What a train wreck of a movie. Those big budget scened were admitedly awesome but there were so many things wrong with it from a narative point of view, I was literally shaking my head when it was over. It's all tied together with no sense of pacing, story structure or meaningful character development and they had plenty of time for all that between the money shots.
For everybody saying it's too slow, I'm watching Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster right now (widely considered to be one of if not the best classic Godzilla) and the first monster (Rodan) didn't even make an appearance until 1/3 of the way into the film. He's also only on screen for maybe a minute or two in that scene. Other than that, it's pretty much been humans doing human things. Oh wait... There was a singing scene with baby Mothra chilling on a rock for a second. Whatever.
I think that culturally we have this idea of what Godzilla movies are like and the reality doesn't always match up to what we remember.
And this point makes most of the movie boring. They can still show how useless humanity is against these monsters and still give us people to actually care about. So when they find themselves in dire situations, there's actual gravity there to squeeze tension out of the screen.
Luckily the plot is structured in such a way that the military's uselessness, for me, didn't detract from the fun. There's always a new twist or a new development that's happening and all the characters have to react.
I'm surprised people are saying the pacing is off, or slow. The movie moved at a very brisk pace for me I almost couldn't believe two hours had passed.
Doing good at the box office the film has done it's job by reintroducing the character after a 16 year hiatus. I would love to see an animated series again like the 98 cartoon.
Imagine if this is actually an origin story for the characters of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Avengers 2, while we also get an Ultimate Universe version of Walter White where instead of becoming a High School chemist he becomes an actual scientist, and the reason why Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver got theirs powers was due to the radiation from Godzilla and the MUTO.
Also, the pacing didn't hit for me. Oh, here's Godzilla's intro scene. So bad ass, I can't wait to see
- oh, this fight is resolved by a few clips in a news cast. Oh, now there's a bigger MUTO? Maybe they'll give it some screen time to allow it a show of feat - no? We're transporting a bomb now? Okay, I guess. Maybe they'll use the bomb - oh, of course not.
Nothing really has an arc. Disparate elements are just introduced and put on standby one by one until they combine for the payoff, including Godzilla. That doesn't work for me, because I'm numb in my seat.
Cut 15/20 mins of human subplot stuff, make Cranston White the main character, introduce Godzilla (briefly) earlier in the film, and extend the Airport fight.
With those changes and keeping the things this film does well, you'd have one of the best monster films ever and a worthy homage to the original. As it stands, the film just doesn't hold up as a complete package. The 1954 original isn't a worse off film for showing more of Godzilla than hiding him away for dramatic effect.
Saw it today (well, yesterday now here), movie was kind of fun, not really hate it or love it.
Characters suck and the entire bomb plot point is such a meaningless one. I get why they include it so they have an excuse to be close to the action. But really, a discussion on why they shouldn't do it, then a long journey to get it there, and then they figure out this isn't going to work out and they bring it back.
That said, isn't it supposed to explode at the end? One of my friends said there was an explosion when he got picked up by the helicopter, and the other one said there wasn't, I don't think I saw one. But he never disarmed it and it isn't like you wouldn't notice the explosion even when it would travel on the boat for a few minutes.
Many small plot points that are a bit bothersome, but eh, I can live with that. Tension, CG, sound design and fights were all pretty good though. I thought the music was pretty bad except for the part they got out of 2001.
If I remember correctly, when I went to see Pacific Rim on Thursday night. There wasn't that many people. Maybe 75% full, Godzilla at the same time was 95% full.
People were cheering and clapping quite a bit in Godzilla, while there was like one scene where everyone clapped in Pacific Rim. You guys should have seen the theatre was like a football stadiun when the credit was rolling, everyone was cheering.
This was about as amazing of a Godzilla movie as it can be. I really don't understand the "its pure garbage, its crap" comments. Did all of us saw different movies?
That would be amazing. Is the 98 series worth watching? It's on Netflix and I've always wondered. I can even get over the 98 design. I've never been able to stomach the Hannah Barbara cartoon.
That would be amazing. Is the 98 series worth watching? It's on Netflix and since always wondered. I can even get over the 98 design. I've never been able to stomach the Hannah Barbara cartoon.
Saw it today (well, yesterday now here), movie was kind of fun, not really hate it or love it.
