New Godzilla Movie

[terminoob]

Good way or bad way?

 

Very bad way.

 

Bryan Cranston was the only redeeming quality as far as the humans go, which was disappointing to me because I normally like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. I'll spoiler tag my thoughts/play by play of the movie.

 

Spoiler

 

First off, I should give credit where credit is due. The third act was phenomenal. Right after the team halo drops into San Francisco until the end of the movie it was non-stop action, and it was done really really well. While I was having a hard time believing something the size of Godzilla would have trouble fighting the two MUTOs (especially the smaller one), it was still fantastic and exhilarating. The tail-smash, the explosion, and the final death (which was more or less a more violent version of the final fight in How to Train Your Dragon); it was all great. I cared about Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character for the first time in the whole movie, and I was immensely invested in Godzilla even though until that point he had maybe a minute or two of screentime.

 

However, that's pretty much all the good this movie had (Bryan Cranston notwithstanding). After Cranston's character bows out, it's just dull. The plot is trying to get us invested in these humans, and it probably would've worked if the plot made any sense at all.

 

Ken Watanabe's character and his group of people are harboring a kaiju egg (because even though it can feed off radiation and is more or less an EMP, there's no downside to having it in their backyard), and Bryan Cranston's character tells them to get rid of it because, hey, it feeds off radiation and is more or less an EMP (who knew that was a bad thing?). They "kill" it by cracking the egg open (great way to make sure you don't want the thing inside the egg getting outside), and then because they cracked the egg open the thing inside the egg gets outside the egg (who knew that could happen?). The kaiju (dubbed "MUTO"; the "T" is for terrestrial, even though it can fly) wrecks shit and then flies away. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character tells Watanabe's character that Cranston's character (you can tell I was invested in these guys) was studying echolocation and that the kaiju in the egg was making noise and something was answering it. Watanabe explains that it's almost probably maybe Godzilla, and then he explains that Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world.

 

Okay, you see that last part? The part where he explains that Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? Remember that part, because no one else in this movie will.

 

Taylor-Johnson's character is sent on some boring adventure to Hawaii, which includes a really stupid subplot of him giving a kid an action figure. At this point, we now have Watanabe's character with one part of the military, while Taylor-Johnson is with another part. And, in classic romantic-comedy fashion, the two parts of the military have serious communication issues. No one really knows what to do with anything, so there's a lot of talking between everyone and nothing really gets done at all except Watanabe's character realizing that Godzilla wasn't the one answering the MUTO, it was a female MUTO (who is also in Nevada, for whatever reason, and also conveniently wakes up and begins to terrorize nothing [because it's in the middle of the desert] right when Watanabe's part of the military arrives to do... something [i don't know what the fuck they thought they were gonna do]).

 

So now there's a male MUTO and a female MUTO and a Godzilla. Remember how Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? No? Don't worry, no one else did either!

 

Watanabe's part of the military decides it's a really good idea to arm a nuclear warhead. BUT, it's not just any nuclear warhead, it's a nuclear warhead whose design is inspired by a skeleton watch. It's not an electrically charged detonator, but instead is powered by magic and two keys. They're plan is to send it out into the middle of the ocean, use the radiation to lure to MUTOs (and Godzilla) to it and then boom goes the dynamite. Great plan! Except you know how Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? Oh, you don't? Well that's what his job is. Watanabe even repeats that, and the general of the army more or less tells him to fuck off.

 

Now, I don't know why he did that. I don't know what was going through his head when he decided that a nuclear warhead would kill two giant monsters better than another giant monster.

 

The irony, of course, is that the male MUTO decides to play kaiju football with the warhead. The humans fumble, so the male MUTO takes the opportunity to steal the warhead and flies it down the 50 yard line and hands it off to the female MUTO, who in turn brings it in for a touchdown right in the heart of San Francisco. It's ironic because it's POWERED BY TWO KEYS AND NOT ELECTRICITY. The kaiju can't EMP it, so it's pretty much just sitting there ready to blow up the entire western seaboard because the military FORGOT THAT GODZILLA IS THE MONSTER THAT RESTORES BALANCE TO THE WORLD.

 

At the end of the movie, there's this huge twist that happens and Godzilla is actually the monster that restores balance to the world. I didn't see that coming at all, honestly.

 

The humans were just running around like chickens with their heads cut off for the entire movie, trying to figure out what to do because they were scared that the world was ending around them. Which is totally understandable, and in the event that giant bugs hatch from giant bug eggs we really don't have any sort of defense against that and we would be really fucking scared. I'd absolutely understand the need for the human plot if Godzilla wasn't stated to be the monster that restores balance to the world. Watanabe's character says that to the general, like I said, and he says "we don't have time to wait for that" and then proceeds to send in a bomb squad to arm a nuclear warhead that will go off in an hour and a half. He doesn't have time for Godzilla, who, by the way, kills the MUTOs in roughly 10 minutes after arriving on the scene, but he has time to wait an hour and a half for a plan that probably won't even work (and guess what? It totally doesn't). If we were kept in the dark about what Godzilla was? Sure! I'd totally buy that plot. But we aren't. If one character specifically states that Godzilla is a hero, then he's probably a hero. For most of the movie he's just chilling in the water, not attacking or hurting anyone unlike the MUTOs, so why would anyone have any reason to doubt that Godzilla was anything other than a hero?

