I don't know what else to tell you other than it felt overly long to me, and nothing of importance felt like it happened between
the reveal in Hawaii
and
the final fight in San Francisco.
Between those two the plot of the movie was literally just
oh shit they're going to fight in SF. Which is fine except they fell absolutely flat in selling the sense of fear and urgency. I felt nothing. I was just waiting for the fight to actually start, the movie on the way there wasn't entertaining me at all.
But between those two events you have the following important ones (not just "oh shit they're to going SF"):
The female MUTO appearing
Them taking the missile by train to the coast
The Male MUTO arriving and stealing the warhead
Godzilla arriving at the bay.
All I have to say is I really, really liked the movie. While everyone reserves the right to have their own opinions, I'm glad I don't let some of the ones in this thread reduce my enjoyment of this film.
I don't know what keeping Joe alive would have accomplished. He completed his story. He proved he wasn't a nutcase, and that something was going on. What was there left for him to do? Would he have been on the aircraft carrier sharing reaction shots with Serizawa? Would he have been running alongside Ford from one monster fight scene to the next? He served his purpose. If he hung around, he would have just been eating up screentime.
The movie established him as a main character to follow. I wanted more. And they took that away and we were suppose to care about the son at that point?
i found it super cheesy how the new report hailed Godzilla as a savior when he probably caused just as much destruction as the MUTAS (forgot what the acronym was exactly). I also found it annoying how the scientist kept going on about Godzilla restoring balance and blah blah blah. What is he basing this on? Why is he even there when he's not you know...being scientific and instead spouting random crap? It wasn't like the MUTAS were attacking humans straight up. They were just going for radiation and trying to reproduce. I empathizes more with them than Godzilla lol.
were they aliens? i feel like they were aliens
between
the muto eggs being called spores, them supposedly existing from a time before the earth was known to be habitable, and godzilla not even going on a rampage of his own - acting much like an autobot to the muto decepticon- i got some strong alien vibes from them.
also, what the hell were they breathing up on the surface? cant have been oxygen
I was disappointed though we didnt get to see the Interstellar trailer before our showing. Dont know why exactly (wasnt IMAX i dont think). People i was with hadnt seen it yet. I saw it on youtube thankfully.
I was disappointed though we didnt get to see the Interstellar trailer before our showing. Dont know why exactly (wasnt IMAX i dont think). People i was with hadnt seen it yet. I saw it on youtube thankfully.
But between those two events you have the following important ones (not just "oh shit they're to going SF"):
– The female MUTO appearing
– Them taking the missile by train to the coast
– The Male MUTO arriving and stealing the warhead
– Godzilla arriving at the bay.
Uh, wha? Between those two points in the film, we find out that
there's a mate to the flying MUTO and that they're planning on having babies. They keep stealing energy sources as they rampaged through Las Vegas. We even got a scene of Godzilla being attacked by the military and busting up a bridge in the evacuation. They then decided to try to nuke it with a plan as well.
There's a lot of stuff that happens. They raise the stakes just enough and showed what folks were doing to get out of the way of everything that was coming.
I actually kind of ended up liking what they did with this because it sort of was one small story arc for the family rather than individually. It feels disjointed when looked at separately but it felt like they were meant to be paired together, to me.
I obviously know there were events that happened between those two sections. What I'm saying is that the constant shoving of Aaron Taylor Johnson into the story and scenes, coupled with the ham-handed acting and the way the military was handling the situations wasn't the human element I was hoping to see in a disaster-themed Godzilla movie. The execution of the events themselves was plodding and I wasn't interested in how Aaron Taylor Johnson convinced the army to let him ride the train or any other excruciating details of his boring odyssey. I mean, when I knew that he was supposed to be the main "human" element of the film I just tuned out any of the scenes he was in.
Just finished watching it. I enjoyed the first third of the movie though that was due to Cranston's character. I can't say the same for the second third of the movie. I'm sure Aaron Johnson is a good actor and all but I just couldn't get into his character at all. But that third act, my god, that third act. I was geeking out through it all. That
first Atomic Breath
was epic but it was nothing compared to the
Kiss of Death.
And then there was that roar
immediately after the HALO jump.
I think that
by this time, we heard Godzilla roared twice.
I really didn't lose my shit till that particular one.
I would give the movie an 8. Aside from Cranston's character, I found most of the human characters boring as well as parts of the second act. The third act alone was worth the $20 I spent on my IMAX ticket.
edit: feeling was supposed to be geeking. Don't know why it autcorrected to that but yeah.
