Godzilla (2014) Part Three (NON-SPOILER DISCUSSION)

[HannibalBarca]

If no one says "Godzilla" in a movie called Godzilla, I'll riot.

[Baltan II]

The end of that quote more or less makes it clear that the name will be used at some point that makes sense, rather than not use it at all or constantly dropping his name in the film.

[Jorzilla]

I want to clarify something I said about this design a few pages back when I said people like this design because it's new. What I was actually getting at is that it's hard to be objective about this design right now because it is inherently tied to the excitement related to the new film.

I am super pumped to see Godzilla on screen. I think 99% of Godzilla fans are excited just the same. My point is, and this varies on a case-by-case basis, is that in general I think fans are willing to accept or at least ignore things that they might not like about movie for the sake of remaining positive because we are finally going to see Godzilla on the big screen again. In this regards, it's no different than the amount of push back I got when criticizing what I didn't like about monster designs or plot elements for GFW prior to its release. You see it in this thread now: There's pressure on people to stop acting what is perceived to be whiny and entitled when it comes to anything related to the new film, or, in the past the Critereon release. Even if a person agrees with the criticism, there is definitely a aura that says 'Shut up about it already, you are making us look bad.'

My point is this: it's going to take a few years of this movie to be in Godzilla canon before it can be effectively measured against the rest of Godzilla's filmography. In my own experiences I remember hating GMK when I first saw it, learning to love it as a top 5 film, only to see it slide once again to a position I am more comfortable with.

I am really excited to see how this design, plot, effects work, entertainment value, etc., is perceived over the next 5 to 10 years, because as it stands now i don't think it's really possible for either side to be completely objective about it. As it stands now I can't help but shake my head at people who are claiming this will be their favorite Godzilla movie of all time, or even top 3 (not necessarily here, but on reddit and Facebook definitely).

[Gojiraknight]

[Gojira-2000]

[HannibalBarca]

The problem is, not using "Godzilla," or "Gojira" (which I'd be fine with) makes a lot less sense from a dialogue and writing perspective than not using "Superman" in Man of Steel. You can call "Superman" other things to make it unambiguous as to who you're referring to: Kal-El or Clark Kent. What are we suppose to call Godzilla? The creature, the monster? There are other monsters in this movie so that doesn't seem especially intuitive. Just saying, if our only definite nod to "Godzilla" is someone saying it "once, in passing," I'm gonna be really disappointed.

[Showa Mothra]

Holy crap, it's been a while since I've posted in these forums! I too am greatly anticipating the movie but was disappointed that I "spoiled" myself when I stumbled upon information regarding a possible, additional monster. Damn it, I was looking forward to be surprised! No matter, I'm sure I'll still be blown away.

[BrollySupersj]

If they don't call him "Godzilla" outright, I will be pretty disappointed. I really hope they didn't go forward with that.

[The_Terminated]

So this is life on the outside... You've all gotten so old..

[Jorzilla]

I actually don't mind if they never call him by his name outright. They never call Jaws, Jaws, in the movie. Gareth said it was an inspiration for the film. I also can understand how awkward it can be giving it a name. One of the major complaints from general audiences I've heard for the 1998 movie is the naming sequence is so damn awkward.

The original Godzilla worked because of the Odo Island sequence. Without something like that you are going to need to have an awkward military sequence to spell it out, even GMK did the 'code name' thing. Pacific Rim is the same way, they just had to have some guy say "Okay, this one is called X or Y." When you are world building on an origin film saying the name on screen is going to be awkward for something that can't self identify. Godzilla isn't going to turn to Cranston at one point and say, "I am Godzilla, destroyer of worlds."

If I were Edwards I probably would have kept the Odo Island mythos origin intact. Since it's obvious Serizawa's character knows about Godzilla for the last 60 years, whatever organization he's a part of would have likely named it. Could be summed up as easily as him talking to Cranston and saying, "After we tried to kill the monster we decided to study it. In our research found a legend on Odo island that was very fitting: a monster that breathed fire and wrecked villages when angry." End of story, military calls the monster Godzilla.

I just hope they don't run out of pronouns to explain what's happening or when referring to the monster.

