Escape to the Movies: Godzilla - Breaking Kaiju

[ImBigBob]

So much negativity stemming off Bob these days I think I will be confusing him with Yahtzee at some point. Can anybody give me an example of a reboot he actually liked ? Any reboot. Ι am getting a feeling that he is so attached to his childhood memories that if someone so much as tries to alter them and create something new, he is 100% against it and on day one.

Edit: just came back from seeing it. Yeah, Bob likes to blow things out of proportion when it comes to childhood memories. The human story wasn't nearly as bad as he made it out to be. Also, Johnson and Olsen ? They did fine, they weren't given a lot to do in this movie. In fact, the entirety of their lines could be written down in a couple of pages I think. And THAT's what has Bob's wand in a knot about Age of Ultron ? With Whedon directing it ?

Overreacting much ?

While I'm not entirely against reboots, and I think some are good films in their own right, I'm also pretty peeved when people defend them by going "The ONLY reason you hate ~Insert name of Reboot~ is because you're so attached to the original, and can't recognize this for the good film it is.". While hating reboots for the sake of hating reboots is bad accusing people of only disliking them, because they're reboots, and not because they have glaring flaws isn't much better.

I would not be thinking that if Bob actually shared reboots he liked but up to this point, that number is zero. So, there's nothing this far that will convince me otherwise.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/7093-Evil-Dead

There you go.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I just came out of this movie and I have to say I am blown away in almost the same way I was when I walked out of Man of Steel.
Oh my god, I went in expecting to have a great time and I am now walking out unable to believe just how BOOOORING that movie was. I can?t even believe I am saying that because I?m the guy who loves Superman Returns and Hulk which everyone condemns as boring movies (to which I say grow up a little)

Holy shit this has got to be one of the most miserable experiences I have ever had at the theatre. Uuugh I can hardly even articulate a proper sentence when it comes to trying to express the aggravation this movie is making me feel.

Why the fuck did they think I would give a crap about the people in this movie stop teasing the title character and give me my monster brawls! That?s how these work damn it. The meeting fight, the Godzilla gets his ass kicked fight, then the all out society devastating climax. Instead we just get a tease of the beginning of these fights and then cut to the aftermath. WHAT?!

I will say though, the last 15 minutes were awesome. That?s what I wanted to see from the start damn it why did they take so god damn long everything about the ending was great.
Honestly this movie makes the 1998 one look like a solid Godzilla movie. At least he wasn?t fucking camera shy in that movie!

*sigh* I don?t know guys, maybe I was just spoiled by Pacific Rim?
I really didn?t want to come out of the theatre feeling this way towards this movie :*( it?s not fair.
Everyone else is enjoying it why couldn?t I >.<

 

[Steven Golden]

I wouldn't say I completely disagree with Bob's review, but I do disagree with the larger points.

While Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn't great as Ford, he does a decent job of what he's given considering most of what he does in the movie is be an emotionally stunted soldier trying not to get squashed like a bug by angry kaiju. Elizabeth Olsen really isn't given much to do and she's already proven she's a great actress (Martha Mary May Marlene is a testament to this). Considering Johannson was the weakest link in Avengers, yet her performance didn't derail the movie, I doubt Johnson or Olsen turning in subpar performances in Age of Ultron will derail that movie either.

I do agree that Cranston exiting the movie early was a mistake, as he was severely underused (because he did help make the most important and artistic achievement in human history several years ago when his character started wearing a hat, dammit). As was Watanabe, who I thought should have had a larger role other than "stereotypical Japanese scientist" aka every scientist in every Godzilla movie.

I do find it odd that Bob brought up Pacific Rim, considering most of the things he found wrong with Godzilla can easily be applied to Pacific Rim (and I say this a huge fan of Pacific Rim): The main character are bland as hell (even more so, if you ask me), the character that's hyped up in the teasers is underused (Idris Elba), and a vast majority of the movie revolves around human drama and less interesting storylines (everything before Gipsy Danger starts punching monsters, and Charlie Day's entire subplot).

All that said, the whole little diatribe about how other film critics opinions about the movie are obnoxious is what really rubbed me the wrong way (even more so than that snipe at Breaking Bad). It comes off as downright unprofessional, if not childish and it lowers my opinion of Bob as a reviewer.

Also - it's just not fair to compare this to Jaws in any way, that's like comparing a brownie to a souffle.

 

[Richard Norley]

I could not stand that Ford Brody was put in these clear death situations but always came out on top.. and with no gratefulness for it. He was indeed completely plastic and boring.

I also could not stand that Godzilla was magnetically attracted to the Mutos with no clear explanation.

