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

[Rodan]

Let's get this out of the way. This is a negative thread. It is not an indictment of the movie as a whole. It is, however, something I thought about recently, and which goes some way toward keying in on some of the more Hollywood elements of the film that have been pointed out on this board (and which I would say run counter to the tone it goes for):

Every time you see a kid in this movie, you know they will be safe. Every time you see a kid, you are also in for a near-POV moment more saccharine than a packet of Sweet 'n' Low. This is a classic Spielbergian Hollywood indulgence.

1) Ford gets tasked with taking care of a child on a train in Hawaii as the Mutos attack. There is zero question whether either of them will make it out okay. Ford gives the kid an action figure. This is a nonsense way of getting us on his side as a character/protective family man.

2) "Look, Mom, dinosaurs!" Played for laughs. No child that old would ever respond this way.

3) Near POV focus on a little girl's reaction to the arrival of Godzilla, which, of course, she notices before any of the adults. This is the only thing here that I hated as soon as I saw. It belongs in another movie. As soon as this happens, you know we're going to follow the family long enough to see them get to safety, which we do.

4) School buses! They all get to safety, of course, but not before spending enough time with them to build up their endangerment.

So, what is this, Rodan 4MoreDeadKids? Not at all. And it's far, far from the only Godzilla film to indulge in these contrivances. Mothra vs. Godzilla, which I'd hold up as one of the only critical successes in the series outside the first film, ends with a silly trapped-school children plot to play up the drama. So why do I bring it up as a point of comparison? But these scenes are given to us in a particularly Hollywood, particularly saccharine way. They're cliches. They're Hollywood. They run counter to the film's goals. We don't need abject tragedy, but these elements could simply have been avoided. And, unlike Mothra vs. Godzilla, this is a very serious disaster film which wants you to take it very seriously.

In comparison, let's look at the way a smart movie, Godzilla (1954), which wasn't interested in upholding any structural or genre cliches, used kids:







Oh. A little different then.

[PRIMEVAL]

Huh, guess I wasn't a kid then, because I would say EXACTLY that, "look, dinosaurs". It's big, it's scaly, it's a damn dinosaur.

[Rodan]

Huh, guess I wasn't a kid then, because I would say EXACTLY that, "look, dinosaurs". It's big, it's scaly, it's a damn dinosaur.

You wouldn't have been like, "Mom. There are monsters fighting on TV"?

Regardless, that is some trite-ass use of childhood perception.

[PRIMEVAL]

Huh, guess I wasn't a kid then, because I would say EXACTLY that, "look, dinosaurs". It's big, it's scaly, it's a damn dinosaur.

You wouldn't have been like, "Mom. There are monsters fighting on TV"?

Regardless, that is some trite-ass use of childhood perception.

Most likely not, I would have said dinosaurs I was obsessed with them, like most little kids I know. And that scene gave the audience a chuckle, I don't particularly see anything wrong with it.

[Rodan]

And that scene gave the audience a chuckle, I don't particularly see anything wrong with it.

Burn comic relief to the ground.

[PRIMEVAL]

And that scene gave the audience a chuckle, I don't particularly see anything wrong with it.

Burn comic relief to the ground.

The name "Godzilla" is comic relief to American audiences, we won't have a movie

[Xx_The_Masquerade_xX]

The only time i was okay with the kids in Godzilla was the one's on the bus, when you see the spines rising from the ocean and blocks the missiles. They actually looked shocked/terrified/in awe.

The whole ''Mom look Dinosaurs'' was stupid, sure people chuckled but it was more ugh... They never should have never cut from the airport scene right after Godzilla roared, (Personal opinion)

The girl at the beach scene did indeed look out of place with the rest of the film. I really did think of Independence Day esp with the dog involved in that sequence. Otherwise though that wasn't that bad.

Ford with the kid on the train easily got over-shadowed the minutes the MUTO came into the picture. Still should have left the kid out as it made no difference either way just added some cliche hero saves child and they both live threw it.

[Fighing On Fuji]

I loved that "Look mom, dinosaurs." Part. That is EXACTLY what I would've said at that kid's age.

As for everything else, eh, you're pretty much right. Although one could also point out the use of kids for sympathy in Gojira, especially with the girls' choir. If a scene like that were in the new film, I'd imagine you would have a problem with it.

[Rodan]

As for everything else, eh, you're pretty much right. Although one could also point out the use of kids for sympathy in Gojira, especially with the girls' choir. If a scene like that were in the new film, I'd imagine you would have a problem with it.

Not at all. That scene is one of the things that made me fall in love with the original. It's powerful and tragic.

Nothing is tragic in the new film after the prologue scene. This is true generally, but is especially highlighted through its trite use of children. The second we get the little girl's POV upon Godzilla's arrival (which ... what even), it's obvious she and her family are going to get to safety. In the original, when children are onscreen, it's to be particularly haunting. Here, it's to be particularly saccharine and trite. No one's going to get hurt. It's just to be cute.