I was disappointed though we didnt get to see the Interstellar trailer before our showing. Dont know why exactly (wasnt IMAX i dont think). People i was with hadnt seen it yet. I saw it on youtube thankfully.
Yeah me too. Was at a non-imax 2D showing. We got Maleficent, Train Dragons sequel then Johansson is a genius/Jesus or something, and maybe a few others I can't remember.
Really? Huh.... I remember tail whip then a big of smoke and debris. thought it was blunt force. Alright I guess that's okay. Wish I could see it without paying.
Really? Huh.... I remember tail whip then a big of smoke and debris. thought it was blunt force. Alright I guess that's okay. Wish I could see it without paying.
Saw the movie. Totally blown away. There are some mistakes here and there, but I'm very happy with the way this movie turned out. Gareth Edward delivered exactly what he promised, a Godzilla movie that feels like a big disaster film. This is a new style for the Godzilla franchise and really hadn't been done till now. Whereas the original master piece was a metaphor for the atomic bomb, this movie really does feel like a metaphor for natural disasters.
This is also easily one of the most beautiful movies I've seen. I can't believe how beautiful the shot looked while watching a heart breaking scene with the nuclear power plant crumbling. The imagery it both beautiful and sad. Brilliant!
As for the criticism, I do agree the movie might have gotten a little overboard in teasing us with Godzilla. That said, the amount of screen time for Godzilla wasn't awful, but I would have liked a little more destruction porn. Maybe a minute or two of Godzilla wiping his feet on the streets of San Francisco with the military unable to stop him. I don't agree that the humans suck. Yeah, Ken was useless, but I saw him as more of a bridge to the story events. Maybe if he wasn't played by a well known actor and named after a famous Godzilla character, people wouldn't care that much.
Criticism of Ford being at the center of all the events is silly. I can sort of see Hawaii being slightly contrived. SLIGHTLY. It's not that big of a deal at all. Plus, Ford lives in San Francisco. Ford is a soldier and his task has everything to do with a plot point in the movie. His family is in San Francisco. The monsters are fighting in San Francisco. Why would Ford be in San Francisco. I don't know!? I also really liked the fact that
Ford failed to stop the nuke. I was honestly expecting the last minute save cliche being used for the bomb. He failed, he's human! He wasn't useless in the fight either. I think his failure to stop the bomb has potential for the sequel.
The real character arc is Bryan Cranston. The rest of the people are just there trying to survive. I don't see any real stupid decisions from the humans aside from Elle staying behind instead of leaving with her child. Maybe the school bus driver? Not really, even his actions are kind of understandable. People make irrational decisions in panic. I mean, that's up to interpretation I guess.
This movie could use more Byran Cranston too.
My criticism is that Godzilla despite being the biggest yet,
was knocked down by a falling building. His breath also wasn't very powerful. It didn't do shit against the small MUTO. I was expecting GMK level of power since they decided to save it for the last minute. This Godzilla is kinda weak.
No, the movie isn't perfect, but damn did I love it. To me, it's actually more like the Showa movies done in a serious tone.
My criticism is that Godzilla despite being the biggest yet,
was knocked down by a falling building. His breath also wasn't very powerful. It didn't do shit against the small MUTO. I was expecting GMK level of power since they decided to save it for the last minute. This Godzilla is kinda weak.
No, the movie isn't perfect, but damn did I love it. To me, it's actually more like the Showa movies done in a serious tone.
Just gotten the shit kicked out of him by the two MUTOs. It looked like he was all but going to fall over anyways.
One moment I really disliked is how Godzilla manages to
sneak up on the MUTO at the very end, for the finishing breath down the throat move. Um. Godzilla just had a building land on him. And he's sorta big. How does he sneak up silently like that? It really hurt the moment, IMO. I was left thinking WTF when it should have been awesome.
I obviously know there were events that happened between those two sections. What I'm saying is that the constant shoving of Aaron Taylor Johnson into the story and scenes, coupled with the ham-handed acting and the way the military was handling the situations wasn't the human element I was hoping to see in a disaster-themed Godzilla movie. The execution of the events themselves was plodding and I wasn't interested in how Aaron Taylor Johnson convinced the army to let him ride the train or any other excruciating details of his boring odyssey. I mean, when I knew that he was supposed to be the main "human" element of the film I just tuned out any of the scenes he was in.
I honestly think you can distill the feeling of the movie easily with the Watanabe/General scene.
