Godzilla (2014)

[Merusk]

They won't recognize the Tower itself, but they would the whole skyline.

Part of the reason you can film in low-rent places and call it Toronto, Springfield, Cincinnati or Seattle is the anonymous architecture of the US.

Hell, you could film the majority of a movie in LA, throw in a shot of the Golden Gate and 90% of the US would believe it was all filmed in S.F.

[Teleku]

Except for anybody who's actually seen San Francisco.  

And anyways, you're forgetting the Trans-America Pyramid, which was the thing that first tipped me off that it was San Francisco (I'd thought it was suppose to be set in LA.......).  I think its a pretty recognizable structure across the country.

[Merusk]

Except for anybody who's actually seen San Francisco.  

And anyways, you're forgetting the Trans-America Pyramid, which was the thing that first tipped me off that it was San Francisco (I'd thought it was suppose to be set in LA.......).  I think its a pretty recognizable structure across the country.

1) Which is why I said 90%

2) Most people I've come across who haven't been to S.F. and aren't architects say, "Oh there's that pyramid building.  What city is that?"

So, yeah.

[Typhon]

Statue of Liberty!  Giant monsters love french girls in America

[Ironwood]

Over here San Fran is two things :  The bridge and Sam.

And Sam's only in there because the Wife tells everyone about him.

I didn't even know you fuckers had a pyramid.

(Though where's that opera house that looks like a metallic bean ?)

[Samwise]

There's a big metallic bean in Chicago, but it's not an opera house, it's just a bean-shaped sculpture that everyone has to take their picture in front of.

[sickrubik]

Full trailer has landed.

Want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU7TQ_1HDa8

[Lakov_Sanite]

Rodan confirmed.

[Surlyboi]

Statue of Liberty was in Vegas, SF gets rocked, and Cranston is over acting.

[MahrinSkel]

I would think chewing the scenery would be mandatory in a Godzilla movie.

--Dave

[Surlyboi]

Yeah, but the monsters do that already. 

[01101010]

Yeah, but the monsters do that already. 

 

[Lakov_Sanite]

They threw a meaty Cranston line in the trailer but I expect that.  Looks like more than one other monster in this and my guess is everything non-godzilla i man-made and on the loose.  Hence, folly of man.

[sickrubik]

To be fair, that's always been the heart of Godzilla. Fears of nuclear radiation.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Oh yes I know but in the original is was our nukes waking up nature and getting bitch slapped because of it.  In this one it seems like we try to control nature, to create our own super weapons possibly using godzilla dna and failing, badly.

[sickrubik]

I don't disagree. There's apparently other stuff in there, possibly including, as you said, "Rodan".

I very much like how they've managed to link it directly back to the old films.

I very much liked the usage of the 2001 music in the trailer. But I'm a Kubrick mark.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm hearing toho only gave the rights to godzilla and not the other monsters so it may just be rodan-lite.

[Sir T]

Well, its not like holywood can't make up their own monster.

[Fordel]

A Fun little review of the original Godzilla movie http://sfdebris.com/videos/films/gojira.php since people seem to be on the hype train.

It's the same dude who makes fun of Startrek all the time.

[Merusk]

Screen Junkies did an Honest Trailer for the 1998 version in honor of this week's release of Godzilla.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtzSP8VjkcE&feature=youtu.be

"Awkward Twin Tower references" got me hard in my black humor box.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This movie did not disappoint.  They might get criticism for using the monsters sparingly but the money shots were very good.

[Ironwood]

Red Wizard Demands More Details.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Well what is going to make or break this movie for people is the way they shot it.  This Godzilla is very much watching events unfold through the eyes of humans and not just monsters punching each other non stop.  In a way it's very much like the older Godzilla films which had much less guys in monster suits than people remember.

The audience follows one character through the film, Lt. Ford Brody and we witness the horror of these titans and the devastation they cause through his eyes.  It's a bit what Bay wanted to do with transformers but failed miserably at but in this movie I think it works much better, from Brody's perspective we get a real feeling for the size of these things and how utterly small we are in comparison.  You could really call this a disaster movie more than an action movie, the monsters are treated like forces of nature.

