'Godzilla' Reboot / Reviews *SPOILERS*

Hopefully it's as good as Godzilla deserves...

Agreed! Hopefully this will be like, maybe not the best analogy I could use, but may this film be like BATMAN BEGINS was to BATMAN AND ROBIN. Remember the 1998 film? Then you probably see my analogy. We need something to wipe the taste away from that fiasco. Hopefully this will. However, I'm a little disappointed by this trailer. I know, I know, it's a teaser, I get that. Even MAN OF STEEL's teaser didn't really show an awful lot but man! Did they blow us away with the real trailer! That's what I'm wanting here. I'm impatient, bring it on! But so far they look like they've got the look right & probably better than it'd look if it was still a man in a rubber suit. Interesting though 2 years after that '98 film Toho struck back with their own GODZILLA 2000 which I have on video & it's actually a pretty decent film from what I remember. And with the traditional look only 2 years after Iguanazilla!

I own Final Wars on DVD too but I think that come out a few years after Godzilla 2000 did. Probably need to watch both of them again. But yeah, I found that short-lived battle amusing & also that Toho would include 'Zilla'. Oh, what a fitting name!  

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=94870

I am most definitely looking forward to this film this year! I missed the last THOR film. I ain't missing this, must see!

Anyone else see this?

I liked it, and I think they made a good film. I just don't think they made a good Godzilla film.

The movie starts out with old film footage of Godzilla's fins, implying we have tried to deal with him before. It ends with an atomic "test", which was actually a last ditch effort to kill him, which seemingly works. We then cut to 1999, and Ken Watanabe heading into the Phillipines. Seems they found some giant fossilized bones, and a bit more. What they don't realize is, something was awoken, and made it's way to the water.

We're then introduced to Bryan Cranston & family in Japan, on his birthday. Cranston is concerned about seismic activity, that isn't very spontaneous, and it seems to be getting closer. He and his wife work at the local nuclear power plant, when something VERY bad happens. He experiences losses, and the plant is leveled.

Cut to 15 years later, and his son, now Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is a Navy EOD technician. He's finally heading home to be with his wife and son, who asks his dad if he will be there when he wakes up. He assures him he will, only to have that promise broken when he gets a call from Japan. His dad has been arrested breaking into the "quarantine zone", so he heads to bail him out.

Cranston convinces his son to help him retrieve some disks from their home, they get arrested and taken to the fallen plant where bad shit happens. A MUTO is born, Cranston checks out, and Johnson just wants to get home. Sort of.

All of these things happen, ANOTHER MUTO is revealed, and we STILL haven't seen hide-nor-hair of the titular monster. This is a problem. The film is called Godzilla, isn't it? I understand having to set things up, but it took almost half the film before he is revealed. Now, when they DO show him, her looks badass. For the 12 seconds he's onscreen.

Johnson's character joins up with soldiers who are supposed to be transporting nukes to be used to draw the MUTO's out to sea, then used to try to kill all 3 monsters. Doesn't quite work out as planned. Shit gets blown up, people die, and then all 3 converge on San Francisco where the female lays her eggs.

FINALLY, we get some monster on monster violence. Godzilla uses his "atomic breath", which is head-scratchingly silent in this film. I understand not wanting it to sound "cheesy", but no sound at all?? Me no likey.

Godzilla takes a lot of damage killing MUTO #1. Johnson destroys the eggs and sets off in a boat with the nuke. The female MUTO takes this VERY personal, and is ready to snack on Johnson when the King of Monsters shows up and serves up some hot death. Right down her gullet. Godzilla collapses in the middle of a "Couldn't have happened to a more fitting place" demolished Frisco. Is he dead?

Take a guess.

Like I said, I liked it. But Cranston's character seems like he was just there to further the plot along. Took far too long to get to Godzilla. And the film SHOULD have had a mid/end credit sequence to set up a sequel. Send people home talking. But all in all, if you haven't seen it, and you're a fan, go see it.

AP wrote:

I liked it, and I think they made a good film. I just don't think they made a good Godzilla film.

