Velcro Zipper |
Could you just imagine Cranston Oscar-nominated—for Godzilla?
Or even better, G itself nominated for Best Picture?
I'd like to see Godzilla win for Best Actor, but I guess I'll just have to settle for this.
Velcro Zipper |
This movie is sounding better with everything I learn about it...
Here's what is being reported as a description of Godzilla from the side of a box for an action figure for the movie:
"Possibly the last of an ancient species of giant amphibious creatures that evolved at a time when the surface of the Earth was over ten times more radioactive than it is today. Godzilla can convert his radiation stores into a violent, focused exhalation of atomic ray. Rarely seen, but spoken of in ancient Pacific Island myths, "Gojira" was last spotted in 1954, when the U.S. Navy encountered and attempted to kill him with an atomic blast in the Pacific Ocean. Since then, the giant creature has been living in the deep ocean – until a threat to his survival from an ancient foe forces him to reappear."
That last sentence gives me goosebumps.
Spiral_Ninja |
This movie is sounding better with everything I learn about it...
Here's what is being reported as a description of Godzilla from the side of a box for an action figure for the movie:
"Possibly the last of an ancient species of giant amphibious creatures that evolved at a time when the surface of the Earth was over ten times more radioactive than it is today. Godzilla can convert his radiation stores into a violent, focused exhalation of atomic ray. Rarely seen, but spoken of in ancient Pacific Island myths, "Gojira" was last spotted in 1954, when the U.S. Navy encountered and attempted to kill him with an atomic blast in the Pacific Ocean. Since then, the giant creature has been living in the deep ocean – until a threat to his survival from an ancient foe forces him to reappear."
That last sentence gives me goosebumps.
Oooo, nice if true.
Nice nod to the original, without mentioning the 'Oxygen Destroyer'.
Also (just to be safe)
Dal Selpher |
I'm looking forward to this over Memorial Day weekend next week. I've never seen a movie that Ken Watanabe was in that I didn't really, really enjoy. When I realized he was in this, I felt pretty confident that it'd be a good film.
Not saying that he's the reason why, but just that he's been, in my experience, an indicator of goodness. =P
Kvantum |
Saw it last night on a Cinemark XD screen (IMAX Lite, essentially). It suffers from the same problems as any kaiju film - irritating humans, not enough monster fights.
Other than that, though (and maybe not enough Bryan Cranston), the movie just flat out rules. Go see it on the biggest, loudest screen you can find. Twice. Seriously, don't worry or wonder if you should maybe wait. Go ASAP, to the biggest, loudest screen you can find.
(Oh, and there's no stinger, so no need to sit through the credits if you don't want to.)
The Purity of Violence |
Liked the people, liked the build up, liked the pay off. Tinkergoth said it better than me. Everything I hoped for.
the movie just flat out rules. Go see it on the biggest, loudest screen you can find. Twice. Seriously, don't worry or wonder if you should maybe wait. Go ASAP, to the biggest, loudest screen you can find.
Repeated for truth.
Velcro Zipper |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Saw this on IMAX last night. If you're a lifelong fan, you owe it to the King of Monsters to see this on the biggest screen possible. Seeing him fully revealed, especially when he fights the Mutos, is awe-inspiring.
For anyone who's actually on the fence about seeing this, Godzilla radiates awesome. Gareth Edwards does a terrific job building up to the main event and I really hope this film makes the money it needs for him to do his own version of Destroy All Monsters. Godzilla totally sets up the possibility for there being more kaiju lurking across the planet, and I think Toho will be happy enough with this movie to let Legendary use more of their beasts.
Some notes about Godzilla:
If you pay attention to the opening credits, the names of the cast and crew are surrounded by text leaking clues about Godzilla. The text is quickly covered up by white lines like it's being redacted so you have to read fast to make it out. It's a really cool effect and a neat addition to the credits.
The Mutos are a great addition to the list of monsters in Godzilla's world, and their special attack is freakin' sweet. They reminded me of giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
For the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet, all I'll say here is the audience I was with freaked out when they saw the blue light in the fog.
Bryan Cranston said in an interview that the poster in his son's bedroom at the beginning of the film showing two giant monsters fighting one another has the Kanji for "Let them fight!" written on it. By now most people will know those are the words Ken Watanbe says as Godzilla and the Mutos are converging on San Francisco. I don't read Japanese, but knowing that made the scene a little more awesome to me. It's like this kid's childhood fantasy of towering monsters beating the snot out of each other was becoming reality, and I can't approve of this enough.
