The Official Godzilla (2014) Review Collection Thread

[the24fan]

While I respect anyone elses opinion on any given movie, it's just that an opinion. Choose to ignore and move on. He has come to the wrong place for anarchy....The movie has it's flaws, like any other film, but to walk out before the climax scene is just pure stupidity. Especially when anyone with half a brain can sense there is something big coming at the end....His loss.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

@Godzilla 1995... That is a nice article but no review of the film. It's mostly pre-production general facts found on the Internet.

Will check back sometime over the summer to see if you really post a movie review on this blog. What I wrote on this blog has more content for a review.

There are fans out there that will accept anything the studios release without giving the film any real movie critic analysis. Your just one of many. Don't feel bad. LOL

You seem to be as bad at reading an entire review as you are at watching an entire movie. The review came after the preproduction stuff.

[Captain Aktion]

They just made a different impression on you, I guess.

I was specifically referring to the fact that I felt the film showed us more than enough of the monsters.

[HannibalBarca]

They showed us enough of the monsters all together, but not enough of Godzilla, if you ask me. The proportions were off, is what I'm saying.

[EdGojira]

They just made a different impression on you, I guess.

I was specifically referring to the fact that I felt the film showed us more than enough of the monsters.

Oh, I feel that way, too. I found them as an event. I meant that in minutes it's not very much but when they are actually on the screen you are wowed and can't think of more time with them.

[Captain Aktion]

I honestly can't understand the complaints about the amount of monster(s) in this film.

I kind of liken it to Monster Zero. Are they the stars? Do they get tons of screen-time? Are their fights abbreviated? Is there one big throw down at the end? Does everything in the film revolve around them, regardless? Are they not the linchpins of the entire plot?

Aren't they both great Godzilla films?

[Abattoir_Noises]

Took a couple of friends to my second viewing tonight, neither one is a fan and both notorious tough sells. Both liked it better than X-Men, and said they would see it again! For me, it was better the second time around, absolutely love the Mutos, and I was very unimpressed with them during the months of lead up. Very happy with this film as a lifelong Godzilla fan, yeah, I've heard everyone's gripes, but personally, this was very satisfying. Can't wait for the sequel, hopin' for Ghidorah and Anguirus, maybe another new foe as well. Cheers to all G- fans! Also, pretty good crowd for a Wednesday night, and after a holiday to boot, pleasantly suprised

[H-Man]

El Santo of 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting posted his review.

Interesting observation:

What does any of that have to do with allegory? Well, doesn’t it all sound sort of familiar? The US military interposes itself into an ancient conflict between combatants its leaders understand poorly if at all, in response to a devastating attack by one of the antagonists on American soil. The best efforts of the most dedicated common soldier fail to resolve or even to contain the battle, and ultimately make things significantly worse, partly because their commanders insist on a delusionally misguided strategy, and partly because high-tech firepower is simply the wrong tool for the job in the first place. Experts in the relevant fields are sidelined, ignored, and even treated like criminals while the authorities make bullets and bombs their first and only resort. And in the end, there’s no practical solution but to get out of the way while the old enemies duke it out— even if getting out of the way means accepting the risk of becoming collateral casualties in the fight. Oh— and along the way, the expected smashing of famous skyscrapers comes packaged with whole squadrons of airplanes falling out of the sky and exploding on impact against the crumbling concrete towers. Did Edwards and Borenstein deliberately set out to render thirteen years’ worth of military, diplomatic, and foreign-policy fiasco in the Middle East as kaiju eiga? I don’t know.

[Mr. Xeno]

Very interesting comparison. But I highly doubt THAT specific interpretation was intentional. Sounds more like a complete viewer interpretation by coincidence.

[HannibalBarca]

even treated like criminals

When did that happen in the movie? I guess Joe Brody, but to be fair he WAS a criminal, technically, and was only an expert in an incidental sort of way.

I agree with Xeno in broad strokes: that specific interpretation is probably reading too much into it. That being said, Edwards couldn't have gotten away with too much overt criticism of the military in this movie, so I wouldn't doubt that a little subversiveness got snuck in here and there. The near-miss friendly fire incidents on the bridge come to mind.

[Janjira54]

While it is true I did walk out with 30 minutes remaining, that does not change my movie review.

I called a friend of a friend this evening that is a Godzilla enthusiast and she informs me to watch the last part of the film when it come out on Red Box.

When I asked about the final showdown with the MUTOs, she informs me that she rates it a 5 out of 10 comparing the fight to other Godzilla battles in prior films.

She also noted she preferred the battle with King Kong as better than with the MUTOs.

Thank you Sheila for your input on the last 30 minutes of the film.

This is like the third time you brought up GvKK. Is that the only film you've seen or something?

[Showa Gyaos]

I am expecting to be chewed out or criticized for my opinion...

Pros
- Godzilla looks like Godzilla.
- The monster battles are interesting and leave me wanting more.
- The MUTOs are awesome adversaries for the King of the Monsters.