Characters suck and the entire bomb plot point is such a meaningless one. I get why they include it so they have an excuse to be close to the action. But really, a discussion on why they shouldn't do it, then a long journey to get it there, and then they figure out this isn't going to work out and they bring it back.
That said, isn't it supposed to explode at the end? One of my friends said there was an explosion when he got picked up by the helicopter, and the other one said there wasn't, I don't think I saw one. But he never disarmed it and it isn't like you wouldn't notice the explosion even when it would travel on the boat for a few minutes.
If I remember correctly, when I went to see Pacific Rim on Thursday night. There wasn't that many people. Maybe 75% full, Godzilla at the same time was 95% full.
People were cheering and clapping quite a bit in Godzilla, while there was like one scene where everyone clapped in Pacific Rim. You guys should have seen the theatre was like a football stadiun when the credit was rolling, everyone was cheering.
This was about as amazing of a Godzilla movie as it can be. I really don't understand the "its pure garbage, its crap" comments. Did all of us saw different movies?
Most of it seems to come from fans not appreciating the lack of Godzilla time for stoopid humans or the modern critic sick of dumb blockbusters and thinking this would change that completely (not an invalid complaint but the movie is not entirely unsuccessful either).
I must say this might be the most humourless blockbuster I've seen in the last five years. I'm not sure there was a single joke in the whole thing, and of course only about two scenes of happiness.
Kind of refreshing to not have a dopey one liner every scene.
would have seen the fight in Hawaii, but that is a very minor complaint.
Godzilla is charging his atomic breath for the first time was an Ohhhhh moment for the entire room.
There was also an adorable little boy in the audience who let out an amazed "Whoa" when Godzilla first showed up. He was completely silent except for amazed reactions like that so good on him.
Sure, it was, but it did have a few jokey lines in it, and a couple of moments of humour. This wasn't dreary, it just had zero interest in making you chuckle.
Cut 15/20 mins of human subplot stuff, make Cranston White the main character, introduce Godzilla (briefly) earlier in the film, and extend the Airport fight.
With those changes and keeping the things this film does well, you'd have one of the best monster films ever and a worthy homage to the original. As it stands, the film just doesn't hold up as a complete package. The 1954 original isn't a worse off film for showing more of Godzilla than hiding him away for dramatic effect.
What would you cut, and how would Joe Brody be the main character?
The film does hold up as a complete package. It's okay if you didn't like what Edwards did/was trying to do, but that doesn't mean the movie doesn't work as a complete package for what it was trying to do. It wanted to pull back and really show how helpless humanity was, from large (the military) to small (the characters).
That would be amazing. Is the 98 series worth watching? It's on Netflix and I've always wondered. I can even get over the 98 design. I've never been able to stomach the Hannah Barbara cartoon.
The animated series was really great unlike the movie it was based on and there plenty of character development. It just got released on dvd really cheap you should check it out.
I must say this might be the most humourless blockbuster I've seen in the last five years. I'm not sure there was a single joke in the whole thing, and of course only about two scenes of happiness.
Kind of refreshing to not have a dopey one liner every scene.
I'm further into Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster now and there is one big that it has on the new Godzilla,
it holds onto that sense of "WTF is going on?" For way longer. I feel like if the newer movie had kept me in the dark longer, the story would have held my attention better. The early parts of the movie with Bryan Cranston had me throwing out all kinds of guesses as to what was really happening. After the government officials explain everything to Ford, that tension is kind of gone.
Also I would really love to see a trilogy with a Ghidrah remake as the 3rd film. This movie would translate really well to this new style. Maybe aside from the fairies...
I really, really enjoyed that. I will start off by saying that I do not, for the life of me, understand why anyone would say this movie is "garbage" or was bad. It escapes me. As a Godzilla movie, this movie is very well done.
After hearing so much talk about how bland/uninteresting the characters were, I was surprised at how much that...didn't matter. Are the characters the most complex in a movie ever? No. Are they serviceable? Yes. What prevents the characters from detracting from the film too much are two things: Edwards' direction and the plot. Once the movie got going though it always maintained a wonderful pace the way he framed the scenes made it very interesting to watch these characters react to what was going on. The film, and this has to do with the themes and the story, is such a way that it's very obvious the characters are so powerless against these forces of nature that are wrecking havoc: What's going on is so much beyond them. For where the direction or characters may be lacking, the plot fills that "hook." There's always something going on or some new development that holds your interest. Some new twist.