 

Speaking of Godzilla, I think they revealed him way too early. They kept him underwater for so long and just kept referring to him as this monster that I thought it would've been a lot more effective if Godzilla was revealed right at the end of the movie. It'd be more suspenseful, because you wouldn't have anyone to actually fight the MUTOs (which he does prior to the end of the movie by the way, so there's another reason to believe he's a hero) and he'd just be this omnipresent thing underwater that isn't popping up or doing anything, which would actually lend credence to the idea that the military can't wait around for him to do something because he wouldn't be doing anything and that would be a sign that they wouldn't know if he actually will do something or not. They waited until the end of reveal the fire breath, which I thought was great and very well planned, even though it was blue so the way he kills the female MUTO is almost tit-for-tat the same way Toothless and Hiccup kill that dragon in HTTYD.

 

I'm also torn on the decision to make Godzilla a hero. I think I like the idea, but I also think it's become a cliche to subvert cliches and him being a hero was almost less exciting than him being a villain (or at least some sort of neutral party). I get that humans wouldn't be able to stop kaijus, and it would've been ridiculous if they had, but Godzilla being a hero was just... eh. I think him being a hero that doesn't care how he gets things done could've been cool, because then they could've gone into a direction where he ends up killing humans in his attempt to kill the kaijus and then the humans would've been like "shit we need to get rid of these things" (which, again, would've helped that stupid plot of them thinking intervening was a good idea).

 

I think that's all I have to say. I started falling asleep, so I might've missed some stuff, but you can totally just walk out after the first MUTO appears and then come back when the army halo drops into San Francisco and you'd miss absolutely nothing other than the female MUTO waking up and the bomb being armed (keeping in mind that there's about an hour and a half between the first MUTO and the halo drop, and the second MUTO wakes up off-screen and the bomb being armed is one scene of a guy yelling "ONE! TWO! THREE!" and then putting the key in).

 

[Burgerpants]

 

Very bad way.

 

Bryan Cranston was the only redeeming quality as far as the humans go, which was disappointing to me because I normally like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. I'll spoiler tag my thoughts/play by play of the movie.

 

Spoiler

 

First off, I should give credit where credit is due. The third act was phenomenal. Right after the team halo drops into San Francisco until the end of the movie it was non-stop action, and it was done really really well. While I was having a hard time believing something the size of Godzilla would have trouble fighting the two MUTOs (especially the smaller one), it was still fantastic and exhilarating. The tail-smash, the explosion, and the final death (which was more or less a more violent version of the final fight in How to Train Your Dragon); it was all great. I cared about Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character for the first time in the whole movie, and I was immensely invested in Godzilla even though until that point he had maybe a minute or two of screentime.

 

However, that's pretty much all the good this movie had (Bryan Cranston notwithstanding). After Cranston's character bows out, it's just dull. The plot is trying to get us invested in these humans, and it probably would've worked if the plot made any sense at all.

 

Ken Watanabe's character and his group of people are harboring a kaiju egg (because even though it can feed off radiation and is more or less an EMP, there's no downside to having it in their backyard), and Bryan Cranston's character tells them to get rid of it because, hey, it feeds off radiation and is more or less an EMP (who knew that was a bad thing?). They "kill" it by cracking the egg open (great way to make sure you don't want the thing inside the egg getting outside), and then because they cracked the egg open the thing inside the egg gets outside the egg (who knew that could happen?). The kaiju (dubbed "MUTO"; the "T" is for terrestrial, even though it can fly) wrecks shit and then flies away. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character tells Watanabe's character that Cranston's character (you can tell I was invested in these guys) was studying echolocation and that the kaiju in the egg was making noise and something was answering it. Watanabe explains that it's almost probably maybe Godzilla, and then he explains that Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world.

 

Okay, you see that last part? The part where he explains that Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? Remember that part, because no one else in this movie will.

 

Taylor-Johnson's character is sent on some boring adventure to Hawaii, which includes a really stupid subplot of him giving a kid an action figure. At this point, we now have Watanabe's character with one part of the military, while Taylor-Johnson is with another part. And, in classic romantic-comedy fashion, the two parts of the military have serious communication issues. No one really knows what to do with anything, so there's a lot of talking between everyone and nothing really gets done at all except Watanabe's character realizing that Godzilla wasn't the one answering the MUTO, it was a female MUTO (who is also in Nevada, for whatever reason, and also conveniently wakes up and begins to terrorize nothing [because it's in the middle of the desert] right when Watanabe's part of the military arrives to do... something [i don't know what the fuck they thought they were gonna do]).

 

So now there's a male MUTO and a female MUTO and a Godzilla. Remember how Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? No? Don't worry, no one else did either!

