TALKBACK: Godzilla (2014) - (OBVIOUS SPOILER DISCUSSION)

[planetxleader]

[Dorkzilla]

That Steve Ryfle article started up a lot of "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" over at TK.

[Henry88]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

I had a feeling a lot of what we call The Old Guard wouldn't like the new Godzilla movie, for whatever reason. Steve Ryfle not liking it, does not surprise me. August liking it, somewhat surprised me but not too much. I'm curious what the folks over at the Xenorama zine were expecting a supergrimdarksuperseriousnofunatall Godzilla movie, but we basically got a Stealth Showa Godzilla film.

And then theres folks who from the beginning said

"No matter what it is, I won't like it."

"It's not Godzilla unless its Japanese"

Those kind of people will never ever be convinced, ever.

[Gojira-2000]

Speaking of nuclear bomb testing; I hadn't realised that they'd performed quite so many tests, and this video only goes up to 1998:

[william newell]

Well, saw this for the second time tonight and I have to say I'm glad I didn't post after my first viewing as my opinion of the film has made an almost complete 180. On my first viewing, I was honestly disappointed and had no real interest in seeing it again. Boy, am I glad I convinced myself to give it another chance. It still has flaws, but they sure seemed more minimal this time out. Gotta say though, Godzilla still comes off more "Gamera-esque" than how I think of him. One example was the Golden Gate bridge scene. Once the military began firing on him I fully expected Godzilla to pull an '85 maneuver and torch everything on the bridge and surrounding area as I always picture him as the type that when he's attacked, he immediately retaliates. I also think that had they stuck with the original synopsis, with the MUTO's being some sort of genetic experiment gone awry, the whole "Man's arrogance in thinking he can control nature" theme would have come across a little clearer. Really though, for a first time effort, It was pretty amazing and I can't wait to see it again! As for Mr. Ryfle's view of the film, while I do respect his writing on the subject, his opinion of the use of the atomic bomb is more than a little revisionist and goes against what an actual invasion of the home islands would have resulted in. This is based on testimony from many Japanese who stated that had the U.S. invaded, it would have been an horrific bloodbath as the vast majority of the populace was more than willing to fight to the last man/woman/child for the Emperor. And had the U.S. chosen not to invade and simply boycotted the islands, given their depleted resources, there would have been a vast majority of the populace dying from starvation. Now, I'm not saying that dropping the bomb(s) was a good thing (nothing about war ever is) but the alternative would have been far worse for all involved. But enough of history, bring on the sequel!

[Henry88]

[Gman2887]

[Dorkzilla]

Ugh, why can't more critics be like this?

http://youtu.be/tY0VuIt4YNw

[KaijuKid]

[Godzilla21]

[BrollySupersj]

Saw it again tonight. Still enjoyed it, just wish there was a bit more.

[Gman2887]

I respect Ryfle and I don't find his interpretation necessarily off by the way he writes it. It's interesting, but I think he's twisting the new movie to be an anti-anti-nuclear proliferation film. He assumes it needs to be like the original film in order to honor Godzilla and/or mean anything.

That's fine if people were disappointed, or didn't like the movie, but to blame any film for not delivering a package it wasn't trying to send is oddly short sighted. The nuclear themes are there, but they're nuanced-- back-themes to the main story and action. This is much like the 59 years of Godzilla movies that followed the original. There's nothing wrong with that either. Most of the movies used their anti-nuclear themes as a springboard for characters and visuals-- others didn't even mention it.

The point is it worked for many of those movies and it works here. To condemn it for that is to practically condemn the rest of the series. That includes Honda's other films. (Which, I may add, have no worse titles for monsters and spaceships than the acronym for M.U.T.O.)

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

Ryfle's criticisms of the 70s Showa films is not new, so in a sense its kind of consistent with his criticism for the new movie.

[GFan]

I REALLY wish they had offered this movie in standard IMAX! The 3-D gimmick, as I expected, added nothing to the film except eye-fatigue and glare, which is a pity 'cause otherwise it would have been glorious in large-format. It felt so good when the audience erupted in applause after the final kill, Godzilla diserved it! Looking forward to my 4th screening.

[Cookie]

Variety released a article that stated that its not 450 that's the aim, but 380 million is when profit will be obtained.

Watched it a second time. Man, it flowed so much better this time around. The crowd was fantastic!

[Godzilla 2000]

[Kailem]

If the nuking of Godzilla in the opening sequence had been successful, the world would have ended up covered in Mutos and humanity would likely have been wiped out, or forced to nuke the entire planet to stop them, because he wouldn't have been around to beat them. The male Muto effectively turned a large part of Japan into a wasteland (even though it wasn't actually radioactive, the effect was still the same) because it was drawn to the nuke plant to feed, and the female Muto grew stronger by feeding on all the nuclear waste that was locked up in Nevada. The military didn't listen to Serizawa's pleas to find a way to stop the Mutos that didn't involve the use of nuclear weapons, and about the terrible effects they inevitably have on humanity, and they nearly wiped out San Francisco as a result, with Godzilla's intervention proving to be the key to that not ultimately happening.

I do agree with some of the points he makes there, but I also agree with Gman in that the anti-nuclear themes are clearly there, they're just not as overt/'the entire point of the film in the first place' as they were with the original, because six decades on, not only are those themes just not as current anymore as they were back then (though they're certainly still relevant), but Godzilla as a character and the way we think of him has evolved since then as well.

To go back to a couple of points made earlier on, Jelly put it that this film is almost like a combination of the multiple eras of Godzilla, and I definitely agree with that. And there's been mention of the way Godzilla was portrayed in the movie itself being different to how the marketing alluded he would be portrayed. I was certainly surprised by how much of an outright hero he was shown to be as that's not what I was expecting at all from the trailers and interviews and stuff, but that's not a bad thing.

At this point, after nearly 30 Toho movies over many decades, there are multiple different versions of Godzilla, and I find them all valid parts of his overall legacy. A heroic Showa Godzilla is just as valid to me as the original's spectre of nuclear holocaust, so I didn't at all dislike that they simply went a different route to the one I was expecting, because to me the heroic Godzilla they went with here is still Godzilla just as much as his anti-hero or 'ambivalent force of nature' or any of the other incarnations we've seen before, and I certainly don't hold anything against the movie because of that.

[Shokara]

Steve Ryfle's article makes me really interested in hearing what David Kalat thought of the movie. Kalat's known loving and defending sillier entries of the Godzilla series where Godzilla is the good guy. However, he also studiously analyzes and critically appreciates the more serious movies, an example being his audio commentaries on the Criterion Collection DVD and BD releases of both the Japanese and American versions of the original movie.

[Gyaos1965]

Does Ryfle really believe that the Japanese people weren't prepared to fight with every ounce of energy they had if we had invaded?

What an idiot.

Everything is seen through a prism of liberal politics with the guy.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[Gwangi]

[Gyaos1965]

[davezilla]

I'm still at a lost for the fans who are hating on this film. This is by far a more classic Godzilla film than GINO. I guess at this point I have to ask, what do these people want? To me it seems they all want a remake of the original Godzilla but with a bigger budget and effects. Why? What would be the point of that? No more remakes, no more origin stories. They aren't needed. We know who Godzilla is, let's get on with the story.

[Henry88]

$136,205,000
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id ... la2012.htm