assuming there were no live shots in the footage as well, sure.
Movies in some cases are edited right up until the final days before release. In many cases there are finished FX shots which don't make the theatrical cut of a film.
I saw Godzilla
- Thread starter Lookingglassman
- Start date
It'd probably be cheaper than the Fiat commericial though.
I just got back from seeing it. Before I give my thoughts, lets say that there are two ways that you can do a Godzilla film.
A) Cheesy fun with crazy monster action.
B) Intelligent drama with strong human characters.
I was fine with either choice, but they went with Option B. Fair enough. And it starts off so well with Cranston's charactar and his obsession with discovering the "thing" that killed his wife, but when he dies and Shia Labeouf takes over the movie goes to shit. Annoying children are shoved into every scene, characters spout ridiculous exposition/dialogue, and all the human characters are generic cardboard cutouts at best. And even the monster action, which could have been the saving grace of this movie, was too little and what little there was in the film was mostly obscured by darkness and smoke.
Godzilla easily ranks as the worst film that I've seen this year and I doubt that anything will dethrone it. This was a colossal misstep and a complete waste of Cranston's talents. I give it an F.
Although, to say something positive, I don't think that anything in the movie was fundamentally broken. I think that if the human drama was improved (god damn do I hate Ford and his family. I hate them so much!), and there's an actual plot instead of nonsense filler for 90 minutes, we could have had a good movie. For those reasons, despite hating this movie, I am kinda excited for the sequels. The potential is there for them to be awesome.
A) Cheesy fun with crazy monster action.
B) Intelligent drama with strong human characters.
I was fine with either choice, but they went with Option B. Fair enough. And it starts off so well with Cranston's charactar and his obsession with discovering the "thing" that killed his wife, but when he dies and Shia Labeouf takes over the movie goes to shit. Annoying children are shoved into every scene, characters spout ridiculous exposition/dialogue, and all the human characters are generic cardboard cutouts at best. And even the monster action, which could have been the saving grace of this movie, was too little and what little there was in the film was mostly obscured by darkness and smoke.
Godzilla easily ranks as the worst film that I've seen this year and I doubt that anything will dethrone it. This was a colossal misstep and a complete waste of Cranston's talents. I give it an F.
Although, to say something positive, I don't think that anything in the movie was fundamentally broken. I think that if the human drama was improved (god damn do I hate Ford and his family. I hate them so much!), and there's an actual plot instead of nonsense filler for 90 minutes, we could have had a good movie. For those reasons, despite hating this movie, I am kinda excited for the sequels. The potential is there for them to be awesome.
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Not sure if you're kidding, but the lead is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, not Shia LaBeouf. Although I wouldn't be surprised if LaBeouf took credit for it.
And I for one am glad to finally see a movie that acknowledges the amount of dust and smoke that would be kicked up by collapsing buildings. Not to mention that things like fog and dust were used very effectively to set up dramatic reveals. Often good visuals are as much about what you don't see as what you do.
And I for one am glad to finally see a movie that acknowledges the amount of dust and smoke that would be kicked up by collapsing buildings. Not to mention that things like fog and dust were used very effectively to set up dramatic reveals. Often good visuals are as much about what you don't see as what you do.
Yeah, I know. He just reminds me so much of LeBeouf's character in Indiana Jones. The bland action hero role with the super cool dad.
No Horror.
I saw it last night, and while it had some strengths, it failed ultimately due it's lack of horror. They mistook serious for stiff.
I dont buy the Jaws comparison. The first half of Jaws was full of scenes suspenseful and horrific on their own, and tremendous character interactions.
The tacked on moral was too pat. Godzilla is not a AD&D Druid. Should have been about Nature's cruel indifference to us, and any inference of a system behind it a wishful projection.
I felt the military was nearly as inept as they were in the '98 film.
General: "We'll stack the school buses on bridge with the tanks! Using his friendship to all children against him!"
Lieutenant: "I think that's Gamera, sir."
General: Fuck you, Geek! I'm General! Me! Me! Me!"
All human weapons and stratagems should have been shown to be completely useless. Not just small arms fire, which you can kind of guess on your own, without being constantly shown.
I didn't buy the 'don't nuke' argument. We eat cows. That don't make us stampede proof.
It did have some visual flair. The paratrooper drop was magnificent, and the kid watching it unfold on TV, while his Mom tuned it out was cute.
I saw it last night, and while it had some strengths, it failed ultimately due it's lack of horror. They mistook serious for stiff.
I dont buy the Jaws comparison. The first half of Jaws was full of scenes suspenseful and horrific on their own, and tremendous character interactions.
The tacked on moral was too pat. Godzilla is not a AD&D Druid. Should have been about Nature's cruel indifference to us, and any inference of a system behind it a wishful projection.
I felt the military was nearly as inept as they were in the '98 film.
General: "We'll stack the school buses on bridge with the tanks! Using his friendship to all children against him!"
Lieutenant: "I think that's Gamera, sir."
General: Fuck you, Geek! I'm General! Me! Me! Me!"
All human weapons and stratagems should have been shown to be completely useless. Not just small arms fire, which you can kind of guess on your own, without being constantly shown.