So Watanabe think it's a terrible idea to nuke these monsters, disastrous even and the general says I'm sorry doctor, but I have to do this because blah, blah, blah, and then Watanabe just woodenly stands there with his deer in headlights stare because the writers spent all their time on Cranston or whatever. He looked mildly disappointed. What am I as a viewer supposed to feel in that scene? Is the general going to ask someone to get him a coffee next? It doesn't look like Watanabe cares that much so neither do I. Then contrast it with Cranston when he's detained by the police at the reactor facility and shit is going down. Night and day difference. Not that it even has to be an oscar worthy performance but Cranston had a serviceable role and he did his job well. They didn't give the other actors shit to work with.
Just gotten the shit kicked out of him by the two MUTOs. It looked like he was all but going to fall over anyways.
One moment I really disliked is how Godzilla manages to
sneak up on the MUTO at the very end, for the finishing breath down the throat move. Um. Godzilla just had a building land on him. And he's sorta big. How does he sneak up silently like that? It really hurt the moment, IMO. I was left thinking WTF when it should have been awesome.
They took a lot of creative liberties with the sound design when it came to flat out muting certain elements of the creatures that should have otherwise been loud as fuck
I saw it, personally I felt that the movie didn't really have any defining moments and that the pacing was a bit flat for my liking. I understand that this was trying to be a character driven movie, but I also felt that it pushed "Godzilla" too far into the background.
I noticed that a lot of people brought their kids to the 7PM showing which I think is understandable. But at the same time, it seemed like most were bored out of their minds and completely restless, disrupting the movie.
I also felt that there were too many needless "reveal" shots... scenes that feel like they were created as fodder for the trailer but don't seem to add anything to the narrative of the movie. There are shots that feature people staring blankly at ... where ever... in silence, while a monster of some kind will pop out in front of them through a misty haze, or darkness or whatever . There were also some really odd cutaway shots during the monster fights, though I did like that one cut away to the kid watching the footage of the battle on the TV.
I was somewhat amused by the Japanese kid with the red shirt and blue hat on the monorail in Hawaii... this is an amusing little nod to all the classic Toho Goszilla movies.
Was it a bad movie? No. It was made well enough, but maybe I was expecting a little more in the way of old school monster battle royale, which is something that Pacific Rim did better.
I honestly think you can distill the feeling of the movie easily with the Watanabe/General scene.
So Watanabe think it's a terrible idea to nuke these monsters, disastrous even and the general says I'm sorry doctor, but I have to do this because blah, blah, blah, and then Watanabe just woodenly stands there with his deer in headlights stare because the writers spent all their time on Cranston or whatever. He looked mildly disappointed. What am I as a viewer supposed to feel in that scene? Is the general going to ask someone to get him a coffee next? It doesn't look like Watanabe cares that much so neither do I. Then contrast it with Cranston when he's detained by the police at the reactor facility and shit is going down. Night and day difference. Not that it even has to be an oscar worthy performance but Cranston had a serviceable role and he did his job well. They didn't give the other actors shit to work with.
Exactly. I didn't the raw desperation that would've been logical from an event like this from anyone except Cranston. I could understand
Aaron Johnson not having reactions since he's been trained for that, but the scientist just staring at people as they say shit he doesn't agree with in the midst of such a gigantic monster?
I'll just repeat myself since I touched on this before, but this post summed up nicely my biggest beef with the human characters:
I agree mostly but I can't blame the actors. I think that while they wanted to tease Godzilla they were killing tension with a lot of the scenes in between. They gave Ken Watanabe almost nothing to do but stare into the screen. The military general or whoever is emotionless, just walking around telling his troops what the deal is. Little urgency in a lot of the military scenes. Even when Watanabe is telling the general he's a retard to try and nuke the monsters they just sort of politely disagree. Watanabe should have been going nuts like Cranston was, or they should have just ditched the monster duo experts and have Cranston fill that role. Then the monsters are fighting in the city and it looks like it's just a really busy day in the hospital. People watching the fight on tv as if it's the ellen show. There's a lot of stuff in there like that which is small but can take me out of the scene. They're coming to San Francisco in this flotilla of ships with Godzilla and the ships are so close they're almost on top of him. Maybe keep your distance cause he's a giant wild animal? I know it sounds like a nitpick but if you want the audience to be fearful it would make sense for the actors to be too.
Anyway I enjoyed it but I thought it could be a lot better.
I obviously know there were events that happened between those two sections. What I'm saying is that the constant shoving of Aaron Taylor Johnson into the story and scenes, coupled with the ham-handed acting and the way the military was handling the situations wasn't the human element I was hoping to see in a disaster-themed Godzilla movie. The execution of the events themselves was plodding and I wasn't interested in how Aaron Taylor Johnson convinced the army to let him ride the train or any other excruciating details of his boring odyssey. I mean, when I knew that he was supposed to be the main "human" element of the film I just tuned out any of the scenes he was in.
