Godzilla - 2014

[Guts]

After all the waiting and all the hype the feeling after watching it was pure....meh. It had all the ingredients for a great Godzilla flick but it was just missing something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I can appreciate that it followed the recipe for the original films but it smacked of being a little too cartoony because of that. The action was dull (Godzilla appears and gets ready to fight....aaaand the camera cuts to something else) Even the final fight was bland and dark (apart from THAT move) Maybe I need to watch it again but upon first viewing it felt a little flat.

This sums up my feelings pretty well too, now that I've had a couple of days to digest the film. Not a big Godzilla or monster movie fan in general anyway, but the film didn't really do that much for me. It was not bad (like the 1998 Godzilla), but it wasn't that great either. All the build-up for Godzilla (who wasn't that much in the movie considering it was called "Godzilla"), didn't really pay off in the end.

[Dogg Thang]

I think if this is comparable to the '98 Godzilla film for you, it's safe to say you weren't the target audience.

[djtickle]

I agree with everything there Ono. Cranston was amazing....just wish he was the lead for the entire film.

Acting wise he was the only one that stood out for me a wasted opportunity here. If anything I feel he would have been better suited in Ken Watanabe's (Dr. Ishiro Serizawa) role.

The build up was far to much for not a lot of action at the end. It lost my and other people's attention showing the monsters clashing but then moving away to something else far to many times. (As mentioned above) This made the buildup just become bland and I stopped caring about what was going on and was just hoping for some action.

It really could have learned something from the action in Pacific Rim.

Captain America still steals it for me as this years blockbuster of the top of my head X-Men, Edge of Tomorrow, Transformers, TMNT and Guardians of the galaxy to go!

[bash]

I was pumped coming out of the cinema but now I've digested it (saw it on Thursday) I have to say the action should've been better and build up shorter. The classic 40's/50's footage intro was great though. The Mutos werent a great addition IMHO, after Pacific Rim they needed to step their game up a bit more. And also Big G's

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breath

, when it built up I was like "oh ****, here it comes, watch out mutha fukkas" and then it was like Peter North on a bad day. Didnt look half as spectacular as it should have been.

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although the way he finished off the female Muto was pretty badass, there wasnt enough of that in the movie though

People have compared this to Jurassic Park and Jaws aka Spielberg better efforts and I certainly got shades of his style in the first 2/3's of the movie. However SS normally has a decent payoff towards the end of his movies and thats where Garth let himself down a little.

I often have this complaint with franchise starters, they tend to hold back a little in order to see if its a hit before rolling out the inevitable sequels. For a film called Godzilla we needed a bit more of the star attraction

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the farking airport buildup was immense with a great roar of Big G and then . . . . CUT! WTF! Instead we get a funny scene where G is getting mash up via a news report

However, whenever we did see him he was pretty farking awesome, you can tell Garth loves him, the amount of love and attention he got from the look, to the roar, to the fighting.

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Interesting towards the end of the film he's basically a hero

Another complaint . . .

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heisenberg is hardly in the fooking film and he was the best actor in it

, Kick Ass was a complete bore, he just had one expression the whole film and his Mrs was pointless, she had nothing to do other than **** herself and wait for her husband. Was I in the only cinema where everyone kept laughing at the way Ra's Al Ghul was saying Gojira? My crowd were cracking up each time.

anyway, a decent effort, cant wait for part 2 which will no doubt kick even bigger ass! We need a 3 headed Muto aka King Ghidora please!

[djtickle]

Defo 3D FTW guys? or is 2D alright?

I saw it in 3D but it didn't seem to add much. Most of the stuff you want to see is filmed far out at a wide angle so the 3D adds nothing to these fight scenes.

[Baseley09]

I'm, not sure where all this Pacific Rim praise is coming from, sure the robot action was great but I remember being embarrassed for the actors at the script they'd been given, and the story outside of the action scenes.

[eastyy]

seems like what they need to do is the script and acting and scale of godzilla and the action of pacific rim

[djtickle]

I'm, not sure where all this Pacific Rim praise is coming from, sure the robot action was great but I remember being embarrassed for the actors at the script they'd been given, and the story outside of the action scenes.

