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Forums - Movies & TV - Godzilla '14: Good, But Sadly Disappointing (Spoilers, Duh)

Sorry for the length, in advance. Just really passionate about me some Godzilla.

Let me start this review by saying that I have been a big Godzilla fan ever since I was a kid and watched my first Godzilla movie. It's been so long, I really don't even remember which movie it was. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably Mothra Vs Godzilla, followed shortly by Son of Godzilla. It wasn't till I was older that I realized that I had grown up on all the old Showa films and had completely missed out on the Hessei era, though I have been playing catch up recently with all the Godzilla films. Now, that my Godzilla background is addressed, let's move on to the 2014 film...

I watched Godzilla opening day and decided to let it all sink in for a day or so before I wrote this review. And as the title says, I found this movie to be sadly disappointing. I won't discredit the positive points of the film because of my disappointment, but it does take away from my complete enjoyment of the film. And it's not because I put my expectations very high. In fact, I was willing overlook most negatives of this film, as long as the acting was halfway decent and, most importantly, it delivered on what it promised, Godzilla action. Unfortunately, while the acting was more than halfway decent (great in some instances), the Godzilla action was barely there. This has to be least I have EVER seen Godzilla in any GODZILLA movie I have ever watched. Which is a real shame, considering this was America's chance to prove they could pull off a real Godzilla movie, as well as bring in new fans to the franchise. But, I think it failed. Not completely, mind you, but it definitely fell short. Let me break it down into what I liked and what I didn't.

 

Postives:

Acting – All of the acting ranged from good to superb. As many have said before, Cranston puts in a great performance. And don't let other reviewers tell you that Aaron Taylor-Johson was “wooden.” I found his acting to be pretty good, especially in scenes with Cranston. There were maybe 1 or 2 lines that did come off a little flat in their delivery, and I wish he had been given a few more scenes to convey that he was truly grieving the loss of his father (one who he had openly mocked most of his life for being a crackpot), but overall, he was good. It's true that Elizabeth Olson was given very little to do, but she did fine with what she had. And while Ken Watanabe was mostly reduced to giving exposition, he did a great job of it.

Story – I really liked the story. Especially, how they tied it to the 1954 original, as well as having little easter eggs hidden here and there that reference other monsters in the previous movies. The movie really makes you feel while following the Brodys' story. I have heard some complain about them dropping character develop after the MUTOs show up, but I don't mind that. There doesn't really need to be constant character arcs and changes in a Godzilla/monster/disaster movie. Like I said before, though, I do feel Aaron's character should have had a few scenes where he actually deals with his father's death, instead of it being dropped a minute or so later.

Godzilla's Portrayal – Godzilla actually looks like Godzilla, with a few updates to his image. I'm not too big on his feet, but that's really the worse thing about the design, and it's not really a big deal. Godzilla is actually strong enough to resist gunfire and missiles thrown at him, as well as an atomic bomb. I love that he is huge in the movie, and not actually downsized, like in the '98 Godzilla (compared to the Toho version, at the time.) And best of all, ATOMIC BREATH!! And he uses it twice, in all its glory. I also love how he charges it up, starting with his tail spikes, then it moves up his back, finally blasting out of his mouth when it reaches his head.

CGI – The CG was incredible. Much better than what I thought it would be, looking at some scenes in the trailer. And a lot more believable than many movies out, now. The problem most movies make is that they want you to see their character that they spent hours making, instead of worrying about blending them into the background as seamlessly as possible, making them stand out. Sure, the audience won't be able to see every pixel that made them up, but at least they won't look embarrassingly fake. This movie doesn't commit that sin.

But, let's move onto the sins they do commit...

 

Negatives:

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.



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I always had the feeling Godzilla would be just an innocent bystander.



Tsubasa Ozora

Keiner kann ihn bremsen, keiner macht ihm was vor. Immer der richtige Schuss, immer zur richtigen Zeit. Superfussball, Fairer Fussball. Er ist unser Torschützenkönig und Held.