Now I really want a T-shirt showing Godzilla and the Mutos with the words "Let them fight!" written between them done in the style of a Showa era Godzilla movie poster. This needs to be a thing.
Greylurker |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I loved it. Little too much human focus but it worked well to give you a real feel of what it would be like caught between giant monsters. Some really nice scenes where you get a view of the things from ground level and just realize who massive they are.
have to say when I saw that blue light starting up in the fog it brought a huge grin to my face as I said "Here we Go"
Did not disappoint in the slightest, really feel I got my $12 worth
Spiral_Ninja |
I loved it. Little too much human focus but it worked well to give you a real feel of what it would be like caught between giant monsters. Some really nice scenes where you get a view of the things from ground level and just realize who massive they are.
have to say when I saw that blue light starting up in the fog it brought a huge grin to my face as I said "Here we Go"
Did not disappoint in the slightest, really feel I got my $12 worth
I loved it too.
And as for the blue light in the fog...that was also my 'I'm seeing this only because you've been obsessing on it' hubby's reaction. When my daughter said 'what?' his response: "He's charging up!"
I also liked that Serizawa always said "Gojiria" while the American military said "Godzilla".
1: Ford's "Heroes Exemption". DO NOT go anywhere with that man. You WILL die!
2: Um, so you've got a dormant critter that lives on radiation - where do you stash it? Right in the middle of a radioactive storehouse! And then you don't notice it waking up and digging it's way out of your supposedly secure storehouse.
3: I was looking forward to some of the scenes from the trailers: the pep talk before the jump and the trashed Statue of Liberty. Sigh... Never trust trailers.
But hey, it's a Godzilla movie, and it was true to the spirit of the original. Even the design of the big guy reminded me of that.
And yes, I have the original (dubbed) Japanese version and the original Raymond Burr American version. :)
MMCJawa |
I have more mixed feelings about this movie. Didn't hate it, but can't say I loved it. I admit I probably had too high an expectation for the movie:
The Good :
Godzilla looked amazing...no attempt to Americanize him or make him more "realistic". He's a faithful adaptation of the Japanese monster we all know and love
Mutos made good monsters/opponents. The female reminded me a bit of cloverfield, I think because of the long stilt-like legs, but otherwise no complaints here.
Fights were pretty amazing, especially Godzilla's "finishing moves"
The Bad
A lot of the human plot is kind of bad. Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olson really are not given much to do, especially the latter. I am not sure if there were last minute rewrites, or concerns about making the storyline too complicated, but the plot really would have been better served if they had made Cranston and the other male leads completely unrelated and given them non-overlapping plotlines. It would have also required less disbelief that Cranston's son magically shows up everywhere the monsters do, or miraculously survives so many things.
Also, given that Olson's character was a nurse and stuck in a Kaiju over run territory, they could have actually done something with that.
I kept getting aggravated that everytime I thought we were going to get a monster fight...just as the fight started, they switched to the actors. I get monster cgi was probably expensive, but come on. Stop teasing me
The Ugly
Man, for a movie called Godzilla...there was barely any actual Godzilla. Instead movie was really about the Mutos; Godzilla just shows up to deal with them, with very little fanfare or intro. Honestly I was hoping we would get some solo city wrecking from the big guy, and they would hold off a movie or two before making him all heroic.
Davor |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
As a huge Godzilla fan, this movie was bad. It was so... so bad. I mean, yeah, Godzilla was awesome, but he was barely onscreen, had no motivation, and he gets touted as the savior of humanity when, for all ANYONE knew, he was another monster that just wrecked the place.
The parts with Godzilla in them were awesome, but they kept getting cut over and OVER again to cut back to a bunch of bland people we didn't care about. The first 30 minutes of the movie were great, and the first reveal of Godzilla is fantastic, but the rest is so boring that the "payout" at the end does little more than whet your appetite. This movie is one giant tease that leaves you feeling unfulfilled.
Tinkergoth |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As a huge Godzilla fan, this movie was bad. It was so... so bad. I mean, yeah, Godzilla was awesome, but he was barely onscreen, had no motivation, and he gets touted as the savior of humanity when, for all ANYONE knew, he was another monster that just wrecked the place.
The parts with Godzilla in them were awesome, but they kept getting cut over and OVER again to cut back to a bunch of bland people we didn't care about. The first 30 minutes of the movie were great, and the first reveal of Godzilla is fantastic, but the rest is so boring that the "payout" at the end does little more than whet your appetite. This movie is one giant tease that leaves you feeling unfulfilled.
