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Godzilla 2014: Rumors, Pix and filming

Here's a question...

Take the name Godzilla off the 98 movie and look at it as a basic monster movie. How good is it really? I think a significant part of the dislike towards this movie stems from people hating it because they see it as unfaithful to the original Godzilla movies. When I saw it, having never seen any Godzilla before, I quite enjoyed it, as I did not have any preconceptions...
 
I think the '98 movie is a perfectly decent monster movie in its own right. The sticking point is that its title monster isn't really Godzilla. But if you look closely, the movie itself essentially admits that. The creature in the movie gets its name because a Japanese fisherman sees it and calls it "Gojira." Which implies that the Japanese have prior experience with a giant reptilian monster named Gojira/Godzilla. And since the movie's monster is a more recent phenomenon, that implies that there is still a real Godzilla out there that the creature was just mistaken for.

2001's GMK ties into that nicely by having the characters actually talk about a reported and possibly mistaken Godzilla sighting in New York a few years earlier. That was meant as an in-joke dig at the '98 movie, but it also provides a handy reconciliation for the movie.
 
Emmerich's Godzilla movie is pretty bad as movie let along a Godzilla movie. Authority figures are treated like idiots and even cold blooded creatures give off heat especially while outrunning jet helicopters, it's nigh impossible to lose a 70 meter tall monster in New York especially when it causes damage whereever it goes. And the pregnancy test makes no sense, but at least that was explained in the novel for the movie.

Gloverfield is a much better Kaiju movie and it seems to be closer to what we've been hearing about the Legendary movie.
 
^Oh, no! Lack of realism in a kaiju movie? Unprecedented!

There are much worse movies in the Godzilla canon than that one.

I agree, though, the animated series is excellent. The one bad thing about it is that it swiped all the good writers from Men in Black: The Series, which never recovered from the loss.
 
I see there's a new synopsis for the film up on the official website.

The original Legendary Pictures official press release: "An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence."

The new official website version: "From visionary new director Gareth Edwards ("Monsters") comes a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature, when the awe inspiring Godzilla rises to restore balance as humanity stands defenseless."

They aren't mutually exclusive of course, since we've seen Godzilla's actions also result in death in the trailers, but it is interesting how they're marketing it now.
 
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Captain_Amasov said:
I see there's a new synopsis for the film up on the official website.

The original Legendary Pictures official press release: "An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence."

The new official website version: "From visionary new director Gareth Edwards ("Monsters") comes a powerful story of human courage and reconciliation in the face of titanic forces of nature, when the awe inspiring Godzilla rises to restore balance as humanity stands defenseless."

They aren't mutually exclusive of course, since we've seen Godzilla's actions also result in death in the trailers, but it is interesting how they're marketing it now.
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Interesting. I pondered earlier whether the (mutos?) might be an Area 51-type experiment or side-effect, and this seems to lend a little credence.

More importantly, so happy with the 'balance' line, as the Godzilla I love is the force of nature who defends his turf, even if some buildings get stomped on in the process.
 
bigdaddy said:
Christopher said:
^Oh, no! Lack of realism in a kaiju movie? Unprecedented!
Click to expand...

I want everything destroyed, even Godzilla in a suit destroyed full buildings.
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That was the problem with the 98 film. The military did more destruction than Godzilla, and there was no radioactive breath. Two basic things, all I really ask for in a Godzilla movie. The rest I didn't mind, apart from those two, I enjoyed it. Godzilla, though, must be an engine of absolute devastation. That was not what the Big G was in that film.
 
bigdaddy said:
I want everything destroyed, even Godzilla in a suit destroyed full buildings.
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Not invariably. I recall one or two Japanese Godzilla movies where the big guy left a hole in the middle of a building. (Although that is, of course, a structural impossibility. Buildings aren't made that way; they depend on load-bearing structures directly underneath, so if you take those away, the whole thing collapses.)

The thing is, skyscrapers have gotten progressively taller over the past 60 years, so even with Godzilla himself getting bigger (and smaller, and bigger again), he's still shorter than a lot of modern buildings.



Gov Kodos said:
That was the problem with the 98 film. The military did more destruction than Godzilla, and there was no radioactive breath. Two basic things, all I really ask for in a Godzilla movie. The rest I didn't mind, apart from those two, I enjoyed it. Godzilla, though, must be an engine of absolute devastation. That was not what the Big G was in that film.
Click to expand...

As we've established, the film works much better if you accept that its featured monster is not Godzilla, just a separate kaiju that some people mistook for Godzilla. That way, you don't have to hold it to the same set of expectations.
 
Christopher said:
Gov Kodos said:
That was the problem with the 98 film. The military did more destruction than Godzilla, and there was no radioactive breath. Two basic things, all I really ask for in a Godzilla movie. The rest I didn't mind, apart from those two, I enjoyed it. Godzilla, though, must be an engine of absolute devastation. That was not what the Big G was in that film.
Click to expand...

As we've established, the film works much better if you accept that its featured monster is not Godzilla, just a separate kaiju that some people mistook for Godzilla. That way, you don't have to hold it to the same set of expectations.
Click to expand...
I thought we established that different people want different things.

Christopher said:
Different people want different things.
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I don't recall that "we" reached any broad agreement about the '98 film, except that a lot of us were let down by it. For some of us, though, like me, it didn't work on any level.
 
I don't think the problems with 98 film are simply due to the fact that Godzilla wasn't Godzilla-ish enough. The fact that the whole bit with the baby zillas felt a warmed-over, watered-down, less scary rehash of the velociraptor sequences in the Jurassic Park movies didn't help. Plus, a general reluctance to let the monsters actually kill people onscreen compromised the film. Hell, even Sharktopus gets to eat people onscreen, so why pull your punches with Godzilla?

Plus, with the possible exception of the French secret agent, the human characters weren't all that interesting or appealing. Has the actress who played the female lead had a starring role since? I can't even remember her name--and am not motivated to look it up! :)
 
Given that the creature ate fish, why would it hunt humans? They even make a point to say that the only reason the babies were going after the people was because they smelled of fish.
 
Tiberius said:
Given that the creature ate fish, why would it hunt humans? They even make a point to say that the only reason the babies were going after the people was because they smelled of fish.
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But what's the point of making a monster movie if the monster only wants to eat fish?

"Omigod, it's going to destroy us . . . oh, never mind. Turns out it just wants some tuna."

That's like making a James Bond movie where the villain just wants to stay home, drink wine, and pet his cat . . . . :)
 
Tiberius said:
Here's a question...

Take the name Godzilla off the 98 movie and look at it as a basic monster movie. How good is it really? I think a significant part of the dislike towards this movie stems from people hating it because they see it as unfaithful to the original Godzilla movies. When I saw it, having never seen any Godzilla before, I quite enjoyed it, as I did not have any preconceptions...
Click to expand...

I agree. My experience with that one at the theater really stank. I literally fell asleep exhausted from trying to bang this square peg into my classic Godzilla continuity, (not the film-makers fault, that's on me.)

Then I revisited it years later, just letting it be it's own thing and had a much better time. Most notable, it did eventually manage to make me feel similar emotions as I have for the original Godzilla. I finally noticed he was in there, in the eyes and the attitudes. When he croaked, it was niagara falls! :mallory:
 
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