You can definitely feel the Jurassic Park influence in this movie. There's a sense of awe and wonder that I haven't seen in a movie in a long while. Godzilla and the MUTOs really foster your imagination of a prehistoric Earth where creatures like they roamed the planet.
The Godzilla teasing is deliberate and necessary. The cutbacks from the fights are meant to show humanity's uselessness against the forces of nature at play. They only thing they can do is react and hope for the best.
The teasing, anyway, pays off. The final fight between Godzilla and the MUTOs is climatic and completely suitable for these titans. I love, LOVE, how animal-istic the fighting was. A lot of people have said this before, but everything had weight, everything had an impact, and the action was very clear. Obviously the best moment of the fight was when
Godzilla split open the female MUTO's mouth and sent a nuclear blast down her throat. A lot of the crowd in my theater applauded, including me.
Speaking of Godzilla, I must say that I was very pleased with the way he was handled. He's very...noble in this film.
Most of the time he goes out of his way to leave humanity alone. And when he does hurt people, it's usually because he can't help it.
By the way, I love the moment when Godzilla locked eyes with Brody. I think it really connected with that "God" metaphor the female scientist said about Godzilla. Godzilla is a creature trying to restore balance. Humanity has gone too far in some areas.
For a summer blockbuster, this movie was very logical when it came to character actions and events. Point A to Point B makes sense, Point B to Point C makes sense, and so on. Yeah, there's some nitpicking you can do
people in the office when the male MUTO appears, people in Las Vegas not paying attention to the news
but those moments are small and there's so much this movie does right it's dumb to hold on to those moments as if they reject the entire film.
Going to go see it again tomorrow. Interested to see how this holds up on a second viewing.
Sure, it was, but it did have a few jokey lines in it, and a couple of moments of humour. This wasn't dreary, it just had zero interest in making you chuckle.
You know a big problem with Pacific Rim? It blew its load halfway through the film. The big Hong Kong fight is great but nothing after it in the film really follows through, that's the action climax overall.
If you'd seen the big airport fight in its entirety, I bet the ending fight wouldn't have seemed as good because it's more of the same
apart from the atomic breath, which then you'd wonder why he didn't use it in the airport scene that you saw all of
as you saw earlier.
I'm not saying a blockbuster can't have an action scene earlier in the movie, but for this film, saving it for the final act worked.
Oh ok, me and my friend both figured it was just a representation of him fading. So apparently there was a bit of a time skip then. Felt extremely anti-climatic.
You know a big problem with Pacific Rim? It blew its load halfway through the film. The big Hong Kong fight is great but nothing after it in the film really follows through, that's the action climax overall.
If you'd seen the big airport fight in its entirety, I bet the ending fight wouldn't have seemed as good because it's more of the same
apart from the atomic breath, which then you'd wonder why he didn't use it in the airport scene that you saw all of
as you saw earlier.
I'm not saying a blockbuster can't have an action scene earlier in the movie, but for this film, saving it for the final act worked.
This is a good point. Godzilla and the MUTOs are very animal-like: they're not going to vary up their fighting styles just for the sake of our entertainment. It's likely, had Edwards and crew kept to their animal-theme in fighting styles, we would've seen more of the same, which may have been a reason in why the fight was edited out.
I saw this with my family and despite them never being into Godzilla they really enjoyed it. I was surprised how much my mother was into it. They both said they would see the sequel if it ever came out.
The most ironic thing after all this is that those who saw all the trailers are the most likely to be the most disappointed by this movie.
Oh ok, me and my friend both figured it was just a representation of him fading. So apparently there was a bit of a time skip then. Felt extremely anti-climatic.
Ideally I would love to see Gareth Edwards make a sequel with Rodan, Anguirus, and/or Mothra in it. Rodan and Anguirus are my favorites and I really want to see them translated. Rodan is my favorite kaiju film ever actually.
Then, the third film could be a Ghidrah movie with balls-to-the-wall monster action and all kinds of crazy shizz.
Nothing really has an arc. Disparate elements are just introduced and put on standby one by one until they combine for the payoff, including Godzilla. That doesn't work for me, because I'm numb in my seat.
