holding back with the spectacle of them until the film's final act. "Pacific Rim" may have spoiled us in that regard, but this film and that film were telling two very different kind of stories -- with "Pacific Rim," we see a world where kaiju incursions are an everyday thing, but with this new "Godzilla," we're looking at the world's first contact with these sort of extraordinary animals.
I also really liked how generally indifferent the kaiju were to our species. Until we start hitting them in the face with rockets, we don't really demand their attention even when they passively take notice of us. That's how an animal will realistically behave when encountering what amounts to insects in its eyes.
So, overall, a good film, but not one that changed my life. It's as well-designed as any Godzilla movie ever has been, I suppose (except for the original, in light of the metaphor and collective-unconscious anxiety behind it all), but it wasn't as fun as some have been to me. Maybe that's nostalgia talking or maybe I got spoiled by "Pacific Rim," but with Godzilla now introduced, a sequel can cut loose a bit and really let its atomic breath fly.
It makes some excellent observations, particularly
in the parallels drawn between the kaiju and humans, but diminishing the humans' roles in terms of significant achievements doesn't preclude exploring them as people.
I think the reviewer also must know on some level that the conceit of their review doesn't quite hold up since Ford achieves the destruction of the MOTU hive, which distracts the mother and helps (possibly saves?) Godzilla.
I think the reviewer also must know on some level that the conceit of their review doesn't quite hold up since Ford achieves the destruction of the MOTU hive, which distracts the mother and helps (possibly saves?) Godzilla.
Not necessarily.
The obsession research of Cranston's character begins a series of events involving the humans that culminates in Ford blowing up the MUTO hive and possibly saving Godzilla from being tag teamed to death, which then allowed Godzilla to divide and conquer the MUTOs.
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- AKA
- Rishi
Just chiming in to say that I agree with all the criticisms against this movie, though honestly do not feel invested in it enough to say I love/hate it either way. I'm not going to say it was a good movie, but I didn't feel particularly offended for having paid to watch it.
Would like to add that just because the film's logic makes internal sense, doesn't mean it's well executed tho? Not sure if that's what is being argued. I don't have as strong feelings as Danseru but I agree with their position.
Would like to add that just because the film's logic makes internal sense, doesn't mean it's well executed tho? Not sure if that's what is being argued. I don't have as strong feelings as Danseru but I agree with their position.
- AKA
- So many names
I will admit, I hope for a case of Even Better Sequel to kick in on this one. I loved it, but I'd love to see it get even better.
- AKA
- TresDias
For me a factor in whether I would say "I loved it" is whether I have a desire to see it again. I don't, and I hate to say that.
- AKA
- X
So, first of all, 98% of what you listed are most certainly NOT plot holes.
Metaphorically - yes, actually - no.
No, for the same reason that we don't eat things that're parasites. Godzilla was killing them because they were a danger to him - the MUTOs hunt radiation sources (which in the past were the carcasses of the Godzilla-type creatures whose carcasses emitted large amounts of radiation when exposed to air and a reaction catalyzed), so while he's an alpha predator, he doesn't necessarily predate upon those specific creatures as a food source, but would be compelled to kill them - hence hunting them when they started talking. Also, just because there are large numbers of eggs laid doesn't mean that it's guaranteed that large numbers of offspring will hatch. During development it's possible that a large number of them would die off under varying circumstances, fratricide, cannibalism, or simply not gain enough radiation to develop. Additionally, it was stated that they all fed on radiation as a food source.
People make mistakes? There're lots of lights in the cities and other places, and MUTOs don't have any frame of reference that would identify a static light source as a living creature. The kaiju basically COMPLETELY ignore humans for the most part anyway.
What's the logical alternative that you'd have proposed? They were luring it with a warhead that was orders of magnitude larger than the ones used in the 1954 era with a high blast capacity, and they were going to lure them all to the most central location based on all their current locations that was also the furthest from population centers. They transported it via train to avoid the effects of the EMP preventing it arriving at its destination from a long-range attack.
Mainly? All the above-listed biological reasons to assume that it's Godzilla's survival instinct to kill something that's going to predate upon him parasitically at some point, and attempt to use his carcass to spawn its young.
Additionally? Godzilla: Awakening gets into the fact that his father helped establish Monarch after he was awakened in 1945 with the Hiroshima bomb, and he predated and killed another kaiju during that time, and ended up leaving afterwards, and the US & Russian militaries were completely helpless against him.
Additionally? Godzilla: Awakening gets into the fact that his father helped establish Monarch after he was awakened in 1945 with the Hiroshima bomb, and he predated and killed another kaiju during that time, and ended up leaving afterwards, and the US & Russian militaries were completely helpless against him.
That happens in real life? Also, we see it happen twice, once shortly after a small amount of damage in Hawaii, and another time after several hours of waiting.
There's likely a good area of the west coast that suffered from some level of fallout, even though the nuke was relatively far out to sea, but San Francisco was clearly not within that range given the events shown at the end - at least not in the short term sense.
Why the hell does Godzilla have atomic breath? Also, high-energy EMPs could potentially also affect physical biology that rely on electrical signals, like sensory nerve cells or creatures who rely on something like electro-location for hunting like sharks - so you know, there's that. We don't really know what other creatures lived during its era, so there's no direct evidence to need to justify that.
With WHAT? They nuked him REPEATEDLY in the 50's and did - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to him. There's a reason that the Navy essentially escorts him. One - getting them all in one place is a tactically sound move, and two - if you manage to actually convince something like Godzilla that YOU'RE a threat to him at least on par with that of the MUTOs, you can pretty much kiss everything goodbye. When the Navy ships unloaded on him, he barely even acknowledged that they were THERE.
Ummm... They didn't? There were other EODs on the train who helped retrofit the nuke - but they all died. He hitched a ride with the military initially, because Dr. Serizawa wanted him & his dad. He moved off of Hawaii, because they were taking military personnel to follow it, and he used it as a way to get home. The military didn't give a damn that he was an EOD, but he was an EOD with family in the area that they headed to, so they let him on the train. He checked the tracks, because he wasn't part of the main convoy and was thus more expendable than they were, and lastly, he tagged on at the end because he was the only survivor who had seen and worked with the device that needed to be disabled.
One panicking during a disaster scenario? Also, one allowing them to insert a Mothra Easter Egg.
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