I can agree with some of your points and disagree with others but if the highlighted is true this honestly pisses me off like you wouldn't believe. I had been assuming Graham got killed off because Ms. Hawkins hadn't wanted to return for future Monsterverse installments; if what you're saying is true, that she cared about the Monsterverse enough that she had wanted to play bigger part in future films and just got arbitrarily axed like that pretty might right out of the gate, that's just outright infuriating.Mordern_Man wrote:This is me being petty, and my bias, but nothing in the movie pissed me off more than what they did to Vivianne Graham. One of my issues with 2014 is how they underused Sally Hawkins, it was clear she was written in last minute, however she was very vocal that she wanted a bigger part in the universe, and since she is an Oscar nominated actress, and just an all around fantastic, it should have been a no brainer to make her one of the faces of the franchise. Nope. She gets killed after 40 minutes, in one of the most blinks or you’ll miss it death scenes I have ever seen. Say what you want about Cranston dying, but his death made sense to the film’s message; it isn’t humanities place to mess with nature, he was trying to understand the MUTOs, which wasn’t his place so he paid the price. Very lovecraftian. However not only did his death make narrative sense, it also happened over two scenes, and he brought up several times later in the movie. Hawkins was there, and then she wasn’t, and it really killed the movie for me. It should have been her who Serizawa gave the notes to, not Mark, and it should have been her saying “this time we join the fight”. Just talk about awful writing, directing, and choices (also Dougherty laughed about her death on the commentary, and made fun of it, but that’s a whole other can of worms).
Maybe there was a pay dispute or contractural obligation that didn't work out, but even if that was the reason she got killed off to do so in such an offhanded manner feels petty and insulting; and if Doughtery had just written her death scene from the get-go without any input from Ms. Hawkins herself, that would have been a huge error on his part.