Escape to the Movies: Godzilla - Breaking Kaiju

[Metalrocks]

had a feeling he will review this movie.
i knew that it will have some flaws but still sounds like it worth a watch. me and my wife intend to watch it next week. after that, i cant wait for the new x men movie. please dont suck.

 

[Darknacht]

You know, you make a very good point, which makes his heroic rescue and return seem even sillier in hindsight. The only reason they ever had to tell him ANYTHING about Godzilla or the MUTOs after his father died was to get more information from him about his father. Otherwise, pretty much anybody else in the military could have done what he did. And there is no movie in existence that can generate enough suspension of disbelief to convince the audience he was the only person in the US military who knows how to arm and disarm a nuke.

Its not like he got a hero's welcome, and yeah they pulled him off the boat but they would want to debrief the only guy left from the group that went to get the bomb. Also, the guy in charge of the bombs did say that his men knew what they where doing and that they did not need him, but soldier boy argued with him, spouted technobabble, and claimed he had more experience until the guy let him come along.

 

[Crimsonmonkeywar]

The highlights for me was the halo jump(perfectly handled imo) and the scene with the main character and Godzilla simply looking at each other. Easily worth the price of admission just to see those on the big screen. I thought the characters did an well enough job and the cliches subdued, but yes, i did drag just a tad to long, but never to the point were I got 'bored'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY0VuIt4YNw

 

[faefrost]

And Serizawa and his assistant seemed to have something going on--not romantically, but at one point she called him sensei, which suggests she looks to him as a teacher or mentor. What is their relationship, how long has she been studying with him, did she also lose somebody in the nuclear plant disaster? And about Serizawa, how did he get ahold of his father's pocket watch, did he have much to do with forming that organization that was watching the MUTO at the nuclear plant, does he have a family, does anyone else within his own organization feel the same about Godzilla's reason for existence?

ss.

Sensei also is used for doctors both Medical Doctors and Phd's.

 

[Lilani]

Sensei also is used for doctors both Medical Doctors and Phd's.

Ah, okay. Still, she stuck to him like glue, and seemed to have a particular regard for him--stuck with him to the end, and had as much wonder and respect for Godzilla as Serizawa. Anyway, there was enough there for me to want to know more about them. At least more than I wanted to know about Sergeant Bland and his stock photo wife and child.

 

[Cpu46]

Definitely got the feeling that there was a lot of executive meddling behind the scenes. Both in the amount of "Army hero must save the day" and in the release schedule. The amount of times it refuses to actually show Godzilla after the build up just screams that they had the scenes planned and probably prepared, but just didn't have the time to pump it through the rendering rigs to get it finished on time, meaning they had to fill the space with faster to produce scenes of Army dude and family. Should have filled it with scientist exposition about Godzilla himself like Bob said but hey, hindsight is 20/20.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Bob seemed to dislike this movie far more than I thought he would. Though I will agree that the stuff when Godzilla shows up is indeed the highlight of the film.

It makes me think that this movie could have a prequel that breaks the prequel curse.

It would make for an interesting movie the entire way through as long as we ignore Captain Wallpaper Paste and focus on the discovery and study of the King of the Monsters. That is a movie I think could be a real blockbuster.

At least it seems more interesting than the ironically named 'Amazing Spiderman' movies, which tend to forget that Peter Parker is a guilt-driven character and not someone who is happy-go-lucky with plots handed on a silver platter reading 'All plots come from Oscorp'.

 

[VoidWanderer]

ONE person get deus-ex-machina'd through a story which was carefully crafted to make sure they are the ONLY ONE that could EVER have done ANYTHING that needed to get done to make the mission a success.

In what way was the mission a success? If they pulled off some great plan that saved the day it would have made since to have lots of different groups all working together, but this was the story of one mostly useless guy floating through the disaster watching/helping the military be useless/mess stuff up, then decide to light a fire, the one useful thing he did, and go back to being useless.

You know, you make a very good point, which makes his heroic rescue and return seem even sillier in hindsight. The only reason they ever had to tell him ANYTHING about Godzilla or the MUTOs after his father died was to get more information from him about his father. Otherwise, pretty much anybody else in the military could have done what he did. And there is no movie in existence that can generate enough suspension of disbelief to convince the audience he was the only person in the US military who knows how to arm and disarm a nuke.