-But, I can put these both aside for the real crime this film committed:
Putting some of the best moments it has to offer... into recaps on news reports with silly headlines.

 

[Gorrath]

I think Bob summed up everything about this movie pretty well. Watching dead-eyed military guy inconceivably luck into being in the right place at the right time over and over again was eye-rollingly stupid. Also, if this thing was a recruiting mechanism for the U.S. Military, it's the worst one I've ever seen. The military could not have had a worse plan and still they managed to botch every possible part of it. On another note, I don't mind when a movie departs from real science in order to have things work, but holy hell it should at least make sense internally. Nothing about the way the MUTOs reacted to radiation sources made any sense at all.

All in all, I could have overlooked the incompetent and senseless military plan and the total lack of consistency with regard to the plot and the science if they hadn't kept cutting AWAY from the damned Kaiju so we can watch boring people do mundane shit! I couldn't help but feel that somewhere in some better movie, there were monsters fighting! ARRGHHH!

 

[Deacon Cole]

So I went and watched this movie and Bob is pretty much right. It is boring as hell. The opening couple hours are not a slow burn because a slow burn requires heat. There is no heat here and I think I know why.

Most of the movie focuses on Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's is incredibly bland and dull and he is so boring because he does not do a god damned thing. He is simply dragged along for the ride. He makes no decisions and takes no actions. This is for boring movie-making. The actor didn't help by staring at everything with that same blank look on his face that looked like he was pooping his pants. He was given bad material and did nothing with it. Bad show, mate.

I do disagree with Bob about the monster fights at the end. They were still boring. They were boring because you could hardly see them through all the dust, smoke and clouds. This movie should have been called Dust: the Smoking. You could see things a bit better, I suppose, but it all happens at night with those washed out colors that is Hollywood for "dark." The old rubber suit movies were on obvious sets with cardboard buildings and wind-up tanks, but at least you could see what was going on and they usually thought up something cool to see like this:


Yeah, that's stupid. But you have to take risks like that to make something cool. This movie did not. This may have been one of the most boring giant monster fights ever committed to celluloid. You can't see anything and you don't care when you do.

One final note: comparisons to the 1998 Godzilla feature may be inevitable, but are a waste of time.

 

[tangoprime]

Cranston is under-used? I can live with that, I mean I've loved him in just about everything I've seen him in, but I grew up with Malcolm in the Middle, so he always gets bonus points for nostalgia from me whenever I see him. But whatever bonus points I'd give this movie by pure virtue of the fact that it has Godzilla in it goes out the window if Godzilla isn't actually in it.

The review seems fair, as always, but I'm skeptical about going to the theater to see this now. I'm a big enough Godzilla fan to get into the idea of a movie about Godzilla just showing up to trash some monsters and metropolitan areas, but I was kind of hoping for something that was more of a throw-back to the original Gojira.

I've been debating on seeing this or Neighbors, and while this is more of a big-screen kind of film, I'm getting the impression that Neighbors will be more worth my money.

For what it's worth, I saw this review, and went to see it over the weekend anyway (which, it completely crushed the contenders for box office earnings this weekend)- I liked it. Wasn't GREAT mind you, but it was fun, and different. I thought the pacing worked pretty well too, IMO (and that of the group with whom I watched) it was just fun.

 

[scorptatious]

Just got back from the movie, still buzzed by that AWESOME last fight.

But yeah, I do agree with you Bob for the most part. The characters were kinda bland, and the movie does focus a bit too much on WhatsHisFace Army Guy.

I kinda have mixed feelings on how the movie sprinkles all the tiny scenes between Godzilla and the MUTOS. On one hand, yeah, I can see how it can be annoying to show us Godzilla, only to cut back to the little kid watching what was happening on TV. On the other hand, I already knew that Godzilla wouldn't really too much screen time until the last act of the film, so I saved myself from disappointment at least.

And I do agree, Godzilla doesn't really make too much sense as a character. I guess he was trying to kill the MUTOS off so their babies don't become a problem for him later, but the Japanese scientist just ASSUMES that everything will be okay if they just let Godzilla duke it out with them. How does he know Godzilla won't go and tear everything up AFTER he was done with them?

To be fair, I'm sure he did that in the older films too, and back then, I don't think it made much sense to me either. Although I haven't watched them in YEARS, so maybe I just don't remember if Godzilla ever had a motivation for those few movies where he decided NOT to flatten whatever city he was in after the fight.

With all of that being said. I still liked this movie. The last fight at the end was awesome.

