Good news then, Director Gareth Edwards has said he wants to do or has teased a "Destroy All Monsters" sequel next.
Yeah, Gozilla vs. Ghidorah (1991) is amazing and one of my favorites too.
Part of my experience for the movie was sitting near a little boy who was really into it. It was pretty funny when he started chanting "Let them fight" after it was said.
And at least you guys didn't get the trailer for Lucy like I did. I think that wins the dumbest trailer for the dumbest movie EVER award. Trailer: "What if humans were able to use 100% of their brains instead of 10%?" Me: "They already do, it's called having a seizure attack." But nope, gives you instant super powers or something...
I was never a Godzilla fan growing up, so I didn't watch the older movies until after I saw Cinemassacre's Godzillathon! I was one of those dumb 90s kids who saw the '98 Godzilla and thought it was the real deal. I admit I'm more into the Godzilla movies of the 90s and 2000s because how much better the suits and the miniatures looked than in the cheesy 60s and 70s movies. To be fair, the effects give the older movies a charming feel.
As for the new movie, enjoyed it too. I actually love how they keep building up to that third act battle, which feels like a rewarding experience to any casual viewer. The only downside to this movie is that at times it felt rushed just to keep it at 2 hours. I wouldn't have a problem with it being 15-30 minutes longer, but that's just me.
For the next one, I want to see my favorite of the Godzilla monsters Mothra actually team up with the big G to take on another new monster. Or better yet, how about instead of Pacific Rim 2, we have Pacific Rim vs. Godzilla? Think about it, both films were produced by WB and Legendary, and a crossover between the two can be possible with a plausible story involved!
My theater had two instances where we erupted into applause...first, when Godzilla started charging up his thermonuclear breath, second when he ripped the female's head off after shooting down her throat.
Megalon would be another kaiju they could literally dig up. Subterranean guardian bug kaiju for a subterranean civilization. Doesn't have to be an ACTIVE civilization, but it could still be ruins with artwork depicting their guardian, but after checking out one particular room, they end up awakening the creature.
I thought the movie was just okay, it had a few elements dragging it down from what it could be. One...all of the actors (minus Cranston who is freaking amazing as always!) and their characters were so boring and so indistinguishable from the other stock archetypes in these types of movies like Emmerich's films, and Pacific Rim. Plus...I was confused as to why Godzilla wanted to just fight the two monsters. I've never seen any of the previous Godzilla movies (minus the 1998) but it seems like Godzilla is actually trying to SAVE humanity...which allows me to make the following statement...GODZILLA IS A BETTER SUPERHERO THAN SUPERMAN!!! (in the context of Man of Steel :))
I agree with Melissa, Baragon would be a welcome addition. I always liked him. Of course they need to include his flame breath which was sadly missing from GMK. Although, I would be more interested to see Godzilla vs. BarUgon from Gamera.
I have this fear that the negative hyperbole will effect this film's ticket sales and Transformers will get 4 more sequels. All because there are too many stupid people in the world. I really hope I'm just being paranoid.
There was so little Godzilla in Godzilla. Probably less than 30 minutes of monster fighting in the whole movie. Every time Godzilla shows up or a monster fight is about to happen, it cuts away. You even see the human characters watching the fights on screens a few times, but the audience doesn't get to watch.
Gotta disagree with a lot of people here and say this movie was not even close to great. ---SPOILERS--- Bryan Cranston, who plays the character with whom we are BY FAR the most emotionally invested with by that point in the movie, gets bumped off 20min into the film just so we can have the son, who has all the acting shops of a 2x4 and his wife, who for some reason we keep cutting back to every 10 to 15min. Also, sorry Lewis, but this movie was a lot of foreplay and no fucking climax. We get a couple of quick glimpses of the monsters fighting early on, about 2sec each, and then when we do get to the final battle it takes up AT MOST, five minutes of screen time because we are so busy following the army guys. Also, WHY did Godzilla wait until AFTER he got his ass kicked to use the atomic fire breath? He forgot he had it? We see no sign he used it in his first fight with M.Muto (which we never saw except 2sec of news footage). I understand why they did it narratively, but it makes ZERO sense in-universe. Once you have him use it in the "climax", you have to ask yourself why he didn't use it earlier. Also, wy does any living creature evolve an EMP, which can only effect electronics (and unshielded ones at that) as a natural defense? Not only does that make zero sense from a biology standpoint, it robs us of a lot of chances to see the military taking shots at it, but even more amazingly, military vehicles are shielded against EMPs (at the very least the M1A1 tank, which we see quite a few of in the movie). Older machinery, like say, a diesel powered boat engine, would also be safe. The navigation electronics would be gone, but the engine? The engine would give zero fucks. Also, the electronics that were fried wouldn't start back up after the source was eliminated.