I saw this with my family and despite them never being into Godzilla they really enjoyed it. I was surprised how much my mother was into it. They both said they would see the sequel if it ever came out.
The most ironic thing after all this is that those who saw all the trailers are the most likely to be the most disappointed by this movie.
One of the potential problems with a sequel would be:
keeping Godzilla's nobility. It's been established in this film and it can't really be dropped, which means they can't suddenly turn him into a villain. Just a limit in their creative direction.
I forgot that thing went off until just now. When it did I thought "how tragic... his wife is dead!". Nope. Even his wife can survive a megaton nuclear explosion.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I must say I prefer 1985 to this new one. I think it really does come down to me wanting Godzilla to be an antagonist, when he truly was an anti-hero here. This Godzilla had no malice towards humans, hell
I've never seen Godzilla be soooo careful. He actively seemed to be trying to avoid the ships for example. Relative to Godzilla 1985, where he seemingly reacts to movement and noise.
I hope we get more movies, and would love for Godzilla to be harder to frame as a force for good. Godziilla as the lesser evil, didn't feel bitter sweet enough. Godzilla just needs to be a roaming threat, then humanity will be more reluctant to consider him a savior.
Gah! Almost forgot to mention my favorite mini-theme/foreshadowing moment:
When Ford kicks open the gasoline tanks, you see the head of a dragon being drowned in oil: From this the viewer knows that a flame, like Godzilla's atomic breath, is going to kill these babies. Then Godzilla kills the female MUTO using his atomic breath.
I really, really enjoyed that. I will start off by saying that I do not, for the life of me, understand why anyone would say this movie is "garbage" or was bad. It escapes me. As a Godzilla movie, this movie is very well done.
After hearing so much talk about how bland/uninteresting the characters were, I was surprised at how much that...didn't matter. Are the characters the most complex in a movie ever? No. Are they serviceable? Yes. What prevents the characters from detracting from the film too much are two things: Edwards' direction and the plot. Once the movie got going though it always maintained a wonderful pace the way he framed the scenes made it very interesting to watch these characters react to what was going on. The film, and this has to do with the themes and the story, is such a way that it's very obvious the characters are so powerless against these forces of nature that are wrecking havoc: What's going on is so much beyond them. For where the direction or characters may be lacking, the plot fills that "hook." There's always something going on or some new development that holds your interest. Some new twist.
You can definitely feel the Jurassic Park influence in this movie. There's a sense of awe and wonder that I haven't seen in a movie in a long while. Godzilla and the MUTOs really foster your imagination of a prehistoric Earth where creatures like they roamed the planet.
The Godzilla teasing is deliberate and necessary. The cutbacks from the fights are meant to show humanity's uselessness against the forces of nature at play. They only thing they can do is react and hope for the best.
The teasing, anyway, pays off. The final fight between Godzilla and the MUTOs is climatic and completely suitable for these titans. I love, LOVE, how animal-istic the fighting was. A lot of people have said this before, but everything had weight, everything had an impact, and the action was very clear. Obviously the best moment of the fight was when
Godzilla split open the female MUTO's mouth and sent a nuclear blast down her throat. A lot of the crowd in my theater applauded, including me.
Speaking of Godzilla, I must say that I was very pleased with the way he was handled. He's very...noble in this film.
Most of the time he goes out of his way to leave humanity alone. And when he does hurt people, it's usually because he can't help it.
By the way, I love the moment when Godzilla locked eyes with Brody. I think it really connected with that "God" metaphor the female scientist said about Godzilla. Godzilla is a creature trying to restore balance. Humanity has gone too far in some areas.
For a summer blockbuster, this movie was very logical when it came to character actions and events. Point A to Point B makes sense, Point B to Point C makes sense, and so on. Yeah, there's some nitpicking you can do
people in the office when the male MUTO appears, people in Las Vegas not paying attention to the news
but those moments are small and there's so much this movie does right it's dumb to hold on to those moments as if they reject the entire film.
Going to go see it again tomorrow. Interested to see how this holds up on a second viewing.
I must say this might be the most humourless blockbuster I've seen in the last five years. I'm not sure there was a single joke in the whole thing, and of course only about two scenes of happiness.
Kind of refreshing to not have a dopey one liner every scene.
