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

[Jorzilla]

In continuation of my complaints against this movie. After re-watching this film, I did take extensive notes of questions that I ended up walking away with. I doubt I'll post them for awhile, if ever.

However here's one thing I HOPE they DO NOT DO in the next Godzilla film.

People keep posting two scenes on social media:

Godzilla's roar at the airport.

Godzilla's roar in Chinatown.


That got me thinking. Seriously, how starved for content is this movie that Godzilla literally doing one of the most basic things he could do in a film, is a major set piece and SPFX sequence in this movie, not once, but twice?

That's an excessive amount of teasing for that to be impactful. It's anbother one of those reasons I feel this movie isn't going to hold up, because honestly the scenes are rather...boring for the most point.


In a similar vein, Godzilla's breath is treated the same way. Once again, this is a pretty key staple of the franchise, yet they hold off for it for so long, and build it up with this low hum, that people love it and it was considered a MAJOR spoiler of this film. Sure, a lot of the Godzilla films are beam happy...I don't deny that. However, Godzilla roaring and Godzilla shooting fire out of his mouth: arguably the most iconic elements of these films outside of the monster kills. I'm not a fan of this approach, and I hope it changes.

[jellydonut25]

I think people are posting those pics because they're the easy money-shots to pull from the film without much effort at all...

...kinda like how you only see the same few pics for GvsKG (the cows, the strangle) or GMK. People are just being lazy, AND few people even have the movie to start gathering other high resolution pics. I can remember a handful of other shots that I think would be pretty cool that I haven't seen yet...

where are the pics of Godzilla smashing the male with his tail?
or the shots of him pushing the female through the buildings?
or the various breath shots?
or etc etc etc?

People just like the easy money shots because they're "cool" for memes...

As for the breath, I'm actually quite happy he only used it sparingly, for multiple reasons, and that's one thing that I certainly hope continues, no matter how much I'd like to see some more monster action.

[walshiam]

If the film disappoints you that much, Jorzy, why even bother discussing it anymore?

[Jorzilla]

[jellydonut25]

[Benjamin Haines]

[HannibalBarca]

Would have been nice if they had teased it instead of having it come out of nowhere, though. Reminds me of that sword in Pacific Rim.

[Jorzilla]

My issue with the atomic breath is they treat it on par with the Mana-Beam in Gamera 2. Except this isn't some kind of special, super ability for Godzilla, and a weapon like the mana beam is considerably more powerful than Godzilla 2014's breath attack.

...Also his tail lights up.

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

I would like to comment on the Godzilla picture in this discussion.

I like his fire/breath in this movie because it is a special weapon but it isn't the nuclear holocaust we have seen in previous entries so we as fans (or non fans) don't have to say, "Why bother clawing and biting when you can just vaporize your enemy instantly."

Don't get me wrong, the Femuto was clearly not enjoying it but he didn't just point it at her and she blew up. It required some skill on his part.

[Gojira-2000]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Jorzilla]

[jellydonut25]

Godzilla's first use of his breath is treated like a pretty big deal in a few of the movies (Godzilla 2000 immediately springs to mind), I don't get why it's a bad thing to treat it like an important ability...ESPECIALLY in an origin story.

And "the tail lights up" is so nitpicky, it doesn't even merit discussion. If you have such preconceived notions of what Godzilla NEEDS to be, then of COURSE you were going to dislike this.

[Jorzilla]

Aside from the fact that EVERYONE has an idea of how Godzilla should look and act in a given film, this is not me just saying that the film failed to live up to my expectations. Rather, it'su general unimpressedness with what we actually got.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Jorzilla]

I've made my point considering this is an analogy alone and I'm no expert on X-men, and searching for a perfect example is not something I am going to do. As a Godzilla fan his ability to breathe fire is common and well known, and I think most of the Millennium films strike a nice balance, with GMK being a film that comes top of mind especially. Using it more frequently and earlier definitely would have been nice. I also think it's an ability that doesn't need to be addressed and hyped up, rather something that he can just do.

[Legion]

[jellydonut25]

I guess it's not possible that it's actually just a good moment in the film that is built up to nicely with good atmosphere and ultimately the reveal...

"It's all about the emotion of the scene." I don't even understand that complaint...how is that even a complaint? Like 90% of the scenes in movies that I like are about the emotion I'm made to feel when watching them.

I mean, you guys really hate the movie THAT much that now you're complaining about the things you actually LIKED? That's insane.

[MouthForWar]

Regarding the breath and its "reveal", its also worth noting that about 80-90% of the audience for this movie had most likely never seen a Godzilla movie before and had never actually seen him breath his blue fire. So why not build up to it? Not everybody is a spoiled fan that has seen the weapon in action umpteen times. Its like saying that Superman: The Movie and all subsequent Superman reboots are wasting their time by building up to his first flight scene. What a silly thing to say. Are we not allowed to let the casual movie goers have some cool moments?

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

I think the Mutos were probably the coolest monsters created for a Godzilla film in quite a long time. Uninteresting? How? Even Japanese audiences liked them, given the amount of fanart they get on Pixiv.

[The Shadow]

[MouthForWar]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

That was pretty much my experience, all seven times I went to see it. "What's happening?" "What's he going to do?" My brother and mom knew what was coming. But hearing a lot of other people wondering was pretty cool to see.

Seriously, "his tail lighted up" wtf?

[KingKaiju]

I don't see the problem with the treatment of his nuclear breath. I LOVED IT! I use to enjoy the Heisei Dragonball Z style beam fights, but it gets boring and bland quick. You see in movies like GMK, G2k, GxMG/GMMG, GFW, and even in the original one, that even though he uses it more frequently than he did in the 2014 film, it's still treated as a special ability. For example, look at how he uses it in G2K, sure it's not the be-all-end-all weapon, but it's a special and unique ability he has that heavily damages his opponents. We see a similar thing with GMK and GFW, hell in GxMG and GMMG they specifically build MechaGodzilla so that he's able to withstand Godzilla's ray, that has to tell you something. It's a special trait in that it's a unique trait, and not one that's special because it destroys everything, but it's Godzilla's special ability. That's one reason why I get kind of turned off at the heisei series at times, EVERYONE and their damn mama has energy beams. Whereas before everyone had their own unique ability, Rodan flies at super fast speeds that produce destructive sonic booms that can destroy cities, Mothra can use her scales to produce a poison that confuses her opponent, King Ghidorah has three heads that can shoot gravity beams, MechaGodzilla is decked out in weapons, Titanosaurus can produce hurricane winds with his tail, Hedorah can change it's shape, fire beams from it's eyes, fire sludge, fly, etc., and the list goes on and one. You get the point.

[Gojira-2000]

I did see one person complain on tumblr about this scene, but it was because Godzilla had stupid magical blue fire shooting out of his mouth. The general impression I got was that the only Godzilla film they'd seen was the '98 version, and that they didn't like this remake of it. Saying that, I've come across a few comments thinking this was a remake of the '98 version.