Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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GodzillaFan1990's wrote:
eabaker wrote:I disagree. There is no one "right" way to make a Godzilla movie; and the cut-aways, to me, provided some of the most memorable, satisfying moments in the movie, and helped it to earn the big action of the finale.
Right despite the fact people had been waiting for Godzilla for a whole decade, a skreeonking decade in other words was not needed. People came for Godzilla for a reason...After a whole decade of not being on the big screen. Rather you decide to keep on teasing him. Once okay but after that it gets annoying. :roll:
To you. It gets annoying to you.

Not everything is going to work for everyone. When a filmmaker makes strong choices, invariably those choices will alienate some portion of the audience. And that's okay. To make something that really excites some people, you almost invariably have to alienate other people.

People had been waiting a decade, yes. And the movie made them wait an additional - what? One hour?

Some of us enjoy being teased. Being tantalized. Being engaged in a back-and-forth. It's exciting, and it only enriches the joyous, explosive, oh-so-satisfying climax.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Ugh...Anyways agree to disagree. The whole waiting for a decade should've been enough suspense either way. The approach just didn't work for Godzilla IMO.

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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GodzillaFan1990's wrote:Ugh...Anyways agree to disagree. The whole waiting for a decade should've been enough suspense either way. The approach just didn't work for Godzilla IMO.
The movie was not made only for fans who had been waiting for a decade, to be experienced only in that context.

Edwards made choices for the benefit of the story he was telling, not in the interest of fan service.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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The movie either way I felt could've still worked without cutting away while still retaining the same screen time. I personally would've been fine with that. Never the less I respect your opinions guys. ;)

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Relair wrote:The screen time was squarely middle of the road when compared to all the other Godzilla movies.....
There's only one Godzilla movie with less Godzilla in it, actually.

More Godzilla doesn't mean better movie, but I thought that was worth pointing out.

Added in 2 minutes 52 seconds:
eabaker wrote: To you. It gets annoying to you.

Not everything is going to work for everyone. When a filmmaker makes strong choices, invariably those choices will alienate some portion of the audience. And that's okay. To make something that really excites some people, you almost invariably have to alienate other people.

People had been waiting a decade, yes. And the movie made them wait an additional - what? One hour?

Some of us enjoy being teased. Being tantalized. Being engaged in a back-and-forth. It's exciting, and it only enriches the joyous, explosive, oh-so-satisfying climax.
He said it was his opinion, not a fact. As you say, that creative movie alienates some people. And I agree with him. I don't think this is effective in a Godzilla movie. It's only our opinion, though hardly a rare opinion.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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GodzillaFan1990's wrote: Right despite the fact people had been waiting for Godzilla for a whole decade, a skreeonking decade in other words was not needed. People came for Godzilla for a reason...After a whole decade of not being on the big screen. Rather you decide to keep on teasing him. Once okay but after that it gets annoying. :roll:
But they weren't teasing Godzilla. They were teasing *the fight.* They weren't trying to hide Godzilla- we got a great reveal in the Hawaii scene. But they were trying to save the kaiju fighting action for the end and build up anticipation to that action, as well as the import of the fight, by building up the villains, their menace, and the progression of their plan. To do that, they followed the MUTOs instead of Godzilla... showing us the full scope of the challenge that Godzilla was going to face.

And to make the end fight more climactic and significant, they avoided showing any of the fights earlier in the film that would have been disappointing and anti-climactic as they ended up without any resolution. They didn't blow the intensity of first seeing these Kaiju actually engaged in brutal combat by squandering it on a short sparring session that ended with one of them running away. They saved that moment for maximum impact- when the final, climactic battle is joined by all participants.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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GodzillaFan1990's wrote:The movie either way I felt could've still worked without cutting away while still retaining the same screen time. I personally would've been fine with that. Never the less I respect your opinions guys. ;)
So then you're really not OK with Godzilla's screen time then? Naturally if you didn't have the cutaways, the scenes would have continued, thus if you took a timer and used it to time what Godzilla's screen time would have been in that hypothetical movie...it would obviously be longer than in 2014...

