Godzilla 2014 Review - The King is Back!

[Overmind One]

We need to consolidate some of these threads! The Godzilla reviews need to be in the Reviews section, and perhaps your review should be presented along with mine on the Blog. Im going to consolidate the new Stargate Trilogy threads too.

 

[Joelist]

Good thinking.

 

[Joelist]

Now that I have this on HD downloaded, I was able to do two things.

1) Use it to properly tune and color balance my HDTV.

2) Experiment with fast forwarding through a lot of Act Two and see what the effect would be. Basically if I pick the right timeframes to skip the plot is effectively intact and it cures the pacing issue completely. Once I get the exact times I'll post them.

Oh, and when I did this I had myself a killer Kaiju film. Plus it was about 30 minutes shorter.

 

[Overmind One]

Now that I have this on HD downloaded, I was able to do two things.

1) Use it to properly tune and color balance my HDTV.

2) Experiment with fast forwarding through a lot of Act Two and see what the effect would be. Basically if I pick the right timeframes to skip the plot is effectively intact and it cures the pacing issue completely. Once I get the exact times I'll post them.

Oh, and when I did this I had myself a killer Kaiju film. Plus it was about 30 minutes shorter.

I should try that! I did something like that with I Am Legend and also I Robot.

 

[Joelist]

Okay, this isn't perfect. But:

If you're not interested in the MUTO stomping Vegas FF from 57 minutes to 83 minutes. That is roughly where Goji enters SF bay. If we time it out more precisely we could probably come up with specific patches.

 

[Joelist]

I have tried this with FF from 57 minutes in to 83 minutes in. It works pretty well to me - nothing really lost in plot terms and it fixes the pacing nicely.

I have to add another "money shot" to my list upthread. Godzilla's kill of the male MUTO. He basically feigns not seeing it to lure it in then we get a classic Toho Goji tail swipe - result is one dead MUTO!

 

[Bluce Ree]

OMG this movie was bad!

 

[Overmind One]

OMG this movie was bad!

I have to agree....not because of the effects or because of Godzilla, but because of everything else NOT about Godzilla. The story they chose for the movie sucked IMO. They spoiled the movie by focusing on the Brody's instead of the AWESOME new Godzilla. Im excited about the next one but this first one...meh. If Brody shows up in the next one's previews or spoiler leaks, I will just wait till I can download it or catch it another way.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I have to agree....not because of the effects or because of Godzilla, but because of everything else NOT about Godzilla. The story they chose for the movie sucked IMO. They spoiled the movie by focusing on the Brody's instead of the AWESOME new Godzilla. Im excited about the next one but this first one...meh. If Brody shows up in the next one's previews or spoiler leaks, I will just wait till I can download it or catch it another way.

They took too long to actually show Godzilla. The story moved slow and didn't get any better. If the point of this movie was to see a cool monster, well, kudos. The same thing could have been accomplished with a short video feature like these and just get to the point:



However, they decided to pad Godzilla with a shit story that was painful to watch.

 

[Joelist]

Why does every movie have to move at a breakneck pace? Frankly I enjoy having a movie move a bit slower and actually work at setting tone properly. The main flaw with Godzilla 2014 was that the second act was too long. Calling it bad is in my opinion an exaggeration. This is why I made the suggestion about fast forwarding through a good deal of the second act (start at 57 minutes and FF to 83 minutes). It speeds the pacing up some but not excessively and does not compromise the main story in the process.

 

[Overmind One]

Why does every movie have to move at a breakneck pace? Frankly I enjoy having a movie move a bit slower and actually work at setting tone properly. The main flaw with Godzilla 2014 was that the second act was too long. Calling it bad is in my opinion an exaggeration. This is why I made the suggestion about fast forwarding through a good deal of the second act (start at 57 minutes and FF to 83 minutes). It speeds the pacing up some but not excessively and does not compromise the main story in the process.

I said in the very beginning of this thread that I felt that the movie was too much people and not enough Godzilla, and this seems to be the biggest complaint about this movie in every market it has shown in. And we are not talking about "every movie", we are talking about Godzilla, coming back after a long hiatus and hyped to the max in the media. I have watched it twice now and I am still of the same opinion. I would not say this movie is "bad" like Bluce did but, it wasnt great despite how much money it is making. The fact that you have created a fast forward in the second act tells me you wish the pace was quicker too... The MUTOs got the amount of airtime that Godzilla should have had. If only they had found Godzilla under the nuclear facility, had him stomping in Vegas and the Phillipines and such, then bringing in the MUTOS near the end and having Godzilla vanquish them and them go back into the sea?

The whole Brody thing weighed down the film and that story felt like the ads in YouTube videos you have to endure before you can click SKIP AD. Even if you fast forward to edit the film, you are still expressing dissatisfaction with the film that was actually released, no?

 

[Overmind One]

They took too long to actually show Godzilla. The story moved slow and didn't get any better. If the point of this movie was to see a cool monster, well, kudos. The same thing could have been accomplished with a short video feature like these and just get to the point:



However, they decided to pad Godzilla with a shit story that was painful to watch.

Exactly. Imagine that...Godzilla only got an extended cameo in his own reboot film.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I said in the very beginning of this thread that I felt that the movie was too much people and not enough Godzilla, and this seems to be the biggest complaint about this movie in every market it has shown in. And we are not talking about "every movie", we are talking about Godzilla, coming back after a long hiatus and hyped to the max in the media. I have watched it twice now and I am still of the same opinion. I would not say this movie is "bad" like Bluce did but, it wasnt great despite how much money it is making. The fact that you have created a fast forward in the second act tells me you wish the pace was quicker too... The MUTOs got the amount of airtime that Godzilla should have had. If only they had found Godzilla under the nuclear facility, had him stomping in Vegas and the Phillipines and such, then bringing in the MUTOS near the end and having Godzilla vanquish them and them go back into the sea?

