The new Godzilla movie is a rip-off

[Johnny Novgorod]

Is it a spoiler if I tell you Godzilla is barely in his own movie? The movie lasts 123 minutes and Godzilla shows up for the final 30, maybe 35 minutes. Like, properly show up. There're some seconds of "fake stock footage" in the intro, and then he spends the majority of the movie underwater, swimming uneventfully towards the plot for 90 minutes. I'm not even kidding. The real conflict comes from the destruction two other kaiju wreak during the movie. Godzilla is a freaking deus ex machina in his own movie.

Is it a spoiler if I'm denouncing false advertising? I don't think so. I'm not asking anyone to boycott the movie or anything silly like that, but just so you know, Godzilla's barely in it. He's awesome and yadda yadda, but I still feel ripped off. There's no good reason for doing this other than somehow filling out a two hour long movie.

 

[Barbas]

Spoiler: SPOILERS.

Damn. I've never seen you this bummed out before, man.

Sounds like this movie was a pretty unpleasant surprise. I've come across a review that claims there's a procession of unnecessary characters (what I disliked about Transformers) to try and engage with the younger audience, plus a possible attempt at a hackneyed underlying message about nuclear power. All of this, it apparently tries to do seriously.

*Sigh*...daaaaamn, man. I don't know what to say. I know a lot of people were really looking forward to this one. Think I'll go re-watch The Lord Of The Rings to take my mind off all of this for a bit.

 

[senordesol]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

 

[Zontar]

Except for the Deus Ex Machina part, sounds exactly like it was for his original movie. We barley see him for almost the whole movie in that one, and when we did before the big reveal all we saw was small parts of him.

 

[Strain42]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

No, it's the Muto. Giant insect like creatures. There's a winged one and an eight legged one. Both original creatures created for this movie.

and Gigan is my favorite too.

We probably won't see any other original Toho creatures until the next movie. I know Gareth Edwards has already said he wants to do a Destroy All Monsters-esque sequel that will explore Monster Island.

As for the TC, thanks for the heads up but honestly...that's kinda what I was expecting anyways. As much as I love Godzilla, him being kick-ass only works for so long. There are a LOT of Kaiju flicks where the main monster really only does stuff for the last 20-30 minutes of the film.

Heck, Gamera goes into a coma during most of his movies...

So I appreciate the warning, but you basically confirmed what I already suspected. I'm still excited for it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

A couple of "original" creatures called M.U.T.O.s, which stand for Massively Unidentified Terrestrial Organism or something along those lines. They look a lot like the Cloverfield monster.

Mothra makes a cameo, kinda. We see a terrarium with a broken chrysalis in it and the name "Mothra" scribbled on the glass, indicating that the protagonist's pet caterpillar may have matured into a giant radioactive moth after the nuclear incident at the beginning of the movie.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Honestly, from what I read it sounds awesome. That there are these two motherfuckers going around destroying this shit, but we got the build up of this force of nature coming to take them the fuck out. Like we got these snarky shit heels in the ring, and making his way slowly through the arena is a pissed off Brock Lesnar.

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

No, it's the Muto. Giant insect like creatures. There's a winged one and an eight legged one. Both original creatures created for this movie.

and Gigan is my favorite too.

We probably won't see any other original Toho creatures until the next movie. I know Gareth Edwards has already said he wants to do a Destroy All Monsters-esque sequel that will explore Monster Island.

As for the TC, thanks for the heads up but honestly...that's kinda what I was expecting anyways. As much as I love Godzilla, him being kick-ass only works for so long. There are a LOT of Kaiju flicks where the main monster really only does stuff for the last 20-30 minutes of the film.

Heck, Gamera goes into a coma during most of his movies...

So I appreciate the warning, but you basically confirmed what I already suspected. I'm still excited for it.

If they do make sequel, WE NEED ZILLA!

And we need a proper Godzilla vs Zilla fight. Not that bullshit we got last time.

Why? Cause fuck you, the 1998 Tri-Star movie was good. Plus there was a cartoon, Zilla holds a special place in my heart.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

A couple of "original" creatures called M.U.T.O.s, which stand for Massively Unidentified Terrestrial Organism or something along those lines. They look a lot like the Cloverfield monster.

