Godzilla and Pals Series (Edwards/Dougherty, 2014/2019)

[Professor Wagstaff]

The first look at the new American version of Godzilla

[The Narrator Returns]

That actually looks... really good. Even better, I see actual colors, not just shades of teal and orange!

[Professor Wagstaff]

The sky jump scene looks quite incredible and nerve-wracking even from the youtube trailer. I'm not sure if this is a post-conversion 3D film, but it might be worth checking out in the IMAX format at the very least. I didn't see Gareth Edwards other film, Monsters, but I'll check it out (streaming free for Amazon Prime members). Can anyone who saw Monsters weigh in?

[domino harvey]

I thought it was one of the best films of the year it was released. We have a thread on it here

[flyonthewall2983]

The Ligeti music is a good choice for a disaster film trailer.

[warren oates]

Agreed. And the key word there is "disaster." The trailer actually makes you feel like the world might be ending, rather than just disintegrating spectacularly for our widescreen delectation. Monsters is one of the better no-budget CGI features ever, I'd say. Definitely looking forward to this big budget debut. Since Edwards comes from a DIY VFX background a bit like Neil Blomkamp, he's used to having to ask himself at every moment what he really needs to be seeing/showing -- because he's used to having to do most of it himself -- and really knows how to come at the visuals from the perspective of storyteller.

[LavaLamp]

Incredible trailer - really looking forward to this film. Agree that the sky-jump is quite intense. What we see of the Godzilla monster itself is amazing...

[rohming]

This trailer is amazing. I've seen it twice in the theater and both times it left the audience with a bit of shock and awe. That's difficult to do these days.

[rohming]

And, yeah, Monsters is good. Not sure I loved its narrative arc and you can feel it straining up against the limits of its extremely low budget, but it is an ambitious, mostly successful movie for a first feature with very little financial backing and Edwards doing so much of the work on it.

[Movie-Brat]

Let me explain why this my most anticipated film of 2014 and why I'm all for what Edwards is intending with it.

I have been anticipating since its initial announcement of its talks with Legendary Pictures. When it was official, I was ridiculously excited. I went on a Godzilla kick, bought a ton of DVDs including the Classic Media DVD of the original film in its unedited form. The more information that came out, the more I became just as excited when the Nightmare on Elm Street remake and Skyfall were coming out in their respective years.

Now I'm fine with its initial ideas presented so far as by all accounts, the original 1954 film is a Horror film. So the fact that Gareth Edwards seems to be taking a similar approach is welcomed. He seems to have a good idea of what the original represented and updates it to fit the current form of the world today; it's kind of warranted. In addition, it has a solid cast, solid crew members working on the project and Godzilla so far looks like a mean and big motherfucker than he ever was. I'm just really hoping it'll be good as it's made it out to be and as much as I'm absurdly excited for it, I don't want to get my expectations too high as that would result in disappointment.

But it's funny, when I saw the trailer when watching 300: Rise of an Empire (shut up, I was curious about that film); it was a bit chilling to hear the roar on the big screen as I haven't heard it that way since seeing Godzilla 2000 when it came out.

(And just so you guys know, yes I'm the ridiculously proud owner of the Criterion Blu-Ray of the original film.)

[StevenJ0001]

I'm ridiculously excited about this too, and I've gone on a similar Godzilla movie-buying rampage just recently!

It's impossible to know for sure at this point, but the new movie looks as right as the 1998 US version was wrong, if you know what I mean.

[bainbridgezu]

Akira Takarada, star of the original 1954 Godzilla, filmed a scene for this remake, which has now been removed from the film. Here is a petition to reinstate his footage before the film's release. I would urge everyone to sign this petition as a gesture of respect and appreciation for his long-standing commitment (on and off-screen) to the Godzilla character and franchise.

[warren oates]

Really curious to hear whether this one is worth seeing in 3D and/or 3D IMAX. My favorite neighborhood theater is showing the regular version, so I'd prefer to walk there unless it turns out that the 3D is really well done or integral to the filmmaker's vision.

[EddieLarkin]

The DP says that not only was it shot 2D, but that they also made no consideration for a 3D conversion.

