Godzilla 2014: How would you have done it?

[Manuelito Canelito]

In all 23 pages of the Monsterverse subforum I haven't seen a topic like this one, but if there is, I ask the mods to close this one.

Well, unto the topic:

Let's say we are back at 2012, and you're at your sofa, minding your own business. Then, someone knocks at your door, and it turns out it's Legendary, who wants you to both write and direct Godzilla 2014 (and let's assume you know how to direct)

Let's say you accepted.

How would have done it?

And no, you don't have to use LegendaryGoji's design, the MUTOs or anything related to our worlds, you have 100% creative liberty to do what you want (apart from, you know, deviating too much from Godzilla in general)

[GodzillaFan1990's]

-No cutaways (I had no issue with Godzilla's screen time just the cutaways).
-Add some levity similar to Logan, Apes Reboot Trilogy and Wonder Woman.
-Have the Hawaii fight at least be three minutes long and then the part where the door shuts at least a minute.
-Joe Brody surviving, dying until the third act or near the end or have Ford die instead (Imagine how emotional it'd be of Joe having to tell his daughter-in-law and grandson about his death).

[eabaker]

It would have acknowledged the '54 film; Godzilla would have been the only monster, and a direct threat to humanity.

[Vakanai]

No cut away, more fighting, better lighting. That's it really.

[eabaker]

(and let's assume you know how to direct)

And how to write. I would think we'd want the screenwriter to be able to write well.

-No cutaways (I had no issue with Godzilla's screen time just the cutaways).
-Add some levity similar to Logan, Apes Reboot Trilogy and Wonder Woman.
-Have the Hawaii fight at least be three minutes long and then the part where the door shuts at least a minute.
-Joe Brody surviving, dying until the third act or near the end or have Ford die instead (Imagine how emotional it'd be of Joe having to tell his daughter-in-law and son about his death).

No cut away, more fighting, better lighting. That's it really.

Oddly, you guys both seem to be assuming that, despite starting from scratch without the 2014 as we know it having ever existed, you would still have arrived at the same story, structure and characters.

[GodzillaFan1990's]

Oddly, you guys both seem to be assuming that, despite starting from scratch without the 2014 as we know it having ever existed, you would still have arrived at the same story, structure and characters.

Yes but in our opinions. It would had been better if it had those.

[Manuelito Canelito]

-No cutaways (I had no issue with Godzilla's screen time just the cutaways).
-Add some levity similar to Logan, Apes Reboot Trilogy and Wonder Woman.
-Have the Hawaii fight at least be three minutes long and then the part where the door shuts at least a minute.
-Joe Brody surviving, dying until the third act or near the end or have Ford die instead (Imagine how emotional it'd be of Joe having to tell his daughter-in-law and son about his death).

No cut away, more fighting, better lighting. That's it really.

Oddly, you guys both seem to be assuming that, despite starting from scratch without the 2014 as we know it having ever existed, you would still have arrived at the same story, structure and characters.

I'm with you here.
I was expecting people saying their own stories, using another Godzilla designs, other villains, things like that.

[Vakanai]

(and let's assume you know how to direct)

And how to write. I would think we'd want the screenwriter to be able to write well.

-No cutaways (I had no issue with Godzilla's screen time just the cutaways).
-Add some levity similar to Logan, Apes Reboot Trilogy and Wonder Woman.
-Have the Hawaii fight at least be three minutes long and then the part where the door shuts at least a minute.
-Joe Brody surviving, dying until the third act or near the end or have Ford die instead (Imagine how emotional it'd be of Joe having to tell his daughter-in-law and son about his death).

No cut away, more fighting, better lighting. That's it really.

Oddly, you guys both seem to be assuming that, despite starting from scratch without the 2014 as we know it having ever existed, you would still have arrived at the same story, structure and characters.

Didn't know I'd have to completely come up with my own story, let me think on it.

[Manuelito Canelito]

In the first post, I said that you didn't have to use Legendary's story, characters or monsters.
Basically, you can do what you want

[eabaker]

EDIT: Nevermind. This isn't an argument worth having.

[Vakanai]

In the first post, I said that you didn't have to use Legendary's story, characters or monsters.
Basically, you can do what you want

Good, then yeah I'll stick to the 2014 script then.
Don't have to is not the same as can't.

