What Did You Watch Today?

[Krone]

Caught the new Godzilla with my girlfriend last night, I will spoiler my thoughts.

It was surprisingly good, but it did feel like it was broken up into two movies. Cranston was billed as one of the main actors and was out less than halfway through the movie I felt. One of the only things I didn't like was how the MUTO just so happens to find it's way to San Francisco. Like yeah, the MUTO's just happen to be everywhere Ford and his family are.

The one thing for me was that I needed to appreciate it in a different sense. I'm a sucker for monster movies. Cloverfield is one of my favorites of all time - probably because of how much I followed the viral marketing and such - but when you see movies like that, it's MONSTER BAD, CITY TERRORIZED. Here, it was more of Godzilla versus the monster which was very cool. Sadly, I feel I didn't even respect it in that aspect til about 3/4's of the way through the movie, but man was it awesome. When he grabbed the last MUTO's head and just breathes in the blue shit (not sure what it's supposed to be) was fucking sick.

I did have high expectations for this. My dad took me to see Godzilla in 1998 when it came out and I've always loved Jurassic Park, so "dinosaurs/monsters" on the big screen is like a holy grail for me. I will always love the reveal of Godzilla in the '98 because everyone was clamoring for what he looked like where as here, we knew what to expect, but they still made it special and way more realistic. Hawai'i get's killed.

Final Thoughts: Great way to spend a Thursday night. It may not be your monster versus humans type plot (monster vs. monster and Serizawa vs. Stenz for the "let them fight" thoughts) but man was it good and different. The monsters felt like the main focus for the second half, and despite the film feeling separated into two parts, it was nice to see Godzilla back on US soil for the first time in sixteen years.

[apsham]

We got off work early thanks to a base stand down (thanks Victoria Day!) so the work crew and I were able to head out to Godzilla at its only 2D showing, at 3PM this afternoon.

It was a great looking movie, Godzilla and the MUTOs both looked awesome, all the effects were well done and the way that it was shot was excellent as well.

That being said I was VERY disappointed with Cranston being killed off in the first 1/4 of the movie, and the acting from there on out was kind of subpar and.. it just wasn't the greatest we'll say. A lot of instances, a lot of skipping over showing stuff happening and two to three instances of "OH YEAH, HERE COMES A MONSTER FIGH...." only to be blocked by more wooden characters.

But what can you expect I guess? Godzilla actually having his breath was pretty awesome, especially the way it was first show to be charging up and ESPECIALLY the way he finished off the second MUTO.

[MalaCloudy Black]

So basically, with Godzilla, the issue is that the human characters aren't written well but Godzilla himself is awesome and great. Is that close? I read another review comparing this to the director's last film, where they said pretty much the same thing - "the monsters in it were great, the humans not so much".

[TKz]

Humans aren't that bad, they're just competing for screen time against Godzilla. I'm not sure what people wanted, I understand that feeling of "BUT I WANTED TO SEE THEM FIGHT!", but the point was to build up to the final confrontation. You can't really do one of these films seriously and just constantly have the monsters on screen fighting, it'll get old.

I really liked Godzilla, I think they could've cut maybe 20 mins somewhere and kept the pace up a bit - I'm fine with the slow burn, but it didn't have to be quite so slow.

There's weaker parts to the film, but as a whole it works really well. Definitely worth watching.

[Jimmy]

So basically, with Godzilla, the issue is that the human characters aren't written well but Godzilla himself is awesome and great. Is that close? I read another review comparing this to the director's last film, where they said pretty much the same thing - "the monsters in it were great, the humans not so much".

Haven't seen Godzilla, but I thought Monsters was great in terms of both character and monster.

[apsham]

It's not so much the idea of them fighting before the big "fight" - it's more of the fact that they DID fight or do something and you get a second of it before it cuts away. So they decided that it was going to happen - but lets not show it, and instead cut to cardboard cutouts of Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Johnson. I understand the slow burn, but instead of just making me want to see the eventual fight, it left me equally frustrated.

Forgot to mention.

I LOVE the way they reworked the story from "this is how he was awakened/empowered to "no, that was us trying to destroy him".

Also, probably one of the best intro sequences I have ever seen.

[zero]

Godzilla, the movie is good.

Godzilla, the monster in said movie, is fucking awesome.

The humans, aside from Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe, are not good. I like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but he was a terrible casting decision for this role. Elizabeth Olsen's talents completely go to waste, they could've hired an actress for 1% of her salary, dropped some Visine in her eyes for tears and used more of the budget on Godzilla wrecking shit. Everyone else is a cardboard cutout that you'll give zero fucks about.

I had two other problems with the movie:

When the male MUTO is flying into the office building and people are still sitting at their desks, doing officey things... while the entire Bay Area is being evacuated.

"Hey Michelle, can I get four copies of that report on my desk by 5?"

"Fuck you, Frank... there are three highly irradiated monsters fighting through the goddamn city, can I at least take a half day?"

Also, are we just going to ignore the fact that driving a boat away from shore for five minutes isn't going to do a goddamn thing from stopping a megaton bomb from destroying all of San Francisco? Even if that raggedy ass boat had an hour to get out to sea, everyone in that stadium at the end of the movie is going to have stage 4 cancer by the time we get to the sequel. At least explain the consequences of this like they do in the original Godzilla when they suck the oxygen out of the bay, admitting that they're basically killing themselves longterm in order to survive now, but here they're like "hey, this nuclear bomb went off 20 feet from the Golden Gate Bridge... WHEW!"