Ah well. To each their own. As a huge Godzilla fan myself, it was everything I wanted it to be. I liked the use of Godzilla as the savior/anti-hero, and thought it was pretty well clear that he was there to knock f*** out of the other monsters given that
I really enjoyed the slow build up to the big monster fights as well, and thought the teasing was very effective. Reminded me of watching Jaws, where you don't see the shark for a large part of the film, and the build up makes it so much better.
Davor |
But why did he hunt them down? If they were prey, why didn't he eat them? What about them made them prey, if he slept beneath the ocean for seemingly millions of years? Their radioactive nature? We know he was around in the 50s, and was apparently alive and kicking, and he was probably around before that.
I'm not arguing with what the movie SAYS happens, but they don't back it up well enough.
Lord Snow |
As a huge Godzilla fan, this movie was bad. It was so... so bad. I mean, yeah, Godzilla was awesome, but he was barely onscreen, had no motivation, and he gets touted as the savior of humanity when, for all ANYONE knew, he was another monster that just wrecked the place.
The parts with Godzilla in them were awesome, but they kept getting cut over and OVER again to cut back to a bunch of bland people we didn't care about. The first 30 minutes of the movie were great, and the first reveal of Godzilla is fantastic, but the rest is so boring that the "payout" at the end does little more than whet your appetite. This movie is one giant tease that leaves you feeling unfulfilled.
I heard too many people saying exactly this. Honestly, I'm new to the Kaiju scene and all I care about is watching the giant monster. The details are less important to me. As such, I don't think I'll be watching this on the big screen, especially since Days of Future Past will start showing in less than a week, and that's a movie I'm SURE I'm watching at an IMax.
CapeCodRPGer |
Saw it. Its was good, but WTF is it with movies like this always doing big fights obsured and in the dark?
Last year we got Pacific Rim, most of the fights were at at night or underwater. Then they do pretty much the same thing in Godzilla this year.
Say what you want about the Bay Transformers, but at least many of those fights are done in clear daylight.
Its like they are scared to do fights during the day.
Evil Midnight Lurker |
But why did he hunt them down? If they were prey, why didn't he eat them? What about them made them prey, if he slept beneath the ocean for seemingly millions of years? Their radioactive nature? We know he was around in the 50s, and was apparently alive and kicking, and he was probably around before that.
I'm not arguing with what the movie SAYS happens, but they don't back it up well enough.
The Muto cocoons were found in a Godzilla skeleton.
To me, the implication is obvious, as I said above: Godzilla is the prey of the Muto larvae, and he was trying to kill the adults before they reproduced and their offspring swarmed and ate him.
Spiral_Ninja |
Davor wrote:But why did he hunt them down? If they were prey, why didn't he eat them? What about them made them prey, if he slept beneath the ocean for seemingly millions of years? Their radioactive nature? We know he was around in the 50s, and was apparently alive and kicking, and he was probably around before that.
I'm not arguing with what the movie SAYS happens, but they don't back it up well enough.
The Muto cocoons were found in a Godzilla skeleton.
To me, the implication is obvious, as I said above: Godzilla is the prey of the Muto larvae, and he was trying to kill the adults before they reproduced and their offspring swarmed and ate him.
This is pretty much what Dr Serizawa said: the MUTOs were 'parasites' that fed on Godzilla- and other-type monsters, wiping out most of them.
They were natural enemies and Godzilla had to destroy them to survive.
MMCJawa |
Saw it. Its was good, but WTF is it with movies like this always doing big fights obsured and in the dark?
Last year we got Pacific Rim, most of the fights were at at night or underwater. Then they do pretty much the same thing in Godzilla this year.
Say what you want about the Bay Transformers, but at least many of those fights are done in clear daylight.
Its like they are scared to do fights during the day.
My understanding is that it's cheaper and easier to do giant monster CGI if you have the mosnters show them in a dark environment, versus a sunny day.
Charles Scholz |
Many of the early Japanese Godzilla movies were at night.
Saw it over the weekend. Give 3 1/2 stars.
I wished they would have shown more of the monster fights, even the human vs monster fighting.
Charles Scholz |
Spoiler:I was looking forward to some of the scenes from the trailers: the pep talk before the jump and the trashed Statue of Liberty. Sigh... Never trust trailers.
If anyone who read these spoilers and is still going to see the movie, look out for it and let us know.
Peter Stewart |
6/10
Not terrible, but not remarkable. Glad I saw it on Monday morning for $5 instead of for full price and glad I skimped on the snacks.
