Godzilla (Post-release)

[crabra comander]

Just for clarification....the MUTO had to mature first before calling to his mate. Godzilla's significant other was killed by the parasitic MUTO's! So he was waiting for them to communicate so he could attack. I'm assuming the bones were his mother's...:cry
But if your hung up on why monster's need to fight or make babies...I digress.

Second, the Japanese scientist confirms the bones belong to another monster like Godzilla, but older. He also states something else that all but confirms its a second Godzilla. ...so Mechagodzilla please!

And lastly. Watching Godzilla was amazing. I think they nailed it on his design. His chest puffed up perfectly during his blasts. He also showed some great emotions despite being a giant lizard! Watching him fight, he timed the tail swing perfectly. You could see the preparation on his face as he watched the MUTO. I thoroughly enjoyed the scene where the score matched for every hit Godzilla received from the MUTO's.

Also, the twin spoiler was actually just two fire fighters in Vegas after knocking down the door.!

Basically, next film needs to be about 50% more monster fights and I will be able to have monster marathons with my son!

It was a little better second viewing. This time without 3D. That 3D just killed it for me. Nothing but dark, blurry blobs on the screen. This time I could actually see stuff. I don't like the new design. Godzilla looks like a dog with elephant feet. I agree that the young guy should have died. I kept saying 'how convenient' everytime he survived.

So the whole plot is ancient creature is accidentally awakened. It needs nuclear energy so it burrows to Japan and kills Cranston's wife. It grows wings, kills Cranston, and calls to its mate who is locked up in Nevada (I still don't get that part). Godzilla 'awakens' because his job is to restore order to the planet. They all converge on San Fran. Military there doesn't know Godzilla isn't a threat and try to shoot him causing him to trash the bridge (still don't know why he grabbed it). Military then decide to lure creatures with megaton bomb and then detonate it with mechanism that once armed can't be unarmed. Military screws this up and try to send bomb far away from San Fran and fail. Gozi defeats creatures with 'surprise' breath at the end. Nuclear bomb detonates (killing off-seen millions in the fallout). Godzilla is a hero as he stomps innocent people while lumbering back into the sea. The end.

 

[jlee562]

Overall I enjoyed it, but there were some weird little errors. Like, it's sunny in Oakland, but pouring rain by the Golden Gate? Nah. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, our subway system) stations being shelters? Ugh, impossibly dumb. First off, underground with seismic activity and tsunami waves? Secondly, BART stations are way too small to be of any practical use as a shelter with the density of San Francisco. Other continuity holes like the evacuation bus on the Golden Gate, goes north when the cables (which support the roadway, so the bridge should probably be collapsing) snap, so presumably they end up on the Marin side.....but the next time you see the kid he's with Ford in the stadium, which is presumably Candlestick park.

But the general narrative was well formed, aside from picking apart details like the above. It flowed well, but honestly, I could have used some more shots of Godzilla. Definitely enjoyable as a summer popcorn flick. Cranston is awesome.

 

[third3ye]

Re-watched some of the old school Godzilla flicks from the 50s and 60s over the weekend, and let's just say those made me appreciate the new flick a whole lot more :lol Maybe I should've watched those before seeing the new one. These old movies always seem better as a kid.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Saw again in IMAX. Good sound system, so well worth the extra price to let Godzilla make your ears bleed.
None of Godzilla's glory was lost in a second viewing. When Toho starts to make Godzilla films again, I can't see how they
could go back to a suit. You are in the presence of Godzilla with this film.

 

[Krull]

I should finally be seeing this today-expect a report after I do in the thread up top.

 

[Bronson BB]

I'm conflicted about parts of this movie, but despite what it looks like for the rest of my post, I liked it a lot.

Hurray!
I'm glad that it was made.
I'm glad for how 'right' Godzilla looked. Size, shape. Almost all of him.
I was VERY happy to see Godzilla's atomic breath was back.
Godzilla's fight scenes with the two MUTOs had that old-school charm.

Nitpicks
Godzilla's feet needed longer toes. (No big deal)
Godzilla's eyes looked a bit beady when he was all tired near the end. (No big deal)
Godzilla's roar coulda' been a smidge more like his classic one.
I would have liked to have heard the classic Godzilla theme music.
They named Godzilla, they should have named the MUTO something as well.
Before seeing the movie, I had thought that Cranstons wife was alive and being kept in the exclusion zone. Then I hoped she was alive and somehow working with Watanabe, but still not allowed to leave. Too bad they both got killed.

