Godzilla (2014)

[Teleku]

Good enough for me, though others seem to say there isn't much monster.  Sounds like I should still be entertained.

But I really liked Pacific Rim, so maybe this sort of movie is just more my cup of tea than for others around here.   

[Velorath]

There's not a lot of Godzilla, but the "bad" monsters do get some screen time. Not as much as the humans, but I think it struck an ok balance.

Edit: Also as a random aside, don't bother with 3D. Having seen both versions there aren't any particularly good uses of 3D (think it was post-converted) and some of the scenes were too dark with the glasses on.

[WayAbvPar]

The only time I ever bother with 3D is if I have a limited window to see the movie and the 3D start time fits my schedule. Otherwise fuck all that.

[Ghambit]

This is the worst Godzilla movie ever created, and nowhere near as good as Pacific Rim.  Dammit, I was pumped for this one too.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This is the worst Godzilla movie ever created, and nowhere near as good as Pacific Rim.  Dammit, I was pumped for this one too.

There are at least three things terribly wrong with this statement.

[Ragnoros]

This is the worst Godzilla movie ever created, and nowhere near as good as Pacific Rim.  Dammit, I was pumped for this one too.

There are at least three things terribly wrong with this statement.

Dude. Out of four people who have bothered to post about seeing this movie, you are the only one who liked it. Posting after each person and rebutting their opinion does not make yours more valid.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Dude, I do this about movies and shows I only marginally like too.  Hyperbole is a cancer that deserves to be stamped out no matter where it rears it's ugly head.

[Khaldun]

"Hyperbole is a cancer"...

[TheWalrus]

Hyperbole is the greatest thing ever.

[Rendakor]

That is literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

[Ginaz]

This is the worst Godzilla movie ever created, and nowhere near as good as Pacific Rim.  Dammit, I was pumped for this one too.

Saw this Friday and it was far, far better than the awful Godzilla movie with Ferris Bueller.  I didn't even mind that the main human character was played by Kick-Ass or his wife was one of the Olsen sisters.  There was enough monsters fighting and destroying shit for me, though not as much as Pacific Rim.  I still liked Pacific Rim better just because it was more of an original take on the genre...plus it had giant monsters AND giant robots.

[eldaec]

Dude, I do this about movies and shows I only marginally like too.  Hyperbole is a cancer that deserves to be stamped out no matter where it rears it's ugly head.

That is sig worthy.

[jgsugden]

I was going to see it with friends, but if the people side of the movie fails to deliver, I can wait until it hits HBO and catch the monster goodness for 20 minutes of fun.

[TheWalrus]

Im going to be the heathen that says he enjoyed the Ferris Bueller Godzilla.

[eldaec]

I preferred the cartoon with the fisherman who would deliberately get into trouble then press a secret button to make Godzilla appear and be all like "fuck you antagonist!".

[Ironwood]

I'm not sure having a centipede in a flying saucer or finding the lost city of Atlantis counts as 'getting yourself into trouble on purpose.'

It was awesome tho.  Apart from Godzuki.

[eldaec]

Driving that "unarmed" boat around uninvited in waters where pirates/monsters/aliens are quietly going about their business counts as looking for trouble in my book.

And using a mind control radio to sic a prehistoric monster on them seems morally dubious at best.

[Kitsune]

I went to see a movie about a giant monster fucking up California.  Instead I got a movie about multiple giant monsters fucking up a whole lot of shit, which was great.  And about a bunch of humans that I could not care one bit about, which was not great.  But I still walked out with a positive impression; what monster ass-kicking there was in the movie was both fun and respectful of the original material, neither of which applies to the 1998 Godzilla.  It was on opening night, and the audience was pretty stoked, which is also always a good sign.

[HaemishM]

Im going to be the heathen that says he enjoyed the Ferris Bueller Godzilla.

I enjoyed it as well, but it doesn't hold up well as a Godzilla movie. I certainly don't begrudge fans their negative opinion of it, because it's a justified if neckbeardy opinion.

[SurfD]

Yep, pretty enjoyable popcorn flick about Giantass monsters smashing shit while the humans run around trying to act like they have "controll" of the situation.

unfortunately, like most of the Genre, it really starts to fall apart pretty damn quickly if you turn your brain back on and start to think about shit.

[Khaldun]

So here's the thing, pertinent to SurfD's comments. I am genuinely baffled about which universe everyone else was living in when they say, "Worst Godzilla movie EVER" or "SINCE FERRIS BUELLER".

Cause here's how *we* watched kaiju (and other monster) movies when I was a young'un. They came on UHF channels, they were cheap and funny and bad. We enjoyed watching them but even when we were kids, nobody mistook any of the post-1st Godzilla movies for classic films. They were all amusing as fuck loads of heaping cheese, and every single one of them could have been MST3K'ed up the wazoo.

So when people are like "Oh, man, this movie doesn't make sense" or "Most of it is people not MONSTERS" I'm like wtf. Compared to what? What films in this genre are you thinking of? If none because you think the genre has heretofore untapped potential, then what the hell is your idea of what the genre could be, should be, hasn't been? 2 hours of nonstop monsters bashing each other? More close-ups of a scientist talking about arrogance?

[Margalis]

Most Godzilla movies don't have a ton of Godzilla in them. And yes, they are often super cheesy. (The dubs don't help - the dubs are often very cheesy on purpose)

Many of them don't make sense, but at the same time they are so silly that asking them to make sense is itself nonsense. The thing classic Godzilla movies usually get right is Godzilla himself, particularly his disposition. This is what the Broderick movie got so wrong - in that movie Godzilla isn't Godzilla, he's just a dinosaur.