Spoiler

In particular, the part where Godzilla pried open the female MUTO's mouth open and blasts fire down her throat made me giggle like a little school girl.

From what I heard, there's plans a sequel. And hopefully there will be more emphasis on the monsters fighting in that one.

After seeing this movie, I now can't help but imagine what would happen if Breaking Bad's plot went absolutely batshit insane and Walter White inadvertently created Godzilla.

 

[katsabas]

There you go.

Huh. You know, I forgot all about that. I may have dismissed it cause of the same director type deal but yeah, that counts, I think.

It could just be that all the reboots Bob has reviewed have noteworthy flaws that prevent Bob from enjoying than, rather than him simply not liking them because they're reboots, but I'm not Bob so I can't espouse his opinions and it hardly matters to me what you think of his opinion. Having just seen the film last night I can say I agree with some of Bob's points, Kickass and Scarlet Witch have too much screen time compared to Bryan Cranston and Ichiro Serizawa who are the films most interesting human characters. I agree that they're fine actors, and simply weren't given much to do but not giving them much to do is a fault of the writing and thus a strike against the film. I ultimately wasn't hung up on Godzilla's motivation like Bob was and the action ultimately bumped the a 6/10 movie to an 8/10 movie. Fun to watch the first time but would wait until I can rent it on DVD and skip straight to the fight scene rather than watch it again like Winter Soldier.

There. Nailed it, only problem with the film. Both Cranston and Watanabe were given shit to do, Johnson and Olsen were not.

 

[Riot3000]

I saw the movie toady and I can say I can see where bob is coming from. It was good movie to me not great but a good movie and I think just a different direction would of made it great.

Like I was cool with Cranston getting offed early in a Hitchcock way but the focus should of been on Watanabe and his history with Godzilla after the scene with his father watch. I feel if Brody was more of side character or story going on then his deus ex through the story and narrowly escaping would of been more enduring and reinforced Godzilla being a force of nature with I think the film did a pretty good job on that part but would of enhanced it to 11.

 

[Ghadente]

Worth seeing: Yes (IMAX)
Entertaining: Yes
Recommend to friends: Yes
Could have been better overall: Yes
Worth paying to see it again in theaters: Nah
Blu-ray purchase: maybe
Non-BR purchase: nah

Have to agree, human elements in the film were drawn out, dull, and cliche at times. Most of the movie is spent waiting and/or wanting to see more Monsters, but what there is of it, is satisfying.

 

[ASM42186]

Let me preface this post by saying that I, like Bob, have always been a huge fan of the original Godzilla movies. Especially the first two black and white films and the Heisei series, which brought Godzilla back into the role of central antagonist and not the campy defender of the Earth. I appreciate that in this most recent adaptation, the big guy has at least been portrayed in a manner truer to the original form than the 1998 Roland Emmeric movie. That's one thing this most recent movie has going for it.

That being said, I agree that the TITLE CHARACTER of the movie had far less screen time than should be due to such a legend of cinema. Godzilla should be showing his face, alone, regularly during the film as he follows the MUTOs and leaves destruction in his path, perhaps recovering some of his expended energy by gobbling up radiation at a nuclear plant as he was wont to do in the Japanese films. I found the news clips and cut-aways from the Kaiju action nearly infuriating.

One thing Bob leaves out when he makes reference to Jaws, the practical reason the shark wasn't shown during the first half of the movie was NOT to build suspense, it was because the animatronic shark failed to operate. In the end these setbacks had the unintended affect of creating suspense in a movie where the central antagonist could not be relied on to function in their scenes. An entirely CG character should have no such limitations in ability to perform during the scripted scenes. And should conversely take ADVANTAGE of the enormous budget in order to put more on display. (Especially in a cinema landscape so recently treated to the visual spectacle of Pacific Rim, which pulled no punches on it's Kaiju action.)

As a better example I would recommend a comparison to ALIEN and ALIENS. The original Alien hid the creature from view and offered very brief glimpses over the course of the film in order to let the audience's imagination make the monster more frightening. ALIENS as a sequel, (And make no mistake this GODZILLA movie is one more sequel in a MASSIVE franchise) mounted the suspense in a gradually-building manner but offered a much larger pay-off in creature action than it's predecessor did. After re-watching many of the older Godzilla movies recently in preparation for the 2014 release, it's amazing how often the 5-minute-kaiju-smackdown-climax became the lone point of interest for an otherwise boring film.

I won't bother commenting on the script in general except to agree with Bob and most of the other film critics coming down on the bland acting and uninspiring central characters, which felt very lazy and cliche-ridden. And that focusing on the Dr. Serizowa character and his far more interesting back-story would have made for a much more focused and interesting movie.