But at the end of the day, it's a movie about a giant lizard creature who breathes blue fire, so yeah.

But what I absolutely loved:

was the fact that I had no idea there were other monsters in the movie. Had no clue about the MUTO and they managed to restrain themselves from showing it in the trailers. I greatly appreciated that.

Overall, a flawed, but fun movie. Worth seeing in the theater and I'll totally buy the blu-ray.

[HC]

How have I never seen Adaptation before? Awesome, awesome movie.

[Tyrone]

Just got back from Godzilla. I really liked it. I'll echo what others said about the humans in that everyone barring Watanbe and Cranston were pretty bleh and nothing characters. Though I understood his role as the guy who really knows about Godzilla and Japan that the others aren't really listening to, I wish Watanabe had some more meaningful moments. Not just for his acting, but the guy has a great wise voice. I particularly loved the "arrogance of humans..." line in the trailer and popped when it was said during the movie. Lastly, Godzilla looked amazing! I got sort of tired of his roar pretty quickly, though the moments of me smiling from ear-to-ear outweighed the groans, but the monster looked terrific and had some really cool moments. One of the things I hated about King Kong was the 1 hour spent talking about Kong, and mostly in the "okay, let's see him" way. Here I thought they did a great job only featuring him for bits and pieces and not letting things drag too much. Overall, very enjoyable film. Will definitely be picking it up on DVD.

[apsham]

I fucking love Ken Watabe, and he was good here - but it seemed like his only role was to look SUPER confused all the time, panning his head left to right or back to front with the same "Huh!?" or "Oh!" look on his face every other scene.

[TKz]

One thing I will agree with about the characters:

The Cranston fake out was fucking weak. I wouldn't mind if they'd made it somewhat clear it was a smaller role in the film, but

all of the marketing had him as a lead character, so killing him off twenty minutes in leaves a sour taste in my mouth. That's not to say you can't kill off a major character, but you really shouldn't lure people in with a name actor and then kill him off straight off the bat. I didn't mind Taylor Johnson, but I think we can all agree the film would've been even better if we were following Cranston around instead.

[GoGo Yubari]

Aaron Taylor Johnson's American accent is so hilarious to me. It basically sounds like a much better version of the American accents they'd do on Doctor Who in the '60s.

The first half hour and last half hour of Godzilla are great, and then there's the middle.

[Damian WayLNKe]

But what I absolutely loved:

was the fact that I had no idea there were other monsters in the movie. Had no clue about the MUTO and they managed to restrain themselves from showing it in the trailers. I greatly appreciated that.

Overall, a flawed, but fun movie. Worth seeing in the theater and I'll totally buy the blu-ray.

I was listening to NPR on Friday and they gave away this part of the plot. I switched stations before they said anything else. Still enjoyed it though and really liked the atmosphere at the end.

[Jimmy]

Finally watched my first Bergman film and I thought Wild Strawberries was phenomenal, really really good. I'll definitely push on with more of his stuff, but I'm a little worried that I won't like his more experimental stuff.

[I Don't Mind]

Watched Wes Craven's The People Under The Stairs off someone's top 10 list of cult favorite films. The tone of the film is so all over the place. Most of the film it tries to be a campy horror-comedy but is so painfully cliche and full of poorly written dialogue that surely even people of 1991 cringed at it upon release. Then there's about half an hour of serious, unsettling, creepy horror before switching back to a ridiculous, Ghostbusters 2 level absurd ending.

Also watched Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. One word for that film, and I don't mean this disparagingly:

Edited May 18, 2014 by I Diem

[Krone]

One thing I will agree with about the characters:

The Cranston fake out was fucking weak. I wouldn't mind if they'd made it somewhat clear it was a smaller role in the film, but

all of the marketing had him as a lead character, so killing him off twenty minutes in leaves a sour taste in my mouth. That's not to say you can't kill off a major character, but you really shouldn't lure people in with a name actor and then kill him off straight off the bat. I didn't mind Taylor Johnson, but I think we can all agree the film would've been even better if we were following Cranston around instead.

On the spoiler

I definitely agree with this 100%. Cranston was put over heavily as the lead actor and before I knew it, the best actor was out of the movie and just lef us with Watanabe and no bonafied star power. I wonder if the reason they did that was so Godzilla wouldn't be overshadowed by the bigger actors and in turn would make him bigger. Sounds crazy, but when the second half is pretty much just a monster movie with them fighting and shit, there's not much room for the actors really. Especially given what Cranston's role was.

Also, when I first saw the MUTO I thought it had a strong resemblance to Clover from Cloverfield. Maybe it was just the weird four-six arm type monster approach, idk, but it gave me that vibe.

[Benji]

Watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Aside from the visuals, it was okay. I felt empathy for the prince, but aside from him and Bilbo I didn't much care about anything else in the film. The dwarves were somewhat amusing in their buffoonery, but it got tired fast, and I honestly couldn't name a single one of them if I tried (except Gloin, but I don't know which one he is, just that he's Gimli's dad). Oh, and I am so sick of Deus ex Machina Gandalf it's unreal. Nowhere near as good as any of the LOTR films.

[ZJ Penn]

Godzilla was brilliant. Absolutely loved it. The first film that made me wish I'd seen it in 3D instead.

[GoGo Yubari]

3D is really just a distraction in it.

[apsham]

I'm really against anything that's not either animated or shot with 3D camera - otherwise it's pointless. Even the cinematographer for the movie spoke out against it, eh.