See, there was no "shoving" involved. It's Ford's perspective you should value; he's supposed to be the audiences view from the ground. Speaking of the military, they're handled a lot more intelligently here than in most blockbusters. They're willing to hear other options and they explain their motives and why they're doing what they're doing.
Aaron wanted to get back to SF, true, but he also contributed to the military's efforts by retrofitting the missile for them. He also got a ride. I mean, after he leaves Hawaii he's practically there! There's really no "boring odyssey"; after he survives the attack with the missile, the male MUTO grabs the missile, Godzilla shows up in the bay, and the finale begins.
The human element isn't just tied to Ford, it's tied to all the characters.
You have the family perspective with Ell and her son, you have the soldier aspect from Ford, and you have the leadership and "big view" aspect from Serizawa and Stenz.
You should watch the movie again. There isn't as much between Hawaii and SF as you're remembering.
Yeah two movies in a row where I was pretty bored due to the flat characterization. Spielberg did both well. And since Jurassic park I've kinda found monster movies range from mediocre to decent(latest Godzilla)
If Edwards learns from his mistakes he'll be a pretty sweet director, if he continues like this though then ehhh
Just gotten the shit kicked out of him by the two MUTOs. It looked like he was all but going to fall over anyways.
One moment I really disliked is how Godzilla manages to
sneak up on the MUTO at the very end, for the finishing breath down the throat move. Um. Godzilla just had a building land on him. And he's sorta big. How does he sneak up silently like that? It really hurt the moment, IMO. I was left thinking WTF when it should have been awesome.
Yeah, there was a lot of "Giant monsters sneaking up" moments in the finale, I felt they were easy to brush off though. I actually really liked how they didn't make Godzilla some unlimited source of power. Every move is deliberate, you can see him getting tired in the fight, and even the atomic breathe looks like it knocks the shit out of him just to fire for a few seconds. Very animalistic.
I don't know if he has the type of personal connection to him films that Spielberg has. Spielberg was able to wrangle out tons of thematic depth from this films: Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T are loaded with subtle layers of depth. Gareth Edwards just strikes me as fan with a very good eye for visuals and structure.
Just gotten the shit kicked out of him by the two MUTOs. It looked like he was all but going to fall over anyways.
One moment I really disliked is how Godzilla manages to
sneak up on the MUTO at the very end, for the finishing breath down the throat move. Um. Godzilla just had a building land on him. And he's sorta big. How does he sneak up silently like that? It really hurt the moment, IMO. I was left thinking WTF when it should have been awesome.
After seeing the movie this weekend, I can safely say it has the worst pacing of a summer blockbuster ever.
Still enjoyed it, but I have no clue what the hell they were thinking. There's slow burn reveal like Jaws, and then there's frustrating teasing. This movie was the latter.
That was one of the most boring pieces of shit I have ever seen in theaters. All the actors were fine. There was just nothing going on. It seemed like a running fucking joke to cut away and not show us anything awesome.
That was one of the most boring pieces of shit I have ever seen in theaters. All the actors were fine. There was just nothing going on. It seemed like a running fucking joke to cut away and not show us anything awesome.
I cannot even fathom how this movie, according to you, had nothing going on. You may not have liked it, but the most boring piece of shit? Some of you should learn to curb your own bullshit.
I cannot even fathom how this movie, according to you, had nothing going on. You may not have liked it, but the most boring piece of shit? Some of you should learn to curb your own bullshit.
It's just people failing to articulate what it really was they didn't like about it. The general vibe im getting is the overall pacing spending significant time on story and characters people didnt relate with. Me personally thought the positives outweighed the negatives but even I came out of this with a 'good not great' attitude. Considering how much i liked the two leads in Monsters i was really actually expecting this to be a bit more on the human department.
Saw it today and really enjoyed it. Kinda wish I hadn't been reading this thread before it came out, because as someone that had never seen any other Godzilla other than the '98 version, I had no idea there were other monsters in this and no idea about the atomic breath. Would have been even more mind blowing if I hadn't been waiting for it.
I fave a few minor nitpicks, like
how the fuck the army didn't notice the female muto hatch and knock out half a fucking mountain in Nevada. Surely there would be earthquakes and aftershocks and shit, but no they had to check each door for some bizzare reason.