Didn´t like the movie... Godzilla 1997 was much more enjoyable, and I watched both at the same day.

This new one tries itself to hard to be serious and dramatic.



Aaron Taylor-Johson was terrible - end of story. His character was unbearable for me to be honest. Apart from him, the acting was really very, very good though.

Still, you missed the absolutely most awful thing that constantly made me feel like throwing up. The immortal-ultimate-unbeatable-bad-ass-american-marines-who-save-the-world-as-usual. Like they are some kind of superhuman. It's just disgusting to me at this point. I turn a movie off when I see it, which I obviously couldn't do in a theatre (such a shame). This also goes to the navy and the absurd placement of ships, following Godzilla with just meters of space between it and massive ships. Everything about the navy was so ridiculous it made me annoyed. This has really devastated the fun I had with the movie. Though I have to admit that I loved the slow and long build-up (before the Ultramarines showed up), which is the part of every movie that I enjoy the most - it's when everything is still a mistery and everything is possibile. That's why I like Alien so much - it takes so long to even realize who the main character is ;) So this part was done very, very well. I also agree that the monster fights were too short and they switched to the human part for no real reason.

To me - an absolutely average movie, but surely an above average monster movie. Could have been great, but showed too little of Godzilla and too much ridiculous super-Americans, which I just can't stand.



Wii U is a GCN 2 - I called it months before the release!

My Vita to-buy list: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, TearAway, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, History: Legends of War, FIFA 13, Final Fantasy HD X, X-2, Worms Revolution Extreme, The Amazing Spiderman, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - too many no-gaemz :/

My consoles: PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim 320 GB, PSV 32 GB, Wii, DSi.

Dark_Feanor said:
Didn´t like the movie... Godzilla 1997 was much more enjoyable, and I watched both at the same day.

This new one tries itself to hard to be serious and dramatic.

Guessing you mean the '98 Godzilla.  I would have to disagree there.  The '98 was a decent popcorn film, but as a Godzilla film, it was pretty bad.  The Godzilla in it wasn't Godzilla.  He looked goofy, dies from normal missiles hitting him and didn't have iconic atomic breath.  I think that movie would have been much better as a remake of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.  The monster it that looks like an iguana, and that's what Zilla is supposed to be in the '98 film.  At least in the new film, it is Godzilla, for the most part.  Too bad he's barely in his own film.



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Just saw it: The action that is there is nice, acting is descent but the story and the way the movie is put together made it feel like a B movie sometimes.

When are these directors going to learn that with action of this scale focusing to much on (individual) people doesn't work. Same with any disaster movie. And the Transformer movies. And... wel you get the point.



Scisca said:
Aaron Taylor-Johson was terrible - end of story. His character was unbearable for me to be honest. Apart from him, the acting was really very, very good though.

Still, you missed the absolutely most awful thing that constantly made me feel like throwing up. The immortal-ultimate-unbeatable-bad-ass-american-marines-who-save-the-world-as-usual. Like they are some kind of superhuman. It's just disgusting to me at this point. I turn a movie off when I see it, which I obviously couldn't do in a theatre (such a shame). This also goes to the navy and the absurd placement of ships, following Godzilla with just meters of space between it and massive ships. Everything about the navy was so ridiculous it made me annoyed. This has really devastated the fun I had with the movie. Though I have to admit that I loved the slow and long build-up (before the Ultramarines showed up), which is the part of every movie that I enjoy the most - it's when everything is still a mistery and everything is possibile. That's why I like Alien so much - it takes so long to even realize who the main character is ;) So this part was done very, very well. I also agree that the monster fights were too short and they switched to the human part for no real reason.

To me - an absolutely average movie, but surely an above average monster movie. Could have been great, but showed too little of Godzilla and too much ridiculous super-Americans, which I just can't stand.

ATJ wasn't terrible.  He definitely is no Bryan Cranston, but he doesn't really have to be.  I think they just made a mistake changing the focus from both the Brody men, to only Ford.  It should have remained both. 