I really did think of Independence Day esp with the dog involved in that sequence.

That's about right. Again, I don't hate this movie. I super-duper hate that scene, though.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

I can understand most of them and even agree to a point (not fully mind you, but some), but I disagree with the whole, "Look Mom, dinosaurs!" one. I think most kids that age would have done similar. A kid wakes up sees that one TV and sees a movie. So it's going to be "Dinosaurs!" or "Monsters!" for most kids, they might recognized it as the news that Mom and Dad watch but wouldn't right off the bat register it are "real" the way an adult would.

[Rodan]

I can understand most of them and even agree to a point (not fully mind you, but some), but I disagree with the whole, "Look Mom, dinosaurs!" one. I think most kids that age would have done similar. A kid wakes up sees that one TV and sees a movie. So it's going to be "Dinosaurs!" or "Monsters!" for most kids, they might recognized it as the news that Mom and Dad watch but wouldn't right off the bat register it are "real" the way an adult would.

Fair. It could happen if the kid were just waking up to or seeing the footage.

I guess my issue is, they didn't have to write it that way. The only reason that scene plays the way it does is because it's in there for comic relief.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

I do wish that the film took risk with kids that Gojira did, but to add that would also pretty much require changing the rest of the film to match that tonally which I'd also be for.

[Janjira54]

Huh, guess I wasn't a kid then, because I would say EXACTLY that, "look, dinosaurs". It's big, it's scaly, it's a damn dinosaur.

He should have said "Mom, look, a 355 ft tall radiation eating proto dinosaur is fighting a Parasitic massive unidentified terrestrial organism, AKA MUTO!"

[Mr. Xeno]

I do wish that the film took risk with kids that Gojira did, but to add that would also pretty much require changing the rest of the film to match that tonally which I'd also be for.

They should have done that anyway. In fact, there shouldn't have been any need to change it to a darker tone in the first place, considering how they talked entirely out of their own asses since the movie's inception about how it was supposed to be just like the original Gojira. It boggles my mind that Gareth Edwards created that absolutely AMAZING SDCC 2012 teaser that perfectly captured what the movie should have been, and then he went on to make the final product we saw on screen that was absolutely nothing like it. And the use of kids in this movie is exactly how I predicted it to be: cliche, poorly done excuse for extracting sympathy from the audience, without the balls to actually do anything with them (like Gojira). They just present another missed opportunity.

[cloverfan98]

My problem with the kids in this film isn't that they did not die, but rather they were all rather lifeless. I mean Sam was almost mute the whole time, and the girl on the beach would probably have been screaming for her life in reality. Not a deal breaker but still I wish they had some more emotional range or larger roles to play. Seeing how Spielberg films where a big influence of Edwards I wish he had taken a page out of Jurassic Park and how those kids were handled. They were right in the thick of the action but they never felt lifeless nor did they feel like the annoying clichéd "smart" kids but like real children. Sam and Elle should have both been trapped in the city when Godzilla and the MUTOs hit and Ford should have reached them during the final battle.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

For all the people complaining about how the kids weren't killed...

Tell me, how would that have gone over with audiences?

....Gojira didn't show kids die, it was implied.

The most this movie does is imply Fiddo died.

Uh-huh. Would you mind answering the question straight-forwardly, please?

I'm sure the GA could handle some implied scenes. Not showing the family with the little girl get to safety get to safety could be a start.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

I'm sure the GA could handle some implied scenes.

Alright, what makes you have that opinion?

It's actually not something new that they've faced before. There is one example right now that's popping to mind that was a big hit where there were actual children slaughtered in a film that was PG-13: Revenge of the Sith. Anakin straight up slaughters a group of kids. If they can show that and still make $800, then I'm sure some implied scenes like a geiger counter scan would be fine.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Hmm... would Star Wars being such a big deal (particularly that being the last of the original six) have something to do with that massive number?

That's true, but (and I should've added this in there) I'm also going to add that I don't even recall any controversy of that scene either. It seems the GA just didn't care about it.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

That's a really good point. I honestly didn't think that they could get away with being as dark as I'd have liked, but maybe they could've.

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Hmm... would Star Wars being such a big deal (particularly that being the last of the original six) have something to do with that massive number?

That's true, but (and I should've added this in there) I'm also going to add that I don't even recall any controversy of that scene either. It seems the GA just didn't care about it.

I do remember a LOT of news chatter (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc) talking about how the film could be really dark and inappropriate for children, so that was a thing about Star Wars III.

Was there anyone complaining about it that wasn't from the news, just an average joe? It just seems that with this instance, with average people that didn't seem to complain about it, that a more implied scene wouldn't really matter as much.