Also on the golden gate bridge how the police were moaning because the bridge wasnt clear and nobody was moving when they cut off all the lanes bare one. Silly people
One thing I don't understand is
Godzilla's motivations for going after the MUTOs anyway. They say he is an apex predator but that he feeds off radiation, so why bother going after the two anyway? If he wanted it for food fair enough but he killed them off, had a nap then trotted back off to sea
Either way I really enjoyed it. Felt kinda sorry for the MUTOs tbh
I don't know if he has the type of personal connection to him films that Spielberg has. Spielberg was able to wrangle out tons of thematic depth from this films: Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T are loaded with subtle layers of depth. Gareth Edwards just strikes me as fan with a very good eye for visuals and structure.
Yeah he definitely has a great eye. Hopefully like disco said above he can improve in the other areas but I feel like getting the kind of depth Spielberg could achieve was a rare gift that isn't completely learned but is more instinctual.
I didn't get the sense that's what they were going for; it actually took me completely out of the moment. Lots of little things like that did.
I haven't had time to post a lot of thoughts, but this post from East Lake touches on something I noticed that ran through much of the film: a near total lack of tension to the human scenes. At least, after
the father's death. He brought something to the table when everyone else just showed up.
Whether it's debating alternate plans, dealing with the fallout or watching giant monsters wreak cities, it all feels like a really hectic day. With each scene like this the tension in the film just drained away when it should have been building up.
I agree mostly but I can't blame the actors. I think that while they wanted to tease Godzilla they were killing tension with a lot of the scenes in between. They gave Ken Watanabe almost nothing to do but stare into the screen. The military general or whoever is emotionless, just walking around telling his troops what the deal is. Little urgency in a lot of the military scenes. Even when Watanabe is telling the general he's a retard to try and nuke the monsters they just sort of politely disagree. Watanabe should have been going nuts like Cranston was, or they should have just ditched the monster duo experts and have Cranston fill that role. Then the monsters are fighting in the city and it looks like it's just a really busy day in the hospital. People watching the fight on tv as if it's the ellen show. There's a lot of stuff in there like that which is small but can take me out of the scene. They're coming to San Francisco in this flotilla of ships with Godzilla and the ships are so close they're almost on top of him. Maybe keep your distance cause he's a giant wild animal? I know it sounds like a nitpick but if you want the audience to be fearful it would make sense for the actors to be too.
Anyway I enjoyed it but I thought it could be a lot better.
Godzilla's motivations for going after the MUTOs anyway. They say he is an apex predator but that he feeds off radiation, so why bother going after the two anyway? If he wanted it for food fair enough but he killed them off, had a nap then trotted back off to sea
In a world of mutos, how much radiation would be left for godzilla? He had to kill them. If homeboy didn't torch the eggs with gas, godzilla would have used his breath.
The thing that sucks about the movies is that its really just a bag of tricks that filmmakers rip off over and over again. The first time you see it you're totally blown away, like when you're 10. When you get older though, the tricks wear off, and maybe every 1 in 20 films will blow you away because it's opened up some kind of human sensation that only the movies can explain.
The thing about Edwards' Godzilla is that it establishes its visual aesthetic so well and it holds through for the entire film. The camera is wide, the cuts are slower, and there's a fear and seriousness in place that leaves 0 room for a quick one-liner. This is big budget filmmaking with a minimalist mind set. The visual techniques from Ozu, Spielberg, Hitchcock, and Kubrick are all apparent to me, and I have a sense when Edwards' uses them from scene to scene. Edwards' cited Alien/Aliens as huge influences for the film.
Anyway, I think it's exciting to see a film like Godzilla emerge with someone like Edwards'. He's not Ridley Scott or James Cameron, yet. Maybe he'll carve out his own brand.
Wow, this movie was bad ass. Great visual style, lot's of human drama and patience to it. Great fight when we get down to it. Very classical movie making and a fun movie despite how dark it is.
One thing i especially liked was how it used motion and relative size to impress upon you the size of the monsters. Some of it was fairly typical stuff show a small dude imposed in front of a big monster but a few moments I thought were borderline genius was a flashlight falling from a bridge and you can see how long it takes to fall and how high it is and then you see a monster and it's just so much bigger and a guy parachuting down and you see him looking at the monster as he falls and he is falling past and falls and falls for what feels like about 4 seconds before it cuts away. Just a much better sense of scale than you got in Pacific Rim for example.
I also really liked the sense of weight to the monster. You get a feeling of weight but not ungainliness.
Gareth has Spielberg's skill for showing a lot happening in a scene without cutting, using very economical camera movements to track a lot of stuff going on. None of it is as flashy as Spielberg, but given more chances I think he'll get there.