Before anyone accuses me of injecting reality into a Godzilla movie, keep in mind the movie started it by trying to have a "serious" and "realistic" tone, and giving us a lot of missed opportunities and fridge logic instead.
Also, THANK GOD I did not see this shit in 3D, because the glasses naturally darken everything on screen, and the so-called climax was already so dark you could barely make out anything until Godzilla finally decided to light shit up.
As you said though, the movie was beautifully shot, if a bit on the dark and muted side, but would have benefited immensely by just having Cranston and Watenabe be the main characters and ditch the family drama.
OH! And you know what? While I'm on the subject of Ken Watewnabe, what a complete and utter betreyal (yes, I am calling BETRAYAL on this shit) his character was. For those that don't know, Dr. Serizawa was the name of the scientist who developed the oxygen destroyer in the original "Gojira", who faced a terrible moral quandary over whether to use his invention and risk unleashing another superweapon even worse than the a-bomb onto the world, or keep to himself and let Godzilla run rampage. In the end, after seeing one of the most shamelessly heartwrenching scenes imaginable, he decides to use his invention to destroy Godzilla, and sacrifices his own life so his knowledge can never fall into the wrong hands. He is the only human who EVER detroyed a kaiju without some other alien or monster's help. So OF COURSE in this movie, Dr Serizawa gets to play the stereotypical "man is arrogant for thinking we can resist nature and our weapons are useless" blah blah blah. I understand the world is no longer in the same place it was when the first movie came out, but it baffles me why they would pick, out of all the characters from the franchise's history, the name of the ONE CHARACTER who successfully designed a weapon that could one-hit-kill a kaiju to deliver that meandering "humans are not the top of the food chain" tripe.
Godzilla 2000 is the first godzilla movie I saw. AND IT IS AWESOME. Probably one of the best, in terms of monsters AND human characters. Enjoy that one.
@ZeframMann: You do know that Serizawa is a last name, right? And Dr. Serizawa in the movie even brings up the subject of his late grandfather?
So while he is called "Dr. Serizawa", I do not think he is THE Dr. Serizawa that made the Oxygen Destroyer.
I'm just wondering how much Monarch has been able to cover up all these stuff over the years. ------------ Linkara, did you know that the '98 Godzilla was supposed to come out in '94? I still have my G-Fan Magazine that talks about the abandoned script and what could have been if Toho had let Tristar make their own monster, the Gryphon.
So...maybe we can have Charles Barkley show up for the sequel? Then again its been 20 years...can we name some popular but not immense basketball player we can have fight Godzilla?
HAVE to hand it to Godzila for having both human characters that AREN'T annoying and military characters that aren't overly aggressive or any of those other annoying stereotypes.
Next year Godzilla vs Pacific Rim ( and hover board: Back to the Future 2)!
Saw it this afternoon. This is a Godzilla movie, it is also 16 years late.
On the subject of sequels... Vs Pacific Rim? No thank you. I think the Big G should be his own thing and not cross over with every little thing he might fit into. Now don't get me wrong I *do* like Pacific Rim, I'm just not interested in seeing the two cross over. Ever. I'd be much more interested in his proposed Destroy All Monsters style sequel more than anything.
- Methinks Godzilla didn't use his atomic breath right out of the gate because he wanted to conserve energy. This movie's Godzilla doesn't strike me as the overkill kind of kaiju. He basically acted like a Sentai hero in that regard.
