I just rewatched “Manos, the hands of Fate.” Afterwards, I thought Godzilla wasn’t too bad.
I also said ‘…watched through to the end.’ If its 30 mins in and I am not liking what I am watching, I usually stop watching. Godzilla, I kept watching. I just thought it had to get better. But it kept getting worse. I watched the 80s Godzilla movie with…Matthew Broderick?..was this worse than that? I think so.
Also I liked The Rock a hell of a lot better than this. I stopped watching the first Transformers and never saw any of the others. I did watch Armaggedon through to the end but it was a long time ago, I won’t say that it was worse than Godzilla. Those are all the Michael Bay movies I can recall off the top of my head.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I certainly won’t go to bat for this movie on its own merits, which are few, but as a nostalgic romp through classic Godzilla tropes, I still think it was fun.
It probably helps that I watched one of the worst Godzilla movies ever right before watching this one. Either way, this still knocks the socks off the Matthew Broderick version.
Not even sure how there’s a comparison, frankly. Okay they’re both called Godzilla.
— Alan
And they both feature scenes with buildings and people in them.
…that’s all I’ve got.
Godzilla simply couldn’t follow the Kaiju Neon Porno that was Pacific Rim.
I really don’t like that the director played so much peekaboo with the monsters. The stuff of seeing them a few seconds then cutting to CNN etc. Reminded me a lot of his style in Monsters, which is no great surprise.
I trust that they’ll correct this in Godzilla 2. Especially now that we know Ghidora is in.
Godzilla 2014 is essentially a movie about a guy trying to get home and making terrible decisions. Then a teleporting boat. The end.
I suspect the hide-and-seek with the monsters was purely budgetary. It’s still expensive to throw full-on CGI monsters on the screen.
I personally enjoyed the movie. Some things I didn’t understand, like why an ancient monster used EMP as an attack when EMP hasn’t been useful for anything until the last 60 years or so. It was purely a “this is why humans aren’t able to use stand-off weapons against what is essentially a giant bat” kind of thing. In general though, it was entertaining for what it was; a monster beat-em-up from the human perspective. As much as I will likely get slapped around for this, I found it better than Pacific Rim in almost every regard.
Then again, I really enjoyed what they were trying to do with Cloverfield when it came out. The Not-Mothra monsters in Godzilla even looked a bit like flying versions of the Cloverfield monster
I loved Cloverfield. Unlike this movie, which I forced myself to keep watching, I was riveted by Cloverfield all the way through.
My recollection is that the speculated that the EMP supposedly disrupts Godzilla breath abilities.
After thinking about it, it dawned on me that Godzilla was actually a love story. Two kids in love, who wanted to just settle down and start a family. And they’d have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling soldiers and their stupid lizard.
There was no mystery at the old farmhouse whatsoever though.
Cloverfield would’ve been a lot more enjoyable if I hadn’t hated the entire cast. Well, okay, everyone except Lizzy Caplan, who I guess was supposed to be the Dorky One, only it’s Hollywood Dorky, so more Sexy Adorkable. Whatever: she was the only one I didn’t want to see get eaten by monsters, so of course she was…not still around by the end credits.
Whereas Godzilla’s main flaw is everyone’s boring. Which is a crime considering they had Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, and Juliette Binoche, then utterly wasted their talents. But at least I wasn’t rooting for their demises, either, although it also meant I was denied the occasional schadenfreude which Cloverfield provided.
Which is a roundabout way of saying neither film is very good, but Godzilla gave me more giant monsters and fewer humans I hated. Advantage: Godzilla.
I enjoyed this more than I thought, and not just because my imaginary friend in kindergarten was Godzilla. I think they did a pretty good job of finding a gray area where Godzilla was not necessarily a “good guy” or “bad guy”.
I thought Pacific Rim was every bit as slow & lumbering through the middle as this movie. Which is kind of fitting. Giant monsters are slow & lumbering.
What the world needs now is a Johnny Sokko and Giant Robot movie. Or, how about Mazinger Z?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rvHToxMLtyI
I think I would have agreed with this upon seeing the movie the first time in a theater. I was so annoyed with the conceit, to begin with, and T.J. Miller as the delivery mechanism for that conceit was just too much to bear.
Over the years, however, I have definitely softened on this. Maybe it’s my growing appreciation of him thanks to hearing him on the Doug Loves Movies podcast and subsequently liking him and his voice in other movies, but now I have grown fond of him as Hud. I still think the idea that this character won’t put down his camcorder is silly, but my evolved goodwill for T.J. Miller has allowed me to look past that. I’ve seen Cloverfield multiple times and it continues to work for me better than it did the first time.
Also, we need to see Lizzy Caplan in more things. Seriously.
-xtien
“Nobody ever listens to me.”
Seconded.
Definitely.
Party Down was SOO GOOD. :)
I thought it was OK, but I’m always willing to watch B movies.
One thing did bother me. If I’d send my kids with some people while monsters are stomping around in order to wait for my wife somewhere, she’d skin me when she was back.