- Joined
- May 6, 2008
- Messages
- 61,087
- Reaction score
- 22,691
Holy crap, I'm super close to 30k posts.
GODZILLA II: KING OF THE MONSTERS (Final Trailer; First Reactions)
- Thread starter Dragonlordxxxxx
- Start date
- Status
Holy crap, I'm super close to 30k posts.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
- Messages
- 85,043
- Reaction score
- 18,294
Here was my initial review.
Update: May 14, 2014
Dragonlord's Review of GODZILLA (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Gareth Edwards' somber-toned Godzilla is a far superior remake than the much-maligned 1988 version but the dull human characters and lackluster monster brawl hinder its greatness.
Sixteen years ago, director Roland Emmerich remade Godzilla into a big budget summer blockbuster movie with disastrous results. Now, it's director Gareth Edwards turn to usher the King of Monsters into the 21st century. Edwards, who made the 2010 micro-budget Monsters, has a visual eye for demolished cities and razed countryside. Taking a page from Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Edwards keeps the kaijus mostly hidden to enrich the mystery and build up the tension. Problem is Edwards may have overdone it as Godzilla was frustratingly missing for a huge chunk of the time. To overcompensate for the campiness of the 1998 version, Edwards goes too far with the somber tone and neglects to balance it out with a smidgen of playful humor.
The remarkable international cast is mostly squandered on the flatly-written characters. Aaron Johnson stars as Lieutenant Ford Brody (probably a homage to Roy Scheider's character in Jaws), a bomb disarmament expert who is basically our tour guide to the monsters' path of destruction. Brody is so dull and uninteresting, which begs the question - was Taylor Kitsch too busy to take the role? The most facepalm moment of the film was when Brody calls up his nurse wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and instead of urging her to get out of San Francisco with their son because all three kaijus are heading that way or that the military is planning on blowing up the city with a nuke, he tells her to stay put and wait for him to arrive the next day so that they can get out together.
The adorable and talented Elizabeth Olsen is just wasted here, who spends most of her time ducking for cover. Ken Watanabe plays the chief scientist in charge of studying these monsters who frequently has the same facial expression of awe and horror in almost every scene, even when watching Bryan Cranston being interrogated. When Watanabe advises the Admiral to allow the monsters to duke it out, to "let them fight," I wished he would said instead, "let them bang bro." The most compelling character among the bunch is no doubt physicist Joe Brody played by Cranston, whose performance is at times bordering on being hammy.
But the audience didn't come for the human characters, they came to see the Big G battling other gigantic monsters and city-wide destruction on a massive scale. In that criteria, the film delivers. The battles are mostly viewed through the eyes of the human spectators. Measuring up to 350 feet, this Godzilla is the tallest (and fattest) incarnation of the monster to date. Replicating the man in rubber suit design of the classic Toho films, the chaotic good Godzilla is spectacular to behold and is the hero of the film. His opponents are the MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) which looks like a cross between a Pterodactyl and a cockroach. The winged MUTO design is fine but wished the other and much bigger one had a drastically different design.
The special effects are magnificent, but the monster battle scenes are mostly tedious and lack a certain creativity, making this the Chris Nolan of the kaiju movies. Chalk it up to unfortunate circumstances that this film comes out a year after Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim where the action choreography was splendidly inventive and exciting. Not helping is Alexandre Desplat's dreary score during the climactic monster brawl. Godzilla's two finishing moves were kick-ass though and the first time he uses his atomic breath was pretty cool.
Overall, Gareth Edwards' Godzilla is a far superior remake than the much-maligned 1988 version but the dull human characters and uninspiring monster brawl hinder its greatness. Don't see this in 3D, the post conversion is awful with the effects virtually non-existent. There's no post-credit scene.
Rating: 7/10
- Joined
- May 29, 2015
- Messages
- 30,259
- Reaction score
- 1
Damn surprised at 7/10, after reading it I figured I'd see a 5.5 at best, think you were generous with rating after all the things you didn't like. I've noticed tho that you are a lot like me when I watch films, you like almost everything, and have a hard time hating anythingHere was my initial review.
Update: May 14, 2014
Dragonlord's Review of GODZILLA (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Gareth Edwards' somber-toned Godzilla is a far superior remake than the much-maligned 1988 version but the dull human characters and lackluster monster brawl hinder its greatness.
Sixteen years ago, director Roland Emmerich remade Godzilla into a big budget summer blockbuster movie with disastrous results. Now, it's director Gareth Edwards turn to usher the King of Monsters into the 21st century. Edwards, who made the 2010 micro-budget Monsters, has a visual eye for demolished cities and razed countryside. Taking a page from Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Edwards keeps the kaijus mostly hidden to enrich the mystery and build up the tension. Problem is Edwards may have overdone it as Godzilla was frustratingly missing for a huge chunk of the time. To overcompensate for the campiness of the 1998 version, Edwards goes too far with the somber tone and neglects to balance it out with a smidgen of playful humor.
