Just watched and like other people said we don't see much of Godzilla I found we saw more of the Mutto and there's something that irritated me is that each time they started to fight they cut until the last fight that we see clearly and when we see it its freaking epic in IMAX 3D!
Jurassic Park doesn't even reveal the T-Rex until a solid hour (maybe hour and a half) in. I think in this day and age people may simply have adapted to the CGI-fest shove-it-in-our-faces style that action blockbusters have utilized throughout the past few years, leading to shorter attention spans. Not showing the monster is part of the slow burn, it builds tension and intensity. Teasing the eventual reveal of the monster keeps us alert.
Okay I saw it and I strongly disagree with everyone saying we don't see much of Godzilla. Are you actually joking? We see heaps of him and definitely enough. I like the slow reveal at the start because it does create a really great tension which boosts the film immensely. I just don't get the whiners, his full body is in it plenty.
I really loved it. Spectacular stuff. I thought it kept growing and growing all the way in its quality and became an absolutely breathtaking monster film towards the 2nd half of the film. The characters are dealt with nicely with a good bit of heart to carry the emotional side of it and saving it from not being a completely flat and one dimensional action/monster epic. The visuals are just stunning at times and the score is memorable.
And Sam, I kind of liked how they cut a few times right when Godzilla was about to take on the other thing. I felt like they were trying to say "Yeah this is not a generic action flick where we just want to see big monsters fighting each other, there's more important elements that will strengthen the story that are going on right now than meaningless battles."
Yeah thinking about it now Nick and Aaron you guys are right...I think it was just me excited to see Godzilla fight. So the director did a good job making it burn inside me till it happens.
Watching Godzilla in IMAX 3D is a wonderful experience. The reveal of Godzilla himself is executed perfectly, and I feel that he gets enough screen time. The third act and the fight are definitely my favourite parts of this epic monster film. It lived up to and surpassed my expectations.
The hate on the film out there because it didn't had enough Godzilla is so stupid and pathetic that makes the whiners of the Battle of Hogwarts in HP8 to look smart.
In 2014, after a good few years of teases, leaked images and rewrites, a new Godzilla film tore its way into theatres. Featuring an all-star cast, with the likes of Bryan Cranston, Ken Wantanabe, Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor Johnson, and a $160 million price tag, expectations were high. Here’s my basic two cents: While it won't satisfy those looking for a full on monster rumble, Gareth Edward's Godzilla is still an obvious work of great passion and commitment. Stellar visuals, a top cast that delivers as you’d expect, and amazing sound work elevate this one from its occasional strays into cliche territory. However, on top of sheer popcorn entertainment value, the film has quite a few brains in its head, hence the title. Of course, longtime fans of the King of Monsters are no strangers to this; the 1954 original, at least in its original Japanese form, very much spoke of the nuclear fears and paranoia rampant in the 1950s, during the height of the Cold War, as well as the still painful memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the big guy’s design owing much to the real bomb victims’ deformities. There was undeniably a strong element of man’s arrogance, a theme this film returns to, and just truly how delusional and powerless we are when our own world begins to fight back. Indeed, that's very much what Frank Darabont (Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption), one of the many writers attached to this project, was talking about a few years, back bringing that animalistic/natural aspect to the fore; none of the ‘big’ three is good or evil in a clean cut sense. They’re just animals trying to survive in a world made by man, and what are those consequences in a world so dependent on the power these beasts consume?
Wantanabe’s character, Dr Serizawa, very much serves as the mouthpiece for this one’s views on our technological arrogance. Throughout, he discusses the sheer folly of our attempts to master nature, and how for all our technological leaps, there are simply things we cannot control, and Nature must inevitable endeavour to restore the balance. Be it our pillaging of the earth awakening the MUTOs creatures, the destruction of the Janjira Power Plant in an eerie call back to Fukushima in an earthquake resulting from an escaped MUTO, or even our futile attempts to stop the three monsters with our weaponry, none of which works. It serves to reinforce just how minute we truly are in this vast and often volatile world as these beasts smash our cities and armies like hyperactive toddlers in a playpen.
Then, this leads into one of the big themes of the film: life, and its various components. The ominous presentation and mood fit the whole ‘deathly’ angle from the original, and how it is an unstoppable force that looms at every turn, no matter how much we progress. We may run and hide and bury ourselves, much like the terrified citizens in the film, but we can’t outrun it, and nothing we put up can stop it. Of course, death is at its most meaningful, and emotional, when its concerns relationships, another aspect of life, regardless of social caste or person. Whether it be the ties of family, like with our lead and his researcher father, or in turn his own wife and child back home, it is through this that we find the strength to take on adverse situations, seek out answers and even make tough decisions.