And I don't know.  I didn't really get the "immortal-ultimate-unbeatable-bad-ass-american-marines-who-save-the-world-as-usual" feeling you did.  Nothing like other monster/disaster movies.  I do think they focused on them more than they should have, but the only real competent thing they did was disarm a bomb, and several did die during the movie.  Though, I guess Godzilla was lucky Ford decided to destroy the hive, while everyone else left.  Which, again, real imcompetency on the Military's part.  What if Godzilla didn't win?  Now, you'll have dozens of those things to deal with.  LOL.



Scisca said:
Aaron Taylor-Johson was terrible - end of story. His character was unbearable for me to be honest. Apart from him, the acting was really very, very good though.

Still, you missed the absolutely most awful thing that constantly made me feel like throwing up. The immortal-ultimate-unbeatable-bad-ass-american-marines-who-save-the-world-as-usual. Like they are some kind of superhuman. It's just disgusting to me at this point. I turn a movie off when I see it, which I obviously couldn't do in a theatre (such a shame). This also goes to the navy and the absurd placement of ships, following Godzilla with just meters of space between it and massive ships. Everything about the navy was so ridiculous it made me annoyed. This has really devastated the fun I had with the movie. Though I have to admit that I loved the slow and long build-up (before the Ultramarines showed up), which is the part of every movie that I enjoy the most - it's when everything is still a mistery and everything is possibile. That's why I like Alien so much - it takes so long to even realize who the main character is ;) So this part was done very, very well. I also agree that the monster fights were too short and they switched to the human part for no real reason.

To me - an absolutely average movie, but surely an above average monster movie. Could have been great, but showed too little of Godzilla and too much ridiculous super-Americans, which I just can't stand.


Maybe calm down a bit on the America bashing? 



Just read this in the news, the movie is getting a sequel. I don't have a good feeling about this...



As a lifelong G-fan, yeah, it was OKAY at best. It was a better movie overall than the 98 film, but that's not saying a WHOLE lot. "Godzilla" was in the movie for all of what felt like 12-15 minutes, which is ridiculous. They spent WAY too much time trying to focus on/build up the human characters that, really, no one is going to see this movie for. People want to see the title character: "Godzilla". They even gave far more attention/focus to the stupid bug/parasite MUTO things.

Like I said, it wasn't a bad film. Like Pacific Rim, I'm STILL not a fan of American cinematography practices being used/overused, such as shaky cam, extreme close-ups, fast-cutting (ie looking like a music video), all during action/fight scenes. They really need to learn something from the actual Japanese monster movies, or Hong Kong kung fu films. The cinematography in those movies, is how action scenes are supposed to be filmed.....so you can actually SEE the action unfolding. But I digress.

It was an OKAY movie. I didn't come away disappointed, but at the same time, it didn't exceed my already fairly low expectations either. My main problem, AS a lifelong Godzilla fan, is that this movie will no doubt make a lot of money, which will mean Hollywood will want to turn it into a franchise, which on it's own will already suck, because I just get sick of them turning everything into a trilogy/franchise. But what's worse, is that if this is a huge success financially, Toho will most likely just use it as further excuse to not bother making their OWN, ACTUAL Godzilla film (miniatures, suitmation, etc.), anytime soon. And that is what any diehard Godzilla fan wants to see. Me personally? I do not want to see CGI be the future of this monster. Nor do I want it to be "taken over" by Hollywood. It belongs to Toho, it belongs to Japan, and it needs to be made the way they've always been made. The "Suitmation" special effects techniques were invented for daikaiju films, and it does them far greater justice than CGI ever will. Why? Because it just looks better. More organic. And the monsters and monster fights almost ALWAYS look better. Hollywood has come to rely on CGI for everything (and I mean everything, even blood and bullet wounds, which is hilariously awful). That needs to stop.

So yup. I thought it was worth seeing. But I wouldn't give it high praise, myself. I still want Toho to get off their fat asses and eventually make a real Godzilla movie themselves again. They don't have to pump them out every year like they were. I'd be perfectly happy to get a new one every 5-10 years. So long as they're GOOD.