My main concern especially as an artist was the incredibly underwhelming design of Godzilla himself. I may be in a minority here, but I was decidedly NOT impressed by Godzilla's overall appearance. I will say that I'm glad Godzilla's appearance was more reminiscent of the original design than Patrick Tatopolulos's design was in 1998. But what saddens me is that I have seen several more interesting amateur designs on Devianart than the design produced by heavy-wight Hollywood special effects gurus. For example: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/103/7/d/frank___did_you_call_it_thunderthighs_again__by_nebezial-d61m0bq.jpg
Ugh, he could have looked SO much cooler than he did.

 

[mesoforte]

snip

Some more to add:

Spoiler

High-tech planes operated within 'sphere of control' of the muto after it was established that the MUTO has EMP abilities

Using rifles on a monster the size of a skyscraper

Square-cube law

High altitude carpet bombing with 'dumb' bombs not considered as a valid strategy on non-flying MUTO, after explosions are shown to have some effect, but halo drop is considered as valid method of insertion

Bunker Buster Bombs

Fuel-Air explosive; head area; suffocation

Arming a nuclear weapon before the MUTOs and godzilla are gathered together while hoping that they will arrive at the same time and act in a predictable matter

Lower oxygen levels in comparison to the monster's initial environment

 

[Iceklimber]

Saw it and if you chose to then wait until an hour passes to enter the theater. But yea the last ten minutes are good and worthwhile. Imagine one of the Pacific Rim fights with slightly better effects but bad camera angles.

 

[Movitz]

This was the first film to ever make me leave the theater before it was over.

Your money is better spent on other movies.

 

[theApoc]

The only real issue is how tertiary Godzilla is to the story. I wouldn't have minded the buildup/delayed gratification, if the payoff had been a little sooner and a little longer.

Three things that would have helped IMO.

1. More enemies. The setup is there for a hive mentality with multiple drones and the "queen" being the final fight. Would have made a lot more sense in terms of why Godzilla gave a shit about them in the first place.

2. More Cranston. The fact that he is not the focus of the movie with Watanabe is another "nail on the head" moment from bob. Seriously, they could have built up the story for just as long with those two characters and the movie would be just fine. They had reasons for being where the action was. They had reasons for interacting, they had reasons to be involved with the military. Wasting them made no sense whatsoever.

3. An explanation for Godzilla. He literally shows up after being, who knows where for the last 50 years. It's like, "wup, these monsters are making noise, um, holy crap they are alive... Hey look another giant monster showed up to kill them, lets leave that guy alone."

Seems so bizarre to me that this got through the screenings as is...

 

[Sandernista]

Sweet that saves me money.

Gonna wait until the DVD is out for rent.

I would just wait for the fight scenes to appear on youtube (in HD), because while they are totally worth it, why even burden yourself with a substandard film?

Bob wasn't kidding, the final act almost makes the rest of the film good, because it's almost PERFECT.

 

[b.w.irenicus]

My thought on the movie:
It's good. Not fantastic, but good. I agree that the human characters could use some improvement and were average at best, but they never reached the level of sheer annoyance the humans in the Transformers-movies have. And I like that they at least gave Ford Brody something relevant to do in the end.
I wish there was more monster-action, yeah, but at the same time I understand and appreciate the build up to the final battle, which was awesome. The redesign of Godzilla himself is a highlight to me as well. He looks true to the original, but menacing and absolutly badass at the same time.
Side note, two scenes really stood out in the movie:
When the first Muto hatches, everyone in the theatre except me expectet Godzilla to appear and was all like WTF?! when they saw Muto instead. That was funny.
And Godzille finnishing off FemMuto is probably one of the coolest and bossiest scenes I have ever seen in cinema.

I'd rate Godzilla with 3/5.

I'd be nice if a sequel would deliver more Monster-action though.

Edit: Am I the only one who Godzilla's origin/motivation reminded him of the Weapons of Final Fantasy VII? I mean: force of nature, keeper of balance, just appear and kill the threat and begone?

 

[soren7550]

Huh, after seeing the film, I'm surprised that I largely agree with Bob. Usually, I don't.

I feel like I owe him a fruit basket or something.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Really enjoyed it. It only becomes better when you compare it to the disastrous (in the wrong way...) 1998 film, which thank the lord never birthed the sequel it set up. My only concern is that here the human drama is buried somewhere underneath San Francisco, and that

Spoiler

the acting dies with Bryan Cranston.

The MUTOs are terrific, and something in me was actually rooting for them ...