The story in Pacific Rim was awful, but the action was really good. You have to take it for what it is, no brainer action. As Eastyy says mixing them together would be perfect.

[Mr Ono]

I only just realised it was Kick Ass

[bash]

Me personally I wish the Mutos were as interesting as the Kaiju. They were dull as fook tbh. In PR the Kaiju were big, scary and flipping hard as nails and they just got bigger too. In now way am I saying Godzilla should have brought a flipping Ocean Liner to be used as a baseball bat. I dont want that level of sillyness in the Godzilla sequels, just better choreography and harder opponents, hence the King Ghidorah request. I've no doubt they will do this, I liked the serious tone but the acting didnt carry it off, too much staring.

Also the Sky jump section was wicked as well, forgot to mention that.

[Dogg Thang]

I'm, not sure where all this Pacific Rim praise is coming from, sure the robot action was great but I remember being embarrassed for the actors at the script they'd been given, and the story outside of the action scenes.

Yup, that film was a total fail for me and the action in no way made up for the atrocities in the rest of it. Given there is 60 years of varied Godzilla history, I can't imagine how Pacific Rim becomes the benchmark for anything.

For me personally, Godzilla was on a whole other level. Given the inherent difficulty in every Godzilla movie (total separation of humans and the creatures), I thought Edwards took some of the best of the Japanese movies, mixed in some US movie sensibilities and managed to pull the whole thing together in an excellent way.

[Spooky Mulder]

Yup, that film was a total fail for me and the action in no way made up for the atrocities in the rest of it. Given there is 60 years of varied Godzilla history, I can't imagine how Pacific Rim becomes the benchmark for anything.

For me personally, Godzilla was on a whole other level. Given the inherent difficulty in every Godzilla movie (total separation of humans and the creatures), I thought Edwards took some of the best of the Japanese movies, mixed in some US movie sensibilities and managed to pull the whole thing together in an excellent way.

Couldn't agree more, very well said.

[prinnysquad]

I'm a defender of Pacific Rim, as some of you may remember.

Its script and performances are utterly lamentable, and quite tortuous to endure, but I think the central premise is rock solid for a kaiju flick. I certainly think the action is a benchmark for modern Godzilla films to aspire to and aim to surpass. This is for multiple reasons. Firstly, Pacific Rim was the first big budget entirely-CGI kaiju of the modern era to get the scale of battles correct. They were big, they were plentiful, they were clear (in terms of camerawork, not necessarily setting) and they were punctuated throughout the film. They were - as they should be - the highlights of the film. You're not going to get men-in-suit rumbles these days. CGI kaiju battle scenes should have the simple job of being clear to view and powerful in nature. PR succeeded in this, I thought.

Furthermore, the threat level posed by bigger and better baddies kept getting ramped up throughout. This is what you want from kaiju flicks. Big Bassa danger. 1998 Godzilla was a minefield of ropey CGI and ludicrous shifts in creature size and scale. It simply didn't work as a Godzilla film - as a monster movie it wasn't quite as bad, but as a Godzilla it stank. It didn't feel epic at all. 'There's a monster on the loose in Manhattan, and it seems really big in some shots, yet a bit feeble in others'... Nah. Conversely, everything in PR was consistent, in terms of the threat level, the creature size, and the intensity of the engagements. The designs and set pieces actually felt huge. Any silliness to do with ocean liner baseball bats was in keeping with 60s Godzilla and Gamera daftness really.

I can appreciate why it's maligned, but the battle scenes set a benchmark for modern CGI kaiju destruction, as everything was huge, powerful and plentiful. I didn't feel short changed by the dust ups.

[Dogg Thang]

Comparing it with '98 Godzilla is an easy shot. Having better action than that movie is hardly the hallmark of a great movie. It doesn't really count as a Godzilla film.

[prinnysquad]

Kinda limited as to how many other CGI kaiju movies to compare it to though? You may think PR is a low benchmark, but I'd argue that it's a benchmark nevertheless.