Cons
- The human characters are not interesting at all (sans Bryan Cranston).
- Too much teasing, not enough giving. The build up has little pay-off.
- A misleading marketing campaign made me think this was going to be similar to the 1954 original movie in tone. It was far from that.
- Wooden acting killed what could have been an enjoyable movie. But I blame the script that was written for this thing, because it all seems to fall apart once Act I wraps up.

I didn't really care too much for Godzilla. After all of the hype, and even after hearing what people said about the movie, I didn't expect to be as underwhelmed as I ended up being. The story line is simple, and I was fine with that. Giant monster movies aren't known for their outstanding plots....so I was able to live with that.

What I couldn't stand was the constant teasing from Gareth and company. The first time they teased, I thought it was cute and I went along with it. Second time, I wondered what was going on. The third time, I was growing impatient (and by that time, a lot of people had walked out of the theater; I considered doing the same, but I knew I'd miss out on something big at the end). It wouldn't bother me this much if the actors were capable of carrying this movie. But they are unable to. Bryan Cranston was the most notable actor, because he showed the most emotion. Unfortunately

Spoiler:

he dies in the first Act I and we're left to follow a less-than-emotive Aaron Taylor-Johnson

.

There were times when I forgot that this movie had Godzilla in it. How the fuck do you accomplish that? It might have been the focus on his antagonists, the MUTOs. It might have been the drawn out Act II. Maybe I just became bored with it all. Or possibly, a combination of these things is what caused it. But Godzilla played second fiddle to everything else. I have been able to tolerate this in many Toho-created movies. However, I was never expecting that for this reboot.

The climax is what saved this movie. It was literally the only thing I reveled in. That being said, I still felt extremely disappointed walking out of the theater the first time. I watched it several more times, so that I might actually grow attached to it. But that did very little to change my opinion of Godzilla. I could have tuned in at the last 20 minutes and had my fill.

If the sequel follows the same route as this movie did, I may just skip out on a theater viewing and wait for it to hit Redbox. Then if I approve I'll purchase the DVD. But no more.

Final Rating: 6/10

[Mr. Xeno]

You, Showa Gyaos, clearly have no taste and just can't be happy with anything.

[HannibalBarca]

I agree with you in broad strokes, but I think that the movie benefits massively from its visual style. Even erstwhile boring scenes that do little to advance the plot, when they even tie into the narrative at all, are visually stunning. I know that this is a common cop-out used to defend stuff like Michael Bay or JJ Abrams films, but I credit Gareth and friends for understanding that there needs to be a certain grandeur and majesty to their visuals that other movies usually eschew in favor of headache inducing kinetic storms of metal and explosions.

As you hinted though, the script leaves much to be desired. It tries to be a relatively simple story, but it still manages to be riddled with narrative dead ends and undelivered promises of worldbuilding. This in addition to characters that are usually either underwritten or bafflingly written, on top of reducing Godzilla to a bit player in his own film. Ultimately the script is no more than "functional, but flawed" at best. And when you build the pacing of your monster movie off of a "teasing" mentality, a stronger script is required to keep the film afloat.

In any event, I definitely think it's true that major changes to the script and pacing will need to be made if Godzilla 2 is to be a success.

[Carcosa]

I leave it short

Pro
-Godzilla owns, with the presence and sentinent to make him a true star of the show. They nailed the force of nature concept extremly well. He cause a tsunami and devasted Hawaii by getting out of the ocean, have tomahawk missles and depleted uranium shells shot at him yet not bat an eye. The scene did a good job again with the force of nature motif, all the advance firepower the U.S throws at him is as futile as king canute trying to stop the sea or one seeking to murder a storm. Human action are trivialities not worth the attention for this god like being with other more pressing matters to deal with.

-cinematography work is absolutely breath taking.I can write paragraphs on what it did.

- I like how human action are ultimately futile at the end except for 2 minor instance that indirectly aided godzilla. they can scheme, flee or plot to kill the beast as mythical heroes will but at the end irrelevant and it was Godzilla, the real star who resolves the plot of the movie. The military doing the stuff, wait the thing have emp? Nvm lets send some F16 at it is probably the most realistic portrait of the military facing down an unknown threat.

Not too much to my liking.
- The tease, tho a clever technique on Gareth's part to explore the surrealism of seeing monster city brawl and capturing the logical human prespective when trapped in the middle of one, by that being get the fuck away ASAP. Those moment were perfect in pushing the movie to AWESOME overdrive to reward the audience ans by no way diminished the climax of the movie.

[Showa Gyaos]

I agree with you in broad strokes, but I think that the movie benefits massively from its visual style. Even erstwhile boring scenes that do little to advance the plot, when they even tie into the narrative at all, are visually stunning. I know that this is a common cop-out used to defend stuff like Michael Bay or JJ Abrams films, but I credit Gareth and friends for understanding that there needs to be a certain grandeur and majesty to their visuals that other movies usually eschew in favor of headache inducing kinetic storms of metal and explosions.