Sorry, for a second I thought you were talking about the Amazing Spiderman movie.

 

[Oly J]

please at least tell me someone yells "GODZILLA!!" at some point...that's in there right?...right?

 

[Pogilrup]

Personally, I think the film should've been about Godzilla's impact on East Asia and possibly humanity if the film would permit Regenerator G1.

 

[Lilani]

please at least tell me someone yells "GODZILLA!!" at some point...that's in there right?...right?

The main Japanese guy is the first one to say Godzilla's name, and he says it in the most dramatic and thickly-accented way imaginable (GOZIRA.). But unfortunately, at least as far as I remember, nobody really shouts it. The general public doesn't know him by name until the very end, and all they do for him is cheer, but don't shout his name or anything.

 

[Ham Blitz]

While I did enjoy it, I will say my one small gripe is that Godzilla seemed like a background character in this movie. Even during the final fight (most of the 6 minutes of time Godzilla gets fighting) most the clips last for at most 30 seconds before cutting to the military doing something and Godzilla's fight in the background.

 

[MovieBob]

To be honest, a lot of the criticism you raise about this movie could be raised even more devastatingly at Pacific Rim, as the characters and overall script in that movie was just embarrassing. I just watched Godzilla today, and it is by far a more coherent well accomplished package. At least I thought it really put Pacific Rim to shame.
I wouldn't say it was flawless, as I do agree that the the "soldier dudebro" character was absolutely forgettable. But overall it was very entertaining, and far better written than expected.

I also felt that the fact that godzilla was not shown for most of the movie increased the sense of the monster as something of a more mythological proportion. I don't particularly think it accomplished a lot of tension as in Jaws (and I don't think that was the purpose either), but instead, it grew my expectation and excitement for when he DID show up, which was honestly absolutely spectacular.

I don't want to be mean, and I am often very critical of Bob, but I feel that criticizing other critics for their "snobbish appreciation of the slow burning action of the movie" makes him look quite unprofessional ( as if he knows better than other critics ) rather unreasonable and kind of resentful (Since a lot of the explanations of the effective escalation of the movie are far more comprehensive than just an Alien / Jaws parallel). I find it quite low and pedantic, almost blinded by his ego.

I'm ok with disagreeing with a critic, but I find that by him undermining his colleagues and their rather valid opinions make his own appreciations easy to dismiss.

 

[Flunk]

please at least tell me someone yells "GODZILLA!!" at some point...that's in there right?...right?

The main Japanese guy is the first one to say Godzilla's name, and he says it in the most dramatic and thickly-accented way imaginable (GOZIRA.). But unfortunately, at least as far as I remember, nobody really shouts it. The general public doesn't know him by name until the very end, and all they do for him is cheer, but don't shout his name or anything.

You do know the monster is actually called Gojira in the original movies right?

Anyway, I don't think anyone really expected a great movie out of this. Hollywood is just too adicted to trying to make the same over homogenized movie every single time. They need to step back and take a look at what TV shows are currently popular and realize that they don't need to do that anymore and that people would be more interested in seeing more varied and less predictable movies.

 

[Lilani]

please at least tell me someone yells "GODZILLA!!" at some point...that's in there right?...right?

The main Japanese guy is the first one to say Godzilla's name, and he says it in the most dramatic and thickly-accented way imaginable (GOZIRA.). But unfortunately, at least as far as I remember, nobody really shouts it. The general public doesn't know him by name until the very end, and all they do for him is cheer, but don't shout his name or anything.

You do know the monster is actually called Gojira in the original movies right?

I KNOW that, but there's something about hearing it so played up in what is otherwise a painfully American adaptation of the franchise that made it feel more like a joke than an actual attempt to demonstrate the original pronunciation of the name.

 

[billyboy0321]

Wow, I thought there would be at least a few more people lining up opposing Bob on this one... guess I was way off.

I took my mom to a morning matinee of this for belated mother's day, and we thoroughly enjoyed this film. Will this be my #1 pick for the year? Not by a long shot. Was it airtight and completely sound in all it showed me? Not even close - (how many military bomb disposal units are cleared and capable of a HALO jump? And why do the military keep a)shooting at any of these things and b) keep sending up jets/choppers after the first EMP pulse knocks things out? Just to name a few) yet we were lost in the magic of the film for a couple hours. My only real gripe is that they could have shaved off about 20-30 minutes and this would have probably had minimal complaints. I still wonder how much griping FOR that annoying 'human content' we'd be hearing from Bob and his co-reviewers if we saw what it seems Bob is asking for, a 90-120 minute pure monster slugfest.