Mothra makes a cameo, kinda. We see a terrarium with a broken chrysalis in it and the name "Mothra" scribbled on the glass, indicating that the protagonist's pet caterpillar may have matured into a giant radioactive moth after the nuclear incident at the beginning of the movie.

Seriously? That's so cool! She's my definite favorite! I hope we get to see her in the future.

If anything I thought it was a pretty cool reference. I guess they can decide whether to use her or not in future movies.

 

[Almack]

I feel like this is gonna be a fairly common reaction among G fans who see this movie in that they love godzilla and they just want more of him Kristian Harloff from schmoes know had a similar complaint with the movie and hes is a big godzilla fan. Mind you in the original he has at total of 17 minutes of screen time that that movie is 98 minutes long so 30 minutes for about a 2 hour movie doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me and I'm a massive fan of godzilla having watched every movie minimum 3 times.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I feel like this is gonna be a fairly common reaction among G fans who see this movie in that they love godzilla and they just want more of him Kristian Harloff from schmoes know had a similar complaint with the movie and hes is a big godzilla fan. Mind you in the original he has at total of 17 minutes of screen time that that movie is 98 minutes long so 30 minutes for about a 2 hour movie doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me and I'm a massive fan of godzilla having watched every movie minimum 3 times.

I'm starting to think that a lot of people going to see this remake are unaware of how the original Gojira worked. The movie was really very little about the monster, and more about the human characters and the horrors of nuclear warfare (Gojira is just a side-effect of all that). I, for one, am pretty interested in the remake now, seeing as how they managed to stay truer to the original than many other attempts have.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

to be fair. That's pretty much the gold standard for Godzilla films.

Step 1. Establish the human cast.

These characters are usually scientists or military officials working on a project that either directly relates to Godzilla by studying his biology & ecosystem or creating defensive plans.

Or they're researchers in a field that will soon become relevant. Radiologists, Biologists...time travelers.


Step 2. Establish the threat.
Introduce the vs Monster for the movie. The Human cast discovers a heretofore unknown life form (growing as a surprising rate!) or an alien creature or the natural phenomena that the researchers were studying turns out to be a byproduct of another Monster.

Step 2a. Realize the threat.

The monster attacks some major metropolitan area and stomps the holy hell out of everything in sight. The human cast devises some way to stop the threat which doesn't work and the military fights back and is defeated.

Inter-cut with scenes of Godzilla waking up and plodding his big green hide out to the mainland.

Step 3. Godzilla!

With all the major plot points resolved Godzilla finally shows up, beats the shit out of the monster and then fucks off back to Monster island.

Human cast reflects on how history shows again and again that nature makes up for the folly of man.

Step 4. Roll credits.




Look, I like Godzilla a lot but a little bit of the big lug goes a long way. Check out Final Wars one of these days. It's almost nothing but a 120 minute Monster fight montage and it's exhausting to watch.

 

[Strain42]

snip

I'm not entirely sure why you're yelling at me about that. I actually really like Zilla I mean yeah, I didn't really care for the movie, but I do like Zilla as a monster and I think he deserves another shot. Like you said, the show was really good.

There's a lot of potential for Zilla.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I feel like this is gonna be a fairly common reaction among G fans who see this movie in that they love godzilla and they just want more of him Kristian Harloff from schmoes know had a similar complaint with the movie and hes is a big godzilla fan. Mind you in the original he has at total of 17 minutes of screen time that that movie is 98 minutes long so 30 minutes for about a 2 hour movie doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me and I'm a massive fan of godzilla having watched every movie minimum 3 times.

I'm not a Godzilla fan and until very recently didn't realize he had any. All I know is that the trailers and the ads and all things marketing point to one thing, and the movie delivers another very different thing.

 

[BeeGeenie]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

A couple of "original" creatures called M.U.T.O.s, which stand for Massively Unidentified Terrestrial Organism or something along those lines. They look a lot like the Cloverfield monster.