- Sure, the EMP was a bit weird. But seeing how both Godzilla and the MUTOs come from an age where animals basically ate radioactivity, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to think that some of these eldritch lifeforms might have nervous systems or at least organic weapon systems that might be affected by an EMP (even Mothra can shoot lightning).
- Failing that, I like to think the MUTOs were bioweapons sent by aliens (I think they do look quite alien-ish). It ain't Godzilla unless it involves alien invaders at some point.
- As for why the EMP affected military-grade vehicles? Hollywood physics. They still haven't figured out that you can no longer kill yourself with a toaster and a bathtub. Though I give you that that this EMP didn't actually affect anything in the long run.
- It's a different Dr. Serizawa with a different first name. And why would you include the original doctor in a story without the "horrors of WMDs" angle?
Oh, guess I should give my own 2 cents as well, instead of just replying XD
I liked this movie a lot. The monster fight teasing may have been a bit much, but they definitely knew how to get their mileage out of Godzilla. Every single frame with him definitely puts back the "awe" in "awesome". Especially the roar and that first atomic breath charging was just glorious.
Godzilla's new origin (of which there already are at least two I think) is quite good and thankfully not overexplained. Godzilla's basically Captain Cthulhu, what with his age and his not really caring about humanity.
Those MUTOs were quite freakish. Not terribly creative (they are basically the Gloverfield monster mixed with the Bugs from Starship Troopers), but they get the job done and provide Godzilla with typical archetypical enemies ("smaller flying dude" and "bigger land dude") without starting with the more "sillier" (aka "awesome") monster designs like Mothra, Megalon and Gigan.
"- Failing that, I like to think the MUTOs were bioweapons sent by aliens (I think they do look quite alien-ish). It ain't Godzilla unless it involves alien invaders at some point."
See, you just wrote a WAY better movie than they did. If they had thrown in a single line by Watenabe at the end of the movie (y'know, instead of just having him look in amazement at a green-screen) to the effect of, "Why would any living creature have an EMP? It makes no sense, it's almost as if it were designed to attack technology.", then right away with just a single line and unnerved reaction shot by the others, you introduce an "Oh shit..." moment that's the perfect setup for a sequel.
Ken Watanabe basically portrays the Magic Japanese. We really don't know anything about his job, his backstory, his family, or anything. He's basically playing the conscious of the West, the guy who is connected to nature who tells the West what they have forgotten.
He is also the missing link in connecting American Godzilla to his Japanese roots. The mistake the '98 movie made. It will be interesting to see if Japan will be completely eliminated in any sequels.
Wait a sec... why exactly would it be bad for the new Batman to not be the Nolan one? Sure, this probably means that we'll get yet another Batman trilogy, but WB would be insane to try to introduce aliens and actual super powers into the Nolanverse. Neither that continuity nor that Batman are made for this stuff.
@ZeframMann:
Not to mention that their habit of actively hunting for nuclear food sources is handy in bringing down your target's infrastructure. And their parasitic nature is a good way to deal with any lifeform that might be large enough to threaten them even without electricity.
I hope they do bring up this "What does MUTO need with an EMP?" point after examining the MUTO corpses in the sequel (or between the movies). Aliens are pretty much the only way to introduce my favorite Gigan XD
Good news then, Director Gareth Edwards has said he wants to do or has teased a "Destroy All Monsters" sequel next.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Gozilla vs. Ghidorah (1991) is amazing and one of my favorites too.
Part of my experience for the movie was sitting near a little boy who was really into it. It was pretty funny when he started chanting "Let them fight" after it was said.
And at least you guys didn't get the trailer for Lucy like I did. I think that wins the dumbest trailer for the dumbest movie EVER award.
Trailer: "What if humans were able to use 100% of their brains instead of 10%?"
Me: "They already do, it's called having a seizure attack."
But nope, gives you instant super powers or something...
