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thismeintiel on 18 May 2014
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curl-6 said:
thismeintiel said:

Godzilla's Portrayal: Yep, this is in negative, too. While they get quite a few things right about Godzilla, they get a few things wrong, too. While I said he is strong in this one, even surviving a atomic blast, at the same time he is weak. While the missiles fired at Godzilla don't actually penetrate his skin, the force does blast him back quite a bit. If you remember the old Godzilla, it would take a specialized missile/bomb to have that affect. Here it's normal cruise missiles, ones that would blow up against old Godzilla, which he would then treat like a fly just bit him. Also, while Godzilla is more than capable when fighting one MUTO, put two against him and he gets his ass stomped. Sure, monsters have teamed up and gotten one over Godzilla in the past, but he has always been able to recover and then take them down. Here, it takes the female getting distracted so that Godzilla can take them on one at a time, for him to win. He also faints twice while fighting them, the last time taking a whole night to recover. Why a creature would be able to survive an atomic bomb, yet faint from fighting two monsters for a few minutes, is beyond me.

Godzilla? Oh yea, he's our title monster. I think – Speaking of minutes, let's talk about the very few that Godzilla is in this movie. I think if you tallied up how long Godzilla is onscreen, it MAY add up to 20 mins. If you add up the battle time, it MAY equal 10-15 mins. In other words, Godzilla is barely in Godzilla. Now, I have heard some criticize that Godzilla only shows up at about the hour mark. Personally, I don't mind a slow buildup. In fact, for the first movie in a new franchise, I prefer it. But, and that's a huge BUT, YOU HAVE TO DELIVER ON THE BUILD UP. Unfortunately, this is where the movie ultimately fails.

      Time and time again (3 times, to be exact) the movie builds up the beginnings of great battles. Both monsters appear. Godzilla looks pissed and flares his nostrils. The MUTO roars. Then Godzilla lets out his iconic roar (love the movies take on it, by the way), only to cut to see what the humans are up to. Now, the first time it does this, I didn't mind so much. It just seems like a little poke at the audience, and we also see Ford Brody's son watching them on TV, stating “Look mommy, dinosaurs.” But the second and third time, it was more like a Fuck You! I literally said “Bullshit!” You could feel the disappointment in the audience and a guy a few seats down from me kept looking at his phone every time they did this. Garreth Edwards made a HUGE mistake here. Of course, it wouldn't have been so bad if the last battle was a huge free for all, one that lasted 25 mins. Instead, the final battle may last about 5-10 mins and is constantly cut with more human footage. It's sad when you can say with certainty that the '98 Godzilla did a better job of making Godzilla it's star.

In conclusion, the movie was still a good movie, but a disappointing Godzilla movie. As my wife put it, the movie seemed to be focused 80% on humans, 15% on the MUTOs, and a measely 5% on Godzilla, the movie's supposed star. It almost screams to me that this movie was originally supposed to be a monster movie, starring the MUTOs, only to have Godzilla shoehorned into the script shortly before filming. Really it just saddens me, being a big Godzilla fan, seeing that if Garreth had only teased the audience once, instead of 3 times, this movie would have been perfect. Or near it. As is, I would give it a 7.5. I also wouldn't be surprised that this movie has a great opening weekend, but drops sharply in the coming weeks, mainly for not delivering what it promises.

I'd have to disagree with just about all of this.

- The final battle did NOT last 5-10 minutes, more like 15-20 all up. 

- 5% of a two hour movie would be 6 minutes of Godzilla. There is much more than that.

- Godzilla has been knocked out in action before; in Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla...

- Godzilla needing a distraction/assistance to get the upper hand has happened before too; in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla Final Wars...

IF you include the human scenes, yea, it's probably 15-20 mins.  You just count the time Godzilla is on screen, then no, it probably falls somewhere around 5-10 mins. 

She said seemed, not being literal.  It was the impression she was left with, as was I, when we left the theatre.  Sure, he's technically on screen for more than 6 mins, but it doesn't change the fact that he's barely in the flick, nor is he a main focus of it.  More like he just shows up to fix the problem at the very end, not to be a big part of the film throughout after the halfway point.

Yea, he was knocked out.  But, did he just faint twice in one battle?  Nope.  Again, it should have been once near the end, and we should have been able to see those previous fights and get the impression he was getting tired out.  Not just faint because the script said he does.

Not refuting that.  But, it doesn't even seem like a fight, more like a beatdown.  Godzilla barely got any hits in and then he started getting his ass whooped.  At least in other fights, they have a little back and forth before they start whooping his butt.  Of course, this complaint is mainly due the briefness of the fights and/or lack of them.  Had the last one been longer OR we got to see more than one (as well as seeing that he was becoming tired after two prior fights), then I probably wouldn't have had a problem with this.