Mothra makes a cameo, kinda. We see a terrarium with a broken chrysalis in it and the name "Mothra" scribbled on the glass, indicating that the protagonist's pet caterpillar may have matured into a giant radioactive moth after the nuclear incident at the beginning of the movie.

Seriously? That's so cool! She's my definite favorite! I hope we get to see her in the future.

If anything I thought it was a pretty cool reference. I guess they can decide whether to use her or not in future movies.

But if Mothra came from a lab, that pretty much ruins any chance of meeting the Thumbelina twins

Oh well, Mothra is still best giant bug.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wait, who else is in it? I was kinda bummed cause I thought it would *only* be Godzilla. Is one of them Gigan? He's my favorite!

Spoiler

A couple of "original" creatures called M.U.T.O.s, which stand for Massively Unidentified Terrestrial Organism or something along those lines. They look a lot like the Cloverfield monster.

Mothra makes a cameo, kinda. We see a terrarium with a broken chrysalis in it and the name "Mothra" scribbled on the glass, indicating that the protagonist's pet caterpillar may have matured into a giant radioactive moth after the nuclear incident at the beginning of the movie.

Seriously? That's so cool! She's my definite favorite! I hope we get to see her in the future.

If anything I thought it was a pretty cool reference. I guess they can decide whether to use her or not in future movies.

But if Mothra came from a lab, that pretty much ruins any chance of meeting the Thumbelina twins

Oh well, Mothra is still best giant bug.

Not from a lab...

Spoiler

The Brodies (Taylor Johnson, Bryan Cranston, etc.) are living in Japan at the beginning of the movie and have to leave after there's an outbreak at the nuclear power plant where they work. The whole city is evacuated and quarantined. 15 years later the Brodies revisit their quarantined house and as they're exploring it we get a brief shot of a cracked terrarium with a broken chrysalis inside. There's a bit of tape stuck on the side which reads 'Mothra'. It's implied the terrarium belonged to Taylor Johnson's character and it contained his pet caterpillar, which then went on to coccoon itself and escape after metamorphosing. The idea being that the creature has mutated for 15 years into what we know as Mothra.

Long story short Mothra evolved from Ford Brody's pet caterpillar after being subjected to radiation for 15 years. I don't know if it's just a nod or a sequel bait but I guess they wanted to have that option open.

 

[HardkorSB]

Is it a spoiler if I tell you Godzilla is barely in his own movie? The movie lasts 123 minutes and Godzilla shows up for the final 30, maybe 35 minutes. Like, properly show up. There're some seconds of "fake stock footage" in the intro, and then he spends the majority of the movie underwater, swimming uneventfully towards the plot for 90 minutes. I'm not even kidding. The real conflict comes from the destruction two other kaiju wreak during the movie. Godzilla is a freaking deus ex machina in his own movie.

Is it a spoiler if I'm denouncing false advertising? I don't think so. I'm not asking anyone to boycott the movie or anything silly like that, but just so you know, Godzilla's barely in it. He's awesome and yadda yadda, but I still feel ripped off. There's no good reason for doing this other than somehow filling out a two hour long movie.

Maybe that's a sign of good pacing?
Seeing Godzilla in action is the pay off in this movie. If you see the pay off before the first half of the movie ends, the second half is usually lackluster.
In Pacific Rim, the battle with the 2 monsters in the city (the big one and the flying one) was the highlight of the movie and made the climax have a lot less impact.
From the trailer, I got a Cloverfield, almost horror-esque vibe so it would seem logical not to show the main monster in a scary movie before the last act.
If I were to make this movie, act 1 would only feature the damage the monster has left and maybe witness testimonies, act 2 would show glimpses of it (and maybe some other monsters to cause havoc and show how dangerous these things are, as well as some cool city destruction scenes), only in act 3 would you see the main monster in it's entirety.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Sounds a lot like the American cut of the orignal Godzilla. I haven't seen it yet, but that's a great sign in my book. Godzilla, even being spliced together from english footage and the original Japanese footage, is still an enjoyable movie 60 years after it was made. I rather liked the slow reveal and the more serious tone compared to the campier later films.

I can't wait to see it!