The remarkable international cast is mostly squandered on the flatly-written characters. Aaron Johnson stars as Lieutenant Ford Brody (probably a homage to Roy Scheider's character in Jaws), a bomb disarmament expert who is basically our tour guide to the monsters' path of destruction. Brody is so dull and uninteresting, which begs the question - was Taylor Kitsch too busy to take the role? The most facepalm moment of the film was when Brody calls up his nurse wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and instead of urging her to get out of San Francisco with their son because all three kaijus are heading that way or that the military is planning on blowing up the city with a nuke, he tells her to stay put and wait for him to arrive the next day so that they can get out together.
The adorable and talented Elizabeth Olsen is just wasted here, who spends most of her time ducking for cover. Ken Watanabe plays the chief scientist in charge of studying these monsters who frequently has the same facial expression of awe and horror in almost every scene, even when watching Bryan Cranston being interrogated. When Watanabe advises the Admiral to allow the monsters to duke it out, to "let them fight," I wished he would said instead, "let them bang bro." The most compelling character among the bunch is no doubt physicist Joe Brody played by Cranston, whose performance is at times bordering on being hammy.
But the audience didn't come for the human characters, they came to see the Big G battling other gigantic monsters and city-wide destruction on a massive scale. In that criteria, the film delivers. The battles are mostly viewed through the eyes of the human spectators. Measuring up to 350 feet, this Godzilla is the tallest (and fattest) incarnation of the monster to date. Replicating the man in rubber suit design of the classic Toho films, the chaotic good Godzilla is spectacular to behold and is the hero of the film. His opponents are the MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) which looks like a cross between a Pterodactyl and a cockroach. The winged MUTO design is fine but wished the other and much bigger one had a drastically different design.
The special effects are magnificent, but the monster battle scenes are mostly tedious and lack a certain creativity, making this the Chris Nolan of the kaiju movies. Chalk it up to unfortunate circumstances that this film comes out a year after Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim where the action choreography was splendidly inventive and exciting. Not helping is Alexandre Desplat's dreary score during the climactic monster brawl. Godzilla's two finishing moves were kick-ass though and the first time he uses his atomic breath was pretty cool.
Overall, Gareth Edwards' Godzilla is a far superior remake than the much-maligned 1988 version but the dull human characters and uninspiring monster brawl hinder its greatness. Don't see this in 3D, the post conversion is awful with the effects virtually non-existent. There's no post-credit scene.
Rating: 7/10
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2014
- Messages
- 380
- Reaction score
- 0
Godzilla 2014 was weak in my opinion. I saw Shin Godzilla in the theater the other night, thought it was dope. Godzilla really fucks up Tokyo in that.
A Godzilla v. King Kong film would be cool if they just let them go at it for most of the movie. The Trailers for Edwards' movie were awesome, but the film itself turned out to be boring. Hopefully that's not the case for Skull Island.
A Godzilla v. King Kong film would be cool if they just let them go at it for most of the movie. The Trailers for Edwards' movie were awesome, but the film itself turned out to be boring. Hopefully that's not the case for Skull Island.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
- Messages
- 85,043
- Reaction score
- 18,294
Yeah, you're not the first to comment that my review for Godzilla does not fit with my rating. Despite my numerous complaints, I enjoyed watching it at the cinema. As I said in the 4th paragraph, "the audience didn't come for the human characters, they came to see the Big G battling other gigantic monsters and city-wide destruction on a massive scale. In that criteria, the film delivers."
If I watched this at home, there's a chance I would have rated it one star lower. Deduct another star if you're not a fan of these type of movies.
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2011
- Messages
- 53,945
- Reaction score
- 31,008
I liked Monsters and as a kid I liked Godzilla so I was excited for the first one. Like others I was disappointed and I have basically the same complaints as @Dragonlordxxxxx though I would rate it lower than him. Seems like people are shitting on Edwards here but it looks to me the big studios intentionally went for a no name with potential like him so they could have more creative control. His approach to monster movies in both these films is a great one its just that in Godzilla the central characters are just shit. Would've been better with a science bromance between Cranston and Watanabe
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2005
- Messages
- 12,654
- Reaction score
- 1
yeah, da fuck
he was fighting and sheit then it cuts away to hooman everyday drama
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2011
- Messages
- 10,035
- Reaction score
- 115
Wow what the fuck? The new Godzilla out of Japan is directed by Hideaki Anno, the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
I might have to check it out.
I might have to check it out.
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
- Messages
- 35,147
- Reaction score
- 945
So I have started my godzilla marathon
I'll be using this diagram...I had to resize it so it didn't take up the entire screen.