I was never a Godzilla fan growing up, so I didn't watch the older movies until after I saw Cinemassacre's Godzillathon! I was one of those dumb 90s kids who saw the '98 Godzilla and thought it was the real deal. I admit I'm more into the Godzilla movies of the 90s and 2000s because how much better the suits and the miniatures looked than in the cheesy 60s and 70s movies. To be fair, the effects give the older movies a charming feel.
ReplyDeleteAs for the new movie, enjoyed it too. I actually love how they keep building up to that third act battle, which feels like a rewarding experience to any casual viewer. The only downside to this movie is that at times it felt rushed just to keep it at 2 hours. I wouldn't have a problem with it being 15-30 minutes longer, but that's just me.
For the next one, I want to see my favorite of the Godzilla monsters Mothra actually team up with the big G to take on another new monster. Or better yet, how about instead of Pacific Rim 2, we have Pacific Rim vs. Godzilla? Think about it, both films were produced by WB and Legendary, and a crossover between the two can be possible with a plausible story involved!
My theater had two instances where we erupted into applause...first, when Godzilla started charging up his thermonuclear breath, second when he ripped the female's head off after shooting down her throat.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness this was a fun movie!!
Megalon would be another kaiju they could literally dig up. Subterranean guardian bug kaiju for a subterranean civilization. Doesn't have to be an ACTIVE civilization, but it could still be ruins with artwork depicting their guardian, but after checking out one particular room, they end up awakening the creature.
ReplyDeleteI thought the movie was just okay, it had a few elements dragging it down from what it could be. One...all of the actors (minus Cranston who is freaking amazing as always!) and their characters were so boring and so indistinguishable from the other stock archetypes in these types of movies like Emmerich's films, and Pacific Rim. Plus...I was confused as to why Godzilla wanted to just fight the two monsters. I've never seen any of the previous Godzilla movies (minus the 1998) but it seems like Godzilla is actually trying to SAVE humanity...which allows me to make the following statement...GODZILLA IS A BETTER SUPERHERO THAN SUPERMAN!!! (in the context of Man of Steel :))
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melissa, Baragon would be a welcome addition. I always liked him. Of course they need to include his flame breath which was sadly missing from GMK. Although, I would be more interested to see Godzilla vs. BarUgon from Gamera.
ReplyDeleteI have this fear that the negative hyperbole will effect this film's ticket sales and Transformers will get 4 more sequels. All because there are too many stupid people in the world. I really hope I'm just being paranoid.
There was so little Godzilla in Godzilla. Probably less than 30 minutes of monster fighting in the whole movie. Every time Godzilla shows up or a monster fight is about to happen, it cuts away. You even see the human characters watching the fights on screens a few times, but the audience doesn't get to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe tom cruiser movie you're talking about is Edge of Tomorrow. Its based on a story/manga called All you need is Kill.
ReplyDeleteBasic Time loop story. Tom starts looping, other char realizes he's looping. Things happen.
Gotta disagree with a lot of people here and say this movie was not even close to great.
ReplyDelete---SPOILERS---
Bryan Cranston, who plays the character with whom we are BY FAR the most emotionally invested with by that point in the movie, gets bumped off 20min into the film just so we can have the son, who has all the acting shops of a 2x4 and his wife, who for some reason we keep cutting back to every 10 to 15min.
Also, sorry Lewis, but this movie was a lot of foreplay and no fucking climax. We get a couple of quick glimpses of the monsters fighting early on, about 2sec each, and then when we do get to the final battle it takes up AT MOST, five minutes of screen time because we are so busy following the army guys.
Also, WHY did Godzilla wait until AFTER he got his ass kicked to use the atomic fire breath? He forgot he had it? We see no sign he used it in his first fight with M.Muto (which we never saw except 2sec of news footage). I understand why they did it narratively, but it makes ZERO sense in-universe. Once you have him use it in the "climax", you have to ask yourself why he didn't use it earlier.
Also, wy does any living creature evolve an EMP, which can only effect electronics (and unshielded ones at that) as a natural defense? Not only does that make zero sense from a biology standpoint, it robs us of a lot of chances to see the military taking shots at it, but even more amazingly, military vehicles are shielded against EMPs (at the very least the M1A1 tank, which we see quite a few of in the movie). Older machinery, like say, a diesel powered boat engine, would also be safe. The navigation electronics would be gone, but the engine? The engine would give zero fucks. Also, the electronics that were fried wouldn't start back up after the source was eliminated.