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Tohosaurus wrote: There's only one Godzilla movie with less Godzilla in it, actually.
Hmm...okay middle of the road wasn't *technically* right, but it's still more than quite a few:

Rank Movie Time
1 Godzilla Vs MechaGodzilla II 0:26:56
2 Godzilla 2000 0:22:28
3 Godzilla Vs Hedorah 0:20:33
4 Godzilla Vs Destroyah 0:20:09
5 Godzilla X Megaguirus 0:20:08
6 Godzilla Vs SpaceGodzilla 0:19:38
7 Return of Godzilla 0:18:54
8 Shin Godzilla 0:17:23
9 Godzilla Vs Biollante 0:16:49
10 GMK 0:16:40
11 Godzilla Vs Gigan 0:16:12
12 Godzilla Vs Mothra 0:15:16
13 Godzilla Final Wars 0:14:55
14 Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah 0:14:46
15 Ebirah, Horror of the Deep 0:13:01
16 Godzilla (1998) 0:12:58
17 Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. 0:12:52
18 Son of Godzilla 0:11:56
19 Godzilla X MechaGodzilla 0:11:48
20 Godzilla Vs Megalon 0:10:24
21 Mothra Vs Godzilla 0:10:24
22 Godzilla (2014) 0:09:56
23 Terror of MechaGodzilla 0:09:34
24 Godzilla Raids Again 0:09:32
25 King Kong Vs Godzilla 0:09:13
26 Gojira 0:08:44
27 Destroy All Monsters 0:08:29
28 All Monsters Attack 0:08:19
29 Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster 0:07:55
30 Godzilla Vs MechaGodzilla 0:07:55
31 Invasion of the Astro Monster 0:05:43

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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My opinion is still the same guys. Nothing is changing it.

Also they could've worked around it making it the same amount of screen time granted only a few minutes longer.

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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GodzillaFan1990's wrote:My opinion is still the same guys. Nothing is changing it.

Also they could've worked around it making it the same amount of screen time granted only a few minutes longer.
Hey nothing wrong with your opinion, everyone likes what they likes! It'd be pretty boring if everyone always agreed, every topic would have one post then everyone just posting "^^^ this" beneath it :lol:

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Relair wrote:Hey nothing wrong with your opinion, everyone likes what they likes! It'd be pretty boring if everyone always agreed, every topic would have one post then everyone just posting "^^^ this" beneath it :lol:
Very true my friend. It is also what makes us all human in the end and the world a much more unique place. ;)

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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People watch movies these days to try and outsmart them instead of enjoying them.

Just something that annoys me really. I blame Cinemasins which definitely shouldn't be considered film criticism.

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Relair wrote: Hmm...okay middle of the road wasn't *technically* right, but it's still more than quite a few:
Yeah but as a percentage of the movie:
szmigiel wrote:http://jokercluster.blogspot.com/2017/0 ... rst_7.html
The charts are all updated to included all 31 films released so far.

Percent of Screen Time Most to Least
1 Godzilla Vs MechaGodzilla II 25%
2 Godzilla Vs Hedorah 24%
3 Godzilla 2000 23%
4 Godzilla Vs Destroyah 20%
5 Godzilla X Megaguirus 19%
6 Godzilla Vs Gigan 18%
7 Return of Godzilla 18%
8 Godzilla Vs SpaceGodzilla 18%
9 Godzilla Vs Biollante 16%
10 GMK: Giant Monsters All Out Attack 16%
11 Ebirah, Horror of the Deep 15%
12 Godzilla Vs Mothra 15%
13 Shin Godzilla 15%
14 Son of Godzilla 14%
15 Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah 14%
16 Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. 14%
17 Godzilla Vs Megalon 13%
18 Godzilla X MechaGodzilla 13%
19 Godzilla Raids Again 12%
20 Mothra Vs Godzilla 12%
21 All Monsters Attack 12%
22 Terror of MechaGodzilla 12%
23 Godzilla Final Wars 12%
24 King Kong Vs Godzilla 10%
25 Destroy All Monsters 10%
26 Gojira 9%
27 Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster 9%
28 Godzilla Vs MechaGodzilla 9%
29 Godzilla (1998) 9%
30 Godzilla (2014) 8%
31 Invasion of the Astro Monster 6%
But ultimately for me it's not about a numeric amount of Godzilla in the movie. Godzilla 1954 had about the same proportion of the movie featuring Godzilla. It has more to do with the movie's lack of focus on Godzilla, given that the human characters and MUTOs both seem more important to the narrative. I think that'd be less of a complaint in a Godzilla movie that isn't a series debut.