Our lead faces death many times, whether it be investigating what happened to the Power Plant with his Father, who has very much lost his life and relationship with his son because of it, or joining the troops trying to stop the monsters to get back to his family, and then ultimately, sacrifice himself by taking care of a nuclear weapon to save them. A familiar trope in large budget films for sure, but a relevant and consistent one, unquestionably, and here presented far better than most, thanks to tight direction and solid performances. It’s this tie that we have for other that can give us strength in dark times, and can drive us beyond our normal faculties, and in real life everyday, we see people lay down their lives for loved ones, both their own and those of others. Presented in the context of such a global event, and an incredibly destructive one at that, it reminds us how sometimes, our strength can come from the simplest of things; emotion. Not huge hulking tanks or missiles or guns, but from our immense capacity to bond and nurture and care.
Indeed, parenthood seems to be prominent too, not just in the humans as aforementioned, but even the MUTOs too, showing how, different though we may be, as animals we share certain key abilities. Edwards doesn't just make these two beings out and out evil. Sure, you want to see Godzilla atomic-breath them and then some, but by the end, there's a kind of perverse sympathy for them.
Such moments include the scene where the two MUTOs meet up and warmly nuzzle, and then later, when the female sees her children die in a flood. It's repugnant yet strangely touching and especially amazing given how, despite not having much in the way of facial expression, you get loud and clear how much anger and pain she feels when she sees all her children drown. Yes, she's still a massmurdering machine, but there's this relatable pain that we can share in. It takes a very certain talent to take what should be mindless behemoths of death, and give them common instincts and emotions to not only ground them in a believability, but also remind us of how often, life has many shades of grey, and is not always clearly cut in defined black or white sections. Creatures can feel too.
On the whole, this Godzilla very much paints a picture of life in and around these extraordinary events, and yet is also reflective of real world tragedies and how we as humans react to and process them. There is panic, there is doubt, there is anger and pain, but yet, there’s also powerful ties that drive us, and by the end, the film has a sort of uplifting optimism, not just in Godzilla’s victory, but also in our own ability to hold together and push ourselves to extraordinary feats.
Indeed, as a last element to discuss, perception seems to also factor in the film a lot, be it ours on nature or the monsters, the monsters on the world around them, or even how characters perceive and deal with the situations presented to them. The MUTOs are more than just killer creatures, as is Godzilla in the end, one being animals simply wants to prosper and survive, the other seeking to restore balance in nature and ultimately, save lives. The lead’s father is more than just a broken crackpot, he actually turns out to be right and wants closure in his life. Our supposed dominance on this Earth? A mere illusion. The list could just go on and on.
Godzilla certainly won’t win awards for reinventing the wheel as far as blockbusters go, but it’s certainly one of the smartest and more surprising in a good while, taking a beloved character in a genre often demoted to cheap, juvenile schlock, and then stepping up a few gears, bringing up a number of relevant and universal concepts that can appeal and be understood by any attentive audience member.
Watching Godzilla in IMAX 3D is a wonderful experience. The reveal of Godzilla himself is executed perfectly, and I feel that he gets enough screen time. The third act and the fight are definitely my favourite parts of this epic monster film. It lived up to and surpassed my expectations.
MONARCH: Declassified -Discover explosive new evidence not contained in the film that unravels the massive cover-up to keep Godzilla’s existence a secret.
•Operation: Lucky Dragon
•MONARCH: The M.U.T.O. File
•The Godzilla Revelation
The Legendary Godzilla -Go behind the scenes with the filmmakers and cast for an even deeper look at the larger than life monsters in the film.
It bothers me that they'll want to go full scale in the next film to please the people who complained of the lack of action from the first one. I hope they don't do that, Sony did the same thing with Amazing Spider-man 2 and ruined the foundations of the first film and the chance of doing a better Spider-man than Raimi.
Comments
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
8.5/10
I really loved it. Spectacular stuff. I thought it kept growing and growing all the way in its quality and became an absolutely breathtaking monster film towards the 2nd half of the film. The characters are dealt with nicely with a good bit of heart to carry the emotional side of it and saving it from not being a completely flat and one dimensional action/monster epic. The visuals are just stunning at times and the score is memorable.
And Sam, I kind of liked how they cut a few times right when Godzilla was about to take on the other thing. I felt like they were trying to say "Yeah this is not a generic action flick where we just want to see big monsters fighting each other, there's more important elements that will strengthen the story that are going on right now than meaningless battles."
The way he took them out was epic
Watching Godzilla in IMAX 3D is a wonderful experience. The reveal of Godzilla himself is executed perfectly, and I feel that he gets enough screen time. The third act and the fight are definitely my favourite parts of this epic monster film. It lived up to and surpassed my expectations.
Lord Stafford.
YAY
\:D/
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
MONARCH: Declassified - Discover explosive new evidence not contained in the film that unravels the massive cover-up to keep Godzilla’s existence a secret.
• Operation: Lucky Dragon
• MONARCH: The M.U.T.O. File
• The Godzilla Revelation
The Legendary Godzilla - Go behind the scenes with the filmmakers and cast for an even deeper look at the larger than life monsters in the film.
• Godzilla: Force of Nature
• A Whole New Level of Destruction
• Into the Void: The H.A.L.O. Jump
• Ancient Enemy: The M.U.T.O.s
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.