Before anyone accuses me of injecting reality into a Godzilla movie, keep in mind the movie started it by trying to have a "serious" and "realistic" tone, and giving us a lot of missed opportunities and fridge logic instead.
Also, THANK GOD I did not see this shit in 3D, because the glasses naturally darken everything on screen, and the so-called climax was already so dark you could barely make out anything until Godzilla finally decided to light shit up.
As you said though, the movie was beautifully shot, if a bit on the dark and muted side, but would have benefited immensely by just having Cranston and Watenabe be the main characters and ditch the family drama.
Excellent post! People give this movie way too much. You nailed it. Thanks!!!
DeleteOH! And you know what? While I'm on the subject of Ken Watewnabe, what a complete and utter betreyal (yes, I am calling BETRAYAL on this shit) his character was.
ReplyDeleteFor those that don't know, Dr. Serizawa was the name of the scientist who developed the oxygen destroyer in the original "Gojira", who faced a terrible moral quandary over whether to use his invention and risk unleashing another superweapon even worse than the a-bomb onto the world, or keep to himself and let Godzilla run rampage. In the end, after seeing one of the most shamelessly heartwrenching scenes imaginable, he decides to use his invention to destroy Godzilla, and sacrifices his own life so his knowledge can never fall into the wrong hands. He is the only human who EVER detroyed a kaiju without some other alien or monster's help.
So OF COURSE in this movie, Dr Serizawa gets to play the stereotypical "man is arrogant for thinking we can resist nature and our weapons are useless" blah blah blah. I understand the world is no longer in the same place it was when the first movie came out, but it baffles me why they would pick, out of all the characters from the franchise's history, the name of the ONE CHARACTER who successfully designed a weapon that could one-hit-kill a kaiju to deliver that meandering "humans are not the top of the food chain" tripe.
Godzilla 2000 is the first godzilla movie I saw. AND IT IS AWESOME. Probably one of the best, in terms of monsters AND human characters. Enjoy that one.
ReplyDeleteSpoilers
ReplyDeleteDuring the finale fight when Godzilla rips the second monster's jaw open and breaths fire down its throat everyone in my theater started clapping.
@ZeframMann:
ReplyDeleteYou do know that Serizawa is a last name, right?
And Dr. Serizawa in the movie even brings up the subject of his late grandfather?
So while he is called "Dr. Serizawa", I do not think he is THE Dr. Serizawa that made the Oxygen Destroyer.
I'm just wondering how much Monarch has been able to cover up all these stuff over the years.
------------
Linkara, did you know that the '98 Godzilla was supposed to come out in '94? I still have my G-Fan Magazine that talks about the abandoned script and what could have been if Toho had let Tristar make their own monster, the Gryphon.
http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Godzilla_%281994_film%29
http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Gryphon
Probe Bat by Stan Winston Studios:
http://roberthood.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/probe-bat1.jpg
Gryphon by Stan Winston:
http://www.angelfire.com/movies/KaijuGallery/images/winston.jpg
"Gotta disagree with a lot of people here and say this movie was not even close to great"
ReplyDeleteUh oh, looks like somebody's a nihilist~!
So...maybe we can have Charles Barkley show up for the sequel? Then again its been 20 years...can we name some popular but not immense basketball player we can have fight Godzilla?
ReplyDeleteHAVE to hand it to Godzila for having both human characters that AREN'T annoying and military characters that aren't overly aggressive or any of those other annoying stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteNext year Godzilla vs Pacific Rim ( and hover board: Back to the Future 2)!
Saw it this afternoon. This is a Godzilla movie, it is also 16 years late.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of sequels... Vs Pacific Rim? No thank you. I think the Big G should be his own thing and not cross over with every little thing he might fit into. Now don't get me wrong I *do* like Pacific Rim, I'm just not interested in seeing the two cross over. Ever. I'd be much more interested in his proposed Destroy All Monsters style sequel more than anything.