Wish me luck sherbros
I'll be using this diagram...I had to resize it so it didn't take up the entire screen.
Wish me luck sherbros
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2009
- Messages
- 11,129
- Reaction score
- 2,208
DL was suuuuper generous in his score. I know you didn't ask me, but here's a copy of my review from back then:
Godzilla
Score: 4/10
Genre: Giant Monster/Disaster
Director: Gareth Edwards
Staring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody, Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, and Godzilla as Himself
TL;DR Review: A slow moving film with flat characters whose monster showdown in the final ~20 minutes can't redeem the uninteresting previous 100.
Full Review: Monster movies can generally be broken into two major categories: the disaster type and the beatdown type. The later is straight forward enough in that the primary purpose of the film is to see the spectacle of giant critters beating the crap out of each other and flattening a city in the process. The other style, the disaster movie, instead focuses more on the human element and how the arrival of these monsters impacts the lives of the characters. This new Godzilla film goes the disaster route and focuses almost the entire first 90 minutes on the humans. There is nothing inherently wrong with this storytelling style, but I don't think this movie does a good job executing it.
There's a lot of head-scratching elements with the script (most of which I've put in the spoilers section below), but the single biggest problem is that Taylor-Johnson's performance is so utterly unengaging. I don't know if the director is at fault (he's has never helmed anything remotely this big) or if Taylor-Johnson's acting range really is that abysmal, but either way they failed to get me invested in that character. The rest of the acting is also a mixed bag. The two scientists (Watanabe and Hawkins) didn't have a whole lot to do and neither were particularly memorable. Most of the parts with Olsen and the kid failed to add any drama because I never believed they were in legitimate danger. I liked Cranston's character quite a bit but he unfortunately has limited screen time.
The torpid first 70% of the film could have been saved by an intense climax, but I didn't feel there was much of a payoff. Godzilla finally gets some focus, but his fights felt really plodding and repetitive. They also seemed to lack weight despite the obvious crashing into buildings and the city getting torn apart around him. The effects were decent enough, but the content of the fights themselves were lacking.
Also, I didn't much like the MUTO design. We see the MUTO creature far more than we do Godzilla so it's somewhat odd looks had a more time to bother me. I think my big complaint with it is that it seemed too angular, almost like it started out as design for a machine, and the lack of shared design cues made it seem like the MUTO and Big G weren't even from the same world. Their EMPs also confuse me because such an ability is of limited use against a living being.
Oh, and while it isn't really relevant, I have no idea how people find Olsen to be attractive. She's got a serious case of Droopy Dog face.
Spoilers:
Conclusion: An ambitious reboot of Godzilla that unfortunately had an inexperienced director at the helm, a boring lead actor, and a script that was slow moving and lacking in payoff. I appreciated them sticking closer to Big G's roots (the first film was basically about the horrors of nuclear war) but I found the over all execution to be quite lacking.
Score: 4/10
Genre: Giant Monster/Disaster
Director: Gareth Edwards
Staring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody, Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, and Godzilla as Himself
TL;DR Review: A slow moving film with flat characters whose monster showdown in the final ~20 minutes can't redeem the uninteresting previous 100.
Full Review: Monster movies can generally be broken into two major categories: the disaster type and the beatdown type. The later is straight forward enough in that the primary purpose of the film is to see the spectacle of giant critters beating the crap out of each other and flattening a city in the process. The other style, the disaster movie, instead focuses more on the human element and how the arrival of these monsters impacts the lives of the characters. This new Godzilla film goes the disaster route and focuses almost the entire first 90 minutes on the humans. There is nothing inherently wrong with this storytelling style, but I don't think this movie does a good job executing it.
There's a lot of head-scratching elements with the script (most of which I've put in the spoilers section below), but the single biggest problem is that Taylor-Johnson's performance is so utterly unengaging. I don't know if the director is at fault (he's has never helmed anything remotely this big) or if Taylor-Johnson's acting range really is that abysmal, but either way they failed to get me invested in that character. The rest of the acting is also a mixed bag. The two scientists (Watanabe and Hawkins) didn't have a whole lot to do and neither were particularly memorable. Most of the parts with Olsen and the kid failed to add any drama because I never believed they were in legitimate danger. I liked Cranston's character quite a bit but he unfortunately has limited screen time.
The torpid first 70% of the film could have been saved by an intense climax, but I didn't feel there was much of a payoff. Godzilla finally gets some focus, but his fights felt really plodding and repetitive. They also seemed to lack weight despite the obvious crashing into buildings and the city getting torn apart around him. The effects were decent enough, but the content of the fights themselves were lacking.
