So, Let's Talk About the Use of Kids in This Film

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

I'm beginning to wish that the Comic Con trailer didn't leak at all more and more.

It was pretty much selling a different movie.

Just advertize the movie as a vs. movie. People would have gone and seen it.

Most people don't know that Godzilla was originally a nuclear metaphor or that the first film took itself very serious. Most people only know Godzilla as that monster who smashes Tokyo and fights other monsters and is sometimes a good guy, sometimes a bad guy. What was the point of comparing this movie to G1954 when the two couldn't be more different than night and day? To get fans to see it as well? We were gonna see it no matter what, be it another movie with the same tone as G1985 or another Vs. Movie. We're fans. All that comparison with 1954 did was give us an extra negative to list on an otherwise fun film.

Yep, all it did is just leave a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth when I watch it.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

^ I shouldn't have to see a film twice to enjoy it more than the first viewing, but I did cause my first viewing was soured. I kept going "oh it's a Vs. Movie. Well why didn't you advertize it as such? I was gonna go see it anyways. And so would general audiences, they don't know Godzilla's history like fans do. You know this movie is fun, and I mean it, it really is fun but I'd enjoy myself more if I didn't have 1954 constantly looming over the back of my head."

Yeah, I enjoy the film, but when I watch it there will always be "what could've been" after everything we've heard about it.

[tenup]

Plus I would call out Gareth Edwards as being a liar when pertaining to his choice of Godzilla 1954 being his favorite of the franchise. I truly believe he just threw that out there or LP handed him that choice whenever the question arises of which film is his fav. Why I make such a conclusion? Its because of his lack of knowledge behind it. In the Roar featurette he stated that Godzilla's roar in the first film is just one tonation repeated over and over throughout the whole movie. On top of that he never elaborated on why the original is his favorite. I remember how many were questioning his fanboy status toward Godzilla and I think he played a lot of people who thought he was one of us. Truth is I believe Edwards was lucky to get this shot at Godzilla and congratulate him on a good job. But this was nothing like Godzilla's predecessor in terms of direction. Godzilla would never resist counterattacking the military upon being attacked. Especially in 1954.

[HannibalBarca]

But Gareth and Borenstein did give some pretty misleading soundbites out about how Godzilla would be "the punishment we deserve," and talked about how the movie would be a spiritual successor to G'54, that sort of thing.

[Variola]

The kids in this film were the best kind of child characters; the ones who keep their damn mouths shut, aren't stupidly precocious, and don't ruin the film with their whiny high pitched voices.

[Mr. Xeno]

The kids in this film were the best kind of child characters; the ones who keep their damn mouths shut, aren't stupidly precocious, and don't ruin the film with their whiny high pitched voices.

I can't argue with this.

[Godnose]

The kids in this film were the best kind of child characters; the ones who keep their damn mouths shut, aren't stupidly precocious, and don't ruin the film with their whiny high pitched voices.

This x100

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

I think in trying to separate this Godzilla from G 98 (fuck we still can't go without that thing coming up) to assure fans this is really Godzilla they got carried away.

I hadn't really considered that as a reason for the mood swing in tones before, but I think you're on to something there. As you said, we fans would have seen this no matter what; unless we thought we'd be getting Zilla 2.0. So, maybe in the long run the mismarking was seen as a calculated risk to keep fan's fears assuaged?

[HannibalBarca]

Probably true. The misleading comments about the tone of the film were, for fans, the equivalent of putting Bryan Cranston front and center in the trailers for mainstream audiences. Both were deliberately misleading, and both obviously worked to perfection if thr opening weekend numbers are anything to go by.

[Dorkzilla]

...he's back.

[Gothicserpent]

And suddenly this turned into a "Bash Gareth Edwards" thread....

[HannibalBarca]

Gareth Edwards did a phenomenal job with the movie's cinematography, and I'm somewhat convinced that the whole movie would probably have fallen apart if a less capable person had been sitting in the director's chair. The point I was making is that he was part of what I am left to presume was a very cynical and finely tuned marketing machine for this movie that did a fantastic job of selling a product that was, in many ways, substantially different from the one we received.

[Mr. Xeno]

PLOT TWIST! One that takes 2 films to see and a third to see conclude!

But, dude, that can't be it, because they straight up said that they didn't make this film with sequels in mind. That's why the movie totally doesn't end with the door open for sequels.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

PLOT TWIST! One that takes 2 films to see and a third to see conclude!

But, dude, that can't be it, because they straight up said that they didn't make this film with sequels in mind. That's why the movie totally doesn't end with the door open for sequels.

I'm pretty sure they said it more as they didn't make this film with the design to have it followed by others, it can leave room for more (which it did) and they certainly could have a basic plan. The only things I remember reading were talking more along the lines of cliffhangers and such. Nothing about basic series wide story arcs within self-contained movies.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

I read an interesting post somewhere that the movie is basically about parents and their children.

- Joe and Sandra have Ford
- Ford and Elle have Sam
- Serizawa and Graham have Godzilla, in a way
- And the MUTOs have their eggs/spores/whatever

If anything Graham is the love child of Serizawa and Godzilla. Just look at the passion between them in this scene:


You could cut that romantic tension with a knife!

[Mr. Xeno]

That picture is pretty awesome, I must say.

[InstinctiveGigan]

Heh, he looks like he stole it and he's looking around to see if anyone noticed.