The whole Brody thing weighed down the film and that story felt like the ads in YouTube videos you have to endure before you can click SKIP AD. Even if you fast forward to edit the film, you are still expressing dissatisfaction with the film that was actually released, no?

Your sentiments almost parallel mine, though I disliked this movie. It was called "Godzilla" and we got 5 minutes of ACTUAL Godzilla, figuratively speaking.

 

[Overmind One]

Your sentiments almost parallel mine, though I disliked this movie. It was called "Godzilla" and we got 5 minutes of ACTUAL Godzilla, figuratively speaking.

Im certain Joelist will argue that. Fortunately for you, I have the EXACT number of minutes Godzilla was on screen:

http://www.godzilla-movies.com/community/forums/topic/37087

Out of 123 minutes, Godzilla was on screen for 10:28 +/- 3 seconds.

UNACCEPTABLE.

 

[Joelist]

Note that in the same article you pulled the time onscreen from the person who tracked it stated they were fine with it. Me, I could have done with some more (principally the Honolulu engagement should have been shown flat out and not through a TV screen) but I am not as negative about it as you guys are. But that doesn't mean I am a "goji homer" either - remember in the original review I pointed up the pacing problem and the flat human characters. I just appreciate the things done right (the whole look of Godzilla and how it behaved, tone setting, faithfulness to the genre) more. So ON BALANCE I like the film.

 

[Overmind One]

Fine, and that is your opinion. But the majority of the reviews I have gotten from friends and the net say not enough Godzilla and too much human story.

It isnt enough to just have an awesome new Godzilla. You have to USE him. And in this case, they added in the human story and had that taking up the majority of the film. Yes, the majority. There is no way that is good, no matter how you want to spin it. 10:30min is unacceptable to show the star of the film. Even the MUTOs got proper airtime. And they made Godzilla seem dumb in the movie. The MUTOs planned their moves, they worked together, they smashed up stuff and they were entertaining. Godzilla came along and almost like some dumb plant, he "instinctively" wanted to kill the MUTOs and then what? Eat them? The behavior is more worthy of a paramecium and not a ginormous lizard with fire breath.

They can fix this with Godzilla 2, since Max Borenstein is involved now, and Gareth Edwards has heard the negative fan response to the Brodys. They will have Mothra, Ghidorah and Rodan in it so it just cant go wrong IMO. There is a good chance thay the Brody's will be dumped for the second film, but who knows?

 

[Overmind One]

Note that in the same article you pulled the time onscreen from the person who tracked it stated they were fine with it. Me, I could have done with some more (principally the Honolulu engagement should have been shown flat out and not through a TV screen) but I am not as negative about it as you guys are. But that doesn't mean I am a "goji homer" either - remember in the original review I pointed up the pacing problem and the flat human characters. I just appreciate the things done right (the whole look of Godzilla and how it behaved, tone setting, faithfulness to the genre) more. So ON BALANCE I like the film.

I know you DO get it, Joelist. In your opening post, you said this:

"Wrong thing #1: Pacing

Simply put, a big studio film like this needs a quicker, more even pace. Godzilla felt a bit like a small studio film where the pacing in act 2 was too slow. Ironically, Monsters had the exact same issue. This had the side effect of making Godzilla himself feel like he was on even less than he actually was (the 20 minute figure bandied about is off – I timed it and he was for 36 minutes out of the 120 minute film). Really the film could have been about 15 minutes shorter and lost nothing simply by trimming act 2.

Wrong thing #2: Acting outside of Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe

When one actor is flat, I generally lay it on the actor. When more than one is not only flat but the same kind of flat, I look at the director. Cranston and Watanabe did well in their roles. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elisabeth Olsen were both very muted and dull. Again, go back and watch Monsters and you see the same thing with the human characters – a couple standouts and the rest are kind of human paste in the background.

The next one will very much be a response to fan reaction. The kaiju genre is very much fan driven and without them you do not draw the audiences.

 

[Bluce Ree]

Im certain Joelist will argue that. Fortunately for you, I have the EXACT number of minutes Godzilla was on screen:

http://www.godzilla-movies.com/community/forums/topic/37087

Out of 123 minutes, Godzilla was on screen for 10:28 +/- 3 seconds.

UNACCEPTABLE.

WOW! I was off by 5 minutes.

 

[Overmind One]

WOW! I was off by 5 minutes.

No way to play that off...a paltry 10min +/1 30sec? I can barely make a sandwich in that amount of time. . Oh, and the other thing was the DARKNESS. What was up with that? Godzilla was always in the dark except in the last part of the film. Why are people now cheering for him? If they have him smash up stuff, are they going to feel betrayed? They did this same thing with Godzilla in the later kaigu films, and they completely hero-ized Mothra and Gamera. Hell, Gamera was even caring for human children by the time he was done.

 

[Joelist]

The people cheering at the end was understandable - they were in real danger from the MUTOs and Godzilla removed that danger. This aspect of the portrayal of Godzilla was right out of the later Showa era playbook with the difference that Godzilla did not display overtly "human" behavior like he did in some of those films. Gamera I just never could warm up to as his films very quickly became ridiculous.

I actually didn't mind the battles being at night - in fact that helped me use the film to properly tune my HDTV so that images in night scenes were distinct. I should note Pacific Rim did exactly the same thing in having all the fights at night save for a couple of very brief excerpts.