I really, really enjoyed that. I will start off by saying that I do not, for the life of me, understand why anyone would say this movie is "garbage" or was bad. It escapes me. As a Godzilla movie, this movie is very well done.
After hearing so much talk about how bland/uninteresting the characters were, I was surprised at how much that...didn't matter. Are the characters the most complex in a movie ever? No. Are they serviceable? Yes. What prevents the characters from detracting from the film too much are two things: Edwards' direction and the plot. Once the movie got going though it always maintained a wonderful pace the way he framed the scenes made it very interesting to watch these characters react to what was going on. The film, and this has to do with the themes and the story, is such a way that it's very obvious the characters are so powerless against these forces of nature that are wrecking havoc: What's going on is so much beyond them. For where the direction or characters may be lacking, the plot fills that "hook." There's always something going on or some new development that holds your interest. Some new twist.
You can definitely feel the Jurassic Park influence in this movie. There's a sense of awe and wonder that I haven't seen in a movie in a long while. Godzilla and the MUTOs really foster your imagination of a prehistoric Earth where creatures like they roamed the planet.
The Godzilla teasing is deliberate and necessary. The cutbacks from the fights are meant to show humanity's uselessness against the forces of nature at play. They only thing they can do is react and hope for the best.
The teasing, anyway, pays off. The final fight between Godzilla and the MUTOs is climatic and completely suitable for these titans. I love, LOVE, how animal-istic the fighting was. A lot of people have said this before, but everything had weight, everything had an impact, and the action was very clear. Obviously the best moment of the fight was when
Godzilla split open the female MUTO's mouth and sent a nuclear blast down her throat. A lot of the crowd in my theater applauded, including me.
Speaking of Godzilla, I must say that I was very pleased with the way he was handled. He's very...noble in this film.
Most of the time he goes out of his way to leave humanity alone. And when he does hurt people, it's usually because he can't help it.
By the way, I love the moment when Godzilla locked eyes with Brody. I think it really connected with that "God" metaphor the female scientist said about Godzilla. Godzilla is a creature trying to restore balance. Humanity has gone too far in some areas.
For a summer blockbuster, this movie was very logical when it came to character actions and events. Point A to Point B makes sense, Point B to Point C makes sense, and so on. Yeah, there's some nitpicking you can do
people in the office when the male MUTO appears, people in Las Vegas not paying attention to the news
but those moments are small and there's so much this movie does right it's dumb to hold on to those moments as if they reject the entire film.
Going to go see it again tomorrow. Interested to see how this holds up on a second viewing.
How about the fact the film called attention to the dangers of using the bomb several times with:
1)
A map that demonstrated the concussive blast radius damage.
2)
Military personnel explaining this bomb was measured in megatons, meaning it was a magnitude more powerful than what was used in Japan.
3)
The timer on the bomb being pushed heavily ~5 minutes to detonation, then our hero somehow gets the boat far enough away to nullify said blast blast radius in a boat that didn't look terribly fast and then he gets air-lifted far enough away to not get killed by it, somehow.
It's one thing to have a leap of logic or plot holes, but when a movie calls attention to these kind of things... are we expected to ignore them?
I don't buy for a moment Godzilla being recharged would somehow cease tidal waves and the sheer concussive force of a bomb of the magnitude this film detailed. If that's the entire excuse then, yeah, that's a crappy solution to a problem that didn't need to be written in the first place.
Gah! Almost forgot to mention my favorite mini-theme/foreshadowing moment:
When Ford kicks open the gasoline tanks, you see the head of a dragon being drowned in oil: From this the viewer knows that a flame, like Godzilla's atomic breath, is going to kill these babies. Then Godzilla kills the female MUTO using his atomic breath.
One of the potential problems with a sequel would be:
keeping Godzilla's nobility. It's been established in this film and it can't really be dropped, which means they can't suddenly turn him into a villain. Just a limit in their creative direction.
The way he was portrayed in this film made him feel like:
the Heisei Gamera their roles are fairly similar being protectors of nature/universe and they could turn on humans, if they feel they're damaging the planet too much. The ending should have been more ambiguous and I still don't feel like Godzilla is completely a hero in this film. He only wanted killed the MUTOs and didn't care if the humans got in his way like in the tsunami scene.