Godzilla 2000 isn't a better movie from a technical standpoint, but I think where that movie wins (as a debut movie for the character wherein Godzilla also has an opponent) is that Godzilla is very much the main character, even if the human characters are the "main characters".
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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It's not the lack of screen time. It never has been. It's the execution coupled with the severe lack of anything remotely interesting or emotionally involving surrounding it. Too little way too late.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Yet Meme types always use screen time when bashing the film.

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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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<sigh> Threads like these.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Jeff-Goldblum1 wrote:Yet Meme types always use screen time when bashing the film.
Astro Monster has the least amount of screen time of almost any Godzilla film and yet its one of the most enjoyable films in the franchise. Why? Because the characters and story are engaging. You could take out the monsters and still have a solid science fiction/alien invasion film.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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XxComablack1937xX wrote:The problem isn't so much the lack of screen time as it is the actual pay off.
This. I've said it before but it's how you use the screentime, you can make it feel longer than it acually is. You can have two movies where Godzilla's screentime is 9 minutes each, one can feel like there is a lot of him while the other feels like there isn't enough. It also doesn't help that 2014 is longer than most G films or if the human drama is not entertaining you while you wait. Also it's the first fight we've had in 10 years, 10 fucking long years of waiting for a new Godzilla film and we miss most of it for a "joke". Fuck off.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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Tohosaurus wrote: Godzilla 2000 isn't a better movie from a technical standpoint, but I think where that movie wins (as a debut movie for the character wherein Godzilla also has an opponent) is that Godzilla is very much the main character, even if the human characters are the "main characters".
Seems odd to penalize G2014 just because it was a longer movie than most of the others, x minutes on screen is still x minutes on screen. Twisting the facts to fit the narrative. But anyway! I wish it had been a bit more Godzilla focused too, don't get me wrong. I can just understand what they were going for, like I earlier stated. The Batman effect. The general audience doesnt need yet another origin story, everyone and their mom and their dog knows who Godzilla is, lets pump up the antagonists a bit to make people give a crap about them, while also building suspense and anticipation for every second Godzilla is on screen. Not saying its a right or wrong way to do it, just that I get it. Also since this topic has really been derailed, another Monsterverse fear is that they kill off some beloved character in their first appearance. I'm really worried for the health of Rodan and Mothra, one of them is probably going to bite it and thats a shame if this is going to continue into the future.
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Re: Godzilla 2014: “Not enough kaiju action”— Really?

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KingKaiju wrote:I get the feeling that the complaints about Godzilla's lack of screentime and kaiju action is misdirected. To me, the problem isn't that we didn't get enough Godzilla, it's that the film isn't about Godzilla. All the great Godzilla films don't have a ton of Godzilla in there, but he drives the narrative. The film is about him, he's at the center of attention. His appearance or presence is the reason why things play out as they do. In this case, the MUTOS were the driving force, and Godzilla played off of that. In short, he was who we showed up to see but he was a supporting character to the MUTOS. As for the lack of kaiju action seems to feel magnetized, because we had bland characters with a fairly slow story that we may not be the most engaged with, so we find ourselves counting down and waiting for the action to appear. Anyone else feel this way?
Yes.

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