I didn't buy the 'don't nuke' argument. We eat cows. That don't make us stampede proof.
It did have some visual flair. The paratrooper drop was magnificent, and the kid watching it unfold on TV, while his Mom tuned it out was cute.
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If this movie had been released in 1975 it would have been seen as more suspenseful. No movie other than Alien (1978) has scared the crap out of me.
It's just all been done too many times.
I thought the different take of "the ultimate alpha male preditor" and "restoring natures balance" was a good one.
The military is ALL monster movies is a joke.
But we only got small arms because of the EMP capabilities of MUTO.
I've heard some grumblings about that but I'm with you. It was visually epic. Reminded me of Prometheous.
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I know it's Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but his whole demeanor just screamed "Ryan Lochte" to me.
I don't know who that is.
MovieBob has a review up for the film. He liked the film much more than I did, but his criticisms mirror mine almost exactly. It's only 6 minutes, so I think it's worth watching.
EDITED TO ADD:
RedLetterMedia's Half in the Bag just posted a review for the new film too. I haven't seen it yet, but I love those guys. Excellent reviewers.
EDITED TO ADD:
RedLetterMedia's Half in the Bag just posted a review for the new film too. I haven't seen it yet, but I love those guys. Excellent reviewers.
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Yeah I think the amount of smoke and dust was appropriate, but having the scenes also set at night often made things a little too dark and murky for my taste. Especially in that final battle, which was so dark and moody that it resembled something more out of a mythical fantasy than something set in the real world (which I realize might have been the director's intention).
Good, then it doesn't affect your perception of the movie
I think that muddiness harkens back to the first two Godzilla films, which were in black and white and used that to maximum effect for its night scenes. Those movies were much closer to horror films than its later kid-friendly sequels, where mystery and inability to really see the monster just added to the terrifying, unstoppable nature of Godzilla.
Well, the original Godzilla was a horror film, but Godzilla Raids Again, like Rodan soon thereafter, struck me as being more of a disaster movie. And I think this Godzilla is as much a disaster movie as it is a monster movie.
Sure, but my larger point is that the first two Godzilla movies used black & white to obscure Godzilla to heighten the fear factor and atmosphere. That sort of technique is popular with horror and disaster genres.
Well, maybe... or maybe they just used black & white because they couldn't afford color. Japan had made very few color films up to that point, and even Gojira's contemporary Seven Samurai was in black-and-white. So it may not have been a matter of choice.
I thought it was strange that the MUTOs would be interested in the nuclear weapons (and also that the military knew they would be) since they aren't particularly radioactive before they detonate. That didn't make much sense to me.
I also thought the part at the beginning where the mother was trying to outrun the smoke/steam (or whatever it was supposed to be) wasn't very realistic. It obviously wasn't superheated since it didn't kill her immediately (although it probably would be) so there's no reason they couldn't have closed the door after they went through it, except for the father standing around like an idiot with no suit on.
Other than that, I thought it was pretty good. I liked the build-up and suspense.
I also thought the part at the beginning where the mother was trying to outrun the smoke/steam (or whatever it was supposed to be) wasn't very realistic. It obviously wasn't superheated since it didn't kill her immediately (although it probably would be) so there's no reason they couldn't have closed the door after they went through it, except for the father standing around like an idiot with no suit on.
Other than that, I thought it was pretty good. I liked the build-up and suspense.
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If I'm not *too* much mistaken the nuclear missiles still have some radioactive material inside of them. The question is how the bombs would be radioactive *outside* of them to the point the MUTOs could detect it. Aren't those things shielded to prevent the release of radioactivity?
Nuclear weapons use either uranium or plutonium as the main fissile ingredient, which both emit some amount of alpha radiation in their stable state (before they reach critical mass) which can basically be stopped by anything, even a sheet of paper. The MUTOs should not be able to detect it. The bomb could also contain tritium depending on the design. It is more radioactive and emits beta radiation, which is somewhat harder to block, but should still be basically shielded by the outer casing.
Either way the amount of radioactive material in the bomb is pretty small, so it wouldn't provide much "food" value (unless it exploded, of course).
It's movie magic I guess.
For that matter, nuclear reactors don't give off a significant amount of radioactivity either -- not unless there's a breach. They're designed to prevent that, after all. You get more radiation exposure from eating one banana (due to the potassium isotopes within it) than from living near a nuclear power plant for a year: http://xkcd.com/radiation/
So realistically, there's no reason why either a nuclear weapon or a nuclear power plant should be detectable at a distance by its radiation. But it's been a trope of Godzilla movies since 1984 that kaiju are drawn to nuclear power plants from a great distance. No, it doesn't make sense, but neither does the existence of upright, bipedal land-dwelling creatures far bigger than the largest whale.
So realistically, there's no reason why either a nuclear weapon or a nuclear power plant should be detectable at a distance by its radiation. But it's been a trope of Godzilla movies since 1984 that kaiju are drawn to nuclear power plants from a great distance. No, it doesn't make sense, but neither does the existence of upright, bipedal land-dwelling creatures far bigger than the largest whale.
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