[warren oates]

Well, that settles it then -- 2D it is. Thanks a bunch, EddieLarkin.

[flyonthewall2983]

I really enjoyed it. Not having seen the earlier films I didn't go in with set expectations, except maybe from that incredible trailer cited earlier. It's not particularly unique for being so character-driven as it is but it lends a charm to it that doesn't distract from the mayhem, but only adds an emotional toll to it all.

SpoilerShow

Cranston gives a pretty wrenching performance, and does well to set the emotional tone. I think it was a mistake to kill him off as early as they did, as I would have liked to have seen him and Watanabe have more screen time but there you go. The rest of the cast do well enough to carry it through, and no performance is particularly cringe-worthy (even the lead who I found hard to get behind a little).

[TheDudeAbides]

I watched this film yesterday and I was incredibly disappointed. As a fan of disaster and monster/horror films, I was looking forward to this as the trailers I saw for it looked like they finally making a good remake after that disastrous mess that was Godzilla 2000 and the Roland Emmerich Godzilla film. Sadly the trailers led me astray

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I was expecting to see a film where a gigantic dinosaur like creature toppled a city while being fought off by humans. Instead we got this, a melodramatic flick with a miscast lead actor where Godzilla was the hero and saviour of mankind. I paid to see Godzilla causing destruction not stopping these insectoid like creatures called Mutos from reeking havoc on mankind.

A fairly competent blockbuster, however, if you're inclined to watch a big budget monster film, I'd skip this one and watch Pacific Rim instead

[Stuart Galbraith IV]

Steve Ryfle, on The Whitewashing of Godzilla, at World Cinema Paradise:

[StevenJ0001]

Steve Ryfle's take on it is really interesting, and I agree with most if not all of his complaints, even though some of them didn't occur to me while I was watching the film.

The aspect that disappointed me the most was that the sense of 9/11-inspired dread that was captured so expertly in the trailers was curiously absent in the movie itself. There are a couple of very powerful sequences in the 1954 original and the new movie didn't come close to the level of feeling generated by those, IMO.

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Also, as mentioned above, I think killing off Cranston's character so early was a huge mistake. He was so much more interesting and compelling than the bland characters we were left with.

[Robin Davies]

Whereas the original Godzilla echoed Hiroshima and Cloverfield echoed 9/11, I got the feeling that the new Godzilla echoed Fukushima.

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We see a nuclear facility destroyed and Godzilla arrives with a tsunami. I'm not sure what all that means though. There's some talk about Godzilla "restoring balance" so maybe there's some vague subtext about mankind being at the mercy of nature. Or maybe there is no subtext here - maybe they just had to cobble together some vague justification for a big dumb monster movie. It was impressive in some ways but badly let down by uninteresting characters and a poor script that even good actors like Cranston, Binoche and Hawkins couldn't do much with.

[matrixschmatrix]

It didn't help that

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Cranston gets killed in the first act, and Binoche in about three minutes. We're left with a lead who doesn't really have enough to do for the whole movie, so they keep inventing ridiculous hero business like the go-nowhere subplot with the little Asian boy, and a lot of really tangled plot logic to put a ticking bomb in the center of the of the main action- where our bomb disposal expert does not disarm it. It doesn't even feel like a twist or being clever, since the whole justification is 'it's stuck'. Like, they didn't bring a crowbar or anything? Yeesh.

There's a few of those moments- why are they sending the nuclear warhead out to sea via train instead of like, using one of the many I assume we have on submarines right now, or just kind of flying around the emp area? Even if they're not 100% sure of where the MUTO is, they evidently know enough just to fly over its effective range, and also to pick the bomb up via helicopter later. It felt like a weak excuse for a setpiece where our hero is, surprise surprise, the only survivor.

As a whole, the movie felt really familiar, as much a modern blockbuster of its time as the '98 Godzilla was of its- go-nowhere emotional beats, a bunch of setpieces defined by huge objects moving around, references to 9/11 and Fukashima and so forth that don't really resonate, and a bland hero who is the least interesting person in the movie. Oh, and endless scenes of people looking at things, more than even Spielberg does these days.