In my opinion they used just the right amount of monster, if you start going too far with giant monster battles you turn into camp and action but they used Godzilla sparingly and it so things never felt ridiculous.

[Velorath]

In my opinion they used just the right amount of monster, if you start going too far with giant monster battles you turn into camp and action but they used Godzilla sparingly and it so things never felt ridiculous.

I slightly disagree on this bit. I'm not sure you can do a movie where the climax is giant monsters fighting and not have it be a bit campy regardless of how much human drama leads up to it. In fact, they play it so serious for so long, that when the giant monster fight comes it almost feels like an entirely different movie.

Edit: It would almost be like if Cloverfield ended with a 10 minute fight with the creature vs. Godzilla.

[Teleku]

Would have made the film even better!   

So did you like it Velorath?

[Lakov_Sanite]

I can understand people wanting more monster but if you look back to the original Godzilla movies, this is exactly what you got out of those too.  You may not enjoy it as much but it's definitely Godzilla.

[angry.bob]

The original English version Godzilla movie with Raymond Burr and every other Toho Godzilla movie may as well be two completely different franchises. The only one that had a message about nuclear weapons was the original B&W movie. The message and "heart" of every other movie that had Godzilla was indeed "Giant monster pro-wrestlers fight and destroy tons of stuff". They even followed the same plot. Every single time. New space monster appears and wrecks shit. People think it might be Godzilla at first. Godzilla says "WTF people, how many times do I have to save your shit before you trust me. That first time was a misunderstanding". Then he leaves Monster Island and spends 40 minutes of the movie swimming to wherever the fuck. Space monster wrecks shit again only to have Godzilla arrive right then. People cheer Godzilla as the saviour of Earth. Sometimes Mothbro shows up too. Everyone fights and Godzilla is badly hurt and defeated, but not before he drives off space monster. Blah blah 40 more minutes of stupid actors boring the shit out of you while Godzilla heals. Space monster appears again, this time Godzilla fights with a new gusto and kills the shit out of the space monster, sometimes with the help of some doohicky made by mankind. Humans cheer and wave bye to Godzilla. Godzilla roars back at the people that next time give him some credit and go with "alien space monster" as the primary suspect. Then he swims back to Monster Island to play games and toughen up his disappointingly potato-shaped son.

Unless this movie has a solid 40 minutes of giant monsters wrecking shit iand/or fighting in unobscured, in focus glory it's a fucking failure as a Godzilla movie. It's a giant radioactive lizard that breaths a stream of radioactive fire. If someone is going to make a movie about that monster they need to wallow in that, not avoid it. People aren't going to see a giant monster movie to watch the angst and terror of some guy they don't give two shits about. They go to see giant monsters.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm not saying monsters fighting isn't central to the plot but if you rewatch most of the toho films there is a lot less actual monster fighting than you remember.  That said, I felt there was  just about the appropriate amount here, I could have used one more good fight scene but too much monster can be a bad thing.

[01101010]

The original English version Godzilla movie with Raymond Burr and every other Toho Godzilla movie may as well be two completely different franchises. The only one that had a message about nuclear weapons was the original B&W movie. The message and "heart" of every other movie that had Godzilla was indeed "Giant monster pro-wrestlers fight and destroy tons of stuff". They even followed the same plot. Every single time. New space monster appears and wrecks shit. People think it might be Godzilla at first. Godzilla says "WTF people, how many times do I have to save your shit before you trust me. That first time was a misunderstanding". Then he leaves Monster Island and spends 40 minutes of the movie swimming to wherever the fuck. Space monster wrecks shit again only to have Godzilla arrive right then. People cheer Godzilla as the saviour of Earth. Sometimes Mothbro shows up too. Everyone fights and Godzilla is badly hurt and defeated, but not before he drives off space monster. Blah blah 40 more minutes of stupid actors boring the shit out of you while Godzilla heals. Space monster appears again, this time Godzilla fights with a new gusto and kills the shit out of the space monster, sometimes with the help of some doohicky made by mankind. Humans cheer and wave bye to Godzilla. Godzilla roars back at the people that next time give him some credit and go with "alien space monster" as the primary suspect. Then he swims back to Monster Island to play games and toughen up his disappointingly potato-shaped son.