To use a similar analogy, in the Fall of 1981 the band KISS released what was their most controversial album ever, (Music From) The Elder. At the time it flopped & hard! When asked about the album many years later, front man Paul Stanley said that The Elder was actually a good album, it just wasn't a good KISS album. It definitely wasn't what fans expected & was basically rejected. A funny thing happened though. As the decades wore on the album actually gained a following & achieved 'cult' status, just like some films do. So history was kinder to that album than initial audience reaction at the time & some fans even now claim it's their favorite KISS album.

I use that analogy because AP pointed out that it really is a good film but I guess it's also not what people expected. I saw it opening weekend & have intended to post my own review but alas, I work practically all the time & when I don't, I don't necessarily feeling like posting. So here goes trying to address some of the concerns:

1) NOT ENOUGH GODZILLA- Actually I won't disagree with this gripe. I could've used a little more myself, ya know? But with that being said, I want so-called critics to remember something. They gripe about Godzilla not showing up until the middle of his own film & so do fanboys but do they remember a little film called BATMAN BEGINS? Batman finally shows up around the one-hour mark, just like Godzilla, but that film is considered a masterpiece, a work of art! I mean, after all, it was Bruce Wayne's 'journey'. However, MAN OF STEEL gets flack for attempting to do the same thing. I smell HYPOPCRISY! I mean, how is it right for Nolan's film but somehow it ain't right for others?

2) BUDGET- The film had a reported 160 million budget & some supporters of the film have said that Gareth Edwards had to work within his budget & that those CGI shots are expensive. I might could buy this to a point but then I remember how we seemed to have an over-abundance of the MUTOs which were also CGI. So this point may be arguable but let's face it, Edwards didn't have a 200+ million budget like many films do now so maybe there's some merit to this claim? But more Godzilla should've still been worked in somehow. After all, remember that 1998 fiasco by the same name? We got plenty of ZILLA as it came to be called, the mutant iguana with the Jay Leno chin. And you really wished that you hadn't! So I'll take this any day over that.

3) BRYAN CRANSTON- This seems to be a favorite of so-called film critics that think Cranston was just a 'missed opportunity' in this film. For them I have 2 words for ya. MATTHEW BRODERICK!  Case closed!

4) THE HERO- What I found neat here was that they actually made Godzilla the HERO of this film! Can you freakin' believe it?! Here's what the typical formula is for a Godzilla reboot. They attempt to remake the original 1954 film or more specifically, the 1956 US release. Start over from scratch, all other Godzilla films are ignored from canon & basically the beast is awakened, munching on trains & what-not. Tries to destroy Tokyo, New York or 'insert city'. Military tries to take him down, yada yada yada. And ya know what? For some reason these attempts don't go over very well with the audience even though they're attempting at least somewhat to go back to so-called 'roots' or whatever of the source material. But in this new film they make Godzilla the hero without the campiness of many of the TOHO films. A breath of fresh air.

So overall I did like the film & like AP pointed out my biggest disappointment was simply wanting more Godzilla. But I don't think the film deserves the hate that some are giving it. Here's hoping the sequel will deliver even more.

non_amos wrote:1) NOT ENOUGH GODZILLA- Actually I won't disagree with this gripe. I could've used a little more myself, ya know? But with that being said, I want so-called critics to remember something. They gripe about Godzilla not showing up until the middle of his own film & so do fanboys but do they remember a little film called BATMAN BEGINS? Batman finally shows up around the one-hour mark, just like Godzilla, but that film is considered a masterpiece, a work of art! I mean, after all, it was Bruce Wayne's 'journey'. However, MAN OF STEEL gets flack for attempting to do the same thing. I smell HYPOPCRISY! I mean, how is it right for Nolan's film but somehow it ain't right for others?

Here's the thing though: Bruce Wayne was in the entire first half of the film.

Now as far as 'Man Of Steel' goes, anyone who makes THAT complaint is just reaching. Up their own ass. But in 'Godzilla', we had NO GODZILLA the first 1/2 of the movie. They could have rectified this by showing him "waking up" earlier in the film, but we didn't even get that. We were TOLD he was coming, and that was committing a movie "sin":

Show, don't tell.