Come on!
I wish Cranston lived to become a part of a newly formed 'Godzilla Task Force' in the second movie, with Ford and Watanabe.
I wish Watanabe and every other human hadn't realized that Godzilla was a good(ish) guy until WAY closer to the end, if at all.
I wish that somehow, Godzilla ended up accidentally towing the nuke off shore. He would have absorbed the radiation and fallout to heal as well as keeping the blast MUCH further away from the city.
Mama MUTO should have stayed at Yucca mountain. There was SO much uneaten nuclear material there, WHY would she leave?
I wish the final battle had taken place in the desert next to Yucca Mountain. We would have been able to see all the monsters much more clearly. That's what we went for, after all.
The damned navy should have 'escorted' Godzilla from a mile away, and only used aerial support for visual target lock. That whole escort fleet formation was dangerous and stoopit.
All they needed to stop the nuke was a stick. The timer was clock-work. Just stop the gears from turning!
The helicopter at the end should have left Ford, grabbed the nuke and Batmanned it out of there!
The fight at the airport needed to be first-person, not just shown on TV.


Think of it...
Godzilla beats both MUTOs in the desert, but being heavily wounded, heads to the ocean and begins to slowly swim away. In the mean time, Ford has stuck a broken bit of fishing pole into his clock-work timer. Godzilla passes Ford, and Ford hangs the nuke in a fishing net off of one of Godzilla's spines. Thankfully, that helicopter was there to assist. Godzilla disappears into the distance and, the the pole having eventually worked lose from the timer, we see a distant mushroom cloud.

No one is sure if Godzilla was killed, but there is no radiation for some unknown reason.
Ken Watanabe gives us a final voice-over about how dumb people are to be harming the planet the way we are, and how clear it is in hindsight that Godzilla is mother natures protector. Not ours.


Overall, it was a good movie, and WAY less dumb than most of the Godzilla movies that came before it.
A certain amount of world-building needed to be done, and was. G2 will now be able to focus more on the monsters.

 

[rodneyfaile]

Pacific Rim > godzilla

 

[CessnaDriver]

Pacific Rim > godzilla

In 60 years, safe bet there will not be Pacific Rim films.
I strongly suspect Godzilla will endure to even then.
Godzilla has soul.This film will be part of that long legacy and remembered.

 

[Krull]

Okay saw it,I'll give a short review but all I need to say is this:

It's a Godzilla movie,a GOOD Godzilla movie!!!

I think it's a measure of how much a fan you are because if you really are....you'll realize we did a damn good job of making a very close copy of a Japanese film,particularly if you've watched any of the films from 1985 to 2003.

The pacing is fine,slow yes and Godzilla doesn't really show up too much until the end-that's how it's done,sorry if you don't like it and if you do I suggest you ether go back and pay attention to one of the Japanese ones or just quit.

The acting,yes to people who fawn over Oscar level performances you'll be disappointed,but if you watch the originals the acting is fine and fits the "feel" of the genre very well.

Now stuff I loved:

The music-gawddammit they took the classic Godzilla theme and modernized it!! I was blown away and sooo blasted happy!

The feel of the film-it was like watching a Japanese original,if you ether made it B&W or made the color like the 60's era ones it'd be hard to tell apart;the fact that it's American made is just that much sweeter,Godzilla has crossed international lines and done it so very well makes a life long fan like me just pleased as punch.

The military-frankly I never thought we could get our guys to actually pull off being like the Japanese self defense force but somehow Edwards did it-freakin' amazing job!

One surprising thing....the part were Ford kills the MUTO eggs? yea that was a nod to the 1998 movie that is so hated,I was a bit shocked but in the end it pleased me,okay we didn't do good with that effort but hey we tried,not all Godzilla movies are good just look at some of the 60's and 70's ones.....

I'm happy and want more,I'll have my butt in a seat for two and three :cool

 

[JediG60racer]

Saw it again with my 10 year old son.

His comments:

"Ken Watanabe did a GREAT job of looking amazed in every scene he was in!! He couldn't believe what he was seeing! EVERY SINGLE SCENE!! Great acting."