[lhb412]

I was actually thinking about the name thing the other day. With all the craziness of Godzilla actually showing up for the first time I imagine he'd be nameless for a while. 'Gojira' may be his codename to the top brass, but it could be a while before that leaks out.

... and if it leaks out and spreads on social media all over the world I can imagine the word being corrupted and ending up as 'Godzilla.'

[HannibalBarca]

The difference being that neither the book, nor the movie, indicated that we were ever supposed to explicitly think of the Shark as being called "Jaws." Godzilla has a pretty long history of being called, well, Godzilla. As a fan, I sort of expect that we at least get to hear "Godzilla" in a new Godzilla movie.

[lhb412]

Remember how Iron Man wasn't dubbed 'Iron Man' until the last minute of the movie?

[GFan]

I wouldn't mind them not calling him "Godzilla" in the movie, I think it would be pretty bad-ass actually, though I'm sure they will figure some clever way of doing it in the finished version. I love how they did it in MAN OF STEEL.

[HannibalBarca]

[Kailem]

Shiny.

[Showa Mothra]

In less than two months the new movie will already be here! Oh God(zilla), is it May 16th yet?

[Draconis]

How smart will this Godzilla be? I think a bear level of intelligence would work as they are actually pretty smart, trainable in fact. Godzilla though would not be trainable in the same way though but they could possibly learn to entice him into going to and or avoiding certain area's or ships in latter movies. It would be a management strategy since they can't kill him.

[Jorzilla]

Just refer to Godzilla as Gigantis the entire film. Problem solved.

The problem with an American audience looking at the word Gojira is that it's usually pronounced as a Westerner as "Go-jeer-ahh" which sounds nothing like Godzilla.

A Japanese person pronouncing it, due to the ji/zi and the r/l sound, pronounces it more like "Go-jzi-dra," which sounds very similar to Godzilla, if not a heavily accented one. In that regards, the 1956 name originally created is a very good approximation of the Japanese word for a western audience. It's no wonder that Toho picked up Godzilla as the official secondary/non-Japanese name. That is to say, you log into godzilla.co.jp not gojira.co.jp.

If an American Military figure gets on air and says, "Go-jeer-ahh" in the movie, there almost no believability around the mishearing of the word. You basically would need a Japanese character say it first, then have an American say Godzilla since it's easier to pronounce on a western tongue.

Tangentially related, I get frustrated when I see non-fans but geeks say something along the lines of Gojira being a combination of Gorilla and Whale, and that somehow making Godzilla a bad translation of the original meaning. Godzilla is a totally made up word, so I have no issues with them going from a Gojira>Godzilla pronunciation on film.

[jellydonut25]

I don't feel STRONGLY about it...but they really should call him Godzilla. I mean, just do the whole, "Godzilla is the name of a Japanese legend" thing. Boom. Easy. Done.

As to Jorzilla's post about "newness" I still disagree. It's not unfeasible to think some people LIKE the design. I think the number of people who love (or hate, for that matter) the design JUST because it's new and/or JUST because it's associated with a new (American) production isn't that prevalent. Those people (on both sides) certainly are among the most vocal, but the rest of us (on both sides) like (or dislike) it for actual reasons having to do with its appearance and how that appeals (or doesn't) to our sensibilities.


OH and BTW, I think there's only ONE monster design in all of GFW that isn't good, and this is now ten years after the fact. King Seesar is awful-looking though.

[Destroysall]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[Kailem]

From the wording of it it sounds like he will indeed be named "Godzilla" at some point in the movie, though I could understand why they thought about perhaps leaving the name unsaid. If a giant creature appeared today and started wreaking havoc it'd probably be a while before it was given a name and wasn't just referred to as "an enormous creature", "it", "giant monster" etc. A lot of times in superhero movies these days certain characters names' go unspoken too, but yeah, given that he's the title character and there's so much history there, I'd certainly prefer ho hear the name at some point, and I expect we will.

Honestly I'd have no problem if they just do what they did in the '98 one, just have a Japanese character call him "Gojira" after a mythical giant monster and have some western character think he said "Godzilla", just with a Japanese accent, since it'd be an easy leap to make.

[The_Terminated]

So this is life on the outside... You've all gotten so old.

[jellydonut25]