I thought Zilla was cool in his scenes, but they were far too few and far between in a two hour movie. I felt like the human plot was boring and contrived, and the lack of any notable female characters in the entire movie got under my skin a bit (and it usually doesn't). Literally every female in the movie is an accessory to a male character, which is pathetic in this day and age. I'm not in favor of forcing female characters into a plot purely to be PC, but there was no reason that at least one major character couldn't have been female.
Cranston barely has a role.
Kain Darkwind |
I thought it was great, although I did notice the utter lack of females. However, as any true Godzilla fan knows, there is always a lame and generally useless human subplot going on in between awesome monster mayhem. And in American Godzilla movies, that human subplot has an older white guy grafted in to help us relate.
I liked the fakeout, they did a great job with Godzilla.
Jaelithe |
Wow.
- both Cranston and Binoche mailed it in, with both chewing scenery and all-too-obviously there for the paycheck
- Godzilla was blocky and his origin kind of insipid
- Watanabe was one-note throughout
- the enemy was tailor-made to allow Godzilla to be the lone force capable of stopping them, which seemed preposterously contrived and unlikely
- the film's plot oddly reminiscent of the Gamera reboot
- the king's breath weapon woefully underpowered
- the younger pair of leads earnest if not wholly convincing
In all ... much better than I feared, but far less impressive than I'd hoped or the reviews led me to believe. Two-and-a-half stars out of four. (At least five and more likely ten other Godzilla films whip this one soundly.) It just ... wasn't that good.
Kobold Catgirl |
I definitely enjoyed that movie. It had a lot of clever and original bits, two very likeable characters, and the action itself was, of course, superb. Not quite Pacific Rim levels, but I'd say they could be put in the same class without confusing the curve, if you understand me.
The camerawork in particular impressed me. It's been a while since I've seen an action movie where the cameraman wasn't either drunk or one-armed.
If we have to do ratings, I'd give it a pretty cheerful 7.9/10. It's no masterpiece, but it's a great, fun movie that was willing to take some real chances.
To me, the implication is obvious, as I said above: Godzilla is the prey of the Muto larvae, and he was trying to kill the adults before they reproduced and their offspring swarmed and ate him.
I think they wanted to leave it somewhat ambiguous. Godzilla seemed at times to possess some manner of sentience—the scientist guy (I'm not good with names) was espousing a kind of spiritual view of the creatures. I think we're supposed to be able to interpret it either way. Either Godzilla is a monster protecting itself, or it is legitimately some sort of custodian of nature.
Kobold Catgirl |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
By the way, the two likeable characters were the Japanese scientist guy and Godzilla. I really like that this movie didn't just make Godzilla "big dumb beast smashing s$+*", they made him a real character who ends up becoming the incidental hero. A great nod to all the "Godzilla Vs. ____" from way back when.
I was always a bit lukewarm about the other humans (though I didn't hate them like some people here did), but Godzilla? He's a giant kobold. I can identify with that.
From what I heard, they were pretty much forced into doing the 3D conversion by the studio, but they filmed it with only 2D in mind. I chose 2D for that reason.
This. I wish someone had told me before I coughed up the dough—the 3D was just distracting. Made the night scenes pretty hard to watch. XD
Bjørn Røyrvik |
I really liked it. Best film of the year so far, easily beating TAS2 and CA:WS.
It wasn't perfect, but it was excellent.
They criminally underused Watanabe, and Ford was bland in the extreme - they could have done so much more with his character but he was cardboard.
Much though I would have loved to see more devestation and kaiju battle, I think the movie hit home with the most important feature of a Godzilla film: it's about humans trying to cope with something beyond them, not about enjoying the carnage.
Spiral_Ninja |
I really liked it. Best film of the year so far, easily beating TAS2 and CA:WS.
It wasn't perfect, but it was excellent.
They criminally underused Watanabe, and Ford was bland in the extreme - they could have done so much more with his character but he was cardboard.
Much though I would have loved to see more devestation and kaiju battle, I think the movie hit home with the most important feature of a Godzilla film: it's about humans trying to cope with something beyond them, not about enjoying the carnage.
True.
Still, there's noting wrong with just sitting back and enjoying the carnage once in a while.
;)
Charles Scholz |
I don't know why everyone is badmouthing the 98 movie. It was not great, but it was not bad either. It was average, a 3 out of 5.
Don't forget, the Japanese made some clunkers as well.
I have not seen all of the Godzilla movies, but of the ones I have seen, Son of Godzilla is the worst.
Here is a list of all the Godzill movies.
Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962)
Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1964)
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Godzilla Vs. the Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)
Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (1971)
Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Godzilla 1985 (1985)
Godzilla Vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)
Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla (1994)
Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Godzilla (1998)
Godzilla 2000: Millennium (2000)
Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)