It’s funny that you have a problem with that part but the part about a giant lizard in New York is believable. It’s a movie. It’s not real. You could pick apart just about any part of it if you wanted to.
Yeah, the Oscar winning performance of Akira Takarada in the 1954 Godzilla completely stole the spotlight from the giant radioactive lizard. At least for me.
I’m shutting my eyes & ignoring all the potentially spoiler-laden posts in this thread, but may I say that with this all-star cast (Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, & Juliette Binoche?! In a monster movie?!), even if the story is still stupid—and I fully expect & hope it to be—this ought to be everything Pacific Rim wanted to be. Booyah.
My inner 8-year-old, who had seen all the Godzilla movies up to that point, is so fucking stoked.
I caught this one today (yay for being in Asia). I’m happy to report that unlike Pacific Rim which was loud, obnoxious and dumber than a Honey Boo Boo Special of Americas Got Talent. The new Godzilla is a restrained, beautifully shot monster movie. They even managed to keep the usual cheese to an absolute minimum (a tiny dusting). It compares favorably to the original and evokes a similar atmosphere. The new Godzilla has a sincerity about it that much of these big action blockbusters normally lack.
8/10 (for a creature feature).
Good to hear, draxen! I’m really looking forward to seeing this tomorrow now.
I had mixed feelings about this film. I thought the monster stuff was great and everything else was kind of terrible. It made me appreciate Pacific Rim even more.
He isn’t at all aware of individual people, mostly.
In All Monsters Attack, which is widely regarded as one of the worst Godzilla films of all time, he’s sort of aware of an individual. Well, I’m not sure it’s quite correct to say that Godzilla is aware of the individual, but a kid who gets bullied winds up learning the value of standing up for oneself by watching Godzilla teach Minilla (yes, that’s mini-me godzilla, strictly speaking Godzilla’s son) to stand up to bully monsters. I think technically only Minilla is aware of the kid. I just wanted to point out that this movie is not good.
So I saw this tonight. Not a great film for monocle wearers but it’s good on the monster movie scale. I found it annoying how they kept trying and failing to make me care about some of the characters but I guess that’s to be expected.
You’ve been warned. Don’t click the button, dummy
Even more annoying is how the only character I cared about died really fast.
Didn’t you learn your lesson the first time?
The monsters were aware of people or at least became aware eventually. Muto definitely identified humans as enemies. Godzilla noticed but didn’t care since he’s a force of nature beyond us.
But really people are like ants to them. Generally not worth noticing if you’re just walking around but when they sting you enough you’ll do something about it.
saw this earlier tonight and am impressed at how silly it made everyone’s performance. cool monster fights, though, or at least better than pacific rim
this does for gareth edwards what the leap from district 9 to elysium did for neill blomkamp
Except Elysium sucked balls. Or is Monsters that much more better than Godzilla?
— Alan
Am I the only one here who enjoyed Pacific Rim?
i should clarify that it’s a budgetary leap i’m referencing; one that didn’t do so much ‘for’ neill blomkamp as it did ‘to’ him. both directors have a serious stumble in their sophomore efforts
also noteworthy is ken watanabe giving the best delivery of mouth-agape stare since mark wahlberg in the happening. it probably doesn’t help that he tells everyone they can call it ‘godzilla’ right off the bat, either-- that just sounds silly coming from anyone
Well, first a caveat – the damn AVAC was broken at the theatre so it was over 90 degrees by the end of it (we all got refunds) which may have adversely affected my opinion.
But it’s good - definitely worthwhile – certainly one of, if not the best Godzilla movie. It has some FANTASTIC imagery in it, as you’ve probably seen from the trailers. The effects are first rate, but what really stands out are the images and perspectives. That said, it’s a little slow, and you don’t see as much of the monsters as you might like, and those fights adhere too closely to the style of fights in the “man in suit” movies, which is unnecessary given the transition to CG (i.e. slow/ponderous, no visible damage inflicted upon each other). I also never thought I would say this after the debacle of the 98 American Godzilla, but it’s also too reverential to the Japanese movies – there was no need to import the hokey spirituality of Godzilla being tied to the Earth as a guardian, etc. – that shit is just lame. And importing the personality of Godzilla from the 70s and 90s was a mistake because it brings in some of those goofy motivations – those eras were really the nadir for the series. He’s much, more interesting as a hostile (or indifferent) force of nature that has to be dealt with or endured.
It’s too much Pacific Rim, and not enough Cloverfield – I was hoping for a really grounded, “realistic” take on a giant monster flick, and this isn’t quite that, despite having some really amazing imagery and perspectives that appeal on a primal level (i.e. “what would I do to hide here, etc.”) That said, it also made me appreciate Pacific Rim more than I did initially - Pacific Rim certainly did a better job making the battle scenes interesting, but Godzilla does a much better job at conveying what it might be like at ground level dealing with giant creatures. Again, the imagery is really wonderful - haunting, at times.
Those comments make it sound like I didn’t like the movie, but that’s not the case – it is VERY worthwhile, and I enjoyed it a lot – it just wasn’t the genre changer that I expected. 8/10
Hell no!
It’s a dumb movie, but it’s such a gloriously dumb movie that I can’t watch it without a huge grin on my face.
I’m going to see Godzilla after work tonight. I hope it’s half as much fun as Pacific Rim.
I liked Pacific Rim, even if goofy. The CGI was especially impressive. However, that doesn’t help your case because I’m quite often on the wrong side of what is considered ‘good’ with TV shows/Movies/Books, etc. My bar is apparently set quite low.
God no, I love, love, LOVE that movie.
Some great scenes and set pieces in this version.
this scene
The Halo jump with the music similar to Lux aeterna (Ligeti) was great and worth the admission.
also this scene
Where you see a single parachute descending between the scyscrapers, then another one and only after this you see the jets crashing, all without actual sound.
I like what the director did with the sound mix. Also happy to see the Kickass actor (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) around not kicking some ass.
I watched many trashy Godzilla movies in my life and this is as good as any classic (for me).
Reminded me a lot of Monsters (by the same director).
Most unrealistic scene: when the kid leaves his mother without any protest (after he lost his father for a couple days)
Nice touch: Cranston and Binoche, scientists, name their son Ford (after Henry Ford). They must really love their science…
Also, when I felt this movie is going too heavy on military propaganda, Watanabe pulled out his broken watch. Liked that scene…
Destroy his career?
I saw this last night. I guess my main feeling was disappointment. While I agree the monster fights were awesome, the rest of the movie (aside from Bryan Cranston) was mediocre. They also seemed to go back and forth between the viewpoint of Godzilla as a force of nature and Godzilla as the good guy saving us from the bad monsters. They needed to pick one of those viewpoints and stay with it.
And I love Elizabeth Olsen but that was a wasted part for her. There’s also a saying that goes “show don’t tell.” That’s all I could think of when they grabbed Bryan Cranston early in the movie, sat him down, and gave him all the backstory on the history of Godzilla. Showing a Godzilla origin story from the 50s through all the atomic bomb blasts would have been an awesome film. Unlike this one.
Your definition of career-destroying seems to be considerably different than mine.