Fiery Little One
DC needs to make a sure-fire win, and anyone who's on the Internets knows that cat videos are the way to go. GO DEX-STARR!
ReplyDelete@ZeframMann:
ReplyDelete- Methinks Godzilla didn't use his atomic breath right out of the gate because he wanted to conserve energy. This movie's Godzilla doesn't strike me as the overkill kind of kaiju. He basically acted like a Sentai hero in that regard.
- Sure, the EMP was a bit weird. But seeing how both Godzilla and the MUTOs come from an age where animals basically ate radioactivity, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to think that some of these eldritch lifeforms might have nervous systems or at least organic weapon systems that might be affected by an EMP (even Mothra can shoot lightning).
- Failing that, I like to think the MUTOs were bioweapons sent by aliens (I think they do look quite alien-ish). It ain't Godzilla unless it involves alien invaders at some point.
- As for why the EMP affected military-grade vehicles? Hollywood physics. They still haven't figured out that you can no longer kill yourself with a toaster and a bathtub. Though I give you that that this EMP didn't actually affect anything in the long run.
- It's a different Dr. Serizawa with a different first name. And why would you include the original doctor in a story without the "horrors of WMDs" angle?
Oh, guess I should give my own 2 cents as well, instead of just replying XD
ReplyDeleteI liked this movie a lot. The monster fight teasing may have been a bit much, but they definitely knew how to get their mileage out of Godzilla. Every single frame with him definitely puts back the "awe" in "awesome". Especially the roar and that first atomic breath charging was just glorious.
Godzilla's new origin (of which there already are at least two I think) is quite good and thankfully not overexplained. Godzilla's basically Captain Cthulhu, what with his age and his not really caring about humanity.
Those MUTOs were quite freakish. Not terribly creative (they are basically the Gloverfield monster mixed with the Bugs from Starship Troopers), but they get the job done and provide Godzilla with typical archetypical enemies ("smaller flying dude" and "bigger land dude") without starting with the more "sillier" (aka "awesome") monster designs like Mothra, Megalon and Gigan.
@Doresh
ReplyDelete"- Failing that, I like to think the MUTOs were bioweapons sent by aliens (I think they do look quite alien-ish). It ain't Godzilla unless it involves alien invaders at some point."
See, you just wrote a WAY better movie than they did. If they had thrown in a single line by Watenabe at the end of the movie (y'know, instead of just having him look in amazement at a green-screen) to the effect of, "Why would any living creature have an EMP? It makes no sense, it's almost as if it were designed to attack technology.", then right away with just a single line and unnerved reaction shot by the others, you introduce an "Oh shit..." moment that's the perfect setup for a sequel.
Ken Watanabe basically portrays the Magic Japanese. We really don't know anything about his job, his backstory, his family, or anything. He's basically playing the conscious of the West, the guy who is connected to nature who tells the West what they have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteHe is also the missing link in connecting American Godzilla to his Japanese roots. The mistake the '98 movie made. It will be interesting to see if Japan will be completely eliminated in any sequels.
Are you ever gonna talk about the Amazing Spider Man 2?
ReplyDelete"Are you ever gonna talk about the Amazing Spider Man 2?"
ReplyDeleteEh, if I ever go see it.
Wait a sec... why exactly would it be bad for the new Batman to not be the Nolan one? Sure, this probably means that we'll get yet another Batman trilogy, but WB would be insane to try to introduce aliens and actual super powers into the Nolanverse. Neither that continuity nor that Batman are made for this stuff.
ReplyDelete@ZeframMann:
Not to mention that their habit of actively hunting for nuclear food sources is handy in bringing down your target's infrastructure. And their parasitic nature is a good way to deal with any lifeform that might be large enough to threaten them even without electricity.
I hope they do bring up this "What does MUTO need with an EMP?" point after examining the MUTO corpses in the sequel (or between the movies). Aliens are pretty much the only way to introduce my favorite Gigan XD
Any chance you will review the amazing spider man 2?
ReplyDelete