Good Bad Flicks: Exploring Monsters

putowtin

I'd like to purchase an alcohol!
Jul 7, 2010
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Wonderful film to focus on, hope this encourages some to see this under-rated gem.
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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putowtin said:
Wonderful film to focus on, hope this encourages some to see this under-rated gem.
And so it has. Never knew about this movie but it's right up my alley when it comes to movies.
 

Naldan

You Are Interested. Certainly.
Feb 25, 2015
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Seems to be a very interesting movie.

But this is the guy that butchered Godzilla. 2 movies, one of them something I'd like to kick him for. Like one, actual kick in the general hip-direction. What a shit movie with great potential that one was. What a rocky start for Rogue One.
 

Metalrocks

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Jan 15, 2009
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i know movie bob gave it a poor review at that time. if i ever should see the movie i may give it a try but so far i didnt had much luck finding it. and i do not want to spend money on it in case i may not like it. im not really fond on too human driven horror movies when the title is "monsters" but you hardly see them that doesnt really make it suspenseful in my view. so maybe it my not be for me but willing to give it a shot if i ever see it for rent.

but godzilla was a mess. i want to see godzilla and not this poor acting boy whos life is so boring than watching paint dry. now im skeptical that star wars may suffer with his human driven view instead of focusing on the main story line.
 

Terminal Blue

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Feb 18, 2010
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I actually saw this one at a screening in the royal college of surgeons in London where Gareth Edwards (and Colin Goudie, who I'd completely forgotten was there - it was a few years ago) introduced the movie and said some words about it. It sounded like it was pretty gruelling to make, and realising now how small the budget was I can see why.

It's not really a horror movie. This was one of the big problems the film had, that it was marketed as a horror movie when actually it's more of a road movie which just happens to be set in an alien-infested wasteland. It doesn't really give you much in the way of thematic guidance or story structure either, there's no clear signpost saying what the moral is or what you're supposed to have learned by the end. If you can handle that, though, it's an interesting film and the effects are incredible considering what they cost.

Also, speaking of story structure..

The pre-credit sequence with firefight between the soldiers and the creature seems to actually take place chronologically at the end of the film, which makes the ending much darker than you might initially think.
 

Frezzato

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Oct 17, 2012
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Loved this movie. I'm only sorry I caught it on Netflix instead of in a theater.

evilthecat said:
Can you tell me what Edwards says at the very end? I can't make out anything other than 'Peter Jackson' and 'Models'.
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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Naldan said:
But this is the guy that butchered Godzilla. 2 movies, one of them something I'd like to kick him for. Like one, actual kick in the general hip-direction. What a shit movie with great potential that one was.
I have to ask what you expected going into Godzilla. I went in expecting exactly what the studio claimed it was: a remake of the original 1954/1956 Godzilla movie. I honestly can't understand how anyone was surprised that the movie was exactly the only thing it could have been without the studio lying to us.
 

Naldan

You Are Interested. Certainly.
Feb 25, 2015
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Zontar said:
I have to ask what you expected going into Godzilla. I went in expecting exactly what the studio claimed it was: a remake of the original 1954/1956 Godzilla movie. I honestly can't understand how anyone was surprised that the movie was exactly the only thing it could have been without the studio lying to us.
... You expected a movie in which Godzilla was barely shown, fights were just teased until the very, very end and Bryan Cranston was absolutely wasted?

Well, I didn't.

I expected much more Godzilla in a Godzilla movie. Is this surprising!?
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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Naldan said:
I expected much more Godzilla in a Godzilla movie. Is this surprising!?
Given how it was a remake of the original Godzilla and it was billed as such, yes actually.
 

Naldan

You Are Interested. Certainly.
Feb 25, 2015
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Zontar said:
Naldan said:
I expected much more Godzilla in a Godzilla movie. Is this surprising!?
Given how it was a remake of the original Godzilla and it was billed as such, yes actually.
Huh. Then teasing fights and not showing them, but instead showing the results of said fights is faithful in your eyes?