The other day I watched Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. The plot of the movie is fucking insane - it has a bunch of time travel and a Terminator 2 ripoff character (including cribbing entire scenes from T2). Almost everything about the movie is super dumb, but the parts around Godzilla are really good. Here is the stuff that happens to Godzilla:

1. Godzilla as a pre-Godzilla dinosaur saves some Japanese soldiers fighting against American soldiers on an island in WW2, and is injured in the process.
2. The Japanese soldiers salute Godzilla for saving them, when in fact he was pretty much just wrecking shit as a dinosaur and not trying to help them.
3. That dinosaur is brought into the present and put at the bottom of the ocean so that he can't turn into Godzilla
4. In the present the humans needs Godzilla to fight Ghidorah, so they go to turn the dinosaur into Godzilla
5. When their nuclear sub arrives to turn him into Godzilla he's already Godzilla and destroys the sub
6. Godzilla wrecks Ghidorah
7. Godzilla wrecks a bunch of Japan
8. An old soldier who was on that WW2 island confronts Godzilla. Godzilla appears to recognize him, then kills him
9. A futuristic mecha-Ghidorah (don't ask!) defeats Godzilla.

The plot logic is pretty crazy but thematically it makes sense - Godzilla is a force of nature or really the embodiment of nature, he is inevitable, he does things for reasons that don't make sense to humans. When he's helping people it's not because he's nice, and when he's hurting people it's not because he's mean - he does things for reasons that are his own. Godzilla has emotions and can think, but the way in which he thinks is foreign.

The good Godzilla movies make thematic sense. They usually don't make logical sense. But that's ok. For me if they have the right themes and have Godzilla wrecking shit to his music and a cool enemy design that's good.

The weaker Godzilla movies tend to be the ones where he fits comfortably into a good guy role. In the better movies he sometimes does helpful things but he isn't a good guy. Mothra is a the selfless defender of Japan, whereas Godzilla, when he does defend Japan, does so via happenstance.

[Simond]

So here's the thing, pertinent to SurfD's comments. I am genuinely baffled about which universe everyone else was living in when they say, "Worst Godzilla movie EVER" or "SINCE FERRIS BUELLER".

Cause here's how *we* watched kaiju (and other monster) movies when I was a young'un. They came on UHF channels, they were cheap and funny and bad. We enjoyed watching them but even when we were kids, nobody mistook any of the post-1st Godzilla movies for classic films. They were all amusing as fuck loads of heaping cheese, and every single one of them could have been MST3K'ed up the wazoo.

So when people are like "Oh, man, this movie doesn't make sense" or "Most of it is people not MONSTERS" I'm like wtf. Compared to what? What films in this genre are you thinking of? If none because you think the genre has heretofore untapped potential, then what the hell is your idea of what the genre could be, should be, hasn't been? 2 hours of nonstop monsters bashing each other? More close-ups of a scientist talking about arrogance?

It took itself seriously. That's the problem with it. Pacific Rim was "Okay, here's the excuse plot for giant robots beating the shit out of kaiju, now ignore it and watch Gypsy Danger hit Otachi in the face with a supertanker" - it knew exactly what sort of film it was and played to that. Godzilla tried to be a human interest picture.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Godzilla films always take themselves seriously even if they are the cheesiest things in existence(many are)

[Abagadro]

Saw it. Liked it for what it was even with some weaknesses. I liked Pacific Rim better too but it was good to see ol' Zilla back in action.

Just for fun (applying logic to one of these kinds of movies is sorta missing the point) I will try to answer:

[Threash]

That has to be the first time i ever look at an Olsen twin without thinking they are some sort of weird alien.

[Evildrider]

That's cuz she's not an Olsen Twin.   

[Abagadro]

Was odd how high of wattage some of the casting was considering how little they had to do, i..e Binoche, Watanabe, Straithairn, etc.

[Threash]

That's cuz she's not an Olsen Twin.   

Oh, well that explains it, she was cute as hell.  P.S. it was a great movie.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It's already greenlit for a sequel so I'm hoping they can iron out some of the kinks and yield better dialogue which imo was really the only lacking part.

[Kitsune]

I liked the fact that Godzilla clearly did not give a fuck about any of the weapons being shot at him.  It would have been mildly disappointing if he'd acknowledged such nuisances as bullets.

[Teleku]

Just got back from seeing this, and I certainly enjoyed it.  As everybody said, Godzilla himself was perfect.  Fight scenes were fun, but it certainly could have used a bit more.

I was entertained, but it was indeed no Pacific Rim ().  And having said all that, it was filled with a lot of nonsensical plot holes I had a hard time glossing over (maybe if they had more fighting I could have).  None of them had anything to do with the monsters (which in movie land I'm perfectly fine letting the 'scientist' on screen hand wave away with a few words), but the actions of the people/military/scientists......  Just, arrrggg.

But hey, I did enjoy it, IMAX all the way.

[WayAbvPar]

Finally got around to watching this with my son. He LOVED it. I enjoyed it, and really enjoyed watching him watch it. After putting him through the 1976 King Kong (I didn't warn him the KK died at the end, and absolutely SOBBED for 15 minutes...totally scarred the poor kid), this was a much better experience. We were both wondering if/when Godzilla would use his breath weapon. It was very satisfying when he finally did.