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

[Benjamin Haines]

[Dai]

I'm reading an interesting book at the moment called The Unthinkable, which is a study of how people react in disaster situations. The concept of tunnel vision is pretty well known, but it also describes a type of tunnel hearing that some people experience in high-stress situations. Some sounds become amplified, while others, even loud noises, are muted or absent altogether. This made me wonder if that was the effect Edwards was going for during the smoky street scenes that follow the HALO jump, where the noises of the monsters stomping around are curiously absent. It works as a tension-building device in the movie, but I also think we were being shown the events as Ford perceived them.

[Gojiraknight]

[HannibalBarca]

[lhb412]

So my Dad took my three little nephews to see Godzilla yesterday. I was a bit nervous about their reactions because of Godzilla spending an hour off-screen, the reliance on suspense and giving the action sequences room to breath as opposed to the wall-to-wall action. Happy to report that they thought it was great and that Godzilla was awesome!

... though there was a point of contention about Godzilla's trunk-like feat! The oldest singled it out as the only big change to Godzilla's design.


PS - They went to the last theater in the city showing the movie. I wonder when it'll start showing up in second run theaters?

[MouthForWar]

[Gojilove]

Think of this as you will, But Godzilla came in at #1 on Rolling Stone's reader's poll for worst movies of 2014 to this point.
And this list includes, Hercules, RoboCop, Spiderman 2, among other legendary flops....

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictu ... la-0419040

[Mac]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>caring about what other people think

Most people would rather watch a Marvel movie than a Johnnie To flick, it's just how things are.

[Jorzilla]

I think it's a mistake to dismiss a criticism like this as people 'not getting it,' 'who cares about critics' or 'who cares about other opinions.' It's much more constructive to look at why audiences are saying these things.

There are some issues this movie will need to overcome if they want to continue the franchise past another picture. It was a good world building movie, but ultimately it will need an injection of summer action. I don't think the suspense building that was tried this movie will work again. As others have mentioned, the hide-the-monster-trope really works well when you have a constant threat of the creature hiding in the darkness or underwater. A giant monster picture is not really that conductive to this style. I remember people talking about how weird the female MUTO scene was on the bridge that none of the soldiers realized there was a giant monster right behind them. The scene was pretty creepy but it was still a little odd.

I think a human focused picture is a good approach. The characters will need some strengthening to hold people's audiences the monster scenes REALLY need a bump in a sequel. Most Godzilla films are human heavy, but they basically get out of the way for the final act. If the humans are shown it's quick reaction shots to a scene or drama that happens due to the direct result of monster involvement. A good example of this human and monster story working well is Ghidorah the Three Headed monster when Rodan drops Godzilla on the power lines just in time to stop the princess from being killed. Godzilla 2014 on the other hand cut away from the monster action to ramp up the suspense: "Look, Ford's Child is in danger! Looks, Ford's WIFE is in danger, she's crying and holding her head!" It was only after I had seen the movie once and knew what the expect that I could enjoy it more. The first time I was thinking: This is about to get crazy, awesome. Wait, go back. Okay, now it's going to get crazy. Damnit, go back to the monsters!

[daikaijusaurus]

[lhb412]

I don't have any problem with with the 'slow-burn' approach. If the next film is similar in that respect I won't complain.

What the next film does need is a central human character who's more compellingly written, or (and I'd really like this) more emphasis on an ensemble cast like in the Japanese films.

[jellydonut25]

RoboCop, Godzilla and Noah don't belong anywhere near a top 10 worst list when movies like Vampire Academy, That Awkward Moment, The Monuments Men, 3 Days to Kill, Veronica Mars, and others that I never even bothered to see like Ride Along, About Last Night, Endless Love, Son of God, Heaven is for Real, God's Not Dead, Need for Speed, Divergent, The Other Woman, A Haunted House 2, Walk of Shame, Blended, Think Like a Man Too, and Tammy exist.

And this is coming from someone that didn't like RoboCop OR Noah, but I realize there are FAR worse, MUCH more hateable films.

[Gojiraknight]

This list suggests that Godzilla committed a far more egregious sin than simply being bad - it didn't give audiences what they expected.

If you're going into a movie expecting "Greatest Summer Movie Ever!!!" and you leave thinking "That was pretty ok", then that disappointment is liable to escalate as days turn into weeks.

[jellydonut25]

^Disappointing =/= Bad.

I mean, I get that many would interpret it that way, but I was disappointed with Noah. A guy like Aronofsky creating something so vapid, so full of holes, and so utterly ordinary...it's a pretty big disappointment, along with RoboCop I think those are my two biggest disappointments of the year (that I've seen thus far). Neither film is BAD, though.

Hell, I found the Lego Movie slightly disappointing in that I heard how AMAZING it was, and found it to just be very good...I really liked it a lot, but had been hoping to LOVE it. Not gonna put it anywhere NEAR a worst-of list. In fact, if I were to do a top 10 right now, it'd easily be on there somewhere.

I had quite a few rather disappointing films in 2013: Star Trek into Darkness, World War Z, Thor 2, and Elysium...but NONE of them would make a worst-of list for me and I even own three of them.

In the same way, Surprisingly Good doesn't mean GOOD. Riddick was surprisingly good, I wouldn't put it on my top 10 for last year. 300 Rise of an Empire was surprisingly better than I thought it would be...and I still didn't like it much.

[Gojiraknight]

Disappointing does not equal bad...unless you were really looking forward to something, only for it to let you down.

Perhaps we Godzilla fans should take some level of vindication in this. Mainstream American audiences were so desirous (and expectant) that this movie was going be GREAT that when it was only good, they reacted like a jilted lover.

[jellydonut25]

[angilas]

Ok, maybe this should go in the box office thread but if I did it there I'd be double posting, and this may be my last post for a couple weeks due to vacation etc but it seems the Japanese premiere already happened (road show is in two weeks).
Here's pictures and an article on it:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2 ... o-godzilla

Thats a red carpet premiere and a tribute comic released with contributions from some of the top mangaka out there (most of whom Im not aware of working on any ongoing series currently running but still great names).

[daikaijusaurus]

[Gojiraknight]

[Jorzilla]

A reader poll is made of a group of individuals and not critics. A lot of the truly bad movies were not as widely seen as Godzilla.

Godzilla 2014 had the largest opening aside from Captain America (at its release). It stayed at certified fresh, a lot of critics liked it. It had a great marketing campaign. If its one of the handful of movies you are going to watch this year, I can easily see how most disappointing translates into worse.

[Gojiraknight]

[msweets13]

[Benjamin Haines]

[tbeasley]

[lhb412]