I didn't hate it- the HALO jump sequence was at least really exciting filmmaking that didn't feel like I'd seen it before and

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Godzilla having his breath ray and cramming it down the second MUTO's throat

were both great bits, and I enjoyed what we got of the better actors. But it was a big letdown, and I think makes me appreciate Pacific Rim that much more- whatever its faults, Del Toro's movie has his fingerprints on every frame of the film, and it never feels like it got run through the Lindelof/Cuse/Orci/Kurtzman blockbuster machine- and it is, to me, a million times more visually interesting than this was.

[The Narrator Returns]

You're on point about the endless amount of looking in this movie. I counted more concerned reaction shots than lines of dialogue from Sally Hawkins.

[criterion10]

The latest incarnation of Godzilla is certainly much different from the past films. Gone is the campy approach to action and destruction, as the latest advancements in visual effects have been able to produce realistic monsters and excessive destruction, and the results are very satisfying in this regard.

The film's strongest asset is Gareth Edwards' direction. I have not yet seen his first film, Monsters, but his approach here is rather unique, opting for a slow-burn atmosphere, even picking and choosing exactly how much to reveal of Godzilla at a specific time. His direction of action sequences is also very well done, never assaulting the viewer with excessive explosions and instead trying to sustain tension. There are many individual moments that really stand out, such as a fantastic sequence in Hawaii and one involving military paratroopers shot entirely from their first-person point of view.

That being said, there is still something that prevents it from achieving greatness. The script is easily the film's Achilles heel, and I would not argue with the majority that have criticized the film's character development. The actors at least do their best with what they have, especially Bryan Cranston, whose performance is easily the strongest of the film (it is a shame he did not have a larger role). Aaron Taylor-Johnson is also serviceable, though his relationship with his wife, played by Elizabeth Olsen, is particularly underdeveloped; the same applies for his character as a whole.

The most lacking individual though is indisputably Ken Watanabe's Dr. Serizawa, whose character name is one of the many throwbacks to the original classic. Serizawa should be the most intriguing character in the film, an intelligent scientist who has a firm understanding on what is occurring. However, his character is mostly reduced to a few key lines and a series of repetitive reaction shots, something many of the other supporting characters fell victim to as well.

One can tell that the filmmakers intended for his character to have much weight; after all, it is he who delivers the film's most quotable line about mankind's arrogance towards nature. (It also would not have hurt if this main theme of the film was more extensively explored; it particularly holds much significance today, as the threat of global climate change threatens our existence, but is rather unexplored in the film.)

At the end of the day, I will still always have an affinity for the old fashioned Godzilla films, where a man in a rubber suit stomps on miniatures of Japanese cities (I was a Godzilla fanboy throughout my childhood). But, for a modern day reboot, Gareth Edwards' take on the famous monster is impressive and a summer blockbuster that easily stands out amongst the rest. It is a shame most blockbusters cannot at least aspire for something unique as this one does, despite how imperfect it may be.

[Movie-Brat]

I loved it than I thought I was going to really. Mind you, I wanted to see the big budget Horror film that was being advertised but that's what you get for trusting a trailer.

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Now I do agree killing off Bryan Cranston was a mistake especially since he gave the best performance and he should have been the lead but I don't mind the other actors. If anything, nobody annoyed me. They were serviceable really.

And the teases about the fights, those were good natured. The film was building to a grand climax and it was a worth it. And it showcased even more why Godzilla is a force to be reckon with. That and the Hawaii scene when he caused a tsunami. That's another thing, I don't think he's a full on hero. He still caused plenty of damage and by all accounts, it does look like he killed various bystanders who were likely to be caught in the tsunami. He's by all accounts on Anti-Hero, he wanted to kill the MUTOs and just be left alone-that's it.

That's the thing, the film is basically Gareth Edwards's love letter to the franchise and is reminding people why Godzilla is awesome.

[Michael Kerpan]

On the issue of serious Godzilla sequels -- anyone else see Kaneko's "Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001)? Definitely serious and even distressing. Too much so, as Toho retreated into "friendlier" fare after this.