Also, I didn't much like the MUTO design. We see the MUTO creature far more than we do Godzilla so it's somewhat odd looks had a more time to bother me. I think my big complaint with it is that it seemed too angular, almost like it started out as design for a machine, and the lack of shared design cues made it seem like the MUTO and Big G weren't even from the same world. Their EMPs also confuse me because such an ability is of limited use against a living being.
Oh, and while it isn't really relevant, I have no idea how people find Olsen to be attractive. She's got a serious case of Droopy Dog face.
Spoilers:
- Why the hell did they kill Cranston's character so early? He was easily the most interesting human in the cast.
- They had fifteen years to set up a facility around the MUTO egg in Japan, and the only defense was some wire nets and some lightning machine thingy? Where were the shape charges or other defensive ordinance? They knew that this thing had huge destructive potential but the containment system was woefully inadequate.
- The two MUTOs supposedly communicated through audio signals. But that doesn't make sense. One of them was in Japan, and the other was in Nevada. Any signal strong enough to cross the ocean would have been picked up by nearly every hydrophone in the Pacific. And then for that signal to cross the hundreds of miles to Nevada it would have been picked up by seismographs. The idea that only crazy-dad Cranston would have been aware of it because of a couple hydrophones he plopped on a buoy is utterly ridiculous.
- Similarly, the female MUTO clawing its way out of The Mount Yucca site would have been felt on seismographs, and the epicenter being at such a sensitive area would have been immediate cause for concern by the government.
- Why could the government only guess at the location of the female MUTO? They would have been able to keep it under constant surveillance with aircraft without problem (that plane doing the HALO drop was fine). I mean there's such a thing as high magnification cameras. It's also possible that that huge creature plodding along could have been tracked by seismographs.
- Why was the nuke on a train? After the train is destroyed by the MUTO a helicopter shows up and transports the surviving nuke the rest of the way. Why didn't they do that in the first place? It would have been quicker and safer.
- Why did the jet fighters keep falling victim to the MUTO's EMP? First off, modern fighters are hardened against EMPs. And secondly, after the first time they started falling from the sky why would the military keep sending them out there? Especially in an urban environment where their crashing would cause tons of damage.
- Sure was convenient that the little boat the nuke gets loaded onto has a GPS nav system that was already set for the open ocean and can survive close range EMP blasts and reboot in seconds. And that it's so fast it can move 20+ miles in five minutes (that's 240mph for those of you who don't want to do the math)
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2012
- Messages
- 16,335
- Reaction score
- 4,680
but king kong is so small compared to godzilla. are they going to bulk up king kong?
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2010
- Messages
- 31,870
- Reaction score
- 11,720
he is gonna be on the horse meat diet.
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
- Messages
- 35,147
- Reaction score
- 945
Legendary Godzilla is massive
Kong is going to need to eat a shit ton of horse meat
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2012
- Messages
- 16,335
- Reaction score
- 4,680
not if USADA has anything to say about it
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
- Messages
- 85,043
- Reaction score
- 18,294
Update: December 14, 2016
Legendary's GODZILLA Sequel Title is GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS
Legendary have just put out a press release which has revealed the official title for their highly anticipated upcoming Godzilla (2014) sequel! According to the release, Godzilla 2 will be titled Godzilla: King of Monsters!
The title is quite fitting considering Legendary plan to introduce a number of iconic Toho monsters for the sequel; Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah being the three previously teased at Legendary's 2014 Comic-Con presentation. Set for a March 22nd, 2019 release date Godzilla: King of Monsters does not currently have a director following Gareth Edwards' departure.
Godzilla: King of Monsters will act as a sequel to both Godzilla (2014) as well as Kong: Skull Island and will act as a prequel to 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong!
Legendary's Godzilla 2 officially titled Godzilla: King of Monsters!
Legendary's GODZILLA Sequel Title is GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS
Legendary have just put out a press release which has revealed the official title for their highly anticipated upcoming Godzilla (2014) sequel! According to the release, Godzilla 2 will be titled Godzilla: King of Monsters!
The title is quite fitting considering Legendary plan to introduce a number of iconic Toho monsters for the sequel; Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah being the three previously teased at Legendary's 2014 Comic-Con presentation. Set for a March 22nd, 2019 release date Godzilla: King of Monsters does not currently have a director following Gareth Edwards' departure.
Godzilla: King of Monsters will act as a sequel to both Godzilla (2014) as well as Kong: Skull Island and will act as a prequel to 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong!
Legendary's Godzilla 2 officially titled Godzilla: King of Monsters!
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2011
- Messages
- 53,945
- Reaction score
- 31,008
Would honestly prefer Godzilla vs King Ghidorah than Godzilla vs King Kong.
Legendary Godzilla is massive
Kong is going to need to eat a shit ton of horse meat
King Ghidorah might have my favorite design of the Toho kaiju
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2006
- Messages
- 24,681
- Reaction score
- 51,092
- Status