[vibramrunner]

I've always felt like the nuclear containment area could've used more exploring. Say for example, they're not caught right away and there's a cat-and-mouse chase through abandoned neighborhoods. When they finally get caught, the audience would have more emotional investment in both characters and you get Cranston more (NEEDED) screen time. You also get more build w/Monarch, where you really the feel that they're this shadow-y government organization.

Next I'd probably cut the part where Brody hops on a train for nuke mission just to shave some time; his inclusion is unnecessary and that whole sequence really isn't necessary either. In fact, just cut Brody out of this movie. Make Elizabeth Olson a single mother who's the daughter of Cranston and have her play Brody's part. Have her be a tough, military female lead. At least she has personality. And child scenes were pure fodder anyway, so that's another positive since you'd have to cut those scenes.

I would also at least reference Odo island, maybe show some pictures or something or have a brief flashback of some of islanders getting crushed in the house ala the '54 movie. That kind of clashes with Godzilla's "hero" narrative, but he's still a destructive force of nature and towards the beginning of the movie he's more ambiguous anyway. That's the only thing I would keep canon with the '54 movie though.

[Jeff-Goldblum1]

I would have reversed expectations.

Make Godzilla a small monster, like 3 feet high.

And have the human characters appear like giant monsters from Godzilla's perspective.

Just play around with the genre.

[PitchBlackProgress]

I would have added Ultraman, King Kong, Gamera, Batman, Superman, Pacific Rim Jaegers, and the Avengers into the mix. I would completely omit any human narritive and the entire film (from beginning to end) would be one giant continuous fight amongst all the characters until the end where they’d all team up to fight Bagan.

Can’t get any better than that folks.

[KillCrites]

Honestly just give it an improved human story and you got yourself a god tier Godzilla movie right there.

[TheSecondComing]

I would've found a different lead actor. There's a good father and son story somewhat buried in Borenstein's script and with a few tweaks and an ounce or two of charisma, you'd have something more memorable.

Also I'd give a little more importance to the Sally Hawkins character, who I don't recall being referred to by name a single time.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

As much as I do not like G14 I'll openly admit that there is a better film in there somewhere. I think it would work a lot better as an 90 or 105 minute film as opposed to the over 2 hour runtime of the theatrical cut. The 2nd act can be trimmed down quite a bit and probably not effect the story all that much.

Added in 23 minutes 7 seconds:
Also why the hell did they cut the HALO jump speech? It was such a big part of the advertising campaign it still boggles the mind why it was cut. Most would probably say runtime but there's much more that could be cut for that. The whole Ford and Japanese kid subplot in particular could have been completely removed. It served no real purpose to the story as far as I remember. I also would have introduced Ford's military unit in the beginning and have them be the ones who accompanied Ford into San Francisco. That way Ford would have other people to play off of in the 2nd half. That and add sound effects and falling debris as they made their way to the nest. Maybe even have some of the Muto babies hatch and kill some of his squad. Give Ford a more personal and urgent reason to destroy the nest while also adding some action for the human characters in those scenes.

[Manuelito Canelito]

Well,I guess I can share my idea.

As a fan of H.P Lovecraft work, I would have given the movie a lovecraftnian, almost cosmic horror theme.
Godzilla would truly be an uncaring "god", who even if he knows that we are here, he doesn't care because, Why would he?
He would be showing destroying American aircraft carriers in search of radiation, burning the US army when he's finally annoyed with them attacking him, or even stomping on people by accident.
This would definitely show how Godzilla is not a hero coming to save us, but simply a giant monster fighting to protect his position at the top

[eabaker]

Well,I guess I can share my idea.

As a fan of H.P Lovecraft work, I would have given the movie a lovecraftnian, almost cosmic horror theme.
Godzilla would truly be an uncaring "god", who even if he knows that we are here, he doesn't care because, Why would he?
He would be showing destroying American aircraft carriers in search of radiation, burning the US army when he's finally annoyed with them attacking him, or even stomping on people by accident.
This would definitely show how Godzilla is not a hero coming to save us, but simply a giant monster fighting to protect his position at the top

I would really like to see that kind of take on Godzilla as a one-off movie.

[Maritonic]

I would have reversed expectations.

Make Godzilla a small monster, like 3 feet high.

And have the human characters appear like giant monsters from Godzilla's perspective.

Just play around with the genre.

What in the actual fuck.