Unless this movie has a solid 40 minutes of giant monsters wrecking shit iand/or fighting in unobscured, in focus glory it's a fucking failure as a Godzilla movie. It's a giant radioactive lizard that breaths a stream of radioactive fire. If someone is going to make a movie about that monster they need to wallow in that, not avoid it. People aren't going to see a giant monster movie to watch the angst and terror of some guy they don't give two shits about. They go to see giant monsters.

I miss monster island. Saturday noon, Superhost Marty Sullivan, Godzilla movies... yeah, wasted youth. I admit I watched for the monsters only, but I was also a kid. Bitch about thin plots and too much CGI/special effects that some movies like to go with which leaves a bad taste in your mouth or do the opposite. Either way the result is bitching about the movie.

[Merusk]

I miss monster island. Saturday noon, Superhost Marty Sullivan, Godzilla movies... yeah, wasted youth. I admit I watched for the monsters only, but I was also a kid. Bitch about thin plots and too much CGI/special effects that some movies like to go with which leaves a bad taste in your mouth or do the opposite. Either way the result is bitching about the movie.

Superhost! But what about Big Chuck &  Lil' John!? And that guy who was a Ghoulardi ripoff with the one black eyeglass.  Or Jim Varney doing dairy commercials before anyone knew who the hell he was.

[Ragnoros]

Saw a midnight showing. Trying to make a Godzilla piece be a human interest story could be fine, except I never once cared about any of the main characters, ever. So fail. Godzilla was used sparingly, which would be fine, to make him more impressive when he did show up, he was impressive, but again, the other 105 minutes of the movie were just not that interesting.

Pacific Rim did the monster movie 10 times better. For this Godzilla adaptation imagine Pacific Rim, with less interesting characters, and take out the whole middle 45 minute amazing fight sequence with all the robots and the two monsters. Instead just the 5 minute intro when his bro dies, and the short fight at the rift, and you have aprox. the amount of monster action in Godzilla. Which is to say, not nearly enough.

Unless this movie has a solid 40 minutes of giant monsters wrecking shit iand/or fighting in unobscured, in focus glory it's a fucking failure as a Godzilla movie. [snip] People aren't going to see a giant monster movie to watch the angst and terror of some guy they don't give two shits about. They go to see giant monsters.

This.

[Shannow]

If the characterization in this movie is worse than Pacific Rim then..

[Ragnoros]

If the characterization in this movie is worse than Pacific Rim then..

It's Brian Cranston as Brain Cranston (aka, Heisenberg), and random white dude as random white military dude. With a couple other one dimensional characters thrown in for plot device purposes. I gave exactly zero shits about any of them at any point.

Edit: Toi be fair, it's not a poorly made or cheap film. Just not a particularly interesting or enjoyable one (save for five minutes here and there).

[Lakov_Sanite]

The humans needed more oomph but to say they were worse than pacific rim? you've got to be high.  Cranston acted superbly even though he is woefully underused in this movie, if you can't separate him from BB that's your own hang up.

I agree the actors needed more in the script but I think they did ok with what they had.  The movie is really about telling the monsters from their perspective but not necessarily telling the humans story.

[Velorath]

Would have made the film even better!   

So did you like it Velorath?

It was ok, but not something that really stuck with me at all after it ended. I don't have any sort of special fondness for Godzilla movies or giant monsters fighting in general, and mainly watched it because it's part of my job and because the trailers seemed interesting. I knew going in that in a lot of Godzilla movies he's essentially the good guy, but the trailers didn't leave me with the impression that this was the direction they were going to go in for this movie. I was expecting humans vs. Godzilla with some other monsters thrown in. Instead it was monsters wrecking shit for a good portion of the movie and then Godzilla comes in at the end and fights them, which is done in a perfectly competent manner if that's why you're going to see the movie.