As you hinted though, the script leaves much to be desired. It tries to be a relatively simple story, but it still manages to be riddled with narrative dead ends and undelivered promises of worldbuilding. This in addition to characters that are usually either underwritten or bafflingly written, on top of reducing Godzilla to a bit player in his own film. Ultimately the script is no more than "functional, but flawed" at best. And when you build the pacing of your monster movie off of a "teasing" mentality, a stronger script is required to keep the film afloat.

In any event, I definitely think it's true that major changes to the script and pacing will need to be made if Godzilla 2 is to be a success.

Yeah, I have to say that if Godzilla 2 doesn't step it up in quality, it's not going anywhere. It suffers from "Destroy All Monsters Syndrome." It has long, drawn out scenes and fluffy dialogue that does nothing to really further the plot (aside from "the monsters are heading for this location"). It would've been better if the content justified such a long wait to get to that spectacular fight at the end. That is what killed it. Not the lack of Godzilla. I would've been totally fine with the lack of Godzilla if the human characters were compelling enough. But they weren't. And that's really it...

[SteveIrwinFan96]

I know that this a few months late, but here's ERod's thoughts on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_qkBfO ... KHUXhwRAsg. Funny that he mentions King Ghidorah and Mothra as monsters for the sequel, and that's who we're getting along with Rodan.

[prs54]

My revised review.

It is being reported that the same Director is going to do the next Godzilla film. That is good news that is bad news.

I have revised my initial movie review. Added some additional comments after giving the film further thought and talking with other Godzilla fans.

This film has been popular with causal moviegoers but mixed reviews with hard core Godzilla fans.

Would consider attending the 2nd film if there is a better balance of action and story line.

Revised movie review...

A Movie Review for Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures film “Godzilla”

For years I have been waiting for a Godzilla film that uses the CGI technology that was used in the “Jurassic Park” films and that would distinguish itself in the Godzilla filmography.

The plot was a good one for a Godzilla film. Godzilla was the good guy monster and was not hostile to humans. He was in character. This film was Godzilla for adults, not a children’s film. Godzilla did have a humanity quality to him in this film. The MUTO was a good adversary monster to challenge Godzilla. It was capable of emitting an EMP.

Godzilla has very little screen time in this film. When he does appear it was at night or in the fog. You never really got a good look at him.

When you did see him he was obese. His roar sounded more like the T-Rex from “Jurassic Park” not the Toho Studio iconic roar.

The fun of Godzilla films is the brawls with the bad guy monsters. Both the Honolulu and San Francisco fights with the MUTO scenes were cut from the film. I walked out of the theater after the San Francisco fight was not shown. That was about 30 minutes before the end of the film.

Godzilla films are supposed to be fun. This film took itself just a little too seriously for a Godzilla movie. There was theme music for Godzilla in Toho studio films. This new film has none of the theme music.

This is not the review that fans want to hear. I am so sorry. Got “King Kong vs. Godzilla” on Blu-ray to make up for the disappointment with this new film.

Give this film 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Watched this film again on Blu-ray and watched the last 30 minutes. Was disappointed. The final fight with King Kong was a better brawl.

Supporting URL:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/h ... can-700706

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

I'm guessing we'll never get another Godzilla/kaiju film that addresses the reactions of the world and the damage and chaos of giant monsters wrecking shit. I had such high hopes after the concept footage and all the early interviews that G14 would be that film. Sadly it missed that mark by a long shot. Cloverfield attempted it to an extent but was way too much at the expense of the monster. It really bothers me that both the recent major American kaiju films went so far out of their way to steer clear of a lot of what I really want to see in these films. Del Toro outright confirmed it with Pacific Rim and while I don't think Gareth or Tull have ever said openly that's what it seems like they were doing too. Gojira, Return of Godzilla, and Gamera 3 are the only three films in the entire genre that have really bothered to get into that aspect of giant monsters. I also don't get what everybody keeps defending G14 for being different. Different how!? How is the overall plot and concept of G14 any different than the overly lackluster ideas shoved out during most the Heisei and Millennium eras (minus a couple exceptions of course)? So it took itself more realistic and grounded? Nothing about that film felt anymore realistic or grounded than some of the other more conceptually mundane entries in the franchise. Hell with all the shit Ford survived through he came across more as a cartoon John McClane type action hero (without an ounce of McClane's charm and charisma) than a remotely realistic character. All the other major characters were so far removed from the action that I never felt I was given any reason to fear or care for any of them. The only other character that was ever in major danger was Elle but unfortunately she completely disappeared from the third act and I honestly almost forgot about her by the films end. As a major Hollywood, supposedly character centric, action/sci-fi, G14 was an absolute failure in my eyes and as a Godzilla/kaiju film in was only just OK. Its not the worst of the franchise mind you (I give Tezuka's films that distinction) but its so very far from the best. Despite a few good tidbits (mostly Godzilla's design/first reveal and the Muto deaths) overall I just cannot bring myself to care. Never have I been so disappointed in a film in my life.

[JGAR]

INever have I been so disappointed in a film in my life.

Where you there when GINO was around?