Also, the themes? The military being the biggest actor in creating Godzilla? That wasn't recreated faithfully, either.

And why are you *surprised*? No matter how faithful it claims to be, after 28 movies, not counting spin-offs, people expect Godzilla to have more appearances.

The original was about only Godzilla as a personification of nature's revenge on humans for abusing the earth, namely with atomic bomb testings. Further interpretations aside.

This movie had the following major points shared with the original from 1954:

- Godzilla is in it
- It's Godzilla's origin story

Wow. Nope, excusing it with it being a remake (yet another one of Godzilla's origin story, which has about 4 or so) doesn't cut it. Too much teasing, too few destruction scenes despite it being so much CGI. Also still, Bryan Cranston was wasted in this even more than in the Total Recall remake.
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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Naldan said:
Huh. Then teasing fights and not showing them, but instead showing the results of said fights is faithful in your eyes?
Given how that's about as faithful as you can get to the original, yes. This was a remake of Godzilla 1954, not Godzilla 1980
Also, the themes? The military being the biggest actor in creating Godzilla? That wasn't recreated faithfully, either.
Necessary change due to modern sensibilities coupled with the need to distance itself from Emerich's Godzilla.

The change was one that still fit the themes of the uncontrollable nature of devastating firepower in the form of nuclear weapons, particularly since their use was what awoke him in the first place.
And why are you *surprised*? No matter how faithful it claims to be, after 28 movies, not counting spin-offs, people expect Godzilla to have more appearances.
Given how at least 90% of the people who watched Godzilla 2014 never watched more then one of those 28 mentioned movies (and the box office numbers make that a lowball estimate), the fact that fans of the franschise have overwhelmingly approved of the movie, and the fact the marketing and studio made it pretty clear it was a remake of the original that isn't even in the same genre as most of the others (meaning it's down to Godzilla 1954 and Godzilla 1980 in terms of reliable source material) anyone who went in and was disappointed went in with expectations they shouldn't have had to begin with.
The original was about only Godzilla as a personification of nature's revenge on humans for abusing the earth, namely with atomic bomb testings. Further interpretations aside.
I don't see how that differs too much from the movie.
This movie had the following major points shared with the original from 1954:

- Godzilla is in it
- It's Godzilla's origin story
You're forgetting the focus on human characters, Godzilla making almost no appearances in it, the story revolving around people trying to cope with the disaster that is upon them, and the inability of anyone to properly deal with the menace.

Really one couldn't realistically have asked for a more faithful adaptation of the original movie for modern times. What you're asking for isn't a remake of Godzilla, it's more of the same movies that Toei actively tried to move away from three times now because while it's profitable in the short term it has killed the IP 3 times (4 if you count Emerich's Godzilla) and counting.
Wow. Nope, excusing it with it being a remake (yet another one of Godzilla's origin story, which has about 4 or so) doesn't cut it. Too much teasing, too few destruction scenes despite it being so much CGI.
So you went in expecting it to just be a Michael Bay explosion's fest? I'm honestly happy that wasn't the case and that we got a pretty decent movie instead of that.
 

Naldan

You Are Interested. Certainly.
Feb 25, 2015
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Zontar said:
Since this leads to nowhere, let's just disagree. I guess the fundamental difference is that I expected something for fans of the franchise instead of one movie which I also feel was made a bad tribute to with the focus shifted from Godzilla to mating moths and boring characters (what a magnificent trade that was...). And I don't give a flying fuck about sensibilities, this was fundamental. What message did Godzilla 2014 have?

Anyway, I didn't like it. If it's just the focus on boring characters, fine. But stop teasing then. That makes it not just boring anymore, that's insulting.


And Kaiju movies are the mother of explosion fests. Welcome to the genre.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Our tastes usually Match, but not this time. I think Edvards should have stuck with visual design. he was great at that. the rest though, not so much The plot was weak and acting even worse. Though given that most of it was improvised and local extras... kinda understndable.

And i think the focus on people in Godzilla was to its detriment as well.