Godzilla (2014)

No Pants

Saw this yesterday. Plot full of holes, but I didn't mind. However, I think the script made the classic error of trying to tell a human story in the middle of a giant monster scrap. It's the same as the Hulk movies. Tell us all about Bruce Banner if you must, but everyone is waiting for Hulk to start smashing.

Mark Hamill

krudler wrote: »

I thought Taylor-Johnson was perfectly good in Kick Ass, why was he so wooden in this?

Like Samson in the bible, his hair is the true source of all his power (or in Taylor-Johnson's case, his personality) :pac:.

jackwillson772

This movie looks great.
Brain Cranson FTW

jonnyfingers

Watched it yesterday. Didn't really enjoy it. Thought it was silly and the acting was very dodgy. Good special effects though. I'll have forgotten all about ever seeing it in a few days I think.

SimonTemplar

I'm a little late to the party as I just saw this yesterday. On one hand, I respect Edwards a lot and his career progression from his time as a BBC visual effects artist, to rendering Monsters's aliens in his bedroom, to finally helming a massive summer blockbuster is rather inspirational.

In the wrong hands, this movie could have easily turned out like a 2 hour Michael Bay action scene, so I appreciate that they attempted something more personal. My problem is that they didn't succeed with their intentions. Brian Cranston's character and his motivations are more interesting than ATJ so the decision to give him reduced screen time and make the latter the leading man is very disappointing. Cranston is also a far better actor than ATJ. His interrogation scene was a highlight. To be honest, focusing on ATJ feels like a marketing / demographic decision than a story telling one. In contrast to Cranston's character, I didn't care one bit about ATJ and his family, perhaps because it felt so cliched - a solider, his wife who works at a hospital in the danger zone and their young son. We have seen that setup so many times. This is disappointing because the core relationship of Monsters was involving and genuine. Both Sally Hawkins and Elizabeth Olsen are really great actors who are given nothing to do here. I mean seriously, what was the point of Hawkins' character? Also, the lost boy at the airport was one of the most blatant examples of a movie attempting to inject an artificial sense of danger and poignancy I have seen in a long time.

On the other hand, Edwards does make the creatures fairly three dimensional animals rather than simple monsters, and the moment where the male and female MUTOs meet for the first time is nicely handled. I loved the creature design including Godzilla who looks appropriately badass. The creature fights were great also.

I think this is a noble failure. The movie had good intentions but the focus should have been on Cranson and not the GI Joe hero character that we've seen countless times in these types of movies. 2/5

constitutionus

went to see this again today as there was nothing else out i fancied.

now i knew what i was going into i found i enjoyed it more the second time around. little things like the pocket watch were more significant when i already knew what it meant to watanabes character.

its still a DAMN shame that cranstons character is left for johnsons. the dialogue the guys was spouting was ridiculously hammy in places but thanks to his acting chops cranston injects a mania to it which sells his character far better than anything johnson manages to do in the whole film combined.

but its the monsters were here for and i do have to say they STILL look damn impressive on the big screeen. infact the big buys nuclear breath scenes are damn near artistry in terms of lighting and composition.

and i do really apprecitate the different tone they tried to set with this. as mentioned it coulda been a bombastic bayfest, instead they tried to keep it sombre and "real" which i think will set it apart down the road. IMO its definetly a much much more enjoyable film than the last american shot at the character

last time i gave it a "meh", now though ill raise it to good.

6.5/10 from me second time around.

what lets it down is the disasterous decision to focus on the son instead of the da. storywise i know WHY they did it, but losing such a far more interesting character and actor to switch to a generic soldier type who mayve well been delivering milk than blowing up a petrol tanker such was his preformace is just too glaring a shift.

Shane-KornSpace

I was looking forward to this movie. I guess I got my hopes up too high.
I wanted more of Godzilla and less focus on the personal loves of the characters.
The movie was quite boring for me and I nodded off sometime in the last 30 mins.