Personally, I think Taylor-Johnson did fine with what was handed him, and Olsen's character was next to pointless, but that's not Edwards' fault, nor is it the actors' either. You work with what you have, and in the end, for a movie whose inspiration was the monstrosity and mystery of nuclear power and its ramifications, they handled that portion great. They also did well with the explanation of the WHY these things are even around. Watanabe and Cranston were perfect, and yes, more of them couldn't have hurt, they still added perfectly to the film in their roles.
Of course, Ford is emotionally stunted, he lost his mom (and kinda his dad) at an early age, I'd be an emotional troll too. Is that reason to despise him? Was Burr really all that in King of the Monsters? Nope, he was just as bland, and a reporter to boot, with nothing to do but find out what was going on, but that's because the bigger picture/story is what is supposed to captivate, not the actual figurehead that carries you through the chaos.

I guess I just don't get what those of you that complained want from a movie... a 'Perfect' movie would be a disaster, as anything else will forever be terrible.
Take what's good and enjoy the ride, I know we did.

...And Mr. Chipman, for all your uses of Ego, it seems like you missed his character's revelation, or perhaps do not remember it (As you usually utilize Lovitz' Critic screenshot instead).
Remember to enjoy things, sir, even when they are simple (or not 'Great'!) and not what you are accustomed to, enjoy them (it may make your job a bit easier).

 

[billyboy0321]

Sorry for the Double post

 

[TheMemoman]

Ever since I knew who the director was, I lost all hope I had for this movie. I still wanted badly to be wrong and get an amazing Godzilla flick. But instead we got a super expensive remake of "Monsters" (2010, by the same director).

"Monsters" was a dull pseudo drama piece between generic white american bohemian guy and generic white american bohemian blonde, sometimes pestered in their quest for adultery by off-camera rumbling and grumbling. With some meager showings of the monsters, in very few, short sequences, almost completely out of frame; until the very end when you were rewarded for your endurance a bad monster climactic scene, a spoonful of military circle-jerking and the unwanted cheesy drama resolution.

Some people argued that in the case for "Monsters" this mediocrity was to be given a free pass because of budget constraints, but now he made the same movie again, with a considerably heftier budget, he went and did the same cheap, unrewarding movie again. He spent a ton of money confirming he has no idea how to shoot an exciting monster movie. Fuck the guy who thought this hack was fit to direct Godzilla.

 

[Maxtro]

Wow, great review. Bob pretty much thought the same thing about the movie that I did.

Godzilla really shouldn't be a supporting character in his own movie.

This is one movie I'd like to see a fan re-edit done for. Yeah it would only be about 20 minutes, but it wold be a completely awesome 20 minutes.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I felt like this film actually had the perfect balance between humans and monsters, because unlike films like Transformers, all the humans struggles are directly caused by the monsters. I went into this film thinking I would dislike the human characters, but I came out really liking them.

The military werent treated as absolute dumbasses, they reacted in a way that was completely understandable, like normal people doing the best they could against threats against humanity like the MUTO's.

Every scene that the humans were in (bar the opening scenes that establish the characters, their families, what they have to lose etc) had something to do with the threat of the monsters. Even though Godzilla and the MUTO's werent always on screen, you could always, always feel their presence.
The director wasnt scared of just showing the monsters, I liked how when Godzilla shows up physically for the first time, they dont do dumb bullshit like just show his foot and hear a roar, it does an almost full body shot of him, we get a clear view of the Kaiju in the majority of scenes theyre in, and it looks amazing.
A lot of people bought up the fact that the movie teases fights between Godzilla and the MUTO's several times before the climax, but it pays off incredibly well, the last half hour of the film, is some of the best action ive seen in a movie in my whole life. A reviewer I watched on youtube gave a great analogy, "Throughout the movie they give you little sips, and with every sip, you get thirstier for more, until the end, when you can finally take a drink, and its amazing".

Yes the end after the big fight is a bit cheesy, but it was nice to me to have it in there. If you just go into the film with an open mind you'll enjoy it a lot, it does justice to the character, and overall its a fantastic film with very few missteps