Godzilla (2014)

Now that's fucking Godzilla.

Yay, Godzilla. BWRAAAAAAH. BWRAAAAH.

This should be good

might have to take myself to the imax cinema for that one

You know, after seeing this I really hope that if Toho starts making Godzilla movies again they stick with a man in a costume and model sets.

CGI offers ultimate freedom to do whatever, and there's some really (really) cool stuff in this film that just couldn't be done with a man in a costume, which is great. I'm really happy this move got made. The total control that CGI gives a director to make Godzilla move perfectly and hide him perfectly and all kinds of cool shit makes for some amazing scenes.

But there's something about seeing, for example, a 7 foot wide puppet of a pteradactyl crashing into a 6 foot model of a skyscraper that tickles me in a way CGI just can't. Because it's real. You can imagine yourself on that set kicking over little buildings and having the time of your life.

When CGI buildings fall over there's no excitement.

But still, good film. I'd definitely rank it among the better Godzilla films that I've seen. And as I said, the CGI does allow Godzilla to actually move properly. To bend his neck, to snarl, to flare his nostrils, to move his tail as dramatically as possible. It gives a whole new dimesion to simple things like the roar or the atomic breath because there's total control over the framing and subtle details. It's like seeing it all for the first time.

well, it wasn't bad, Godzilla looked pretty awesome indeed. and hell, I loved it when he used his fire breath (or whatever that's supposed to be).

but it definitely did have me yawning at more than one occasion, I felt like the pacing just wasn't completely right.

I saw this with my Dad, we both kinda enjoyed it but it was pretty mindless - not that I expected anything else. I didn't really like the focus on bomb squad guy (who the American army apparently trained to do literally everything) as opposed to Godzilla but I guess it might have cheapened it if there was more monster screentime. I also didn't like how

Spoiler:

I liked it a lot. I'm a sucker for monster films, and this got so much right I can forgive it for getting the odd thing wrong. Quick question...

Spoiler:

The movie had way too much military shit and Aaron Taylor Johnson's wooden acting and not enough Godzilla to be good. Bryan Cranston was great, but alas.

But apparantly all Godzilla have terrible main chartacters and little Godzilla, so I guess that makes it okay.

Yeah, this follows the same formula as most Godzilla movies. The biggest difference is that the human story was very normal, whereas most of the time the bits when Godzilla's not on screen are full of aliens or time travel or robots or lost civilations or psychics or some other crazy shit.

That sounds more interesting than Aaron Taylor Johnson.

This movie was good but it would have been great if Bryan Cranston was the focus human character.

I heard it was exactly like an older Godzilla?

Pretty much, yes.

Baal wrote:

This movie was good but it would have been great if Bryan Cranston was the focus human character.

He probably shouldn't have been in the movie at all. Ford could have been in Japan for any number of reasons and Cranston's character doesn't really do or say anything crucial. He just provides some background on Ford's life that's never important. I think he was too antagonistic to stick around too, because he was basically a conspiracy guy. Once the conspiracy is out in the open, which happens quite early on, there's nothing for him to do. He would just be angry at the monsters because of his wife, and by the time you're supposed to be on Godzilla's side the audience would probably hate him.

Look at this, from all the way back in 1975. If this was CGI, the rocket wouldn't just flop off Mechagodzilla's hand in a way that suggests it was broken. But the explosion afterwards wouldn't be anywhere near as cool either.

I had so much fun seeing this when it came out earlier this year and had a few complaints with it.
For one, Cranston and how much his character's role was exaggerated in the marketing.
Then again, a lead actor in a hit TV show being in your movie?
Milk the fuck out of that.
Then there was the lighting in some scenes where it was too dark in some parts and the DVD releases didn't help that either.
But I loved that it was like the classic Godzilla and it did feel like Heisei Gamera at some points with Godzilla's role though.

I did hear bad things about the home release being really dark and the final scene being impossible to see. But I checked my Bluray on my PS3 and it looked perfect. Exacty as I remember it from the cinema.

I have friends that complain about it actually.
Makes me wonder when they'll release a cut that does it justice for home video.

Is it actually that dark that you can't see anything?

Oh yeah, lotta pitch black scenes.
Really, the theater release wasn't that great about it either but you could still see.

Strange. Whatever the issue is I'm happy I don't have it.

Lighting issues.
Pitch black on video, really dark in theaters.
I wish they had some flaming buildings or amber to touch that up.