 

Watanabe's part of the military decides it's a really good idea to arm a nuclear warhead. BUT, it's not just any nuclear warhead, it's a nuclear warhead whose design is inspired by a skeleton watch. It's not an electrically charged detonator, but instead is powered by magic and two keys. They're plan is to send it out into the middle of the ocean, use the radiation to lure to MUTOs (and Godzilla) to it and then boom goes the dynamite. Great plan! Except you know how Godzilla is the monster that restores balance to the world? Oh, you don't? Well that's what his job is. Watanabe even repeats that, and the general of the army more or less tells him to fuck off.

 

Now, I don't know why he did that. I don't know what was going through his head when he decided that a nuclear warhead would kill two giant monsters better than another giant monster.

 

The irony, of course, is that the male MUTO decides to play kaiju football with the warhead. The humans fumble, so the male MUTO takes the opportunity to steal the warhead and flies it down the 50 yard line and hands it off to the female MUTO, who in turn brings it in for a touchdown right in the heart of San Francisco. It's ironic because it's POWERED BY TWO KEYS AND NOT ELECTRICITY. The kaiju can't EMP it, so it's pretty much just sitting there ready to blow up the entire western seaboard because the military FORGOT THAT GODZILLA IS THE MONSTER THAT RESTORES BALANCE TO THE WORLD.

 

At the end of the movie, there's this huge twist that happens and Godzilla is actually the monster that restores balance to the world. I didn't see that coming at all, honestly.

 

The humans were just running around like chickens with their heads cut off for the entire movie, trying to figure out what to do because they were scared that the world was ending around them. Which is totally understandable, and in the event that giant bugs hatch from giant bug eggs we really don't have any sort of defense against that and we would be really fucking scared. I'd absolutely understand the need for the human plot if Godzilla wasn't stated to be the monster that restores balance to the world. Watanabe's character says that to the general, like I said, and he says "we don't have time to wait for that" and then proceeds to send in a bomb squad to arm a nuclear warhead that will go off in an hour and a half. He doesn't have time for Godzilla, who, by the way, kills the MUTOs in roughly 10 minutes after arriving on the scene, but he has time to wait an hour and a half for a plan that probably won't even work (and guess what? It totally doesn't). If we were kept in the dark about what Godzilla was? Sure! I'd totally buy that plot. But we aren't. If one character specifically states that Godzilla is a hero, then he's probably a hero. For most of the movie he's just chilling in the water, not attacking or hurting anyone unlike the MUTOs, so why would anyone have any reason to doubt that Godzilla was anything other than a hero?

 

Speaking of Godzilla, I think they revealed him way too early. They kept him underwater for so long and just kept referring to him as this monster that I thought it would've been a lot more effective if Godzilla was revealed right at the end of the movie. It'd be more suspenseful, because you wouldn't have anyone to actually fight the MUTOs (which he does prior to the end of the movie by the way, so there's another reason to believe he's a hero) and he'd just be this omnipresent thing underwater that isn't popping up or doing anything, which would actually lend credence to the idea that the military can't wait around for him to do something because he wouldn't be doing anything and that would be a sign that they wouldn't know if he actually will do something or not. They waited until the end of reveal the fire breath, which I thought was great and very well planned, even though it was blue so the way he kills the female MUTO is almost tit-for-tat the same way Toothless and Hiccup kill that dragon in HTTYD.

 

I'm also torn on the decision to make Godzilla a hero. I think I like the idea, but I also think it's become a cliche to subvert cliches and him being a hero was almost less exciting than him being a villain (or at least some sort of neutral party). I get that humans wouldn't be able to stop kaijus, and it would've been ridiculous if they had, but Godzilla being a hero was just... eh. I think him being a hero that doesn't care how he gets things done could've been cool, because then they could've gone into a direction where he ends up killing humans in his attempt to kill the kaijus and then the humans would've been like "shit we need to get rid of these things" (which, again, would've helped that stupid plot of them thinking intervening was a good idea).

 

I think that's all I have to say. I started falling asleep, so I might've missed some stuff, but you can totally just walk out after the first MUTO appears and then come back when the army halo drops into San Francisco and you'd miss absolutely nothing other than the female MUTO waking up and the bomb being armed (keeping in mind that there's about an hour and a half between the first MUTO and the halo drop, and the second MUTO wakes up off-screen and the bomb being armed is one scene of a guy yelling "ONE! TWO! THREE!" and then putting the key in).

 

...

[terminoob]

...

 

There's too much talent floating around Hollywood for bad screenplays to be a problem. If you put all your focus on the humans, then those humans better be damn well-written because if they're not then the movie is going to be terrible and a 10 minute action sequence at the tail end of the movie isn't going to make up for an hour and 50 minutes of shitty writing.

[Doctor Sex]

This movie was pretty boring. The characters were boring except Bryan Cranston and I wish the monsters fighting wasn't so slow yet so brief.

[terminoob]

This movie was pretty boring. The characters were boring except Bryan Cranston and I wish the monsters fighting wasn't so slow yet so brief.

 

I would've been so satisfied with the movie if it knew it was a monster movie. I wanted a stupid plot with easy to understand characters; not a plot trying to be a real plot and failing because it was poorly thought out and being driven by characters with no clear direction at all. Hell, I think the plot they had would've been passable if they just got rid of Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

[dragiiin123]

as a huge godzilla fan i can safely say this movie is a huge dissapointment