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

[Benjamin Haines]

Ken Watanabe's "We call him... Gojira" is my favorite line in the movie.

[Jorzilla]

"How did you get cake on your eye ball?"

[Gohi]

Flashback: Is Godzilla the John Carter of 2014?
In an article from January, this know-it-all is 100% certain Godzilla will bomb. It's so great that he's been completely proven wrong.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangl ... r-of-2014/

[daikaijusaurus]

[daikaijusaurus]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Gojiraknight]

[Gojiraknight]

[daikaijusaurus]

[lhb412]

"Godzilla" was the official English title Toho gave the film before the American distributors bought it. He has had no other name in English.

[QBASS]

[QBASS]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[gfan1984]

Here's a video for the Godzilla Statue in Japan, pretty cool too, with the light show at night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbFAFVqwEck

[Jorzilla]

On reddit, someone posted a video of all of Godzilla's scenes in the new movie. It's 9.5 minutes of footage. About 7.7% of the films total run time.

These characters cannot hold interest in this film in the long run (subsequent viewings in future years). I am going to re-iterate what I said earlier about this film: This movie is going to be remembered as boring once something better has been released.

[walshiam]

If the producers are keen to realize the films weaknesses pointed out by the critics, I expect Godzilla 2 will be much better.

[lhb412]

I think that civilization will soon crumble and Godzilla '14 will be the only surviving film, worshiped by every human being as the greatest single thing that has ever existed.

[walshiam]

Could happen with the way things are going down the drain these days.

[canofhumdingers]

Regarding the anglicization of Gojira into Godzilla, I remember hearing this somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was in one of the commentaries on the Criterion bluray but maybe it was on the old Classic Media set.

Anyway, they basically talked about how there is more than one romanized version if the Japanese language. The one most commonly used today renders the Japanese syllables in his name as Go Ji Ra. But there's another old one that's not widely used anymore (but isn't any "less correct" so to speak) that would render the same syllables as Go Dzi La. So take Godzila, add an L and there you have the official international name.

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

I wonder what percentage of the film's run-time Batman spends in his Bat suit in the various Christopher Nolan films...based on percentages, I bet those movies basically suck.

It's fine to not like the movie, but let's not act like it's ONLY because Godzilla's not on-screen a ton.

The same people who wanted a more nuanced, emotional, hard-hitting film also apparently wanted nothing but Godzilla stomping stuff for 45 minutes.

[Gojiraknight]

Again, it wasn't the absence of Godzilla so much as the absence of anything else interesting.

Had there been more Bryan Cranston, or had the MUTOs been more compelling adversaries, or had Ford not been Zzzz, there wouldn't be these complaints.

Still, 7.7% seems a little chincy.

[msweets13]

[jellydonut25]

I think the directing was good to great. This film's biggest issue by far was the script first and foremost. Acting second (and that's only because of one character, otherwise the acting was actually pretty top-notch). Score third.

And in that vein, I'm pretty willing to give much of the film's cast and crew a pass...this is Borenstein's first movie, Edwards's second...the only people I don't want to see attached to Godzilla 2 are Aaron Taylor Johnson and Alexandre Desplat. ESPECIALLY Desplat. Get me a composer that can craft a score that's MEMORABLE (I'm not saying Desplat is bad...he's done plenty of fine work...NOTHING memorable).
I won't freak out if ATJ is back on board because I'll hold out hope that it means they think the human story has been told and they can focus less on the Brody family (kinda like how I always say that if Tokyo SOS had brought back the cast from the first one, I wouldn't mind at all that the human drama is atrocious).

[walshiam]