"Godzilla should have used the atomic breath in Hawaii and killed that MUTO right away. Or hit him with the Russian submarine. Then used the atomic breath."

"Why did they show the dog breaking the leash and running from the tsunami? It's not like he was going to get away and survive, or any of the other people on the beach. Tsunami's destroy everything. This is a japanese monster movie, right? The japanese tsunami should have taught them that."

"If Godzilla was hunting the MUTOs, why didn't he eat them before he jumped into the ocean at the end?"

 

[third3ye]

Pacific Rim > godzilla

+1, I found PR more enjoyable overall. Don't care much for legacy, with either franchise I'm glad we're seeing American kaiju films having some success, and both films have established their respective worlds to be interesting enough for sequel treatments.

"Godzilla should have used the atomic breath in Hawaii and killed that MUTO right away. Or hit him with the Russian submarine. Then used the atomic breath."

"If Godzilla was hunting the MUTOs, why didn't he eat them before he jumped into the ocean at the end?"

Either he's a smart boy or I have the brains of a 10 YO, b/c those were the questions I had as the credits were rolling :lol The not eating the MUTO thing, they sorta explained it - I believe Watanabe's character described Godzilla as an alpha predator or something, basically he wanted to kill the MUTOs just to show he's still the king of monsters. But it wasn't very clear and my fiance was the one who explained it to me.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Godzilla has his reasons known to him is my view on behavior questions.
Your not always going to figure him out, as it should be.

 

[third3ye]

Godzilla has his reasons known to him is my view on behavior questions.
Your not always going to figure him out, as it should be.

Like this?

 

[jarvis]

I saw it on Thursday, and other than a 7 year old who was tap dancing on the back of my chair I enjoyed it.
The plot used most of the old Disaster Movie cliches which made the movie more generic than I'd hoped.

There was that tired old action movie trope that no matter how globally spanning the action is, our hero always happens to be at the center of the mayhem. We went from Japan, to Hawaii, and somehow he's right there in the middle of all the chaos. But wait, we need someone to rig an analogue trigger on an atomic bomb, well what a coincidence, our hero is THE only one who can do this. And guess who's kid is stuck on the golden gate when Godzilla shows up? Guess who, in the entire downtown of San Fran, godzilla falls over and looks at? Yeah, it's Kickass again.

There were at least 3 times that I can remember that the main character came literally face to face with each 300 ft. tall monster just for the sake of getting a 'cool' shot.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Like this?
http://i.imgur.com/CFIxGm5.gif

Damn straight.
Incidentally that is pretty much how I felt after watching the film.

 

[Lynn TXP 0369]

Overall I enjoyed it, but there were some weird little errors. Like, it's sunny in Oakland, but pouring rain by the Golden Gate? Nah.

That is no error. I have seen it sunny here and be pouring rain 100 ft away or less here many times. All it takes is one rain cloud to let loose. I know you guys don't get much rain in CA, but yes that is definitely possible. I have also seen it rain on the highway where one side is perfactly dry and the other side is soaking wet from rain, so yeah, it happens.
Lynn

 

[The Terminator]

Was checking out the blu-ray and I just have to mention something hilarious I read in the description:

"In this gritty, realistic sci-fi action epic, Godzilla returns......"

:wacko :facepalm :lol :lol

 

[Probe Droid]

For me, it started off ok, the premise was interesting and the story held on for about the first hour then it jumped the tracks. Also, it was so dark I could barely make out what was going on. Pretty much just another big budget mess.

 

[RogueTrooper]

For me, it started off ok, the premise was interesting and the story held on for about the first hour then it jumped the tracks. Also, it was so dark I could barely make out what was going on. Pretty much just another big budget mess.

Exactly what I was going to say, got boring really fast and most of the fighting is at night which I couldn't barely see even with screen filters at 100%!!.,,,guessing that's a lazy cheap way out of highly detailed cg work

Malcolm's Dad is always good value

 

[Robiwon]

Hopefully for G2 we get more daytime fight scenes. Agreed that it was just too dark to really enjoy. I still can't get past his fat thighs and elephant feet. Looked like he was on his tippy toes at the airport. Thankfully that's was all you really saw of them.