Fago123

Shane-KornSpace wrote: »

The movie wanted being quite boring for me and I nodded off sometime in the last 30 mins.

You must be a really heavy sleeper!

Shane-KornSpace

Fago123 wrote: »

You must be a really heavy sleeper!

Oh wow. This autocorrect sometimes has a damn spasm.

irishdude11

Useless film, I actually fell asleep in the cinema watching it. Just watched the director Gareth Edwards previous film Monsters there now...fell asleep during that too, an absolutely mind-numbingly boring film where nothing happens except a couple wander around some deserted locations with zero sense of tension or danger. No wonder Godzilla ended up so bad with him at the helm.

Mal-Adjusted

I wasn't aware that this was by the director of Monsters. Now there's a film that gets far too much praise than it deserves.

irishdude11

Yea it was utter crap, the name was a total misrepresentation, it's not a monster movie at all. The monsters are basically just hinted at the whole film until they show up for a couple of minutes at the end and do nothing. Monsters is basically a poor mans Before Sunrise, except with worse acting and dialoge. The protagonists just walk around various places, hardly saying anything... with no monsters to be seen wreaking havoc (how could they when they never even show up), and every now and again the guy will make a lame joke.

The only reason it got the praise it did off some critics was because its an independent British film and because 'Oh this guy wrote, directed and did the special effects, he must be some kind of genius'...nevermind that the film is no good. The Guardian reviewer called it 'a terrifically exciting sci-fi' which goes to show they went totally overboard with praise for the reasons I just mentioned....in the comments section of that article, even the people that did like the film say they liked it for the kind of Before Sunset vibe not because it was 'terrifically exciting', sure there is no excitement in it at all, which was deliberate as far as I can see.

Mal-Adjusted

I actually liked Before Sunset My biggest gripe with it is pretty much the same as yours. For a film supposedly about trekking through a Mexico infested with dangerous aliens and going so far as to those aliens being the title of the film, they really didn't want to show any. It could have dumped the sci-fi window dressing and just been about two people making their way through Brazil or sub-Saharan Africa and it would have been the exact same film only without two minutes of neon SFX near the end. I honestly think that if it wasn't for them getting away with the tiny budget ($500,000 i think), this wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the attention it did.

But I could rant about the dissapointment that was Monsters all day and derail the thread. Godzilla did have some unwelcome similarities to...that film and i think could have been a lot better in the hands of a more skilled director.

e_e

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

I actually liked Before Sunset My biggest gripe with it is pretty much the same as yours. For a film supposedly about trekking through a Mexico infested with dangerous aliens

Whoa I don't recall Jesse and Celine going through that at all. :eek:

Mal-Adjusted

exactly

That Before Sunset sounded good, i just looked at the trailer and it seems very different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvFosXeqmDg

e_e

Oh yeah check out the whole trilogy (Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight). Great stuff.

expectationlost

a different director is doing a sequel to to gareth edwards monster set in iraq, Monsters: Dark Continent http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935302/combined


watched the original gojira and then watched it again with a commentary, still wondering about the decision to have a second monster in this first of what might be a series, it be interesting to sequel to set it in the middle east

expectationlost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnY4p_ASV9M

funny interruption, he has a point

Shiraz 4.99

I thought it was OK, I nodded off a few times but the next big bang woke me up, probably put it on too late, I'll watch the last half hour again.
I was surprised how quick some of the big name actors were done away with, must have been paying them by the hour.

_Kaiser_

Just watched this now and I'd say the first half hour-45 mins was good in how they filled in the backstory and the build-up to the reveal.

But the rest.. meh! And sure the effects were great - those I could see anyway. I can only assume they set most of the action at night (or in near total blackness) so as to keep the CGI costs down. I may have to watch the last 30 mins again later as I'm not exactly sure how the fight was resolved.

Disappointed tbh. Pacific Rim was a lot better!

Gbear

This was terrible.

Pacific Rim was a big dumb film about robots beating the **** out of monsters. It was exceedingly pretty and there was lots of giant monsters getting kicked around the place.
Simple fun cinema. Not complicated. The people involved were mostly forgettable and there wasn't much harm in that.

While the intention with this might've been to make a character driven story with the backdrop of giant monsters, the fact that the acting, plot and script were all somewhere between average and **** meant that it lacked the quality to be anything more than a dumb action film but there was so little monster action that it wasn't that either.

A nothing in particular sort of film that's immediately forgettable.

Kunkka

Gbear wrote: »

This was terrible.

Pacific Rim was a big dumb film about robots beating the **** out of monsters. It was exceedingly pretty and there was lots of giant monsters getting kicked around the place.
Simple fun cinema. Not complicated. The people involved were mostly forgettable and there wasn't much harm in that.

While the intention with this might've been to make a character driven story with the backdrop of giant monsters, the fact that the acting, plot and script were all somewhere between average and **** meant that it lacked the quality to be anything more than a dumb action film but there was so little monster action that it wasn't that either.

A nothing in particular sort of film that's immediately forgettable.

I'm still scarred at how bad it was.

Mr Freeze

I thought this was really poor...agree with most of the criticisms here, I'm all for a good human story, but this was bland and forgettable, and the monster battles were as bad. I thought the Muto's looked extremely poor.

Biggest annoyance: Ken Watanabe had the same expression for the entire movie. He was terrible in it.

Biggest disappointment: Godzillas roar. I was expecting a lot more, the Muto's sounded way better with all their clicks and bass. Godzilla sounded miserable in comparison.

FortuneChip

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Biggest annoyance: Ken Watanabe had the same expression for the entire movie. He was terrible in it.
.

We're led to believe he's a scientist that's "in-the-know", but he just spouts lots of vague philosophical nonsense for the whole movie and stares in awe at this creature of destruction. He doesn't give us one fact, just lots of crap with less basis that pure speculation!

"Go'zhila... Let them fight"
Really?

willmunny1990

The majority of the film centered around wooden characters with zero substance which made the film very boring and forgetful most of the time, the monster element largely played second fiddle which was very disappointing as some of the monster scenes were good, like the fights and CGI.

Johnson was terrible throughout imo, so boring and zero emotion. Terrible choice for a lead character.

jones

Reading some of the comment here i'm starting to think i went to see the wrong movie. i actually really enjoyed Godzilla (i also loved pacific rim) I do think the lead actor was as wooden as orlando bloom in a forest and the ending was a bit daft but special effects and build-up were perfect summer blockbuster IMO.

I'll definitely get this on Bluray the visual were 10/10 for me and audio wasnt far behind. I do think its definitely a "cinema flick" in that it mightnt come across aswell on the smaller screen.

9/10

IvaBigWun

Stopped watching this after exactly 42 minutes. I can't do spoilers on my tablet but those that have seen it will know why.

An insane decision that reeked of studio interference.

rog871

I enjoyed Pacific Rim . Godzilla, on the other hand. 4/10

ancapailldorcha

jones wrote: »

Reading some of the comment here i'm starting to think i went to see the wrong movie. i actually really enjoyed Godzilla (i also loved pacific rim) I do think the lead actor was as wooden as orlando bloom in a forest and the ending was a bit daft but special effects and build-up were perfect summer blockbuster IMO.

I'll definitely get this on Bluray the visual were 10/10 for me and audio wasnt far behind. I do think its definitely a "cinema flick" in that it mightnt come across aswell on the smaller screen.

9/10

I think they nailed the "Godzilla aspects" of the film perfectly. The main problem, as has been pointed out is the fact that so much time is spent on characters that are frankly uninteresting to say the least.

I have to say that I'm a little wary that Edwards will take the criticism of the lack of time we see Godzilla on board and respond with something along the lines of "Godzilla: Revenge of the Fallen". I think I'm more comfortable with his reduced screentime in hindsight as it adds impact to his time on screen. If the human characters were better, this'd probably me among my favourite summer blockbusters.